Handy gardening tools.

The Continental Op

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Wild garlic. tell me where you live

Have you ever seen how it can completely take over a garden and become almost impossible to eradicate?

SouthWesterly

The Continental Op wrote: »

Have you ever seen how it can completely take over a garden and become almost impossible to eradicate?

I just have to look at my local forest. Planted some in my hedgerow last week

ellee

I'm in Dublin.

I'd never intentionally bring it into my garden. Total thug of a plant.

magicbastarder

just to clarify, is it ramsons or three cornered leek? many people refer to the latter as wild garlic, but it's not. i was given some bulbs, having been told they were wild garlic, and i'm still fighting them.
that said, they're both rather vigorous plants.

ellee

The flower on mine look like this....

ellee

It's three cornered garlic according to http://www.wildflowersofireland.net/plant_detail.php?id_flower=283

Just googled ramsons, what I have is not ramsons.

magicbastarder

yeah, three cornered leek is not the 'true' wild garlic/ramsons, which has much broader leaves; ramsons also taste much more garlicy, and are much more useful in cooking.

three cornered leek is edible though, if you want to find a use for the stuff you pull up.

Weepsie

The Continental Op wrote: »

Have you ever seen how it can completely take over a garden and become almost impossible to eradicate?

Bet my briar problem is worse.

Anyway got the mattock and pick set from screwfix.

Managed to cycle home with it. Another one for the naysayers who say you can do shopping with a bike (it wasn't easy)

The Continental Op

Weepsie wrote: »

Bet my briar problem is worse.

Anyway got the mattock and pick set from screwfix.

Managed to cycle home with it. Another one for the naysayers who say you can do shopping with a bike (it wasn't easy)

I've eradicated a lot of briars. tbh all I'd do if faced with a garden full of them again is to brush cut them with a blade and then just push a mower over them every week or so till they stopped coming up.

In fact thats exactly what I did last year to get back on top of our very wide verge. I'd let the brambles creep out over it as I used to curse people that pulled over and drove on the verge. Now I've reclaimed it I'm back cursing them again :rolleyes:

looksee

I have a few three-cornered leeks and since I know there really is no such thing as 'a few' I will pull them up this season. Getting some ransoms going would be nice, I have enough space for them to go a bit wild, but I don't really want the three cornered anything.

magicbastarder

anyway, one tool i wouldn't be without is the soil sieve. handy for sieving 'biodegradable' teabags out of compost, and came in handy recently to sieve the new zealand flatworms out of the soil for the new beds.

SouthWesterly

Got delivery of my broadfork today from amazon France and it didn't break the bank

cuculainn

magicbastarder wrote: »

anyway, one tool i wouldn't be without is the soil sieve. handy for sieving 'biodegradable' teabags out of compost, and came in handy recently to sieve the new zealand flatworms out of the soil for the new beds.

Wow i would love to have compost that was sievable!!

Weepsie

Need a sieve too.

That mattock is bloody incredible. Got through more work in 2 hours than I managed all week I'd say. So satisfying getting the roots. I'm trying to eradicate them as much as possible

looksee

Screwfix have a range of nice sieves in various hole sizes, unfortunately they are not collectable, not from my local place anyway, so the one I ordered a while ago took about 6 weeks to come, and that was before Jan 1st. Probably not worth bothering now, unless they have them available locally.

Edit, no they are not click and collect anywhere.

fiacha

The tool prices on some of those garden sites are eye watering

I made a soil sieve that sits on top of my wheelbarrow. There is a frame and a box that slides on top. I can drop different mesh sizes into the frame.

I only use it 3-4 times a season, but it saves so much time. You get lovely fluffy aerated clean soil in the barrow.

The Continental Op

fiacha wrote: »

The tool prices on some of those garden sites are eye watering

I made a soil sieve that sits on top of my wheelbarrow. There is a frame and a box that slides on top. I can drop different mesh sizes into the frame.

I only use it 3-4 times a season, but it saves so much time. You get lovely fluffy aerated clean soil in the barrow.

I've done the same. I've made several and have some add hoc ones probably the most useful is an old galvanised bread crate with half inch mesh which is great for removing large stones and turfy lumps.

At its simplest I have a bit of an old oyster bed net (found on beach very heavy duty black plastic netting) with iirc about 4mm square holes that I lay across the barrow and it just has strips of wood screwed together at either end.

Without the finese of you shakeable box I find they all work best with small shovel loads. They totally fail if you load them up.

pat2167

Little more on handy diy tools. I'm so pleased with my handmade soil block maker, which is very simple, a piece of narrow pvc pipe and wooden poker that pushes the soil and also makes a dent in the middle. I've been using it for almost everything -tomatoes, herbs, petunias (all 200 of them).