WHAT'S LOOKING GOOD IN JUNE 2018

Pity you cant DIY practice makes perfect so i am told give it a go nothing ventured nothing gained is my moto,

I bought mine from ebay £50 8x6, i brought it home in a little Peugeot 206 i had to make two trips though.

 

Lavendar hedge but it is thalictrum splendide white with it I like. Brings a cool contrast to blue flowers I think. The thalictrum is in its first year ....next year it will more than double its height
As usual, photo taken in haste

 

That is so amazing @Verdun..I bet it smells awesome

 

It really does BigC. Everybody should grow some lavendar if the conditions suit it.

 

Inspiration @Jack Sparrow .

 

They might not look that impressive, but the scent of sweet peas and stock just outside my back door is heavenly

 

Verdun i'll remember that as it was my grandads name

 

@Doghouse Riley
Can you explain to me how you went about making this one

 

Oh no it`s not Verdun - it`s called Cedric

 

???

 

No probs.

It's very much like making sandcastles.

This is a photo of the kit I used for making the first one. Just bits of old pallets and a couple of plastic tubs. I didn't bother to take a photo of the second one. It was pretty much the same kit.

The first one is in three pieces, there's a bit of tube in the base which fits in a hole in the upside down second bit.



The first one had a cube base of which I rounded off the corners. The later one I made a tube out of some plastic but made a square box to hold it until it had gone off.

As they are made of fine concrete mix with an outer layer of sand and cement mortar dyed to match our Youk stone patio and paths, about an inch thick, it's possible to sculpt the corners before it all goes off or, later with a file.

The second one has a base, I used one of the molds to make it.

I used a 2ft square of Contiplas on which I put the molds. This meant that they wouldn't stick to it.
The base had a square of weldmesh in it for strength and I just sculpted the cement mortar sides before it went off. There were recesses in both the base and the bit that supports the rest to accept the column. The lantern bit I used the molds I made for the first one, but the grill has a weldmesh core. There are four sides which are just butted up together and mortared over the joints. But inside I built of the cement to make a bowl ending just below the apertures for strength.

The top was made in a mold but the "top not" was made from a couple of plastic pots, but again I finished them off by hand.. Easy enough if you don't make it wet. Just "sandcastle consistency."
Before casting the top I put a square plastic container on in the middle of the Contiplas to form the recess to take the lamp. Both have recycled 12v pool lamps in them.

Both top sections are removable, (they weigh a ton) so I can replace the bulbs when necessary.

Both are fed from cables attached to the base panels of the side fence, round to the tea-house where their 12v transformers are in the roof void. All power to the tea-house is wired through some alkathene pipe buried way down in the other border to individual sockets in the garage.
So no exposed mains cabling.
These are switched via an armoured cable under the path and patio to four switches behind the lounge curtains.

The object was to make them look ancient when finished. Far too many garden centre lamps look as if they're "straight out of the mold," as I guess they are.

I used the same process to make the pagoda, but it needed 21 molds, But I was cutting the same ones down as I started each storey.

I took those photos recently, but they've worn well over the last thirty years, but hopefully appear a couple of centuries older.

I made some videos six years ago.

They do drag on a bit but they've had over 37,000 hits between them.

 

@Loki ....are you perplexed?

Verdun calls his soil Bertie, but mine is called Cedric - what is the name of your soil ?
My daughter always calls her soil ''dirt''

 

Mines called "Christ knows"

 

A few more shots from the garden tonight.