Tilling the garden for a new lawn

That's interesting @NigelJ I didn't realise they were connected. I have already recommended Boston seeds to @Mollydog - I've used their "slow growing" lawn seed in 2 gardens for other people and it worked well. I've also used their large scale pasture seed for grazing.

 

I don't know they are related it could just be coincidence, but one had gone and the other appeared within a few years.
I left Boston in the 80's and only been back a few times since.

 

@NigelJ

Thank you for this information, I’ve had a look on their website, I might give them a phone call later

In passing my wife of 43 years comes from Boston, well Wyberton, I met her while she was working in London in the late 70’s

 

@CarolineL
For sure gardening can get a bit pricy as I also found out when building my garage

Garden tools wise I had the minimum to get by with, a hover mower, a Bosch shredder, chain saw and hedge trimmers but they all could of done with replacing so bit the built and went out looking for secondhand ones where possible

@CarolineL & @NigelJ

Just off the phone to the people at Boston seeds and bought a 10Kg bag of Childs Play grass seeds and a 10Kg bag of pre seeding fertiliser all came to £77.99 should be here Monday

You can just see what out garden looked like once the builders had finished, in the images are our two (long since past away) dogs, Molly (where I get my username Mollydog) who was a cross between a Canadian Timber wolf and a Belgium sheep dog and Alfi a Northern Inuit



The same image after I had worked my magic




@LawnAndOrder

Forgot your other questions, our two little dogs are kept in the garden behind the bungalow so won’t be on this grass unless we take them on it to play, so no weeing or pooping on this lawn,



I took this clip around 9 years ago testing out my (then) new action camera, this clip shows how the garden and our front garden tree was looking like



This was taken around 10 years back, letting our dogs play on our main lawn



These two were captured around 6 years ago





as for children ours are both over 30 now so the law will only be used for sitting in in the summertime, my plan is to have some sort of gravel area around the tree and have a bench or seating so to sit under the tree in the long summers

 

You’ve done really well, as this figure takes no account of the enormous amount of labour you’ve put in. It is inspiring to see someone who not only creates, but also creates the tools with which to create. Looking at the amount of tools you have, would I be right in thinking that you are connected to the building trade?

Now from the labours of Hercules to the plight of Sisyphus …

Your choice of Boston’s Childs Play Lawn Seeds gives me an idea of the texture you want; I am curious about your approach to maintenance and what your thoughts are regarding types of mowers.

 

Having seen this and out of interest, I decided to see what we'd spent on our garden rework. Wish I hadn't! My wife guessed wrong - very wrong! I could feel the chest pains starting as I pressed the "Equals" button on the calculator. I'm not admitting to the figure until I've spoken to a financial adviser!!!

 

@LawnAndOrder


I’m not connected with the building trade (but), I had little English schooling having arrived here in the UK in the late 60’s (69) I left school at 15 not able to read or write (English not being my first language) I took lots of menial jobs, one being in the building trade,

I did that till I was around 26 then managed to get a job with Emap (was a local national publication with quite a few magazine titles) as a photographer, that didn’t work out too good (not liking fox hunting and the likes) when I was out with Horse & Pony magazine assisting the reporter with images and then there was sporting gun so I didn’t last long

Then later went on my own as a photographer and finally in 1998 I got a job in our local council in their reprographics department as a designer, my job title was “Apple Mac Operator” then in late 2009 I took early retirement and spent all my summers driving to Italy (in the Lotus Elise) till covid hit us, consequently every summer when I should of been looking after our garden I was away and the garden got a bit neglected

Just like Sisyphus never finishing, the moment I’ve finished (a project) I start again on another

My next project running along side the garden is my project “Garden Wheely Bin”

Only made a start the other day













Making a large garden cart/wagon, I bought one of those small ones but seeing the costs of those large carts, thought I’d give it a go at making one


As for the grass seeds, while on the phone with Boston Seeds I explained what the lawn was going to be used for and the amount of sunlight it gets and they recommended the Childs Play grass seeds

 

Thank you!

You still haven't addressed the choice of mower ... Actually, there's a project for you, why not design and make a lawnmower from scratch?

 

I thought I'd mentioned I had bought a John Deere 43R lawn mower second hand, came without a grass box, so had to cobble a grass box together

 

I've got a little John Deere 43R push mower, it looks to be a older model than the one pictured . John deere don't make pedestrian lawnmower anymore but I quite like it , I call it the baby john deere its adorable

 

I had seen your reference to John Deere on p. 3 but was interested in your "choice" of mower; your take on rotary vs cylinder and all that.

Are you happy with your levelling? I always find that aspect very tricky.

 

@Perki

The image of the John Deere 43R I put up was one off the net, and taking a look at my 43R, mine looks slightly different too, so here’s mine





@LawnAndOrder

In Peterborough there used to be a good garden equipment place calls PGM, over the years I’d bought many garden stuff from them, before making a start on my garden I found my strimmer not starting so went over to get them to get it to work for me,

They were partially closed as they were selling up and closing down, I had a look around and decided to replace my old hover mower and after having a chat with the guy there, we both thought the rotary blade mower as opposed to the cylinder mower, best for my garden condition, I also bought the petrol blower and rakes at the same time

Sure enough early this morning my seeds and fertiliser arrived, so I soon got out the petrol blower to get rid of the dead leaves on the area the fertiliser (and grass seeds) was going to be spread over





Before sowing the fertiliser I laid and fixed the fleece to the edging board









This fleece was lifted out the way for spreading the fertiliser, I went with the hand held spreader as the ground was slightly sticking to my boots and thought I’d have issues with the Scott spreader







This fleece has been laid over the fertiliser to stop dead tree leaves falling on the seeding aria and needing to use the blower to move them before seeding



When I come to seeding I’ll do the same, move the fleece off the area for seeding then right afterwards relay the fleece

So I’m hoping I have a dry Saturday for seeding

 

Back to my garden cart, I went to our local nuts and bolts supplier buying M20 x 100mm blots with washers and nuts + lock nuts too, these will be used to mount the wheels on to the cart and also be used as the tipping axis, all this cost me £10, that’s for 7x M12x 100mm bolts, 10 locking nuts, 10non locking nuts and 20 washers, to put that in to perspective, where I bought the mild steel from were selling these bolts @£5 plus cost of nuts and washers





Dry run







Welding the axle prop to the base frame



Brace to the prop





The M20 blot is zinc plated, I grinned the zinc off for welding





Wheel fitted to the axel

 

What a good idea to use garden fleeces!

I have so often mentioned on the Forum the pain-in-the-teeth problems appertaining to protecting re-seeded areas and I am amazed that no-one has ever mentioned the use of fleeces!

They seem to have ALL the advantages: protection from birds, pigeons, pests of all kinds; they (apparently) keep the ground warmer, moister, and speed up germination. I suppose the only disadvantage is that they would be unsightly when re-seeding patches at the height of summer, but otherwise …

Fleeces would seem to be a miracle cure. What am I missing here?

Any views, any comments, anyone?

 

It's certainly given me an idea for how to weed-kill the chicken parc in sections without the hens coming into contact with the product, at the price of the fleece being destroyed. So..single-use only.