WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2018

Ha ha...brilliant

 

Have a bosch cordless mower.....delightful machine

 

Yesterday evening I did the post-flower prune on the wigelia, the philadelphus and the top border deutzia. This morning I pruned the huge patio bed deutzia, and made bundles, or faggots, of all the pruned stems, ready to put out for garden waste collection next week.

Now all I have to do is get all the dead flower-bits off my cardigan!!

 

I would like to purchase a long reach hedge trimmer battery or cord.
Of course Stihl do one over £400 the write ups are excellent but you need to use it a lot to get your moneys worth, but I need as I get older a little help at heights.
Every other one I have looked up on line gets ghastly reviews ,very weak or very heavy
except of course the Stihl.
I picked a battery one up at Bunnings it was sooooooo heavy.
Any one have any experience?

 

I use the Ryobi petrol expand it hedge trimmer with an extension piece . Very good and good prices.

Some complaints of hard starting. Most likely people leaving fuel in the tank for too long thus gumming up the carb.

I always run mine dry (all my petrol equipment) when being stored and never had a problem. A drop of seafoam doesnt hurt either.

 

Hiya JWK
My second Bosch 34 cordless. First was about 8 years old and my niece now has it.....I use it there though. It had a second battery; not bad for twice weekly cutting and during winter too.
My new Bosch, same model, is now in its second year
I have 2 lawns...one about 150 sq yards and the back a little smaller. One charge cuts them twice. A charge takes about 20 minutes.
My niece's lawn gets quite long but cordless cuts it well.....set on medium to high setting.
My own lawns are never too long and I find I can cut them both in 20 minutes or so. Simple, easy and enjoyable mowing
For very rough grass a cordless may struggle but I think you may be surprised at their power.
My niece's neighbour now has a cordless bosch.....my suggestion....and he is delighted too.
They are extremely lightweight, very quiet and, hey!, give me stripes
I guess they are a little expensive.....£350 or so.....

 

It's a hot and sticky day today. Especially in my back garden. There's not a cloud in the sky. My water feature sort of works. There is a trickle coming out of it. It will have to do for now. Another day I will look into sourcing a stronger pump. I replaced the rocks and pebbles that were there before. That also means for the first time since I can't remember that the patio has been cleared of all rubbish. My wife will be chuffed. I am trying to get everything as tidy as possible before my annual birthday bbq at the end of July.



G.

 

@Jack Sparrow I really like your water lady. Would love to have one like her

 

I couldn't agree more

I already have a petrol, a corded and a cordless grass strimmer Woo - a girl can never have too many garden tools . What I need most is the hedge cutter. Both the long and short reach petrol cutters are beast. They are hubby;s and after an hour with them I'm too tired to do anything else. Got a hand held shears but takes ages.

 

Catch up this evening...pruned large Golden King holly and juniperus Sulphur Spray, cut lawns after trimming edges and pulled a few weeds. Very satisfying....still gorgeous weather but slightly cooler. Can feel a build up of the heat .....every day to be hotter
Took puppy earlier..... everybody wants to touch him and, boy, does he know it!
Lucius, go for the cordless hedgetrimmer......makes jobs easier and done faster. Go on, spoil yourself

 

A bit of a messy job this afternoon. Repairing my leaky hose watering system, (it was leaking!)

When I built my koi pool thirty-two years ago, I laid a hosepipe from the corner of the house where there's an outside tap and drain and ran it under the pool collar to a point behind the waterfall.



I was originally going to use it for whenever the pool needed topping up, but in the end I settled for trickle changing the water via a dechlorinator, from a supply in the filter room in the back of the garage and adding it to the filter return. The hose wasn't used for years but several years ago I decided on having a leaky hose system to water the borders.

I already had this vintage Hoselock mechanical water meter. You can set it to discharge different gallonages, it just winds down and then turns itself off. It has its own dedicated tap.



I installed two of these Hoselock three-way connectors. So I could supply water to three sections of the borders, the bit opposite the patio, the rockery and the rest of the side border and the one at the end of the garden. I can choose between watering the lot, or any individual area or a combination of any two. I cover both with a bit of York stone.



It worked fine until one of the fox cubs we had last year must have dug up a bit of the hose and chewed it. It's all been working but I always was getting a bit of a puddle half way down after a few minutes.
I say a messy job, because I had to turn it on to trace where it was leaking somewhere in that very crowded border. Anyway I found it, dug it up, replaced a bit of pipe and it's fine now.

We're unlikely to get any rain for over a week now, so it was time I sorted it.
So this with the help of my two pop up sprinklers....



and another bit of leaky hose in the border between the tea-house and the shed, (I just have to plug a garden hose into that one), I've got it covered.
Though I'll still have to water the pots on the patio and the little bed under the kitchen window.




These dahlias in that border are coming along nicely. I bought some smart looking green support rods from Wilkos for them. The plants are supported by a ring of strong garden wire attached to each rod and I can move them up as the plants grow.

I'm waiting for these six hebes in big pots in these troughs to flower, they seem to be taking an age.



I'm pleased with the progress of the white wisteria, two bits of the old one and the several clematis, they've nearly got the garage wall covered, considering they are all new this year.