The zombie army COVID-19 Gardening thread.
Discussion
XCP said:
DBSV8 said:
never liked the high hedges we had when we bought the house and they have covenants so cant remove , so decided to cut back just above door mirror height
Must be annoying when someone goes and dumps old bangers on your nice drive!
Exactly i cant get the bloody capri out of the garage Must be annoying when someone goes and dumps old bangers on your nice drive!
I’m guessing everyone’s got their supplies in already?
I’ve only realised this afternoon that my next project of a raised bed for our blueberry bushes (currently sat in crappy pots) in the fruit cage isn’t going to happen.
I need ericaceous compost for them and I’m pretty sure that doesn’t count as an essential journey!
I’ve only realised this afternoon that my next project of a raised bed for our blueberry bushes (currently sat in crappy pots) in the fruit cage isn’t going to happen.
I need ericaceous compost for them and I’m pretty sure that doesn’t count as an essential journey!
So much of my gardening project is dictated by working from home and having a toddler here. When Flash Jr is around, I need to keep an eye on her - so only basic tasks like weeding and planting are practical. No advanced building projects. However, she naps in the middle of the day and Lady F and I have worked out that this is a good time, conference calls permitting, to take to be outside in this weather.
However, I have in no uncertain terms been asked to sort out the patio. My problem is that I am an extraordinarily messy person if left to my own devices, and over winter the patio became a storage space for stuff, and now that I am working outside, it seems that everything I am using gets dumped out there. Not helped by me having filled my garage with overflow junk and a broken down scooter. The alleyway behind the garage is a mess of paint tine, old tyres, random junk and buckets full of rubbish.
I had planned on a skip, but that isn't happening now...
This is shaming. But I feel I need to post it to motivate me to get my s
t together. We keep a lovely home indoors, and the garden itself is pretty well-ordered, but there are some zones that need some serious work!
The Patio of mild shame
20200325_090020 by baconrashers, on Flickr
The alleyway of despair:
20200325_091026 by baconrashers, on Flickr
20200325_090955 by baconrashers, on Flickr
The garage of abject slovenliness
20200325_091014 by baconrashers, on Flickr
However, I have in no uncertain terms been asked to sort out the patio. My problem is that I am an extraordinarily messy person if left to my own devices, and over winter the patio became a storage space for stuff, and now that I am working outside, it seems that everything I am using gets dumped out there. Not helped by me having filled my garage with overflow junk and a broken down scooter. The alleyway behind the garage is a mess of paint tine, old tyres, random junk and buckets full of rubbish.
I had planned on a skip, but that isn't happening now...
This is shaming. But I feel I need to post it to motivate me to get my s
t together. We keep a lovely home indoors, and the garden itself is pretty well-ordered, but there are some zones that need some serious work!The Patio of mild shame
20200325_090020 by baconrashers, on FlickrThe alleyway of despair:
20200325_091026 by baconrashers, on Flickr20200325_090955 by baconrashers, on FlickrThe garage of abject slovenliness
20200325_091014 by baconrashers, on FlickrEasy :
1. Chuck everything off the patio round the side of the house
2. Lock the garage and lose the key
3. Build small fence (with gate if you're feeling handy) to block access to the side of the house
Job jobbed
Or, somewhat more practical - seems feasible for most of that to go into a well organised garage (but recognise this would make it most unPH) - so you could just sort that out. We have similar quantities of stuff (less wheels and tyres that I eventually had to sell as I'd got rid of the Range Rover some time previously and they don't exactly fit many other vehicles) - one garage and one shed later and all OK. My garage is too narrow for modern cars anyway so we went the whole hog (I now expect to be ostracised from PH)
1. Chuck everything off the patio round the side of the house
2. Lock the garage and lose the key
3. Build small fence (with gate if you're feeling handy) to block access to the side of the house
Job jobbed
Or, somewhat more practical - seems feasible for most of that to go into a well organised garage (but recognise this would make it most unPH) - so you could just sort that out. We have similar quantities of stuff (less wheels and tyres that I eventually had to sell as I'd got rid of the Range Rover some time previously and they don't exactly fit many other vehicles) - one garage and one shed later and all OK. My garage is too narrow for modern cars anyway so we went the whole hog (I now expect to be ostracised from PH)
I am thinking of using those tyres (funnily enough also off a Range Rover, which is no longer in our possession) for growing potatoes. APparently they make excellent vessels for this, and that location (alleyway) is sunny and out of sight.
