A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion New Members Hello from UK

Hello everyone, I love gardens and plants but unfortunately I'm not very good at it, so I've joined hoping for some tips and ideas.

We try and garden for wildlife, so we are organic, which causes it's own problems as we struggle trying to get rid of pests and weeds. I'm looking forward to chatting and with any luck, picking a few brains!!

Welcome to the forum! It's nice to meet you.

I'm sure you will find some useful tips here to help with your organic efforts.


Merme

welcome benjismum we're glad to have you, we have quite a few uk gardeners here!

Erm, I thought at first 'wow' then realised what had happened - is this a troll or a bot or something?

Merme and Jiffymouse thanks for your welcome

I thought the same thing Benj. actually I saw how many responses there already were and decided not to post a hello. every now and then something like that slips through, although our moderators are pretty good at catching stuff like that right away.
Well, Hello and welcome! we do have several from the UK, and lots of organic gardeners. we look forward to chatting with you.

Hi Benjismum..... Welcome to the Gardenhelper, Pick our Brains,, we love that, so pick away,,,

and Yessssssss, Flowersforindia is here advertising,,,, and one of the Hostess'es will handle that, so sorry they hijacked your Intro,,,,

Jump on in here Benjismum we welcome you and Happy Holidays!!

Hi Angelblossom and Cricket, thanks for your comments. I see you are both from Texas, I visited Texas for the first time in April, and absolutely loved it. I was surprised by how green it was, as a hot area I expected it to be more sparsely vegetated. We needed much more time though, as we didn't realise quite how HUGE it is!!

Well Yes Texas is Huge!,, it takes longer for me to drive the length of Tx then it does for me to cross two states to Go visit home in Kansas,,
It is pretty much green here 9-10 months out of the year,, of course depending what part of Tx we're living in,, I love it here, as far as the weather goes,, But it does require a lot of watering,, in the hottest time of the summer,, Hey Good to know you've already been in Tx, ..

all fixed and the spammer is poofed

Welcome benjismum----I think you will be very glad you found us.---

I am glad the spammer is gone----Thanks Jiffy----

Hi Benjismum, welcome to the forum! I hope you enjoy it here.

I mostly like to avoid chemicals in the garden, especially as we have children and pets. So I like to hear about ways of doing that.

One of our biggest callenges here is keeping the garden alive; we've had 11 years of drought. I know what sort of summer it was generally in the UK, and believe it or not, we want one like that!!

Hi Benjismum! I'm Thornius in Nashville, TN, U.S.A. My son-in-law is from Scotland. He and my daughter go there frequently to visit his family. They live in Falkirk. I am the wild bird fanatic here and spend all my time studying and researching birds all over the world. Late at night I watch the LIVE feeder cams of the RSPB in Abernethy Forest in Northeastern Scotland. My daughter will be going there this month and will try to get on the camera live. If you have any questions about birds you can find me on the Bird Lover Section of the forum. Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for fixing the spammer Jiffymouse, and thanks for the welcomes Juniegirl, Stevie G, and Thornius. This is truly an international site, I hadn't realised. Stevie if only I could give you some of our rain, we had another local flood this week, when all the snow melted.

Thornius, we have something in common, I love birdwatching too, I regularly visit the Abernethy cams hoping to see a Crested Tit, but no luck yet! On my recent trip to Texas we also cruised to the Caribbean and I saw my first ever Hummingbirds, and Frigate birds (Wow), not to mention loads of new birds in Texas itself. I'm sure I will have loads of questions for you - so be warned :wink:

Glad to have you here with us! And yes it is very much an International site. I live in the US now but I was born in Lancashire, near Manchester.

Very relieved that we just got the Christmas Crackers we ordered. You can't find them in any stores over here so we have to order a lot of English specialty stores. Can't find Christmas pudding here either.

Thorny will be great at your questions! He's our resident bird expert here.

So glad you found us.




Laura

Hi Loz, nice to know there is another Midlander here Wot no crackers or Christmas pud glad you've got them now!

I have a question which I've been wanted to ask an expat for ages, hope you don't mind - how do you manage with the cheese over there? We founds loads of wonderful food on our trips to the US, (apples especially are so much better than over here) but we struggled to find 'normal' cheese. Perhaps we just went to the wrong shops?

Hey! We have Cheddar! The best is Cracker barrel Extra sharp (Extra Strong) Cheddar. We also have Colby a medium, crumbly, Cheddar. And I LOVE Jarlsberg cheess (but that one is from Norway and is expensive here). I have a friend i Norway who likes Jarlsberg.

On the subject of cheese, can you get 'Perfect Italiano' parmesan in the UK and US? It comes in a wedge or block shape here. If you see that, you should snaffle some, because it is just the best cheese!

I read a story the other day that in the UK, Wallace and Gromit single-handedly restored the flagging fortunes of one type of cheese- was it gorgonzola?

we do have that cheese here stevie. but i don't eat it. my son cooks with it.

You are wise not to start on it, Jiffy, because it is addictive (and a bit expensive)! A bit like gardening, really....

I've had Gastric Bypass surgery and HAVE to eat High protein. I use a LOT of cheese; HIGH Protein, easy on my new TINY stomach. I like Swiss-type cheeses like Lorraine, Jarlsberg, and, of course, Swiss. Cheddars are my other favorite cheeses.

Thornius my husbands favourite is Cracker Barrel, I've never heard of Jarlsberg though. Stevie, we certainly get Parmesan but not sure about that make, I will have to look out for it, I think it was Wensleydale that Wallace & Gromit promoted (unintentionally!)

I just love a proper stinky french Camembert on crusty bread, with a nice red wine..mmmm.

Traveling and trying to find familiar foods is fun. But even familiar foods in different lands can have a different 'spin' on the flavor or texture. I spent 6 weeks in New Zealand the last visit. The thing I had difficulty finding that were close to 'home' cooked was bacon. And going to a restaurant that has gone international is fun too. Do not expect a pizza from Pizza Hut to taste exactly the same overseas. Or even a Mac Donald's burger. And there a foods to be had there that I wish were available here. But that all adds to the travel adventure.

Yes, it was probably Wensleydale.

Agreed on the cheese, crusty bread and red wine! My dad recently introduced me to some stinky cheese. If I buy that I've got it to myself. My girls (including my wife) complain it smells like someone's feet!!

Hi There, I am from the UK and not too many miles from you!!!!
Doncaster. I hope to see you around the forum .

Hi Glenda, thanks for the comments, I was in Donny last weekend, I went to Potteric Carr Wildlife reserve to see the Bitterns, you are only about 30mins from me - small world isn't it?