Gardening Thread

[Melanius Mullarkey]

16 minutes ago, throbber said:

Move over Monty Don

I’d concrete over that c**t while I’m at it.

[Bairnardo]

27 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

I wouldn't have noticed that.

You'd have tripped over it and broke your hip

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, Bairnardo said:

Any vids detailed this technique?

Couldn’t find one. It’s was shown on a TV program a few years ago and I found it ingenious. It’s simply removing a small wedge of soil adjacent to the pathway and tamping the grass surface down to the new slope. The tricky bit is it requires a decent thickness of soil with established grass to undercut for the best result. I tried it out in a little area I had, and (of course) tore and mutilated the area pretty significantly, but it had actually healed up quite nicely in a month or so despite that. Unfortunately, it’s in the back of a house I no longer have access to.

If you picture the grass and soil as a rectangle, with another rectangle of soil below it, you simply make the lower rectangle into a triangle sloping toward the adjacent pathway….and then tramp the upper rectangle into bending into that now empty area.

[Bairnardo]

4 minutes ago, TxRover said:

Couldn’t find one. It’s was shown on a TV program a few years ago and I found it ingenious. It’s simply removing a small wedge of soil adjacent to the pathway and tamping the grass surface down to the new slope. The tricky bit is it requires a decent thickness of soil with established grass to undercut for the best result. I tried it out in a little area I had, and (of course) tore and mutilated the area pretty significantly, but it had actually healed up quite nicely in a month or so despite that. Unfortunately, it’s in the back of a house I no longer have access to.

If you picture the grass and soil as a rectangle, with another rectangle of soil below it, you simply make the lower rectangle into a triangle sloping toward the adjacent pathway….and then tramp the upper rectangle into bending into that now empty area.

Yeah I can kind of see it.... Just wouldn't mind seeing it done if possible.

[TxRover]

7 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

Yeah I can kind of see it.... Just wouldn't mind seeing it done if possible.

I know, but I’m apparently searching the wrong terms, reminds me of searching “trimming the bush” with safe search off.

[Bairnardo]

13 minutes ago, TxRover said:

Couldn’t find one. It’s was shown on a TV program a few years ago and I found it ingenious. It’s simply removing a small wedge of soil adjacent to the pathway and tamping the grass surface down to the new slope. The tricky bit is it requires a decent thickness of soil with established grass to undercut for the best result. I tried it out in a little area I had, and (of course) tore and mutilated the area pretty significantly, but it had actually healed up quite nicely in a month or so despite that. Unfortunately, it’s in the back of a house I no longer have access to.

If you picture the grass and soil as a rectangle, with another rectangle of soil below it, you simply make the lower rectangle into a triangle sloping toward the adjacent pathway….and then tramp the upper rectangle into bending into that now empty area.

Yeah I can kind of see it.... Just wouldn't mind seeing it done if possible.

My concern here is with the shallow depth I need to drop, I'd be cutting into the turf maybe an inch or less under the grass line so ripping right through the roots and no guarantee of a clean u inform cut. Am a bit scared I just rip f**k out the grass

[TxRover]

4 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

Yeah I can kind of see it.... Just wouldn't mind seeing it done if possible.

My concern here is with the shallow depth I need to drop, I'd be cutting into the turf maybe an inch or less under the grass line so ripping right through the roots and no guarantee of a clean u inform cut. Am a bit scared I just rip f**k out the grass

The edge by the sidewalk street is almost a 90 degree and as deep as it gets…maybe play with it right there. Just try a really small section at the corner, easier to get under it. Perhaps a foot in each direction, flip a loosened triangle back to keep it connected to the other grass, scrape out the area below it and flip it forward like a cheap wig and see how it looks? If you think about sod being laid, they have about an inch of dirt or so, and it works just fine. Most types of grass have roots that run both laterally and vertically, so as long as you don’t cut both, you should be fine.

There is a video of a guy raising his grass to match his driveway by using a hemispherical blade to cut vertically about 4-6”:off the edge, and then lever the grass up before filling with sand…grass is pretty tolerant.

[mishtergrolsch]

2 hours ago, Bairnardo said:

Yeah I can kind of see it.... Just wouldn't mind seeing it done if possible.

My concern here is with the shallow depth I need to drop, I'd be cutting into the turf maybe an inch or less under the grass line so ripping right through the roots and no guarantee of a clean u inform cut. Am a bit scared I just rip f**k out the grass

Nah you'll be fine. If you are worried still, you can slice slightly downwards when lifting the turf, it'll keep the root system more intact. Then just shave an inch (or whatever depth you want) off the soil underneath and you're laughing. You could even give it a low nitrogen feed to encourage the roots to repair, although I'd say that's overkill.

