Tilling the garden for a new lawn

I got the idea for the garden fleece off an American YouTube channel where the guy used an 18GSM fleece, so I bought the same

Helping keep the birds from eating the seeds was one reason, also he mentioned that the fleece would help dispersing the watering more evenly over the seeds and as you mentioned help keep heat in and the ground moist , at £36 for 2M x 100M I thought it was good value if only to keep the leaves off the soil, as there are a few trees in that area both mine and my neighbours, and looking like they’re starting to drop leaves

Was raining cats and dogs yesterday, I’m hoping this means we’re going to have a dry weekend this coming weekend

I spent the day in the workshop continuing with the cart

Reinforcing the back axel



Rear wheel fitted





Now for the steering, I’m trying to replicate the same mechanism on the care I bought the other month



Here I’m making the steering arms for the front wheels





Front wheels prop up in their finished location







The rear axel brace

 

The only potential downside I can see to fleece is if it was left down too long and the grass started to grow through it. You could end up pulling the new grass out when trying to remove the fleece.

 

The weave on the fleece looks rather fine, grass might grow through it if left long enough

I’ve tried to get a close image of the weave but this is as best my phone will go



I have the fleece laying on a book showing it’s transparency

 

I would not leave them down very long, depending on weather conditions. The usefulness for me (other than those already mentioned) is the temporary nightly protection of newly-sown patches which are invariably attacked by all kinds of creatures intent on their destructive evil; in summer, after every resowing of patches, my morning lawn looks as if it has been a stage for Game of Drones; they come from every corner, even worse than at Waterloo because here they come from underneath as well!

All forms of protection (cages, ribbons, spikes, etc.) can be time-consuming and difficult to store, getting entangled, and all that. Variously-sized reusable pieces of fleece pinned down with a few skewers could well be the answer; I shall certainly give them a try next spring.

 

This afternoon I decided to opt for an easier alternative for the steering mechanism on the cart/wagon, I had to buy 2 M12x 150mm blots as the others were going g to be a bit short

This is my progress for this afternoon





I welded the bolts to the frame



Trim the overhangs





Bolts welded





You might just make out two large washers in the centre of the bar, these washers will be well greased up and will be the pivoting point



Frame and wheel pins pivoting in the centre by the washers





Wheel bolts welded to the pivoting frame



And one of the pivoting washers is welded down



Now just need to repeat this on the mane frame and I’ll have working cart bar the pull handle

 

This didn’t take me long this afternoon, I braced the front steering and fitted it to the main cart frame











Need to make a pull handle to the trolly/cart then ready for the frame to be painted and make a start on fixing the wheely bin


If the weather holds this weekend up I’ll be seeding the grass this Sunday

 

Continuing with my wheels bin cart, the frame that was going to be attached to the base of the wheel bin needed to have holes drilled to thread through the bolts holding the frame to the bin



Dry run with the bolts through the frame and in to the bin checking for alinements of the holes



Then welded on to the cart frame the extension for the pulling handle



Making the pulling handle, you might just see the fan doing it’s job of extracting the poisonous gases while welding



Drilling the base of the pulling handle to fix to the cart hinge, which I also made



The DIY hinge







Then on to making the tipping points on the back end of the frame









Tipping





Split pins keeping them in place



Now for the cutting open the bin

 

As I mentioned we decided to make an island of the area around our cherry tree and its new offshoots, so got some gravel boards to make an area ready for gravel around the trees at a later stage

 

We’re doomed I tell you (only joking)

I bought 4 mist sprayers from Tume, around £1.50 each



But to buy the four connectors to fit a 1/2” garden hose was just over £10 each so I ended up buying one for the standard 1/2” garden hose and as I also have many meters of 6mm hose I bought four to fit the 6mm hose, so all in just the connectors came to just over £24



I fitted the threads with PTFE sealing tape





Before seeding I went to Go-Outdoor and bought another 6 packs to tent pegs to fix down the garden fleece



What I did was to seed a couple of rows then without walking on the seeds pulled over the fleece and pegged it down as I went along



Also from Tume I bought a sprinkler timer just over £10



I’ve not yet fitted it, I may get round to it later this week

I have this Parkside soil meter



I discovered my soil is approx 5 on the pH scale, is this good or bad?



Before watering the soil was just above 3, a bit on the dry side



After watering nearing 5 on the moisture gauge





From Temu I also bought this sprinkler and came with it’s own tripod, (the bucket under the sprinkler is to collect the water drips so not to have a puddle under the sprinkler)



A better impression of the sprinkler in use

 

Hi @Mollydog those readings on the pH sensor look very off. 3 is really acid! I would see if you could check it with vinegar for acid and bleach for alkaline. I'm sure there must be YouTube videos on it. I've had a quick look and most suggested you have special buffered solutions for calibration.

 

@CarolineL

Thank you for this tip, I’ll test it with vinegar & bleach and see what the readings are

before posting I saw from the net that a reading between 6 and 7 was good, so thought I’d ask here, after all the Parkside meter might not be calibrated right

 

OK been out and tested the meter

First test was with the Batts Malt Vinegar showing just under 8





Second test was with the Lidl’s (own brand) bleach, the needle went off the scale above 8





So I went back out and tested the meter at three new locations on the seeded area, all the 3 readings were as good as showing 8 for pH







If these readings are correct then all I can think of is maybe the area I first tested was a spot where it was more grit than soil

 

Vinegar should be below 7 around 2.7!!! So there's something odd here

 

I've always preferred the colour test kits, were you shake a soil sample with distilled water add a few drops of pH indicator leave to settle and then compare the colour with a chart.
pH5 is pretty acidic for garden soil, most UK soils are in the the range 6 to 8, mine is 6.5 to 7 and I can grow camellias and rhodendrons with out too much of a problem.
The probe you've got works on two dissimilar metals corroding slightly and the voltage generated is converted into the meter reading. This can be affected by the moisture content, pH, conductivity and the different salts in the soil.

 

I've tried those meters and I have tried the soil test kits.

Cant say I've ever found any conclusive results from either.