Official Gardening Thread

[tigermad]

Do you think we should have a gardening sub forum in the lifestyle section? It would be handy instead of having to search through the general chat on the off chance someone has asked a similar gardening question. Posted this in the feedback section but got no replies.

 

[arenaman]

No, we have had a "grow your own" thread in the food and drink forum which has had only 37 replies in a year so there's no demand for a sub forum that I can see. I know flowers and non edible plants are different but I think a thread would suffice

 

[Wahreo]

I thought about this the other day.

Amazing what information you can get in a thread and often these threads really do kick start once they get a pulse

 

[Tempest]

Well, on the subject of Gardening..........

How much do you think the going rate (South East) would be for a general local laborer/garden guy to do some plant/wed clearance (dig out little stuff - nothing GIANT)
Once done, Lay some wed matting down, and dump gravel (I buy the stuff) on top ?

I really find this hard work, and not suited to it, hurts my back as I'm too tall for this stuff.
So has crossed my mind about finding someone who actually likes the more physical basic stuff.

Photo's from today, that I'm REALLY pleased with myself about, albeit, I've hated every second of doing it.

Got way way further than I ever would have imagined I would do from this morning.
Still the area behind that brickwork to do.

Problem is, turning the camera around, I also have this:

I can do it, but will kill myself as it's about 6x the area on the top photos.

Want to take everything out, apart from just a few nice tree/bushes.
And put gravel down (can't think what else to do)

 

[busterbenny2001]

Nice job I hate it too but at least it’s satisfying, it’s a job you really can see that you have done!!! I’m on gravel moving too !!

 

[Tempest]

Nice job I hate it too but at least it’s satisfying, it’s a job you really can see that you have done!!! I’m on gravel moving too !!

I'm just yet not sure what to put down on the ground before I get some gravel to put on top.
Looking on Amazon on the weave stuff, there are lots of brands of the weave, all look pretty much the same.

Comments about the edges start to fray when you cut them, and a bit messy.
But more importantly that plants are able to find their way between the weave and come thru

I'll be honest, in a few places in the past, I just stuck down a couple of layers of cheap heavy duty black waste bags, and laid some gravel on that and never had any issues.
They say, ahh but the water won't go thru, but then, the bags are not THAT big, so an overlapping edge is never far away.

I've no objection to buying the proper stuff, but I want it to be able to resist things that are still in the ground (roots) which may try and sprout up, so the lack of water? (bin bags) no light and some gravel weight may stop them.

Any recommendations from anyone, most welcome

 

[busterbenny2001]

I’m using the generic stuff on eBay and elsewhere, I buy the double wide roll and use it doubled up, a lot depends on the depth of gravel,laid,and wether you remove enough topsoil I’ve found in the past when I skimped on the gravel weeds soon pushed through, in my new build we scraped back then put down hardcore and laid 4 inches of gravel, no weeds so far touch wood, but on my new bit of garden I don’t think I can go deep enough by hand so I’m sure weeds will come through, the secret is lots of depth I reckon, also trying a new to me edging strip made of recycled rubber which gets pegged in, may come in useful for raising levels?

 

[Tempest]

Thanks for that.
Will admit, a couple of areas I simply put black plastic bags down (thick ones) with only a thin layer of gravel, nothing I can see has come thru after a couple of years.
Perhaps there was not that much underneath in the 1st place?

I think I'm wondering a bit, all this talk about keeping the soil healthy, and letting water thru is actually helping stuff from growing underneath and simply plastic of some sort is functionally better as long as you don't wish to drive a car on it, or something heavy weight.

Perhaps I'm talking rubbish, I don't know
But can't say I've had any negative issues with cheap black sacks personally, though admittedly only on small areas.

 

[aVdub]

Op perhaps change thread title to 'Official Gardening Thread'

One I will follow.

 

[IronGiant]

Happy to do that if tiger is tied up for the weekend...

 

[Wahreo]

I have recently raised my two large water butts onto concrete blocks and a paving slab. When full It’s surprising how much water you get out of them if you attach a ¾” hose to it.

Great for watering the plants!

Makes a big difference having the ¾” hose instead of the standard ½” plus the hose fits straight into the rain butt tap.

 

[raduv1]

Hey good timing as I was considering making a thread for some suggestions on planting . We have three conifers that I am considering stripping back to leave a skeletal knarld structure to grow some climbing plants up .

