Hello Sue, and welcome to URG.

On 05/05/2010 10:11 AM, Sue Holt wrote:
Hi. I'm on the Bidston ridge - so plenty of acid soil and sandstone
outcrops among the ancient pine trees. We also have mature and highly
protected American red oaks, horse chestnuts and birches - all of which
make gardening in their shadow an interesting challenge.


That sounds lovely, actually.

[]
I'm confused by the other replies - I had no idea what I was getting
into here! It's very easy just to wander into a site like this without
understanding its history.

So - if I go direct to this forum is that ok?


You are posting on a very old part of the internet, that predates the
www. It's called Usenet, or sometimes just "news." You can find out
about it with google or for example at www.usenet.com. Many people
don't like sites like GBanter because they steal content and repost
without permission.

You are on the group uk.rec.gardening.

To access Usenet directly you need a news server, I use
news.individual.net which costs 10 EU a year but removes most spam
messages quite effectively. There are also many free news servers. You
can also access Usenet via google, although it is a rather difficult
interface I find.

I have been using Usenet since the early 80s!

cheers and HTH

-E