obviously, she enjoys your company.

I'd love a shed where I could go... Unfortunately, Mrs R is not having it!

SOMETHING DIFFERENT..
My friend bought a couple of real portholes from an auction.
He has now installed them into his shed.

Never heard of that one Shizara

Has anyone tried to grow silverbeet aka Swiss chard? I don't see it in the supermarkets and looked for it in the local market but it doesn't seem to be available.. I find that ironic, it grows like a weed and a couple of plants kept me supplied for a good part of the year. It's a dark green, leafy vegetable and you only need to cut what you need.

http://vegangela.com/2011/05/02/swiss-chard-silverbeet/

A she's a great idea. I'm think about planting some herbs as well - in pots buried in the ground, so they don't spread all over the place.

How about a nice shed with a bit of grass where you sit outside with your tea and cakes watching your flowers growing, and others toiling away.
My son lived in a tiny apartment in Eynsham,so they cycled to the allotment for leisure and fresh air,using it like a beach hut. (They did grow masses of rocket-which really grows itself.)
It didn't go down too well with some of the men---all men---who'd been serious veg. gardeners for years.
Just before they moved house, some of the oldies cottoned on, and made their sheds quite homely
My father in law installed a small wood burner for winter days,in his allotment shed

I've just put my name down for an allotment. I want to make it semi-low maintenance - have a small fruit tree, fruit bushes & rhubarb etc. I don't mind having a few veg. but don't want to spend every evening there. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Great ideas and inexpensive too. Except I will have to see what the Horticulture oil is like.

Thanks a billion, rebbonk!

The Royal Horticultural Society offers a few ideas

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=270


Milk might help

http://www.agardenforthehouse.com/2012/05/got-black-spot-get-milk/


And a few more natural ideas here

http://axiomathome.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/natural-treatments-for-black-spot-on.html


Hope one of these ideas helps you Margaret.

How can I naturally treat black spot on my rose bushes, the buds are showing now and I've been nipping off affected leaves that have been blighted with black spot. I had a terrible time last year with the same problem as well.

There was a compost bin left in the garden when we moved to our present home, I think it must have been unused for a while as I discovered rather a large ants nest in it, and managed to get rid of it.

I might look those up, although putting the compost bin in a sunny spot and filling it with a mix of grass clippings, general prunings, vegetable offcuts & the occasional bucket of water seems to work well for me.

£5/bin, now that is good value.

The BBC site has a couple of interesting articles on making compost.

I bought one of these compost bins a few years ago, and have found it really useful. It's a shame the composting sessions are being held when most people are at work: http://news.warwickshire.gov.uk/blog/2015/03/23/5-compost-bins-for-warwickshire-residents/

Our snowdrops seemed to appear a few days early this year, and the green bits of some of our daffodils have poking up out or the soil for a couple of weeks too.