Garden Projects and DIY

Tidied up the summer house and put the lights on for the first time in..... well, what seems forever. Lovely quiet evening.There is a plant in there, A Peace Lily which loves the heat!

This worked very successfully when I was teaching....Foundation stage. We set up garden area with paving slabs in a chequerboard pattern so that they could stand on slabs to tend the areas around them. Led to germination, in verandah area, pricking out, planting out, watering, weeding...and...

Chaenorhinum origanifolium 'Blue Dream'

Just checked my records. 4 plants, 3 varieties Hedychium gardnerianium x 2 H. coronarium H. densiflorum ‘Assam Orange’ The H. coronarium is a lot smaller than the others as that is a replacement for one that failed, for some reason.

Sounds like you will be OK if you done tiling and that sort of thing. It just needs a little preparation. Get levels right and a slight slope off the steps to throw off rain.

As just added to the above, don't add too much more compost, a few long gentle waterings should restore things.Dried out compost can be difficult to re-wet so you could could add a couple of drops of washing up liquid to each watering can as that helps the water soak in more, don't overdo the...

Improving now with a lot more colour.

I was told that the tubular things in the trees were for detecting dormice.

Wouldn't it be easier to build raised gardens along the fence line and then dig out some of the higher area and deposit in the raised beds? You could have just one long step along the patio to step down to the new grade?

Thanks for the idea, but I think I'll pass when it comes to ponds. We have a large drainage ditch and a water reservoir 20 meters away, and our demand for mosquitoes is already met a few times over.Additionally half of our porch once was a giant pond before the previous owner realised the same...

Hello Ali, welcome to GC. You've got the potential there to make a nice little garden! Definitely go with weed-suppressing membrane. It comes in brown as well as green, which makes it useful for covering a cleared, dug area which you then plant with easy maintenance shrubs. As long as the...

A wonderful problem garden to have, so much more interesting than a flat square of grass. Do you have a must-have and nice-to-have lists? It's essential that any must-haves have a place (BBQ, trampoline, bins, veg patch, football area...).Do you have a style in mind? The gravel patio would...

After all the hassle you went through @Fat Controller, it's good to hear it's been worthwhile.

UPDATE The Magic of Moss! Although confined, it is serving the intended purpose of disguising the end of my bonsai bench which wasn't very awe-inspiring from the kitchen window. It's progressing nicely, with a few Japanese-oriented plants still to go in and a few positional aspects still to...

Perhaps Blackboard Paint, Wilko sell small tins.

A poundland tin pie shell pan might work. They are much tougher than they look?

Unless you are frantic about your lawn, I would encourage you to grow better turf, let it become more resilient, allow the grass to more fully express itself (leave it longer) and feed it with humus as compost dressing. Avoid compacting it when wet,maybe tolerate broadleaf such as clover. Mowing...

We live where the soil is wet sits on top of clay

Meadow home renovation update

Today was the start of something I've been looking forward to for a while; garden electrics!The desire is to have lots of nice ambient lighting in the final garden, but to get that requires a bit of early work to make sure things like power is available (you certainly don't want to be ripping...