BUSINESS

Many fruit trees are pruned in winter when they are dormant, in anticipation of the burst of energy that comes with spring. Yet established stone-fruit trees – plums, cherries, apricots and others in the Prunus family – should be pruned now to prevent them contracting silver leaf disease. Transmitted by spores active in the autumn and winter, and which … Read more

Monday At last! Someone is doing something about the scourge of – *checks notes* – allotments. Wait, what? Oh. Angela Rayner has been criticised for rules allowing councils to sell off allotments to raise money to meet day-to-day expenditures. This – if you will forgive the lapse into technical jargon for a moment – is … Read more

‘When I opened the suitcase, I fell backwards and screamed’ Our new house had once been the home of a ferry boat captain and his family. The previous owners requested that we dispose of anything left behind. “We’re going to find a body,” I told my husband as we considered the piles and piles of … Read more

Gardeners have been urged to work with their neighbours to support moths and hover flies after research found them to be particularly sensitive to urban landscapes. While bees get most of the attention when it comes to supporting pollinators in our cities, researchers found that their less glamorous – but no less important – counterparts … Read more

What’s the problem?My mistletoe cactus (Rhipsalis) thrived for more than five years, but recently started to brown, with strands falling off. I repotted it into a slightly larger pot with no drainage holes and a layer of gravel at the bottom, but it continues to decline despite weekly watering. How can I save my plant? … Read more

Split it, sell it, or find a way of keeping it in the family? That’s the question three sisters asked themselves when they inherited a property, built by their parents in the 1970s, on a plot of land near Home beach on Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island. The sisters had been holidaying at the house since they … Read more

As any gardener knows, we share our outdoor spaces with a vast array of creatures. This is mostly a wonderful and necessary thing. The majority of beasts are beneficial and ought to receive the warmest of welcomes. And given the biodiversity crisis, we must reconsider who we regard as a “pest”. Having said that, there are organisms whose presence can imperil our … Read more