To be honest, I'd leave it at what youve got and run my mower along that edge with two wheels on the path and you won't need to bother edging it.

[Sergeant Wilson]

3 hours ago, Bairnardo said:

You'd have tripped over it and broke your hip

Exactly, and that's another reason for doing as little as possible.

[Nkomo-A-Gogo]

On 30/04/2023 at 17:57, Bairnardo said:

Yeah I can kind of see it.... Just wouldn't mind seeing it done if possible.

My concern here is with the shallow depth I need to drop, I'd be cutting into the turf maybe an inch or less under the grass line so ripping right through the roots and no guarantee of a clean u inform cut. Am a bit scared I just rip f**k out the grass

I would use the edging tool you already have and cut an extra inch of grass off. I don't think the difference in height would be as noticeable if they were slightly further apart.

 

I think it looks really good when you can see the groove and straight edge of the slab. It will fill in eventually.

[Nkomo-A-Gogo]

Done a nice little picket fence with a double side. Before that was a hedge with allsorts growing up through it. It was about 5 foot wide and 6 foot high and made my garden very dark so I ripped it out.  You can see the soil line where the hedge used to come out to so that's the amount of garden I have gained back.

The wood I used was from pallets but sturdier than normal ones.

I only had to pay for three bags of postcrete five treated posts and 5 litres of outdoor wood paint. €150

[Nkomo-A-Gogo]

My next job is changing a raised bed thing I made that has had its day. I didn't use treated wood so it rotted away but got a few years out of it.

That whole wall gets sun from late morning til dark so I plan to have three different levels/steps. First is a seating bench all the way along. Then two more higher steps for plant pots and strawberries etc.

I want to have a sloping perspex roof too with those festoon lights on strings going back and forward.

First I have to barrow out the soil.

The awkward thing is my wife hates our neighbours and doesn't want them to see into our garden so I'll have to have the new one ready to go up when I take the old thing Down.

If I put up pictures in here I'll probably get things done quicker. As usual I'm going to try to do it for as little as possible. Ideally just paying for the perspex and paint

 

[TxRover]

18 hours ago, Nkomo-A-Gogo said:

My next job is changing a raised bed thing I made that has had its day. I didn't use treated wood so it rotted away but got a few years out of it.

That whole wall gets sun from late morning til dark so I plan to have three different levels/steps. First is a seating bench all the way along. Then two more higher steps for plant pots and strawberries etc.

I want to have a sloping perspex roof too with those festoon lights on strings going back and forward.

First I have to barrow out the soil.

The awkward thing is my wife hates our neighbours and doesn't want them to see into our garden so I'll have to have the new one ready to go up when I take the old thing Down.

If I put up pictures in here I'll probably get things done quicker. As usual I'm going to try to do it for as little as possible. Ideally just paying for the perspex and paint

 

Seems a better way to handle it than shooting the neighbour you disagree with, my compliments. Perhaps a little mental judo is in order here. “But, my love, they will only be able to see into the garden for a few days. And, during that time they will be jealous of the beauty of our plot until we block their sight again, and leave them pining for that sweet lost view.”

The sun hitting it is causing a lot of the trouble too, although treated timber will help a bit. If you can find a UV screening perspex to use, it will possibly work well for that application. The only downside would be potentially reducing the yield of some fruiting plants. 

[Leith Green]

Not sure if this is the right thread for this, but here goes.

We got the back garden landscaped about 2 years back, it was a shitheap before, and now it looks great - this is some of it, there is quite a lot of paving in the area the photo is taken from (bbq / table etc).

The problem is, the contractors used this stuff called Geo Fix - apparently quite common in the industry, its an all weather "pour on, sweep in, compact and smooth and do it all within 45 mins" thing that comes vaccum packed.

After a year or so, I noticed (probably after cleaning - carefully - with the pressure washer) that in a lot of the joints, the geo fix pointing had all but disappeared. It had clearly not solidified properly.

I think the issue is that - when you read the tech specs - it says joints must be minimum 5mm wide and 15mm deep. The width is fine - but there are some joints where the cement bed has kinda squeezed up, and I reckon this is the problem.

Basically, I think the geo fix - unless used in optimum conditions - is shite.