The Piaggio three wheeler's hydraulics are broken, which is a real shame as that is a perfect vehicle for short London trips. I have no ide where to even begin fixing them - they are notoriously complex and difficult to fix. It may just be wheeled onto the driveway now that winter is largely over.Then a lot of stuff currently gracing the garden can go in the garage.
This all makes perfect sense. I just can't be bothered. Pottering in the garden is much more fun.
However, as Lady F said this morning, my choices have been curtailed. Clean-up it is!! Then gardening. On that, I am thinking:
- start composting
- prepare unused bed with poor soil for wildflower meadow planting (weeding and raking etc)
- prune evergreen trees so I can rake clippings off the lawn before I have to overseed it
- plant summer flowering bulbs
- general weeding
- trim unruly leylandii hedge at back of garden
- consider shooting a fox.
The Piaggio three wheeler's hydraulics are broken, which is a real shame as that is a perfect vehicle for short London trips. I have no ide where to even begin fixing them - they are notoriously complex and difficult to fix. It may just be wheeled onto the driveway now that winter is largely over.Then a lot of stuff currently gracing the garden can go in the garage.
This all makes perfect sense. I just can't be bothered. Pottering in the garden is much more fun.
However, as Lady F said this morning, my choices have been curtailed. Clean-up it is!! Then gardening. On that, I am thinking:
- start composting
- prepare unused bed with poor soil for wildflower meadow planting (weeding and raking etc)
- prune evergreen trees so I can rake clippings off the lawn before I have to overseed it
- plant summer flowering bulbs
- general weeding
- trim unruly leylandii hedge at back of garden
- consider shooting a fox.
XCP said:
spikeyhead said:
XCP said:
Bill said:
And we've acquiesced to my soon to be 10-y-o daughter's request for ducks. So we've borrowed an incubator and I need to renovate the chicken run. 
Ducks are great at getting rid of slugs and snails!I wondered where they went.....
Pheo said:
devnull said:
Lovely looking garden.
I do wonder how you handle waste management? My garden looks about half the size as yours and generate a ton of cuttings, which the piddly green bin can't really deal with. Thinking of getting a chipper to mulch it all down a bit smaller. Im being inadvertently dragged into gardening just to keep on top of it all, not something I've normally had an interest in as an engineer!
Uh, compost heap? I do wonder how you handle waste management? My garden looks about half the size as yours and generate a ton of cuttings, which the piddly green bin can't really deal with. Thinking of getting a chipper to mulch it all down a bit smaller. Im being inadvertently dragged into gardening just to keep on top of it all, not something I've normally had an interest in as an engineer!
However they still aren't enough - so I have a little Brenderup trailer with extension high mesh sides which is mucho handy when trimming trees, conifers and so on as it can hold loads, especially if you jump up and down on it. I just lug that down to the tip.
Compost heaps are well and good but can get out of hand if you chuck branches etc on them that take years to rot. Ours is about the size of a caravan, although I am trying to get it down to a manageable size.
Harry Flashman said:
Foxes are a whole other topic for this thread as they cause a great deal of damage to my garden; mainly digging up plants/lawn and chewing through wires (so my low voltage lighting system is totally borked). I am hoping that a constant daytime presence will keep them out, but damned if I know what to do at night.
Odd how it goes, we get foxes too, but they don't do damage to our place. Maybe cos we're rural & last house in the village they do their destroying in the crop fields. Mind missus also feeds them, dried out cat food and dinner left overs, maybe they don't destroy feeding groundThat all looks fine to me, Harry 
For my garden duty...well, I luckily picked up 2 x 9l tubs of green fence paint to top our panels up. Reckon I might have time to get round them 3 times the way things look!
