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I don't find nettles disgusting, but they (unsurprisingly) don't match up to cultivated vegetables for taste and, I think, make more demands on the cook. All the nettle soups I've made were still fully palatable and the enjoyment has been around the satisfaction associated with harvesting wild foods...

Transplanting root vegetables is generally advised against, due to damage to the part of the plant you ultimately want to eat. Otherwise, transplanting has a lot going for it. I trust you've heard of hardening off (i.e. steadily accustoming plants to the cold outdoors?). In my experience you can oft...

Thanks for the input folks. The idea about replacing sections of pipe so it can run through the pond is new to me and shows again how there are few limits to what you can achieve in a garden. After a few days at work chewing over our disappointment, we have come up with a simple solution. The deep c...

Looking at the direction of the pipe, and the fact it looks like it runs under the manhole cover on my patio, my father and I are both of the opinion that this is the foul water pipe running to the main sewer.

johnM - the plan is to use butyl liner, so yes the weight will be spread. Muddypause - the pipe is ceramic. The small area uncovered so far suggests it leads from my house along the middle of the back garden. I will see if there is any way I can find out what it is used for. Green cancer is a refere...

My other half and I designed our 'dream pond' after careful thought about the location, shape and size. It is in my back garden which is slightly small to medium size. We planned to replace the 'green cancer' in the middle of the garden with a wildlife pond, then have vegetable beds around the garde...

'Pigs in blankets' is most commonly used to refer to sausage rolls, sausage wrapped in bacon etc., but my gf and me remember a sweet version, that was a dessert rather than made with meat. I think it contained stuff like raisins, and as a child I remember seeing it in an old version of the Be-Ro coo...

Thanks everyone, a lot of good ideas there for me to ponder in the months ahead, some of which confirmed my own thinking but a lot of ideas I had not previously thought of. What is most encouraging is the number of readers who are already doing exactly what I had in mind, instead of thinking that th...

With the pressure any owner-occupier is under to 'keep up appearances', the goal of creating a front garden that is both 'neat' and productive is demanding. Next year I intend to convert my small grass-and-flowers front garden into something that is both neat and useful, rather than merely neat. On ...

Try a power drill using the thinnest drill bit in the set, and a low speed setting to avoid severely cracking the cork.

1. Spread on bread or toast.
2. Doughnut filling.
3. In some cakes e.g. victoria sandwich.
4. Satisfy your sweet tooth after meals with an 'instant' primitive dessert - a teaspoonful of jam.
5. Stir a spoonful into hot rice pudding.

At a quick browse, I haven't seen 101 uses for jam anywhere. My 'excuse' for not being a jam-maker is I rarely eat bread/toast and jam, leading to opened jars developing fungi (despite being in the fridge) because I can't think of other ways to regularly use it. Any chance we could get '101 uses for...

23. Put straight into your daleks without shredding or crushing first as suggested earlier, to create air pockets, give structure to the heap, and help prevent it becoming too compacted.

21. Sink any fishing hooks you have attached to paternosters into a cork at all times when the hook is not being baited or 'in use', to help prevent hooking yourself instead of fish.

it's as good a time to harvest nettle tops as any Er, perhaps it's not. The ones in my garden are still fresh and green at the top, but when walking back from the shops today I noticed the wild nettles are flowering left right and centre. Personally I would still not hesitate to use them in my own ...