Today I did something in my Garden

01-04-2021 8:30pm

Had a few days off so I built the kids a play area out the back garden. Wooden structure came flat packed in seven boxes and with over 1k screws so that took me the guts of a day.

Then I dug out a curved area from the lawn and put down mypex and two tonnes of wood mulch by hand.

Hoping to get the low profile retaining brick border done this weekend as I ran out of time due to all the digging.

Then I have a mud kitchen to assemble and install and to get some planting in to brighten up the area. Anyone have any suggestions for tough as old boots plants?

Back is aching now but got three great days in the garden.

beggars_bush · 01-04-2021 9:13pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Had a few days off so I built the kids a play area out the back garden. Wooden structure came flat packed in seven boxes and with over 1k screws so that took me the guts of a day.

Then I dug out a curved area from the lawn and put down mypex and two tonnes of wood mulch by hand.

Hoping to get the low profile retaining brick border done this weekend as I ran out of time due to all the digging.

Then I have a mud kitchen to assemble and install and to get some planting in to brighten up the area. Anyone have any suggestions for tough as old boots plants?

Back is aching now but got three great days in the garden.

good for you.
where did you get the set? you can pm me if you prefer

CelticRambler · 01-04-2021 10:38pm

For looksee - a throwback Thursday, of sorts

- all done in the course of one fine April morning:

The skinny branches were a mixtures of pruned branches from the figtree in the picture, with additional material from the orchard and some elder. The wooden pegs were made from the thicker sections, cut to size and a point put on them. Where this kind of fence in the traditional style has the skinny branches woven alternately up the pegs (or posts) my material wasn't flexible enough to allow that, so the pegs are slightly offset with respect to each other and the branches jammed in on top of each other.

One year later, I'm doing it all again ... ... ... but on a slightly larger scale :pac: :

This is my herb garden, much neglected for many, many years (but still supplying copious quantities of fennel, mint and oregano) and enclosed on two sides following other work. I have set myself the target of getting it re-landscaped by the end of the month. Today was spent mostly on prep: lifting half a dozen fence posts from the old veg bed and moving them to behind the new embankment on the left; dragging those beams out of a barn and transporting them across the garden, ready to use as "retaining walls" across the back; cutting previously saved branches to use as pegs to hold these beams in place; and digging all the fennel, mint and oregano out of the bank that'll be built up and replanting it in a temporary bed. Oh, and manoeuvring half a hollow tree-trunk from behind a load of other might-come-in-useful stuff so as to be able to move it into position too.

looksee · 01-04-2021 11:02pm

Thanks for the pics CR, yes, weaving is a great theory but what you generally have is a mix of stuff that may be new or dried or somewhere between, that solution works well.

And the fennel, oregano and mint - get one plant of each and you will have a garden full of fennel, oregano and mint for the rest of time

.

CelticRambler · 02-04-2021 6:12am

looksee wrote: »

And the fennel, oregano and mint - get one plant of each and you will have a garden full of fennel, oregano and mint for the rest of time .

That's the plan ... but on a more "industrial" scale.

I have six fennels, twenty mint and a dozen giant clumps of oregano. Lot more of other things to go in progressively as I get the individual spaces completed. I want to have sufficient fresh and dried culinary herbs available for catering purposes ... as well as creating a sort of sensory garden space.

02-04-2021 7:23am

beggars_bush wrote: »

good for you.
where did you get the set? you can pm me if you prefer

https://www.ease.ie/products/discovery-woodland-treehouse

I got it there. Based in Kilkenny but product came from UK. Some of the negative reviews are from people who struggled to assemble it - the quality is good. My kids are 1 and 2 so will probably get 3-4 years out of it.

magicbastarder · 02-04-2021 5:38pm

decided to lift the granite out of the overgrown and neglected rockery which had been put in by the previous owner. was maybe 12 foot across at its widest.
madre de dios, there must have been a sale on granite when he put it in. we hit the iceberg effect - multiple chunks of granite we pulled out must be in the ballpark of 50kg, the majority of which was underground. we'd been planning on maybe reusing it, but they're simply far too big to do anything with now. except bury them again...

