That's what I was planning to do - so thanks for that thought. 

Hi Fairweather,

Just saw your post regarding peaches. I would definitely recommend you have a go, but try to go for one of these varieties or preferably one of each if you have the space. Plants like raspberries will grow nearby, and so will your redcurrants and blackcurrants, as they do well in half shade.

Avalon Pride

Peregrine

Red Heaven

Do bear in mind that peaches can get leaf curl. I spray copper sulphate in autumn at leaf fall and again in spring when the buds start to burst. However, in spring I also remove infected leaves manually and dispose of them away from the tree. You only have to put up with that nonsense around April/May (and perhaps a bit of June), and the tree quickly recovers. It also has beautiful flowers in spring, but the fruit is phenomenal.

This year, due to frosts, I had to protect mine with fleece, and normally I end up doing that once or twice every year to ensure a good crop. Not sure whether you’ve had much in the way of frost where you are recently.

I had quince and cut it down as the fruits were damaged every year and could not use them.

Have a go and good luck! 

Thanks, I may well give it a go.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgk5k7lkv0o 

How wee collected at festivals could help with a project to grow a new forest

Nothing new of course, as it is an ingredient of gunpowder. Good for compost heaps too.

An important modern issue are the amounts of synthetic chemicals in pee. But waste water treatment plants should be able to treat this but often don't. 

What process would they use?

That is a good question. The techniques have progressed since the days of the petermen but how? Removing the oestrogens and other synthetics would be a challenge but they say they've overcome that. Or perhaps not when I had a re-read. They use heat treatment but surely that won't remove certain chemicals. I'm tempted to ask them but I'm almost certain they would think I'm competition. DEW might have some insights?

https://npkrecovery.co.uk/how-it-works/ 

https://www.cleanteqwater.com/water-recovery-solutions/phosphate-removal/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=20830925494-159859419561-683270607079&utm_term=wastewater%20treatment%20phosphorus%20removal&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20830925494&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxrDPw-rRkwMVHZNQBh1JezpiEAAYASAAEgJTqvD_BwE 

Here's another but there are many more compounds that might be better removed too.

https://arviatechnology.com/pollutant/estradiol-removal-from-water/ 

It looks like heat treatment is their main method for festivals.

I've mulched beds and borders and hope this will retain some of the moisture.

https://emojis.slackmojis.com/emojis/images/1643514936/9585/lawn-mowing.png?1643514936 

It's a plastic one and I first noticed when the door had come off and a load of coposted material had been dug out. I jabbed about inside with a fork to flush any of these buggers out but nothing, so I just closed the door and put some string around it.

Something must have still been in because the upper corner of the door has been chewed through. It's not a big hole, which made me think (hope!) it was mice, but I also know rats can squeeze through small holes.

We did have a rat issue last autumn. We got the council in who revisisted weekly for about 6 weeks. By the end, it was just mice who were a-nibbling on the poison blocks.

Question is, do I now just get rid of the compost and get rid of the bin?

I wouldn’t mess about with it to be honest if they’re already in there, they’ll just keep coming back.

Personally, I’d get rid of the compost and deal with it properly rather than trying to manage it half-way. Put some rat poison down (easy enough to get on Amazon) and make sure you break the cycle, otherwise you’ll be back to square one in a few weeks.

Also be careful since at this time of year is tricky because they could have young in there. If that’s the case, they’ll be more aggressive and protective. When you open the bin, take it slowly and stand back a bit, as that may be their only exit point.

I’ve seen how quickly it can go wrong. I’ve got a rental flat and we had squirrels get into storage containers as one tenant ended up with scratches to her face and had to go to A&E. I’ve also had one jump straight out and over my shoulder before I even had time to react. You don’t expect it, but it happens fast.

The National Garden Scheme

https://ngs.org.uk/ 

Excellent! I was involved with the National Gardens Scheme (Hampshire). The Yellow Book or the gardens' visitors' handbook. 

I have a lovely 3.5m Acer Campestre (var. Elegant) sitting on the nursery that i was hoping to collect and plant out in the back garden (late, i know), but i'm considering leaving it on the line, plumbed into the irrigation for the summer, or at least until i see some prolonged rain on the horizon. 

Yes the drought is kicking here and remember we didn't even get the Autumn monsoon here - just the January and February wet season. I cut the grass today and whilst it is still nice and green I was alarmed to see the deep cracks starting to appear in the lawn. Furthermore my crab apple bonsai tree was wilting despite a recent watering - never known before in Spring. Seeds over the allotment seem to be slow to germinate presumably because of the cold nights keeping the average soil temperature down. And to make things worse one of my fairly new blackcurrant bushes that has been stunted by a plague of blackfly aphids at all of the growing tips is now struggling compared to the other two..

Still what can you expect with just 2.5mm of rain in the last 6 weeks!

Not just the South east. It's been dry up here in our sheltered part of West Yorkshire. Seems to be following the same vein as last year which doesn't bode well as we had some serious dry weather and a hosepipe ban for months.

Not a mention on  the forecasts though. Still doing a "at least it will be dry" pitch!!

Taking some precautions, I flooded the bin then furiously forked it. Pretty sure there's nothing in there. The hole measures 1cm tall by 3cm wide.

I'm still pondering getting a rotating dual-chamber compost bin.

As the Beast suggests in another thread “I am glad for this dry spell.  Farms and gardens can be watered artificially.”

Which is true to a point when you don’t need to worry about the consequences. But if all farmers were allowed to abstract water without hindrance, a resource can deplete whilst not the blink of an eye, faster than you might assume. It’s been done in the UK from time to time and many other places globally. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g89zwlxggo 

If you don’t mind the adverse effects, what’s to stop you? ‘So what’ if a watercourse is abstracted to a trickle or worse and the wildlife associated with it is eliminated. It will come back in its glory when it rains again surely. Nope or not for many many years in some cases. The Aral Sea a prime example and there will be examples in the UK we can find quite easily.

https://chalkstreams.org/2026/02/17/the-future-of-chalk-streams-if-only-wed-grasp-it/ 

But gardeners face another issue. Gardeners work towards creating a pleasant ambience in their plots. Perhaps a Garden of Eden approach for some of us, with all the mental well-being benefits this can bring. But gardeners, unless they are fortunate to have a well, have to pay for the water, which is way more expensive than natural rainfall. One way around this problem is to pave over the plot and forget the pleasant environment. Create a localised UHI around your house might be one result.  Or develop a dry garden, which can be done up to a point as Fairweather no doubt understands more than most. But even these plots will require some form of watering in extended dry spells like the one we are in today. Natural rainfall though, is far far better for a garden than irrigating using expensive chlorinated drinking water and this point is perhaps forgotten by non-gardeners. And there ends my Sunday missive.

I'm not on a meter, but out of principle I'm using more water than I otherwise would - as Southern Water whacked my bill up by over 50% last year (and another 8% this year). My garden, or the borders at least, will be lush and green this year! (And lugging more watering cans around is good exercise).

I used to try and save as much water as I could, I really did, but thanks to Southern a) not fixing leaks, b) shovelling crap into the seas and c) making charges go up by silly amounts I don't really care any more. 

We'd not have any problems if they'd kept pace with development, but as they build tens of thousands of homes in the area with no capacity improvements... but heck, that's something for another thread!