Selfsufficientish.com

There's little difference (as far as the plant is concerned) between digging up and potting versus digging up and moving. So I'd say go for it, certainly if the alternative is losing the plants. He needs to get a large a root ball as possible, and water them very well for the rest of the summer in t...

Grow an apple because you like the flavour or want to use it for a particular use. Honestly, the tree won't know the difference if it's a Bramley Seedling but you call it James. There are some interesting varieties for you here . Our fig is on the patio, but not in a pot. I lifted a half-slab and pl...

If you're in an urban area you probably don't need pollination partners for your apple as there may already be there in neighbours gardens. We just planted the varieties we wanted and let them sort out their own sex lives. They're all setting fruit. Figs have already been mentioned, and if you're in...

Probably just sugar from the sap leaking through wounds in old stems, with the wind we've had the stems will have taken a bit of damage. Tradition with us is not to pick after the solstice - although usually modified to the weekend after the solstice. But if we get a bit of rain to plump up fresh sh...

I don't see how you'd get paid a fixed amount per blog.. but simple things like Adwords or Skimlinks, etc, can generate a small income if you're happy to have adverts on your blog (with very little control over what appears). Plus, little thing like having an Amazon Associate account and using their...

Had a similar problem last year with the cats.. There have been reported problems of resistance to some of the pet flea treatments. And I'm not sure if the repellent collars are as good as the spot-on treatments (but we have to be careful as one of the cats is allergic to some of the treatments avai...

I am obsessed with Elder. I forage for the flowers and buy dried for cordials. Im thinking it would be so nice to actually grow my own. Thing is, I'm not sure how to actually get a cutting. We recently took a branch and used honey as rooting hormone but not much seems to be happening with it. Any o...

If you do a survey of B&Q customers you're likely to get an overestimate of gardening - not saying that's how the survey was done, but you'd have to know how it was done to interpret possible bias. If your sample is thirty people who employ a gardener or gardening services, I would expect a low ...

What suggestions do you have for getting as many meals as possible from a £3 chicken? I'm trying to work out what we get from one.. Roast the first day with veggies, 2 large portions Second day cold, 2 large portions Third day make pick carcase and make stock for a not-risotto, 4 large portions It'...

I don't know what tomato growers do now, but when I was involved with growing toms under acres of glass they used captive bumble bees. I would have though vibrating every plant would be far too labour intensive. If you look on iPlayer there was a Radio 4 programme a couple of weeks ago about the bu...

But Pete, there's an embedded energy cost in everything. Does this mean that people that don't pass some threshold of greenness shouldn't invest in renewable energy generation?

Ahh.. but if we can assume that they're using no more energy than they were before they installed the panels (ie. they haven't decided to use the panels to subsidise additional energy consuming gadgets) they will have reduced their nett consumption.

Don't work out your filter until you know what's in the water that needs to be removed. Internet test kits are only as good as the least good of the following - the quality of the kit and the competence of the user. It's definitely worth paying for a professional lab test if you plan on drinking the...

What are they?

It sounds like one of the supermarket mixed veg packs - couple of carrots, couple of onions, couple of parsnips, a swede, sometimes a few leeks etc. If it's that type of a deal, soup or a casserole stretches a pack to the maximum.

What meals can you make for under 33p or 50p a person? How many people? Feeding 10 for £5 is often easier than 2 for £1. £5 gets a fresh chicken, rice, tinned tomatoes, etc. and opens up several options for a tasty meal - if you can use/freeze all the portions. My favourite would be a not-risotto o...