New member

Welcome to GC.

You can post anywhere.

 

Welcome aboard @OwenWilliam

 

Let's see if we can get your problem resolved then

There are two ways of making a post - the first is to visit a thread, type your response in the text box below the thread (as I am doing now) and then click on the blue Post Reply button that lives to the right hand side, underneath the text box. I will post an image below showing its location.

 

The other way to post, is to create your own thread. The first thing is to decide where that thread should be posted - on the Forums, scroll down and have a look through the forum sections to see where you think your topic will best fit.

Clicking on the blue text for a forum section will take you into the chosen section directly. Note that some forum sections have sub forum sections within - for example, General Gardening Discussion (in the purple box on the image below) is a section in its own right and you can post threads in there, however there are a number of sub sections also listed underneath (in the red box on the image below). If you click on the blue text for one of these sub sections, you will go directly to that sub section. You can also get to these sub sections by going into the main section first.



If you chose to go into General Gardening Discussions for example, you would see the sub sections listed near the top of the page (purple box on image below). The blue text on the navigation bar show you what part of the forum you are in (red box on image below) - if you were to click Home or Forums to the left of that red box, it would return you to the respective page.



If you scroll down without opening a sub section, you will then see all the threads in the section you are in:


At the top left are the controls to allow you to navigate through all the pages of threads in the sub section you are in. Above the thread list, to the right, the is a blue Post New Thread button (red box on image above) - click on this, and you will then get the Create Thread page:


As you type in your desired title for your thread (red box on image above), you will see that it automatically duplicates in the line above to show you what it looks like in larger print. Next you put your message in the text box (purple box on the image above), and when you are ready, click on the Create Thread button under the text box (blue arrow on image above) - and that is it, all done

Your thread will now appear in the list of threads within that chosen section. When someone replies, you will get an Alert (unless you have chosen not to get alerts) and possibly even an email (dependant on your settings).

You will know you have an alert when you see a red number next to the word Alerts near the top right hand side of any page - the number is the number of alerts you have. If you hover your mouse pointer over the word Alerts, you will get a list drop down of all your recent alerts:



Clicking on the blue thread title of any of those listed will take you directly to that thread. You can revisit your Alerts list at any time, and if you click Alerts rather than hover over it, you will be taken to a page that lists all of your alerts.

Occasionally, you will see that someone 'mentioned you' in a thread - this is an easy way of sending an alert to draw a specific person's attention to your thread. To alert someone in this way, all you need to do is type the @ symbol and then their username; so to alert you, I would type @OwenWilliam - this will appear in blue when you make your post.

If you want to draw the attention of any of the staff team, simply mention us in the same way - the staff team are:

@ARMANDII, @Marley Farley, @wiseowl, @shiney, @Zigs and myself @Fat Controller - please bear with us for a response, as we are all volunteers doing our bit to run GC in our spare time.

If you find that you have posted a thread in the wrong place, don't worry about it - just get in touch with a member of the staff team and we will move it for you. The easiest way to do this is to click the 'Report' link on your post:


You will be asked for a reason for the report - so in the case of a thread or post in the wrong place, just tell us where you think it should be, or even just tell us that you think it is not in the best place and that you don't know where to put it. Using the report button sends an alert to ALL of the staff team at the same time, so as soon as one of us is available and online, we will sort it for you.

As the name suggests, the Report link is also what you would use to report any post that you think needs to be brought to our attention - this can be because it is spam or advertising without permission, or someone breaking the rules or being offensive.

When a report is made, the staff team will take appropriate action - please be aware that you may not always be told what the action was, but rest assured that we work on a consensus basis where at least three of us have to agree on a chosen course of action (unless it is spam, in which case the perpetrators are shown the door instantly).

We try to be as friendly as we can here, and that includes all of the members who are the best people you could choose to meet, so you will get plenty of help

 

Hi Owen,

Yes, diluted detergent helps a lot.

Of course, under EU laws it's illegal to use washing up liquid as a pesticide - as it hasn't been tested and got a safety certificate as a pesticide.

Fortunately, there's no EU law that says you can't wash your plants with detergent.

Actually, washing up liquid is recommended for washing the bark of trees, particularly to keep the bark white on Silver Birch Jackmanii