Moan, moan, moan----get it off your chest or have a chat

[Gerry Webster]

I have spent the afternoon repotting using John Innes from the garden centre which seems to be loam free.

I’ve just been looking at the website of the John Innes Manufacturers Association: http://www.johninnes.info/

Apparently, manufacturers can join the association & receive a ‘Seal of Approval’. It’s not  clear whether this association is any different to the various ‘Associations’ whose logos cover the vehicles of many builders.

The website also tells us that these days it is too laborious  to manufacture JI in the traditional way & extolls the virtues of the modern versions. I imagine this is designed to reassure consumers. I can’t say I feel reassured.   

[Carol Shaw]

The website also tells us that these days it is too laborious  to manufacture JI in the traditional way & extolls the virtues of the modern versions. I imagine this is designed to reassure consumers. I can’t say I feel reassured.   

Me neither !

[David Shaw]

We consider ourselves to be 95% organic in the garden, even as far as using an 'organic' insect spray to combat greenfly in the greenhouse. Just lately I have noticed that some of the more tender aquilegia have leaves that appear to be burnt. The spray is a year or two old and I am wondering if the ingredients are breaking down and turning into an acid!!!! (Organic weed killer is an acid - we don't bother with this anymore). Anyway, garden centre today and we bought a spray of chemical nasty for the little beasts. 94.5%.

[Anthony Darby]

I have noticed the leaves of some of my Ophrys spp. turn black at the tips and some others are chloritic. Is this a Ph problem or a lack of N or Mg? It doesn't affect all the plants in one pot.

[Tony Willis]

I have noticed the leaves of some of my Ophrys spp. turn black at the tips and some others are chloritic. Is this a Ph problem or a lack of N or Mg? It doesn't affect all the plants in one pot.

I have the same problem and have not solved it. I thought it was because I grow them too cold and damp.

[Tony Willis]

From today we have the great joy of having the content of all our emails, skype conversations and web sites visited recorded and kept available for access by 600 government agencies. The government say it is an EU directive but in fact it was ours that put forward the proposal in the first instance

I wonder if they will do a recovery disc in the event of me having a computer failure?

[Luc Gilgemyn]

George Orwell ?? 

[Tony Willis]

George Orwell ?? 

I do not think even he could have dreamt up the measures we now have to save us from ourselves.

Later in the year all the records are going to be moved from the ISP's to a new super database.I wonder if we will get sent targetted government advertising when they know what we look at on the internet.Offers of Foreign Office postings to good plant collecting areas?

[ranunculus]

It's o.k. Tony ... somebody is bound to leave the hard disc on a bus.

[JohnnyD]

I suggest we add a copyright logo to all of our emails.

At least then we can charge them if they are used!

JohnnyD

[Tony Willis]

When I used to write to East Germany before the wall came down I always imagined the Stasi sitting there reading my letters thinking the plant names were a code and trying to figure it out. I wonder if the the local council who read my emails will think the same.

[Maggi Young]

When I used to write to East Germany before the wall came down I always imagined the Stasi sitting there reading my letters thinking the plant names were a code and trying to figure it out

 I wonder that about the general reader and our jokes.... especially Anthony's  Good practice in vernacular conversation though, eh?

[Anthony Darby]

When I used to write to East Germany before the wall came down I always imagined the Stasi sitting there reading my letters thinking the plant names were a code and trying to figure it out

I wonder that about the general reader and our jokes.... especially Anthony's  Good practice in vernacular conversation though, eh?

I don't take life too seriously, after all, no one gets out alive.

[Maggi Young]

I don't take life too seriously, after all, no one gets out alive.

Very true! Very true... but you're right, there's no point in whingeing is there?

[Lesley Cox]

I don't take life too seriously, after all, no one gets out alive.

Oh blast! I was really hoping.....