Remove all the greenery.

To leave this.

Totally bare structure.

I'm looking for climbing evergreen flowering options.

 

[Tempest]

Now that Sodium Chlorate is now banned for household use, and had been for some years.
(I used to buy it from time to time)

Can anyone recommend a basic, not silly overpriced/branded killer of everything, I can use on driveway, or places where I really don't want anything at all to grow.

 

[tigermad]

Op perhaps change thread title to 'Official Gardening Thread'

One I will follow.

Thanks. Done

 

[raduv1]

Now that Sodium Chlorate is now banned for household use, and had been for some years.
(I used to buy it from time to time)

Can anyone recommend a basic, not silly overpriced/branded killer of everything, I can use on driveway, or places where I really don't want anything at all to grow.

Me wife mate , kills anything green it seems with just one touch .

 

[Tempest]

Seems Salt, Vinegar, water is a very effective kill everything mix.
Just a warning that salt will stay in the soil for some time, so not to use if you wish to plant again there soon

 

[Wahreo]

I had a load of white vinegar left over from something recently. 20 litres to be exact.

The stuff didn’t work as a weed killer.

I tried all sorts of combinations and online recipes.

Salt/ washing powder/dishwasher powder.

And just plain vinegar.

Regarding the weed suppressing membrane. This stuff is perfect. Cut with a sharp pair of scissors or brand new Stanley blade. Or just overlap in on Itself and pin down.

Heavy Duty Landscape Fabric 1 x 14m

 

[Tempest]

I had a load of white vinegar left over from something recently. 20 litres to be exact.

The stuff didn’t work as a weed killer.

I tried all sorts of combinations and online recipes.

Salt/ washing powder/dishwasher powder.

And just plain vinegar.

Regarding the weed suppressing membrane. This stuff is perfect. Cut with a sharp pair of scissors or brand new Stanley blade. Or just overlap in on Itself and pin down.

Heavy Duty Landscape Fabric 1 x 14m

Looking at how similar all the pics are, I do wonder if most of these are the exact same product, just branded under different names.

Compare your link to this one for example:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yuzet-Control-Ground-Membrane-Landscape/dp/B006H1MAS6/

 

[Werewolfs]

Just got this solar water feature and I am really impressed with it. Should look a bit better when its weathered but for £99 with battery back up seems a good buy

 

[Wahreo]

Looking at how similar all the pics are, I do wonder if most of these are the exact same product, just branded under different names.

Compare your link to this one for example:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yuzet-Control-Ground-Membrane-Landscape/dp/B006H1MAS6/

Yes I’d say that was probably the same one.

I can vouch for how good it is. Really solid.

Much better than the fabric type membrane IMO which tears really easily.

 

[tigermad]

Just got this solar water feature and I am really impressed with it. Should look a bit better when its weathered but for £99 with battery back up seems a good buy
View attachment 1021450 View attachment 1021451

Looks good. That’s one tall bird feeder you have there

 

[tigermad]

I had a conifer bush removed yesterday because it stuck out too much. I now need to buy 2 new conifers and train them to form and smaller end to my hedge. Hopefully will work.
Before

After

 

[Werewolfs]

Looks good. That’s one tall bird feeder you have there

I had this vision of all the small birds around my garden coming to it and setting my camera up to get some nice photos of them. Dexter our cat (see photo attached) has an apt name as he kills everything in sight had been going onto the front garden. But after I cleared the area for bird feeder he has taken to laying under it. So my total of birds I have seen on the feeder is 2 wood pidgeons and a crow

 

[jonna]

Our garden has changed over the years as the kids have grown up. The biggest change is when we had a big dog and let him ruin our garden, so we had to train him to not dig,not to run around the garden like a greyhound chasing a rabbit,not to eat plants and not crap all over garden wherever he wanted. It took us a few years and a lot of hard work but he is an old man now so he plods along quite happily without any thoughts of garden vandalism .
I’ve taken the new photos at a similar angle to the old photos.
Just in case you’re thinking ‘BIG DOG?’, that’s not him in the 3rd photo, that’s our 9kg dog who thinks he’s a heavyweight. .

 

[tigermad]

Well there goes my idea. No one can tell me what my conifer is after taking a piece in to about 10 garden centres. So I will just have to get one that looks as similar as I can. Problem is it may not grow like the others. I’m regretting removing it now :-(