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When to pick green toms/ cold weather
Wannabe gardening newbie here! Day temps have dropped and not helped by raining most days. I've lots of green tomatoes on the vine still - has it got too cold to the point of needing to take them off to ripen indoors or is it too late? I heard they shouldn't be in the cold too much and the overnight temps acc to the…
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What's this?
I think I had primroses here earlier in the year, is this primrose with no leaves on yet? I've got others elsewhere that have leaves on still. Or is it something else? The hostas nearby have been attacked by snails so they could have eaten whatever this is.
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Advice Pruning Opal Plum Tree
Hello - I belive this is an Opal plum tree in my garden ? This years Ive had a very good crop of good fruit, been able to make plum wine, chutney , fresh plum juice feach day and also frozen around 150 plums , cropping is just about ending now. Problems are that many of the fruit are bad and each day many bad ones drop off…
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Summer house/garden room
Good morning all. I have been looking for a garden room/summer house for a few months and decided I would like one. I have been looking at a few companies who sell them and manufacture but I'm now baffled. I have come across the different types of thickness of the T&G to different roof covers. I live in Greater Manchester…
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Advice on water butt
We would like to install a water butt on the roof terrace at the back of the house, but are unsure how the routing of the hose to the diverter would work. The proposed location for the water butt is marked by the red rectangle in the picture. The gutter above it drains to a downpipe which is around the corner of the…
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Water butt to sprinkler?
Just wondering if I could make use of a pressure washer to do this.
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General purpose Potting compost August 2025
Hi. Looking for opinions and experiences please. I need some potting compost and knowing how rubbish a lot has been reported to be I need an update. I have a choice at the moment, on offer, of Leavingtons multi purpose, Miracle Gro multi purpose Miracle grow moisture control - which is really for hanging baskets. I need to…
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Rainwater diverter - how?
When the water butt is stood on its stand, the level of the inlet hose is exactly where the collar on the downpipe is. The butt will be stood on a paving slab on concrete - without the slab the level is still where the collar/bracket is. I can't work out what to do. Do I sacrifice a couple of gallons of water and drill the…
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Gardening in a drought
So this is a part of the forum I don't visit often! I'm much more at home talking about ISAs :) There are threats of drought and hosepipe bans given the recent dry spell. I collect rainwater but my barrell is already almost empty, which I have never known this early in the year.The forecast said we were due some rain…
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Are these bluebell bulbs?
Dug these out whilst planting some new plants today. I seem to recall there were bluebells in this area in the spring.
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How deep to fill a planter
I hope I manage to explain this correctly - very much a novice gardener, so let me know if you have any questions! I have a big built planter in the garden, which is currently full of building rubble and assorted rubbish. I've been intending to empty it out and fill with soil so I can get some plants in, but I'm wondering…
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B&Q cheap top soil
I’ve noticed a lot of posts on Facebook regarding B&Q allmost
giving away pallets of top soil. It says all you have to do via a
link is answer a few questions and pay a nominal fee of a few pounds
and they will send you a pallet of 60 bags of top soil. Is this too good to
be true, has anyone seen this or even taken up the…
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Cleaning Patio paving with Karcher K2 pressure Washer no answer to simple question
My house frontage paving is badly pitted and dirty from over thirty years exposure to seaside air. I have bought a Karcher K2 'home kit' which includes a special rotary pressure jet of which I have heard good things and seen demo videos.The 'home kit' comes with car washing brush and detergent together with a 500ml 'Patio…
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Japanese honeysuckle growth on garden swing seat
I have some Japanese honeysuckle growing up both sides of my seat and it's very vigorous where it's growing over the 'roof'. However, the leaves growing up the sides have mostly turned brown and fallen off, leaving a network of shoots. Is this normal or something I can rectify by cutting back hard in the autumn?
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Fuchsia dying or struggling this year
Has anyone else had problems with fuchsia plants this year? I usually grow four or five different varieties around the garden, but this year I have only one healthy plant which is a hardy one which survived the winter (the only fuchsia that did). All my other hardy fuchsias died, and I bought replacements most of which…
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Recommendations - Non Branded Grass Feed & Grass Seed
Hi, wondering if anyone can recommend a a retailer that sells non branded bulk: * Grass Seed * Summer Lawn Feed * Autumn Lawn Feed I normally but grass seed in 5 - 10kg bags from Amazon but that's become quite expensive too. As for the feed, there are a lot of brand names out there but surely must be some retailers selling…
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Sarah Raven - some shockingly bad feedback
I’m reading a lot of negativity about Sarah Raven these days, both on Trustpilot and in gardening forums. Anyone else having problems with them these days? They used to be first rate, but not any longer it seems. Looks to be going the way of Thompson and Morgan - once they get to a certain size they cease to care.
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Historic gardens going into administration
Hester Combe house and gardens have gone into administration due to low visitor numbers. This is a beautiful garden that I've known and watched for decades. I've known it before it became commercial and followed it through. Luytens and jeykll garden. It was abandoned but interesting. It was restored in the flower area and…
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Hazel tree second flowering?
We've got a lovely council owned Turkish hazel outside our house, and in addition to nuts (not too many this year) there's now a second flush of catkins and some of the leaves have brown dried patches - is this likely just heat/weather stress?
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Gourds and apple questions
I was given some gourds seeds, labelled 'assorted Gourds, not edible', no information beyond that. I have gourds growing now, I have no idea how big they grow, when to pick them, do I dry them and if so how. The plants have that powdery leaf fungus so many leaves have died but new ones are growing. Anyone, any…
