In gardening, there are no shortcuts says Alan Titchmarsh: you only get out what you put in.
A friend of mine was walking past some allotments back in the 1970s. As he gazed over the fence at the serried ranks of 10-pole plots, he noticed a cloud rising from one of them. From the centre of the cloud, a figure appeared carrying one of those puffer packs of insecticidal dust. ‘Are you all right?’ enquired my friend of the emerging allotment holder. ‘Oh yes. I’m…
