Prizewinning site members!

In her profile, Shelagh mentions she's 'a keen amateur gardener and environmentalist'. She has signed up for our peat-free trial running in association with the Know Your Compost campaign.

I hope you enjoy the book, Shelagh.

Best forum thread – Pondlife

Also on the Forum in Soapbox, Elizabeth Spurgeon has been writing at length about the trials and tribulations of maintaining her pond.

Elisabeth wins the rather appropriate book Gardening with Rock & Water by Peter Robinson. Below are a few (edited) snippets from her entertaining contribution:

'Pond-keeping seems to me to be a love-hate relationship. One minute all is fine; then problems. I speak as one who started a pond in 1992, so you would think I would know all there was to know – but it's a long haul.

Back to the golden days of ignorance. I had been given five koi and bought one myself, along with three golden orfe. Everything was going well, the filter worked and the pump kept pumping. Little did I realise what lay ahead.

After a few months had passed the Koi started to spawn, producing spectacular aqua gliding over the waterlilies, the water positively foaming. Then I waited and, sure enough, I could soon see small signs of life here and there – mostly very dark! Knowing nothing of what the baby fish looked like, I waited for them to grow. There were about five coloured babies, but lots of blackish ones, which friends informed me were mirror carp. Where they came from has been a mystery ever since, but they are in the hate category….'

Later on Elizabeth encounters more problems, this time with the pond filter...

'I went out to feed the fish one morning and wham – where's the water!...In retrospect it was obvious, but being a complete beginner and not knowing where to get help, it took me a while to figure out. The filter was overflowing. The filter I had at that time was a large box type with a hose going in – and obviously none coming out. The problem lay with the size of hose. I should have had a larger one coming out! It seems so simple now…'

And she goes on to experience green water...

'I was buying product after product all promising to clear the water with no success, but help was at hand with the UVC (Ultra Violet Clarifier). What a gem. It took a bit of electrical work getting one up and running, but once it was in full swing, what a difference. Everything suddenly became visible once more, I could see the fish – mirror carp everwhere. This could not continue….'

Elizabeth promises to update soon, so I look forward to discovering if she actually manages to get rid of the mirror carp – and other pondlife matters.

New member of the month prize

And the winner of the Devo rechargeable digital radio, worth £89.99 from Freeplay Energy, is Heather Buckland. She describes herself as: 'newish to gardening, but looking to start some formal study this year on a distance-learning basis,' as well as 'keen to learn from others and share successes and failures'. Heather says: 'I really want to enjoy my gardening and know more about what I'm doing', which probably reflects what a lot of us want.

On the forum, the subject of concrete came up a few times. Heather asks the question: 'I live in the Northwest and am looking for someone, or something, to assist in removing an area of approx 25ft x 60ft of 10-inch thick conctete, so that I can have a back garden. Can anyone out there help?

It's not the easiest of questions to solve in a jiffy, but Simon Gould comes up with what appears to be a perfectly acceptable answer:

'The best way is to rent out a self-drive mini digger (1 tonne) with an added concrete breaker – also a skip to remove the broken-up concrete from your garden,' he says. Simon assures Heather: 'You can get it all done in a weekend. The cost is about:

Digger: £150 for the weekend with a £200 deposit
Concrete breaker: add on £60
Large skip (8 yard): £135'

He concludes: 'I know all this as I have just done the same to my garden and driving the digger was so much fun! Now im trying to see where I can use it again...'

So well done to the prizewinners. This month's prize for a new member to the site is a rather spectacular full set of gardening Expert books – that's 23 titles – by the venerable Dr D G Hessayon, worth £149! Dr Hessayon has just been awarded the OBE. Everything you need to know about gardening....or at least are able to read...should be covered here. So join the site, please keep your messages and photos coming, and good luck!