Ask Gerry

I have an infestation of cabbage root fly, it's any solution? And if not can I use my beds for other plants?

Planted out savoy cabbage about 6 weeks ago. Doing well. Now some of the plants are been eaten. All that remains is like a grey dust.All I can see is very small cream like bugs.Any idea what they are and how to treat.

I wanted to plant early york cabbage seed to grow plants from. You recommended april or greyhound in a previous question and said they were heart shaped heads. Ive been told early york is round/ball headed in our area. Is there a round headed seed varietity of early york and if so what is the name of the seed to look for? Lorraine Thanks for the help

Is there cabbage that you can leave in the ground and just pull the leaves off as you need them? The same applies to lettuce,

I grow on a balcony and am growing "Hestia" dwarf runner beans, as well as sweet peas in containers. Being members of the legume family, they will leave the soil enriched with nitrogen when they are finished in late summer/autumn. My question is how I can harness this enriched soil to grow plants in these same containers that will ideally give me some winter interest, either ornamental or preferably as food. As I have limited space, I would prefer something I can sow direct in late summer or autumn. The balcony is sheltered and gets about 4 hours of good afternoon sun in the summer and less in winter.

I was told that a great way to protect cabbages was to place rhubarb leaves in water and bring to the boil. Once boiled, allow for the water to cool down and then add a small amount of washing up liquid. You then spray your cabbages with the water and the washing up liquid allows it to stick to the leaves thus offering protection. Is this correct please ?