It is actually something of a pleasure just to be able to properly relax around the house/garden. I'm obviously keeping on top of work (much reduced), but almost treating it as a bit of a "home sabbatical"......
For my garden duty...well, I luckily picked up 2 x 9l tubs of green fence paint to top our panels up. Reckon I might have time to get round them 3 times the way things look!
It is actually something of a pleasure just to be able to properly relax around the house/garden. I'm obviously keeping on top of work (much reduced), but almost treating it as a bit of a "home sabbatical"......
MiniMan64 said:
I’m guessing everyone’s got their supplies in already?
I picked up a bit of stuff on Saturday, but annoyingly i put off buying more until Monday, even though the lockdown was quite easy to see coming.My online order on Monday for some bulk aggregate to sort out a channel drain has today been refunded, so I definitely missed the boat.
Good in one sense, because the 3 week work from home has come at our busiest time, and I have been trying my hardest not to think of it as a holiday / DIY mission.
Ian Geary said:
I picked up a bit of stuff on Saturday, but annoyingly i put off buying more until Monday, even though the lockdown was quite easy to see coming. My online order on Monday for some bulk aggregate to sort out a channel drain has today been refunded, so I definitely missed the boat. Good in one sense, because the 3 week work from home has come at our busiest time, and I have been trying my hardest not to think of it as a holiday / DIY mission.
Strangely, I am just as busy as ever if not more so. I wonder if people working from home have more time on their hands and are hitting our website requesting trials of our software and demos which we conduct online so not change there anyway. I seem to have web-meetings on Zoom, Teams and GoToMeeting every few hours throughout the day so little chance of getting any major projects completed in the garden! 
I've been getting on with a few jobs, my garden is quite low maintenance, and tiny in comparison to a few on here.
First up was sand and Teak oil the garden furniture, you can see the difference to the untreated chairs, my fault for leaving them out over winter.
Then rehung the gate at the bottom, ever since laying the patio last year it had been propped up against the opening, one of those finishing jobs that you never quite get round to.
Haven't got a proper photo but you can see it in the background here.
Next up was some guttering and a water butt for the shed, which was a freebie from a mate I just needed a few fittings, which Toolstation duly delivered.
Needed to make a stand for the butt from only the bits i had lying around i don't have much, which actually was quite fun.
A bit of leftover armoured vehicle, part of lamp, some engineered wood floor offcuts and a bit of a filing cabinet made this
It takes my north of 100kg standing on the edge so should be fine for 120 litres of water. Finished up like this. Note the strap, a piece of door seal from a VW Transporter.
I also pulled up a bit of the block paving drive at the front that had sunk, again luckily I'd already bought some kiln dry sand last week.
Then as the weather was so good I gave the BBQ it's first outing, competition for the food was fierce
He even brought his own condiments
First up was sand and Teak oil the garden furniture, you can see the difference to the untreated chairs, my fault for leaving them out over winter.
Then rehung the gate at the bottom, ever since laying the patio last year it had been propped up against the opening, one of those finishing jobs that you never quite get round to.
Haven't got a proper photo but you can see it in the background here.
Next up was some guttering and a water butt for the shed, which was a freebie from a mate I just needed a few fittings, which Toolstation duly delivered.
Needed to make a stand for the butt from only the bits i had lying around i don't have much, which actually was quite fun.
A bit of leftover armoured vehicle, part of lamp, some engineered wood floor offcuts and a bit of a filing cabinet made this
It takes my north of 100kg standing on the edge so should be fine for 120 litres of water. Finished up like this. Note the strap, a piece of door seal from a VW Transporter.
I also pulled up a bit of the block paving drive at the front that had sunk, again luckily I'd already bought some kiln dry sand last week.
Then as the weather was so good I gave the BBQ it's first outing, competition for the food was fierce
He even brought his own condiments
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