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Huw's veg growing book is really nice too, if anyone needed a solid introduction to veg growing I'd heartily recommend it.

This is a great topic, @Plantminded! It’s been really interesting to read the responses. I use different strategies in different areas. I have a much larger garden than my last house, and moved here in October. There are a lot of nightmares to deal with here, but I’ve got one border mostly...

Brilliant! Thank you for the id. It is a really pretty mauve colour and I like the leaves too. I must investigate the Rugosa group.

Small amounts of tufa on eBay.

And yet so much we do call gardening is political as it interfaces with the wider world, be it habitat conservation, racism or climate change. Don't see why it should disqualify it as a subject as long as it doesn't turn into a mud slinging match.

I agree with you about telescopic tools @hailbopp, totally useless! If you prefer manual shearing rather than using a hedge trimmer it might be worth investing in Niwaki long handled shears. I have several of their shearing and pruning tools, but not the long handled shears. They are top quality.

With the new pictures I don't really have an id. It's hawthorn like but not a native wild type but does look like images I googled of swedish whitebeam. It looks a nice tree

Given the billions wasted on PPE, the real injustice is clawing the money back from these overpayments just because it is easy to organise.I agree cliff-edge cut-offs are really counterproductive. Carers save society huge amounts of money and yet are begrudged very modest financial assistance.

Playing safe incase the 'Thought Police' come after me for inciting something or other.

If you want perfect hostas then I'm afraid you will have to do some night raids and get them in action. Unfortunately I haven't found any other method that works. If you want to make a pungent garlic spray be my guest but find raids reduce numbers hugely and quickly. After a few weeks doing them...

I'd do it now... because it's growing fast, it will be running out of room for its roots, and running out of food and water more quickly, if you leave it in its small pot.

For cuttings you need some pots 3"-4"- some very gritty compost and plastic bags that can go over the pots. This is a very good time of year to take cuttings as plants are growing quickly, so will also root quickly. There are several methods - which method will depend on what plants you have to...

Night time patrols with a torch are about the only feasible option to keep the mollusc population down. I find slug pellets not very effective anyway.

The problem with it here is that it gets quite soft and lush through summer, because it's wet, but warm enough, for lots of growth. Then the winter arrives, and they can't cope. I expect if we continue to get the warm winters we've had for the last few years here, that might change, but it's...