CelticRambler · 02-04-2021 7:40pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

multiple chunks of granite we pulled out must be in the ballpark of 50kg, the majority of which was underground. we'd been planning on maybe reusing it, but they're simply far too big to do anything with now. except bury them again...

I'll have 'em!

Will you deliver? I'll send you home with case of wine! :pac:

CelticRambler · 02-04-2021 8:13pm

Slow progress today, but progress all the same. Hollow tree trunk in position; went and got a second one because I figured out how to tidy up what will be the entrance to this space; pegged out the embankment; and (with considerably more difficulty than I was expecting) got the logs/beams into position.

Still need to build a retaining wall at the foot of the bank (where those short pegs are beside the path - I've cleared the soil away) and then backfill the three levels. If I don't wake up tomorrow with too many aches and pains, then I might at least get the stone shifted into position for the wall before the fine weather comes to a crashing halt.

SouthWesterly · 02-04-2021 8:13pm

Put down about 35kg of maincrop spuds today. Carlos. Sarpo mira, fir apples and blue Danube. Broadforked the beds first. It really is a greet piece of equipment ðŸ˜

Also pulled up the last of last years parsnips.

macraignil · 02-04-2021 8:14pm

Took my jumper off for a while and wasn't cold.

py · 02-04-2021 8:29pm

py wrote: »

About 1/3 done on either side of the garden. Have hit a snag on both sides though. Remenants of a large tree stump on one side and a smaller tree stump embedded in concrete on the other. Both are directly where my next post is to be laid. Mini excavator arriving on Thursday which will hopefully get me back moving and also help with the remainder of the project.

The larger of the tree stumps caused some issues but with some perseverance, brute force and an axe we got to a point where we could get a post in to the ground. Excavator was too blunt of an instrument for this one though it helped immensely on the smaller stump. Been flying since. 2/3 of the way there on each side now. Sharp incline to work around on both sides and then fence off the rear of the garden with a gate to go in the middle. Excited now to finally have access at the rear of our house.

beggars_bush · 02-04-2021 8:30pm

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Put down about 35kg of maincrop spuds today. Carlos. Sarpo mira, fir apples and blue Danube. Broadforked the beds first. It really is a greet piece of equipment ðŸ˜

Also pulled up the last of last years parsnips.

I'm waiting till the frost promised next week is over before putting down my maincrop

Barna77 · 02-04-2021 8:33pm

I cleared the trail of destruction left by a cut down tree in what, until last Monday, used to be my back garden. It's like a war zone.
The butchering...

SnowyMuckish · 02-04-2021 8:34pm

beggars_bush wrote: »

I'm waiting till the frost promised next week is over before putting down my maincrop

The amount of jobs I’ve put off this week til this frost passes and I’m sitting twiddling my thumbs looking around my garden dying to get stuck in in this beautiful weather, so frustrating :rolleyes:

Grats · 02-04-2021 8:47pm

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Put down about 35kg of maincrop spuds today. Carlos. Sarpo mira, fir apples and blue Danube. Broadforked the beds first. It really is a greet piece of equipment ðŸ˜

Also pulled up the last of last years parsnips.

Any tips for growing parsnips?

magicbastarder · 02-04-2021 9:09pm

CelticRambler wrote: »

I'll have 'em!

Will you deliver? I'll send you home with case of wine! :pac:

maybe we could work out postage on it?
remember - these were installed in a fairly small garden rockery. there was no need for any of them to be much bigger than a football or basketball.

looksee · 02-04-2021 9:29pm

Lord they are at least as big, and a few bigger, as the rocks from the heap I dismantled. They are now sitting there waiting for me to work up the desperate need to have them somewhere else, when reinforcements may have to be drafted in.

