WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2023

I think couch grass loves being rotavated, along with bind weed its the best way to reproduce it.

 

What should have been a five minute job turned into about two hours and a bike ride to Screwfix.

The older son and I have been working on a project. We had some nice sandstone rocks positioned how we wanted them. I decided expanding foam would be a good and simple way to make it more permanent, injecting the foam into the crevices between the rocks. The lad decided he wanted to do that bit. I turned my back for about two minutes.

The rest of the two hours or so started with me shouting stop. Then asking what part of EXPANDING foam he didn't understand. It had pretty much engulfed the rocks.

I quickly found some old cardboard and removed as much as I could before it set. The first few scoops were pretty easy but that stuff turns into sticky marshmallow at a surprising speed. More time spend with a Stanley knife trying to cut it away as much as possible but it was by this time welded all over the nice rocks. I used up a whole bottle of the wife's nail varnish remover getting a bit of it off. Then I gave up while I had a cuppa. I figured if I wait til it's dry enough to go brittle but before it's fully hardened, I might be able to get it off with a wire brush. Except I didn't have one.

Off to Screwfix, quick before it shuts. If I miss today, it will be fully hardened before I next get time to tackle it. I bought a wire brush that goes into the drill. About half an hour doing a dentist style scrape and polish, and I've got most of it off. This is when I decided to teach my son why you always use an RCD when using mains power outdoors. The structure is near the pond, and as I stepped away to admire my work, drill still in hand, I accidentally pulled the extension cable into the pond.

There are still some patches of discolouration, but I'm hoping the weather will eventually make it all look natural again.

 

Just a thought, @Clueless 1 v2 expanding foam is not UV stable and tends to go crumbly after a while, Months, in sunlight.

 

It won't be exposed to sunlight. It would have been if I hadn't spent about two hours dealing with it. The idea was it would be deep in the gaps between the rocks. The lad just blasted way too much in. I've dealt with it now. But I've since learned that it's also not entirely waterproof, which is a sod, seeing as it's outdoors.

 

I sowed some lettuce seeds and planted the Cowslips and Drumstick Primulas that I'd bought, in between some roses.
Gave liquid feed to most things in pots.
Listened to that ignorant cow next-door-but-one screaming at their screamy child ... for several hours. I think you could have heard them from the top of that mountain over there.
Potted some things into bigger pots, and did a bit of tidying.
Cut dead wood off some Fuchsias.

 

Hardly been indoors this weekend, it's just too nice weather. Thankfully, this year the Company Do with black tie dress code happened before my gardener's tan. Sleeveless gown combined with tanned forearms and a distinct pattern of my favourite tshirt is not an awfully glamorous look

Anyways, the grass is cut, no-more-no-mow-May. Sounds a bit like a tasty oriental meal

Hand weeded before the cut


I have learnt something new. Instead of sowing seeds, in April I bought 33 maxi plug Bacopas from JParkers for about £12, they were now in full swing and got planted out. Healthy, vigorous plants that went straight into the blowaway greenhouse upon arrival after potting on, no weeks of tending seedlings on a limited windowsill space.

Everything in containers got underplanted with the Bacopas, and a standalone 40cm pot got the leftover Bacopas and the leftover-leftover Bacopas got their very own pot too.

Cosmos went in the ground in between the Corncockles (sown last autumn) that were supposed to be flowering now. Stupid cold spring Surprisingly, I ran out of Cosmos of my liking and had to plant the free-seeds-with-every-issue ones in the prime place. How is it possible to run out of Cosmos in a postage stamp garden and with 60 odd seedlings?

Everything is watered, swept, weeded and admired. Hello summer

 

Planted up 3 more planters. Then watered everything.
The salad crops are growing fast especially the Lettuce..they're huge!!
They will stay in the nursery area up high and out of the way of munchers.

Haven't been feeling too good today so that's all that got done by me.

Hubs cut and edged the lawns.

 

Hi Colin, I don’t know if it would ever interest you but there are websites where people who have gardens (or sections of) which they no longer wish to maintain rent them out, usually for a fair fee, sometimes for free (as they are kind, or perhaps as they would otherwise need to pay a gardener to maintain).
It looks to me like a good solution for many, as of course it gives someone who doesn’t have a garden of their own one to tend or grow veg/fruit/flowers in etc.
Just an idea for you, as you have so much ground and some so far away from your house it might not encroach too much on your privacy to have someone else gardening the top end of your plot for you.

 

Only sweeping up compost that fell on the balcony floor from planting up my hanging baskets yesterday. Oh yeah, well, sat out on the balcony & took in the sun's rays for 1/2 hour to warm up the old bones!

