What are we doing in the garden 2024

The rest of the body will be under another area @Escarpment...
Good luck with the posts etc @Selleri. It's always a bit disappointing when things don't quite go the way you hoped! The timber will come in handy though. I wish I'd bought one of those proper chop saws with the amount of post cutting I've done, but I wouldn't have had anywhere to keep it as this house is poor for storage, and the shed wasn't great. I made a little template thingy to fix onto the post, which helped to keep the hand saw straighter when cutting posts, or any thicxker timber, because you naturally get an angle when doing it.
Glad it wasn't too dire re the storm @Liriodendron.
Good point about those huge American properties @Retired - I'd never considered that.
I didn't do anything outside yesterday. Couldn't really be bothered, and I did another walk with daughter in the afternoon, when the weather was much better, so there wasn't really much time anyway. I might get something done today as it's to be pretty decent weather wise.

 

Here's 2 videos for you

 

The seed sowing at this time of year largely depends on what you intend growing, where you are, and whether they need heat.
I rarely bother with autumn sowing as it's not worthwhile - the spring sown seeds catch up. Some people grow salad crops, but I don't eat much salad through winter - we need warm food here, not cold stuff!

 

@Selleri , the answer is leverage if you want to separate planks of wood from a post or rail. A crowbar (sometimes called a wrecking bar) or even as in my case an old pick axe! Mine has a flat chisel like blade, you might ruin the first plank to get in but once you have a gap and can get underneath they come quite easily. Irisistable force vs otherwise immovable object etc etc.

 

Noticed a lot of slug damage to the violas so decided to have a go at the method the King uses. 1 tab dried yeast, 1 tab sugar, water to top of suitable container (I used a clean baked bean tin). Serious success!! Cheaper than beer too ....

 

We have sunshine! If I can get OH moving, I'm hoping he will help me with my sleeper bed renovation project. If not, that will have to wait for our friends' son who's coming on Wednesday to have a look at it.

There's still a lot of leaf clearing to do.

 

@Retired Hello Col. That paint is remarkable. If you havent got shares in that company then perhaps you should consider getting some as you make a great sales pitch. Thanks for the info , i had never heard of them but its on my radar now.

 

In another border i pulled up the cosmos and the pots of lillies, started weeding there but i ran out of time, maybe tomorrow.

 

Having sorted lots of pots in the greenhouse the other day, we went to one of our favourite GC as they take empty pots etc for recycling. We came away with Cyclamen, 2 heathers and a tray of violas. More pots for recycling when we transfer them to our planters......

 

Hi,

Thanks @Robert Bowen. Since buying our first house in 1976 I've done lots and lots of exterior painting putting in hundreds of hours of preparation; mostly for the paint to fail very quickly; it's not the sheer amount of rain we enjoy in Yorkshire but I think the rare hot sun scares it causing it to lift and blister. This has always been oil based paint and not the cheap stuff; I've used the more expensive brands but they all failed.

This BM paint is water based and unaffected by rain or sun. Bron and I looked at hundreds of American houses and finally settled on this one for colours;



We sent this image to Shaw's who were at the time the only supplier in the UK of BM paint and asked them to match the colours; the colours suggested proved a lot lighter but made a huge difference from bland white plastic. We've even had strangers stop on the street to take pictures which we regard as a compliment.

For application I used a Wooster Pelican with roller & brush as seen here;



All gutters and fall pipes were removed and painted separately using the roller. The paint goes on like a dream and really does cover although I gave two coats; preparation took a lot of time but applying the paint was a pleasure and very quick with the roller.

I'm sure lots of forum members will have experienced paint failure in less than a year; water based paints appear to stand up well to hot sunshine.

I use very little abrasive paper finding abrasive pads far superior when I gave the bungalow exterior woodwork a rubbing down; these kill gloss much easier giving a good base to repaint.



Enough for now otherwise I'll turn this gardening forum into a DIY forum; my friend David sums up DIY perfectly; "DON'T INVOLVE YOURSELF" I've done hundreds of hours free work for neighbours but strangely am always on my own even for big jobs like felling trees; I no longer do favours.

Kind regards, Col.

 

I have just topped up the pond and done a little bit of weeding of pots. Discovered my first primrose flower and an azalea in full bud. I was given it many years ago, do not really like it. It is bright pink with a frilly white edge usually sold as a houseplant. Mine has been outside for years untended, starved and most probably pot bound but back it comes each year. I haven't the heart to bin it so I just let it get on with life undisturbed. The cat has almost killed her cat mint plant, I must put a basket over the crown. My single, white, autumn flowering camellia is in flower, just 3 flowers so far. No scent as far as I can tell.

 

Our local GC's have stopped taking empty plastic pots for recycling. I found them very useful for replenishing my stock as well as clearing my surplus.

 

No gardening today due to cold and thick mist.

@Retired : we have a little cottage, part of a NW-facing row next to the sea, in western Scotland. Around 20 years ago, a paint company supplied all the cottages with experimental exterior paint for our front doors. It lasted a good 12 years before needing re-painting. Perhaps it's not surprising that it never went into production, since the company would never have made any money out of it...

 

At Brixham ICI had a laboratory, down near the harbour, used to test paint samples outside were the paint was exposed to spray, sun, wind and rain.
The ICI executives used to stop off there on their way to Dartmouth for the weekend.
The laboratory is still there, much improved and working on Environmental Risk Assessment, studying the fate of chemicals in the environment.
The laboratory is owned by Plymouth University and leased by a number of private companies.

 

I got my breezeblock base and two bricks mortared in with OH's help so I'm very pleased. Ready mixed mortar in a tub might be more expensive but for small jobs it's ideal. I have covered it over with plastic and crossed my fingers we don't have a frost tonight.