Selfsufficientish.com

Hedgewizard and Digiveg are gathering data for a book... We're looking for polytunnel owners dotted here and there around the country who would agree to plant a couple of seeds of 'Igloo', a delicious and compact cauliflower, in their tunnel on the 25th of this month. We'd then really appreciated h...

Just a thought for those who use shredded paper - if it's white 'A4' stuff it isn't just wood fibre. It's also been bleached. Dioxins, which are one of the most toxic things we've ever invented, are a byproduct of most commercial paper-bleaching processes. Also, paper can have many kinds of coating ...

I remember reading (parts of) a big study done by the university of Ohio which said it made no difference at all whether you cut off the spears just above the ground or just below it - except that it was easier, cleaner and less likely to damage the crown if you cut them just above ground. So that's...

I'd bet on it being pak choi.

I put in a tunnel right at the end of April (10 x 20ft) and have toms, cukes, carrots, courgettes, artichokes (globe), basil, rocket, lettuce, beets, pak choi, peas, chard, dill, celery and cilantro growing in it. Everything is doing well so far but I think some of my choices will prove to be optimi...

Wow! Fantastic! That's the earliest I've ever heard of.

I once had a cuke in mid-April, growing in a bucket in a greenhouse - but that was in California. My first courgette for this year only just sprouted. Well done!

One thing about cukes is they really don't like to be moved. I try to sow mine where they're going to live rather than putting seeds in pots and transplanting later. The roots are extremely tender and don't bind the soil together very well, so the whole potful has a tendency to break apart. And, if ...

Can't you just cut off the flowers before the seeds form? It seems a pity to waste the whole plant when it's not difficult to prevent it becoming a problem. The flowers are beautiful, too.

Also, cutting off the flowers means that you get to blanch the stems AND eat them...

If you can get the blade under one of the tiles they're easy to lift with a pickaxe. Great leverage!

I don't put citrus stuff like orange or lemon peel into my compost as it takes forever to break down and holds up the process for the entire batch.

Napalm works pretty well, too. Or Agent Orange. Tough little buggers...

The smaller the seed, the shallower I plant it. I usually only barely cover leek seeds, so the problem then is keeping the top moist. I wouldn't put 'em in the airing cupboard as they don't really need it warm to germinate, and if they start to grow and then dry out, well, that's that. I started thr...

Re. Hedgie's and Contadino's comments about plastic sheet - plastic breaks down much faster when exposed to ultra-violet, but it can leach chemicals when in contact with water even if it's underground.

Depends what you want to eat, I guess...

You can also just squish the gel off fresh tomato seeds between your fingers and then wipe them onto a bit of absorbent paper to dry. I tend to forget about ones I put in water until they've turned to mush. They'll breed true, which is great. However, peppers (as already pointed out) and cukes won't...

It's a well-known fact, here in Wales, that potatoes have developed the power of flight.