 

Hi,

What an excellent suggestion SuzFlowers. This could be an excellent solution but my wonderful wife and I prefer our privacy. I'm sure most people in our position would have converted and sold the top of the garden as a building plot but although the land is worth a considerable amount of money we can afford to keep it as a garden not having neighbours overlooking us.

I have a friend down south who has done exactly as you suggest; he's created a number of veg plots letting neighbours have the use of these totally free; he also is extremely generous in growing produce not only for own use but he gives lots away to those nearby struggling to make ends meet.

Crime here in the UK is on the increase; about six years ago after 30 years of neighbour trouble we called in the police; the outcome is the wife next door now will be arrested for harassment should she trouble us further; we moved here 36 years ago and this family were hostile from the first day; nothing we did could please them; in the early days they thought they owned our gardens letting their kids climb our trees and when we objected we were threatened saying they would smash our windows; as the years passed by the kids became older and involved in beatings; car theft and drugs etc; we live at #39 they live at #37 they burgled #35; this family now occupy three properties along the street the kids now grown up with kids of their own and these are no longer a problem at all in fact we are now friendly; the parents still live next door and just as nasty as ever; the police advised us to install; CCTV; we did at a cost of £1,800 about a month ago we paid £2,100 to upgrade this new CCTV is all singing all dancing even having brilliant colour night vision; £3,900 cost to us just because of terrible next door neighbours; no way will we be intimidated to move we love our detached bungalow; gardens and surrounding area; there's just been a double murder only 3 miles away but gun crime; guns and gangs are in the local news most days; we live on a private small estate but how unlucky could we be having the neighbours we have.

Man charged with Huddersfield double murder appears in court - latest updates

I've done a great deal of free work for neighbours;

A former neighbour next door a retired widow needed a new fence adjoining our garden; of course I offered to help and we arranged to do the work starting one Monday morning; I measured for materials which she paid for and I was round with tools Monday morning as arranged; suddenly she had a golf tournament; she returned home Friday at 4pm just as I finished; it took a full week to cut back; remove the old fence and erect the new fence. Then she needed two wooden mouldings for her front room after work had been carried out; the mouldings were no longer available so I machined them for her taking many hours; later she complained to npower complaining her neighbour (Me) was using big machinery but paying less for electricity than she was; npower quickly visited us to install a smart meter which they couldn't install because British Gas smart meter was in the way but the engineer and I had a good laugh when I told him I'd just removed the cable I'd connected to the street lamp; what downright cheek though this neighbour actually told me she'd phoned npower.

Incredibly difficult fence to erect but first there was lots of cutting back in order to release the old fence.

It sure is steep living here; I had lots of cutting back to do just to access the fence all the while our neighbour was knocking a little white ball around a field.

After being reported to npower I stopped all work for this neighbour not falling out but I was too busy; she then moved having lost her slave.

We prefer animals to people.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

Sowed some more wallflower seeds and did some watering.

 

Not much actual gardening but did read this about Slugs. Interesting!

"Currently, nurseries, farmers and home gardeners use commercial baits like metaldehyde, iron phosphate or sodium ferric EDTA to control slugs and snails. These molluscicides are relatively expensive, can be toxic to non-targets and work with varying degrees of success.

In response, McDonnell led a multi-institution research collaboration that studied a a range of food to determine which would be the most attractive slug bait, including beer, cucumber, lettuce, strawberries, citrus, tomatoes, hostas and Marmite (a yeast-based food product popular in Great Britain). What they found was that slugs are most attracted to bread dough.

Given its simplicity, low cost and the ready availability of its ingredients, bread dough has potential not only for crop protection in the United States but also for developing countries where access to pesticides is limited by cost. A dry formulation would likely have an indefinite shelf life and be easy to ship. Mc Donnell and his collaborators haven’t determined yet why bread dough – a simple mixture of flour, water and yeast – attracts slugs and snails, but they theorize that it is the fermentation process that draws them.

“We gave them a choice of food and they consistently went for the bread dough,” Mc Donnell said. “They really, really like it. They went bonkers for it. Bread dough outperformed everything.” In one instance, over 18,000 snails were trapped in 48 hours, according to Mc Donnell. The research revealed the bread dough can be effective in the field in Oregon for at least eight days."

It does not go on to say what you're supposed to do with them after kneading for them?

this is the university source : OSU research finds slugs go 'bonkers' for bread dough | The Statewides: Our Impact

 

I assume following the trapping with bread dough its the old method of two bricks.

 

How did the op go @Logan? Is he getting around welll?
Am I right in thinking you don't drive?