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I say it has canker

The blackbirds are still coming for food - it's hard to find any worms in this weather. Every time I go outside a blackbird will fly down to see if I've left anything on the lawn! I usually put out mealworms first thing, but the magpies, a herring gull and a fox are competition for those. I've...

I bought the gorse plants online, in pots, and they're about 40/50 cms tall. Shall give them a good watering every three days then and hope for the best. The very fact that I'm doing this doesn't bode well for them. Just have to try it and see.Thank you for your response.

No need to buy worms. The soil will continue to improve just by adding organic matter. It'll become a very good growing medium within a few years.

It tends to be bitches that cause dead patches in lawns. To me your grass just looks dry like most peoples does this year.

Thank you Pete. That’s good to know.

I always shake the seeds of foxgloves where I'd like them to grow. Sometimes they oblige, but often not. They're one of those plants that seem to do best when you let them self-sow and grow where they like.

A house up the road from me has had a fantastic display of these in the front garden for years, I noticed the old boy who lived there has died earlier in the year and the house has been sold.So probably all be under tarmac at some point.

It might not be dead yet, but that big hole/split in the bark doesn't look healthy, and it's planted very close to the wall. I'm guessing it was one of those ball-on-a-stick topiary trees that are so popular these days, but I doubt whether it'll ever grow back like that. If it were mine I would...

Thank you CarolineL, I should of known nothings for free

Compost. I said earlier I had a couple of bags earlier in the year of Compost that nothing grew in, plants just stood still and the roots withered. I'm almost sure it was contaminated with some kind of weed killer.

Seafigicecoffe is 100% correct with her advice. I took me years to realise that you could be so brutal with a rose. But as another thought what about cutting it back and buying a Arch or obelisk and let it clamber up that. It could look great.

I'd have thought so too, but the 3 my neighbour has are by their north-facing front door. They do get a couple of hours sun early morning in the summer, but the rest of the year there in shade but get reasonably decent light.

I get that on my front lawn. I call it my string grass and it usually appears after a drought. So I get down on my hands and knees and cut it short with scissors. It's not the whole lawn, just small patches.

Thank you all for the advice. It's an area that is about 36m2 I'd guess - so will have to work out what the best incentive is for the kids!Fortunately, already have some paved area - although that's a shocker too and so will be the next laborious job Today's patch uncovered hundreds of...

Make sure you check what the animals have been eating. I finished up with a border of thistles and it took a few years to get rid of them.

Hello all - medium-term lurker, first time poster here - hoping to tap into the fountain of knowledge this excellent forum provides!We're FTBuyers of a lovely house with an equally lovely south-facing back garden, but my green finger experience is nil - however I'm now fully invested in...

Low light, too warm, too early sowings can all cause seeds to grow leggy. Cosmos seed germinate within a day or two so there is no advantage to sowing early, they are notorious for getting leggy and falling over. Sow some more now.

Hiyou will need to feed the potatoes

The tips look a bit frosted to me.