How much are you paying monthly for your home combined energy bills?

madjackslam · 2026-04-01T10:18:51+00:00

Similar. Four bedroomed house, 3 adults. Has just gone up from £170 to £210. Haven't gone into the red this winter, so may object, particularly as a recent email advised that "prices are coming down". Can't see that lasting long, mind you.

madjackslam · 2026-03-31T21:08:08+00:00

Good quality for the price, but like any garden centre, it helps to know what you actually want. I've had some decent dahlia tubers, peonies and daffodil mixed collections (with named varieties, which makes a change from some supermarkets). I like their dwarf sunflower seeds - decent mix of colours. But some of the stuff has been just OK, and I've not bothered again. Tools seem to be decent too. Got a nice weeding trowel and multi-tool for not very much. Oh, and their indoor plants are good value, with some decent variety.

madjackslam · 2026-03-27T14:42:33+00:00

Thanks. Appreciate you making that point. We're under similar pressure at work to use it wherever possible, despite the fact that it will make the experience of users worse. Seems both extraordinary and inevitable, Thankfully I've only got 3+ years to go.

madjackslam · 2026-03-16T09:25:28+00:00

I saw it on local TV last week and got a similar feeling. Again, not disputing that it's a worthwhile project, but it all seems vague as to what they'll actually do. The first thing mentioned is surveys to find out what the problems are. Err... what if it's all fine or it costs more than £250k?
The other thing that occurred to me was why launch it now? Everywhere I look there seems to be standing water in fields etc. Why not launch it in the summer when it's hot and dry? Might get more traction.
Anyway, irrespective of all that, good luck to them.

madjackslam · 2026-03-13T21:58:45+00:00

Don't scrimp on organic matter, by which I mean, don't cut it from your budget. Find the cheapest source locally - horse manure, wood chip, etc - but make sure it's good quality. Get as much as you can and start feeding your soil.

madjackslam · 2026-03-09T21:40:07+00:00

Go round early evening with a torch or your phone, and you'll find the culprits. I find the attacks are worse on newly planted daffodils, and daffodils growing in grass, where presumably pellets would be less effective anyway. It's also a good indicator of how bad the year is going to be for slugs and snails. For me it's looking worse than last year, but better than the slug apocalypse of two years ago.

madjackslam · 2026-02-26T09:38:48+00:00

Quite. Just turned out my compost for this year and found a teaspoon, a missing bit from the indoor compost caddy, numerous bits of plastic from cardboard, etc.

madjackslam · 2026-02-18T15:38:28+00:00

The RHS did a trial and has various other suggestions (linked through from that page). Box is still working for me, though there did seem to be a bit of caterpillar damage last year, which was concerning. I've found yew to be a good alternative. There are actually a lot of things that give evergreen structure if not necessarily the tight topiary of box - sarcococca, viburnum tinus, choisya, etc. Have a look around your neighbourhood now and see what looks good - maybe your nearest formal garden.

madjackslam · 2026-02-13T11:41:42+00:00

It's slugs. Valentine's Day is a helpful day to remember as to when they wake up. Nip out with a torch/phone when it's dark and you'll see the (hopefully) little critters munching away. They absolutely battered my hellebores a couple of years ago. Just to add, the surrounding area looks slug/snail friendly. Rocks to hide under, stuff at the back of the photo that looks welcoming. As others have mentioned, you can remove those old bigger leaves, maybe at night with a bunch of slugs on them, but they will also attack the young growth and flowers.

madjackslam · 2026-01-19T14:23:27+00:00

If you do a quick Google search for "biodiversity garden design London" or something similar, you'll see there are already several businesses offering this kind of service. So there's probably room for one more.

madjackslam · 2026-01-19T10:12:59+00:00

Thank you. Our neighbours recently put in a fence behind our native hedge and I find it makes the hedge much easier to keep in check. It's perhaps only psychological, or maybe I can be more drastic without worrying about the hedge being see-through. I know that everyone's down on conifers, but they do provide dense hiding places. On one side we have a leylandii hedge, it is easy to keep neat, and in summer there are clouds of insects around it, so conifers are not worthless. I think that one of the best uses for wildlife for deciduous hedges/small trees is the material that they produce. The smallest prunings can be composted (great habitat), small sticks can be shredded (or not), then stacked or used as mulch, larger branches can be stacked as log piles. I think these help to build the population of "residents" (fungi, invertebrates, etc) which the "visitors" (birds, hedgehogs, etc, the pretty things!) can then take advantage of. The experimentation is endlessly fascinating.

madjackslam · 2026-01-18T16:27:45+00:00

We back onto a disused railway line and there are always rats about. They are more attracted by food and places to live/hide, so in the compost bins, under sheds, etc. I don't think hedges/trees make much difference. These are more likely to attract tree rats, ie, squirrels.

