Mayfly182

Lots of pointy sticks, stuck into the soil so that 2" shows above the surface. You have to plant them quite thickly but it really does work, and it's free. Easier to work around plants than chicken wire, and lasts longer than the scent based repellents which tend to wear off when it rains.

If the plants are in the ground it's not really possible to overwater. If they're beans I'm guessing they're in the ground. For anything in pots, you should wet the compost through thoroughly each time and then wait to water until the pots feel lighter.

I've got a lot of Acer pseudoplatanus (sycamores) you can have for free, and welcome. You're probably going to want to be a lot more specific than just asking for acers. I suspect you want Acer palmatum, Japanese maple? In which case, any particular leaf colours or shapes, do you want upright, weeping or don't mind? ...unless you really do just want any acer, in which case I'll happily help you dig out some sycamores. I can't recommend them though.

My mum's just had to winkle a protester out of a bush in her garden on Sheldon Road in Nether Edge, where she was standing to be too close to the tree to cut safely. I'm sick of both sides personally. They both seem to have a fixed idea that there's no difference between one tree and another. The protesters seem to think that absolutely all trees are worth saving, including the ones on Sheldon Road which really are causing serious problems with the pavements and are London Plane to boot which are strongly suspected to cause really serious breathing problems when the tiny hairs on the back of the leaves get into people's lungs. On the other side Amey seem to think that if you cut down a tree and plant a tree there's the same number of trees, so what's the problem? It leads to stupid decisions like cutting down two massive poplars with trunks over a meter in diameter and replacing with piddly little Silver Birches which barely deserve to be classified as trees. That's appropriate replacement according to them. They're also happy to cut down truely irreplaceble trees like the Huntingdon Elm which supports the really rare White-Letter Hairstreak butterfly. The protesters should really be more selective. I doubt many people on Sheldon Road want the trees kept and after many years of repeated hard cutting back they're not very pretty at all.

The biggest problem is not that people don't know how to drive properly for a test but that they know they can get away with breaking rules or become careless. Neither of those apply in a driving test so the tests would not get rid of most of the unsafe drivers.

When you say your other half can't eat carbs, how strict is that? Are we talking 'no potatoes, rice, bread etc' or 'no plant matter at all'? All plant matter is built on carbohydrates but some types have a lot more available carbohydrate than others.

This is why the poor things need neutering. I'll PM you and come and see if I can help at all.

Isn't Magsie with Friends of Ferals? I thought of them of course, but they're only asking for fundraising volunteers. I guess I could try anyway.

Do you know of any cat shelters who would want someone to foster kittens? I've been looking but the nearest one I've found is Doncaster.

I know. The adults need neutering but I can't really help with that. I do have the space and time to spend with a litter or two of kittens to turn them into happy neutered pets instead of the next generation of ferals though.

You can apply to court but that's hardly inexpensive. Same with getting a good solicitor. I could refuse to pay the big admin fees, but while they never say so I think it's entirely obvious that if I refused I would get a negative to whatever requests I had made. Which they're entirely entitled to do because there's no 'may not be unreasonably refused' anywhere in this contract. They can just say no for any reason or none at all.

...then you haven't dealt with some of the freeholders I have. The 'not unreasonably refused' thing is sometimes but not always built into the lease and some landlords don't answer at all, or ask for a bribe, sorry, 'administrative fee' of several hundred pounds to reply.

Are they still around? I might be able to help with kittens young enough to still be tamed.

Difficult to say without seeing them. You don't mention plant hygiene. One of the most likely problems is funguses attacking the roots. Do you do anything to sterilize the pots, do you make sure to only use recently opened compost bags? If you're a member of the RHS or might consider becoming one, they offer an advisory service where you can send off plant samples and they will identify the problem for you. https://www.rhs.org.uk/membership/rhs-gardening-advice/sending-in-samples

Bindweed is vunerable to Glyphosate but grows back very fast from neighbouring populations. The choice is apply glyphosate or dig the soil over and attempt to remove all the roots, or a combination of both. Either way you're looking at several treatments. It's generally recommended to dig out as much as can or just cut it to ground level, wait for it to resprout and then spray with glyphosate when the shoots are very young. If you have older shoots to treat then it's better to crush the leaves before treating. If there's bindweed left in untreated patches (eg grass paths) or neighbouring allotments it grows back fast underground. Even if you manage to eliminate bindweed from your allotment you'll probably have to go round the boundaries every spring and spray or dig up any shoots you find. It's a real pain, that stuff. At least it does respond to weedkiller unlike some of the other pests.