CelticRambler · 02-04-2021 10:17pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

maybe we could work out postage on it?
remember - these were installed in a fairly small garden rockery. there was no need for any of them to be much bigger than a football or basketball.

Ah, you know what they say - "go big, or go home"

Wish you hadn't posted that picture though ... I sooooo want them now! And I have a place to put them.

magicbastarder · 02-04-2021 10:30pm

actuallly, a question has arisen as a result of this. one of the ideas we were thinking of for the spot was a low, circular natural stone wall, so people could sit on it, around a small brazier maybe. and to pile earth against the outside of the wall so it slopes up to the top.

however, you can see a tree in the background; we suspect it's a corsican/austrian pine or maybe scots pine. i know some trees can cope with the bottom of the trunk being inundated with soil; now the question for us would be can these pines cope with it?
we could probably easily alter the layout to avoid that.

SouthWesterly · 02-04-2021 10:55pm

beggars_bush wrote: »

I'm waiting till the frost promised next week is over before putting down my maincrop

The tubers are under the soil. They'll be fine.

SouthWesterly · 02-04-2021 10:57pm

Grats wrote: »

Any tips for growing parsnips?

You're asking the wrong person. Most of my parsnips failed last year. Soil temp is important for germination from what I understand

SouthWesterly · 03-04-2021 11:08pm

Finished off the garden today. Got seeds sown and the rest of my beds broadforked and ready to go when needed.

I'm shattered after 2 full days.

looksee · 04-04-2021 9:32am

The frost was there this morning as promised - now gone. Haven't checked the cold frame, I threw a cover over it last night just to be on the safe side. The tomato plants are still manageable and were brought in.

paddylonglegs · 04-04-2021 4:58pm

Put together a few garden design sketches for a friend which they loved, got a lovely bottle of whiskey in return. So today I did something in someone else’s garden!

Skipduke · 04-04-2021 5:04pm

filled 2 buckets of creeping buttercup, couch grass and a few more unsightly weeds in a new lawn. threw some seed over patchs... straight into the greenhouse then to divide marigolds and snapdragons into bigger cells.

Harry Palmr · 04-04-2021 5:21pm

Added about a metre to the raised bed. Added a few salad greens with shallots to follow tomorrow

.

CelticRambler · 04-04-2021 7:07pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

one of the ideas we were thinking of for the spot was a low, circular natural stone wall, so people could sit on it, around a small brazier maybe. and to pile earth against the outside of the wall so it slopes up to the top.

however, you can see a tree in the background; we suspect it's a corsican/austrian pine or maybe scots pine. i know some trees can cope with the bottom of the trunk being inundated with soil; now the question for us would be can these pines cope with it?

The received wisdom would appear to be "no" - not if you want to get the job finished by the end of the decade. I'm not particularly knowledgeable about tree root systems, but all my hiking experience suggests that pines have very shallow roots, so you'd need to find a very creative way of keeping them "shallow" while burying them deeper.

CelticRambler · 04-04-2021 7:56pm

Well ... yesterday's stone-scavenging was quite successful, and not too tiring. Moved four trailer-loads to where they needed to be, and when I stopped for lunch, I almost didn't start again, as I really liked the "Burren" effect: :pac:

But, I talked myself into sticking with the original plan; and so stacked stone after stone till sunset, took a break for food & sleep, and carried on again all day today.

That's the two retaining walls done - just the two pillars to do now (separate corners of this area) and I'll be finished the stonework. If I can get myself up and out early enough tomorrow, I might be able to get one of them finished before the weather changes.

Reckless Abandonment · 04-04-2021 8:15pm

Finally got around to building a pergola id been planning for the last year.
Went with stone pillars (I didn't build them) and larch timber charred it and sealed it with osmo oil. Very happy with how it turned out, "new dawn" roses will have plenty of room to spread

Today I did something in my Garden

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