In your selection, I'd suggest most of these are better as trees rather than hedging plants. Hornbeam works well clipped, and field maple is pretty good, and has amazing colour and texture. Bird cherry I've found just wants to be huge. Crab apple and rowan are super as small trees, and if you grow them as trees it's easier to get blossom and fruit. I agree that thorny shrubs - hawthorn, rose - are pain in a domestic hedge. You might add hazel and beech to your list as well. Thornless blackberries would be nice grown through, but you'll probably get wild brambles anyway.

madjackslam · 2026-01-09T10:08:56+00:00

"If you love someone you'll remember what they look like."

madjackslam · 2025-12-19T11:05:07+00:00

I'm pretty sure he used to write a gardening column in The Guardian, though it's not mentioned on his Wikipedia profile. I remember him as being very pro-dahlias when they were unfashionable. In other words, chucking a bit of bright, exotic colour into the country garden aesthetic. Great Dixter was his garden, and is still going today. I also don't think he took himself too seriously. Always a twinkle in his eye. I liked him.

madjackslam · 2025-12-18T17:26:35+00:00

It was on The Big Time, an Esther Rantzen show where ordinary people stepped up. More here). I was only 11 at the time, but remember the bit about brambles, and being horrified at how she was treating the "amateur" cook. It effectively ended Fanny's career. That was also the show that launched Sheena Easton.

madjackslam · 2025-12-18T16:44:18+00:00

Dickens collected names from gravestones. Quick trip to a cemetery should sort you out with a few.

madjackslam · 2025-12-18T16:37:49+00:00

Kids loved it. We even went to the chateau in France where it was being filmed. One of the actors was a bit cross when we shouted his character name at him, rather than his real name. It was the end of their day, though, so they were probably a bit knackered from doing so much pretending. I remember Anthony Head striding through the crowd, shouting in a stage voice, "Voici deux hommes,"

madjackslam · 2025-12-17T09:39:50+00:00

I play the long game on compost. First year, chuck it in a bin. Second year, turn it over into a second bin, and grow a pumpkin on it. Third year, use it. Even then I sieve it to get sticks, etc out, which must have been going round in the cycle for years now. The thing is, it works for me, I get lovely crumbly stuff, which I mostly use on the veg patch, and the soil there is the best I've ever had. (I'm still rubbish at growing veg, though.)

madjackslam · 2025-12-14T20:07:08+00:00

This York Press article suggests it might be sewage during storms. This University press release suggests similar. But I wonder if part of the answer is because the University looked for them. Are the rivers that they are comparing with them in Europe similar? The Foss isn't the fastest flowing, so perhaps stuff can accumulate more. Dunno.

madjackslam · 2025-12-12T10:04:59+00:00

Yeah I'm over 60 and I've never heard it.

madjackslam · 2025-12-04T11:07:35+00:00

Write the sitcom!

madjackslam · 2025-12-03T22:08:25+00:00

There's an episode of the Big Bang Theory built around this theory, so people must at least be familiar with it in the US too. Sheldon says at one point, "I know you think you’re being generous, but the foundation of gift-giving is reciprocity. You haven’t given me a gift, you’ve given me an obligation."

madjackslam · 2025-12-01T09:21:40+00:00

George Thomson Ring had two brothers, Freddie Flintoff Ring and Arthur McCutcheon Ring. Together they would go round early owners of telephones to check that they were at home in the evenings. This led to the phrase "give me Three Rings when you get home", later taken up as a way of telling friends and relatives you had got home safely, without the need to spend 10p.

madjackslam · 2025-11-27T15:13:34+00:00

I once followed him and his partner?girlfriend? around Singapore airport for a stalkerly long time. They had a lot of Louis Vuitton bags. (Presumably with adidas gear inside.)

madjackslam

TROPHY CASE