I dont want to pay someone to come out and repoint the entire thing with cement pointing  (the colour wont be just right......dinnae ask), I was thinking I could just rake out some cement in the problem joints with my multi tool down to a depth that this stuff will properly "take" and have another go.

Anyone got any thoughts?? Anyone ever done this sort of thing?

[Sergeant Wilson]

26 minutes ago, Leith Green said:

Not sure if this is the right thread for this, but here goes.

We got the back garden landscaped about 2 years back, it was a shitheap before, and now it looks great - this is some of it, there is quite a lot of paving in the area the photo is taken from (bbq / table etc).

The problem is, the contractors used this stuff called Geo Fix - apparently quite common in the industry, its an all weather "pour on, sweep in, compact and smooth and do it all within 45 mins" thing that comes vaccum packed.

After a year or so, I noticed (probably after cleaning - carefully - with the pressure washer) that in a lot of the joints, the geo fix pointing had all but disappeared. It had clearly not solidified properly.

I think the issue is that - when you read the tech specs - it says joints must be minimum 5mm wide and 15mm deep. The width is fine - but there are some joints where the cement bed has kinda squeezed up, and I reckon this is the problem.

Basically, I think the geo fix - unless used in optimum conditions - is shite.

I dont want to pay someone to come out and repoint the entire thing with cement pointing  (the colour wont be just right......dinnae ask), I was thinking I could just rake out some cement in the problem joints with my multi tool down to a depth that this stuff will properly "take" and have another go.

Anyone got any thoughts?? Anyone ever done this sort of thing?

Try this 

"I'd love to, but the slabs need another couple of years to properly settle. If you put anything in just now it might seep under them and make them uneven. I'm keeping an eye on it and when conditions are right I'll get started."

[TxRover]

3 hours ago, Leith Green said:

Not sure if this is the right thread for this, but here goes.

We got the back garden landscaped about 2 years back, it was a shitheap before, and now it looks great - this is some of it, there is quite a lot of paving in the area the photo is taken from (bbq / table etc).

The problem is, the contractors used this stuff called Geo Fix - apparently quite common in the industry, its an all weather "pour on, sweep in, compact and smooth and do it all within 45 mins" thing that comes vaccum packed.

After a year or so, I noticed (probably after cleaning - carefully - with the pressure washer) that in a lot of the joints, the geo fix pointing had all but disappeared. It had clearly not solidified properly.

I think the issue is that - when you read the tech specs - it says joints must be minimum 5mm wide and 15mm deep. The width is fine - but there are some joints where the cement bed has kinda squeezed up, and I reckon this is the problem.

Basically, I think the geo fix - unless used in optimum conditions - is shite.

I dont want to pay someone to come out and repoint the entire thing with cement pointing  (the colour wont be just right......dinnae ask), I was thinking I could just rake out some cement in the problem joints with my multi tool down to a depth that this stuff will properly "take" and have another go.

Anyone got any thoughts?? Anyone ever done this sort of thing?

Is there any chance it’s warrantied? It seems in Canada they use this with a five year warranty…since you had “professionals” install it, you might be in a warrantable circumstance. Otherwise, I’d be tempted to use a coloured sand product and live with having to kill weeds and such.

On the whole, if she’s that picky about the colour of the grouting, get her edging that grass!

[throbber]

Dahlia still not coming up 

[TxRover]

2 hours ago, throbber said:

Dahlia still not coming up 

Given an expected two to four weeks after planting sprout, you might be out of luck. Time to get some colour from the garden center?

Edit to add: Do you have enough direct sunlight? A lack will delay sprouting.

Edited May 3, 2023 by TxRover

[throbber]

6 hours ago, TxRover said:

Given an expected two to four weeks after planting sprout, you might be out of luck. Time to get some colour from the garden center?

Edit to add: Do you have enough direct sunlight? A lack will delay sprouting.

Well maybe it’s not been as many as 4 weeks then - they are south facing and in theory should have a lot of sunlight but the weather has been cloudy of late and quite cold as well. I was worried the compost wasnt ideal but I just used multi purpose stuff. There was one plant pot I had that didn’t have any holes in bottom and got saturated which I’m pretty sure drowned one of them so it hasn’t been the best start and I’m getting impatient. 

[Falcor Roar]

Does anybody have any experience in growing chusan palms, particularly on the East coast? Any sources in Scotland? Every nursery that stocks seem to be down south. Unsure what size to get in order to be confident that I can keep it alive. My garden is South facing, soil is quite sandy.