No replies looks pretty lonely! So I'm gunna reply to you even though I don't know the answer. Neri, just hang in there! Spring is just around the corner and if you can protect your tree until then it will grow bigger by the next round of frosts! I'm pleased to hear you got your vegie patch built in...

The droopy large leaves of my metre-high umbrella tree were no match for Mr Frost. Checking the Internet I now learn that umbrella trees are not frost resistant! Ok but what I can't understand is why mine took a beating and yet the things grow all around me ! Next street, next suburb etc (South Coas...

If anyone is fascinated? It took approx 2 hours to heat a still warm ( 6 days off) HW cylinder under the house, long way from the bath room and in quite cold weather.

Thanks all. It's like this. Last Christmas wife and I bought a house on the NSW South coast which we use on the week-end and on holidays. Hot water cylinder was stuffed. Said to the plumber: " want the same size as in our apartment as it seems to do the job for two reasonably hygenic folk ( me at le...

I'm trying to find out, without trial and error, how long it would take to heat up an average size hot water cylinder as I plan to turn (one of) mine off to save electricity costs as I only use it weekly. On the internet I've find one comment that it would take 30-40 mins. How does that sound?

Chopped up old sponges? Anyone tried chopping up dishwashing sponges and using them in pot plants?

After 13 lawn-free years I'm back in the hardware stores as a house-owner! And how times have changed! House material is so much more expensive, as could be expected, but the greatest shock was discovering that "No, Sir, they don't make flymos any more". And looking for hand-powered tools! There vir...

Excellent! Many thanks!

I find cowrie shells from time to time and want to bring out their natural colour. Be nice if I could use some coating that was as natural as possible (i.e. not estapol). I'm thinking of experimenting with car wax. Any ideas about what I could use?

Just a few logs from completing a pine-log retaining wall I raced into Bunnings to get them and clutching a bag of large steel screws I was stopped dead in my tracks by the Bunnings man who warned that I should be using galvanised screws as the treated pine would cause the screws to disintegrate and...