Search - Articles

around the roots.Trim off a good section of the roots with a knife.Cut the root into short lengths (around 2.5cm) and push these vertically into a seed tray, of compost, thick end up.Cover the seed tray with a thin layer of grit to improve drainage

, on the surface.Cover cuttings with a thin layer of compost. Water well, label pots and place in a cool place indoors or in a cold frame.AdamThick roots can be pushed vertically into planting holes made with a pencil. Make sure they go in the right way up. Roots

pieces across the width of the shed with screws.Choose hooks and clips to suit your tools and fix them to the rack. Most will screw directly into the wood, so drill a thin guide hole first. Meat hooks can be placed over timber frame, and some tools can

and even dieback. Prune out affected parts of the plant and destroy. Healthy plants are less prone to attack, so make sure you water regularly and mulch around them to conserve moisture in the soil. Space out your plants to avoid over-crowding and thin out

that gunge. I either blast out the accumulated stuff between the panes with a strong jet of water or push it clear with a thin sliver of plastic from an old yoghurt tub...But why is it that however I try to do it, when I do need extra water, the ice

to discover that it was riddled with thin plastic strips, rather like the stuff you find inside a music cassette. Useless. Far too much to pick out and I certainly wasn't prepared to incorporate it into my lovely (albeit rather heavy clay) Hampshire soil

weeding easier. Kept adequately moist, the seeds will soon germinate, and, after thinning, the plants grow like billy-o. Hardy annuals tend to be more drought tolerant than more highly priced bedding plants, and are pretty resilient. They make for a

. (However, I did lose every single calabrese plant to the voracious little blighters, so I haven’t had it all my way.)Parsnips were a bit thin on the ground, due to a couple of disastrous sowings. It was breezy the first time I tried to sow the papery seeds

display is lovely, but there is a problem I need to address. The soil along the drive is thin and inclined to get compacted, and some clumps are rather congested. A few bulbs are producing leaf and no flower, a phenomenon known as  'blindness'. But, if I

of woodlice, and a pleasing variety of worms, but the most numerous invertebrates were centipedes. These were the long thin, many- and short-legged Haplophilus (or similar) species. They have lots of short legs for pushing through the soil, a bit like