Pests, Diseases and Cures

This is the method I use ...Wash fruit and discard any doubtful ones. Wash and dry the jars.(I'm assuming you are using rubber sealed preserving jars) Check the rubber ring, making sure they are not torn..and the jars are not chipped. This will affect the sealing. Fill the jars as full as...

Hi David, very often chillies are green when you eat them (ie ripe when green) but very often not (very helpful!??). Totally depends upon the variety and I am not able to tell you the type of chilli that you have purchased in the supermarket as I get my chillies from an online company:...

My client and I have been ogling her Greengage for weeks. It is seriously laden with delicious ripening fruit. This weekend the rain just tipped down. My client came out this morning, almost inconsolable; absolutely all the greengages have swollen up and split! Apparent;y they are now ripe so...

Thanks for that...yes, I have deadheaded and tidied up the plant and it looks revived, and will continue to flower for a wee while yet.

Yes, I know the one you mean - my neighbours have put in several of those, and some rosa rugosa, both as hedges. They smell and look great. Shires - sussex, kent, and several other counties all have roses named after them - I know various people who have several, and have a bed of "shires...

I am afraid to say but mine were being eaten alive by the caterpillars so the organic gardening went out of the window and they got bug clear!! They are now thriving.

little black flies love yellow, but don't suppose it is flowering now, so can't be that.

I have a victoria plum and a greengage tree - both have lots of fruit this year but a lot of it is infested with small pink maggots. Obviously it's a bit late to do anything this year but does anyone know what i can do to prevent this happening again?

I have loads of leaches in my top fishless pond, but have never seen one in the bottom fish pond.

Does anyone know an effective way of getting rid of these beasties? Major infestations on PSB and brussels sprouts.

How the mole situation, Marge? Success?

One thing, Fran, I love the "eh"! I say it to my cat, Magic Sam, and now he says "eh" all the time!Heading up to Autumn ... lovely ... we've still got three months to go for that! sigh! I've just come off the deck (second story) and it's still 26,7oC ... but that's okay, the a/c going in...

For me - when thanks to some new orientals I got lily beetle and they stripped all my lilies - a pair of secateurs and a daily check got rid of them. Plus removal of any grubs seen. The secateurs - I found that if I tried to pick them off, they just dropped to the undergrowth usually belly up...

Gad, another page about slugs, seems to have been a favourite topic in July. Pity I was not yet in gc or I would have joined in.

I just came across this page and I am laughing so much that I can hardly type, have to keep wiping my eyes and holding my stomach. I detest slugs, I find them disgusting and what some of you wrote was just too much. The one on the glass was of course the worst, followed by fish-finger tasting...

If its an old tree, I've just been told by a gardener I had working at my house that if you pull off the smaller apples early in the season and throughout then the other should be bigger and better. No tried it myself this year as its too late but might give it a go next.

I think you`ve done the best thing with the splint. You could even tape it up if you like so no air can get in. With luck it`ll heal..chilli`s are quite robust.As you`ve temporarily (semi) detached the root system from the rest of the plant you may want to mist the leaves occasionally until...

Thanks for the links and advice. I can't wait to try the birthday card idea. Although it will probably end up a batttle of whits - who can stand the card music the longest!?!

Finally managed to get some pics, but I apologise for the size and quality. I haven't worked out how to do this properly yet, but you can see the problems - damaged leaves, blackened stems, split at top of tree...

Mines gone all peelywhallie and pethetical like wot yours have, and hant ardly had no peas to speak of, bloomin disaster just more stuff for the compost heap I say