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I love herbs but tend to use only a few for culinary purposes because I just love the ones that flower and the butterflies/bees they attract! A lot of them are beautiful plants in their own right. Absolutely agree - even better most are perennial. It's really only basil & fennel I have to grow ...

And is thyme the one with the furry thick leaves? Agree with the other post - this is either sage or borrage. If the fur stings a bit it is borrage. The reason I mention it is because I think that borrage grows more rampantly than sage. I know sage is good with onion etc. for sausages, but what abo...

That's what my Mother in Law called it - from Wiltshire...

There is a herby like perennial that we have taken from garden to garden for years. We have always known it as "Molly Spilt the Milk". I was looking for some shading loving plants on Ebay and came across Lungwort. It looks really similar to the plant I have. Does anyone know if they are (o...

Nettles work just as well for self-made liquid fertiliser. Just soak for two weeks or so in water & you get a very smelly solution that the plants love. I'm trying comfry for the first time this year. For ages I have been intending to grow it, only to discover that I already have it (finally sa ...

Lamb's leuttice goes in any time from April. I have one lot out in the raised beds now and another lot in the greenhouse. You can keep sowing for greens all summer! The slugs will eat it though if you don't protect. On the topic of slugs I was following the advice of another chain and have been out ...

My basil is always great in the greenhouse - but dies if I try to plant it outside - even in a sunny patch. This year's crops are just germinating now. For eating, actually this is my summer staple - I have it with sliced toms, a pinch of salt and olive oil at least twice per week. It also goes well...

The earth looks really good - not too heavy. Remember that slugs like strawberries and be sure to put some slug pubs down before they fruit!

Ahh - I'll get some wild rocket seeds then. I always do rocket along with lamb's leuttice and come & come again leuttice, but I find the rocket bolts if I try and force it along too early. I find the spinach beet bolts year two also - but this year i have been harvesting it early and so far so g...

And I planted a patch a couple of years ago, in a really in hospitable place, under my pear tree facing south. They come up every year and provides great leaves. So these are perennial? Are you talking about the rocket or the Swiss chard? I took a look at the Italy website - looks great. Which of t...

Formidable! Bonjour Camile, avez-vous une salle pour moi? Je pourrais vous aider dans les champs... plus, je suis très experimenté avec les poules!

Bienvenu... Andy

Millymollymandy wrote: Had a good chuckle reading that.

So, is that a New Hampshire Red? Because Ginger (a Buff Sussex) was the main culprit. J'accuse!

I'm having a go at camomile for the first time this year. It's looking great in the seed tray, but I rather wondered what it meant by 'lawn'. I do know that thyme is supposed to be wonderful to walk over. I read in some novel once about the great smell that gets released as you walk over. Another am...

What a lovely bunch of people, thanks for your kind comments. To clear up a couple of misunderstandings: 1. My name isn't really Mr. Trench. It's Andy. Mr. Trench is an elephant that lives in a garden in a very silly play I like. So no - I was not your history teacher. 2. Hadn't realised I was thank...

Hi there everyone. I can't believe I have reached the stage that I'm so into gardening that I have joined a self sufficiency web site. Although I work in a bank in London, my dream is to downsize into a small holding in Devon or somewhere similar and grow veggies. Am kinda managing at the moment but...