Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all! We have been experiencing an issue on site where threads have been missing the latest postings. The platform host Vanilla are working on this issue. A workaround that has been used by some is to navigate back from 1 to 10+ pages to re-sync the thread and this will then show the latest posts. Thanks, Mike.
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

The compost heap - off topic thread

1246

Comments

  • Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 77,023 Mod ✭✭✭✭New Home


    A long time ago someone was asking how to create a shaded area (IIRC) or how to create a climbing frame for their peas and beans. I remembered this image, but I wasn't able to find it again at the time. Today I did. I think this is genius.

    500236.jpg
    https://funsubstance.com/uploads/original/500/500236.jpg


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    ^^^^^^^^^^

    would that not attract alot of biting insects? midges and the like


  • Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 77,023 Mod ✭✭✭✭New Home


    No more than any other type of canopy/pergola, I wouldn't think. I've seen photos of green teepees made for children to play in using climbing vegetables, I'd say this is the same principle.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 40,061 ✭✭✭✭Harry Palmr


    It's very groovy but in Ireland it's main use would be cover on a soft day :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 40,061 ✭✭✭✭Harry Palmr


    Woodies delivery notes


    Pay the extra! :) DPD are so much better than Fastway in my experience.

    Item arrived exactly as intended between 11 an 12.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    QUESTION: do birds build nests in laurel hedging??


  • Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 77,023 Mod ✭✭✭✭New Home


    Yes.


  • Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 77,023 Mod ✭✭✭✭New Home




  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,172 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    is it just me, or are people posting more about problems with laurel this year than they have previously?


  • Registered Users Posts: 82 ✭✭atahuapla


    Any one know where to get bags of subbase?
    Looking to replace a small patch of grass with slabs.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,777 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Someone may have a better idea but maybe a couple of bags of the cheapest gravel you can find and a couple of bags of sand? How much you need depends on what's underneath, if its soil you could need a few though, at a guess you would only get a couple of slabs to a bag of gravel. I wonder if you live near me, I have 20 tonnes of gravel and pebbles to get rid of :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,483 ✭✭✭macraignil


    is it just me, or are people posting more about problems with laurel this year than they have previously?


    Just started to look at the gardenersworld forum the last couple of years and it is a busier gardening forum than boards and since starting to look at it there has been a very regular posting of questions about laurel to the extent that some regular contributors seem fed up of the same questions about laurel and usually offer a link back to a thread on the topic that went into great detail over multiple pages. There was a good related post in the last couple of days from one experienced gardener who explained how their best success with laurel was in very poor ground and suggested a lot of these laurel appearance issues are likely to be caused by people trying too hard with their laurel and giving it nutrients they don't need and watering too regularly and lightly so the roots don't go deep to find water and nutrients like they should naturally do. Not cutting it back enough to generate vigorous new bushy growth was also highlighted as a common mistake.



    I have some laurel that is the same this year as in other years and I also have noticed more posts here about laurel. I suspect the greater number of posts on boards is coming from people who are just starting to notice they have a garden since lock-down more than there being any new problem with laurel.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,890 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    macraignil wrote: »
    people who are just starting to notice they have a garden since lock-down

    :D

    Some just starting to notice they've got families too! :pac:

    Very off topic now, but I was watching a film this afternoon (it's raining :p ) that included some "posh house" locations, very reminiscent of those makeover programmes, and in conjunction with some other online conversations, was thinking that there seems to be a type of person (or couple, less commonly whole families) that only exists in their home environment, but doesn't really live there.

    I think lockdown has made many people realise that that grassy/muddy/paved space outside the kitchen window is (could/should be) much more than a decorative backdrop to whatever time they spend at that address in daylight hours. Hopefully any such enlightenment will be permanent. ;)


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,172 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    we were talking to the woman who runs hedgehog rescue dublin about this, and last summer was their busiest summer ever, due to lockdown. people at home finally getting round to jobs they'd been putting off for years (such as lifting collapsed old sheds nursing hedgehog mothers were under) or cutting/strimming places which had been left undisturbed for years, and killing or maiming hogs which had set up home there.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,777 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    we were talking to the woman who runs hedgehog rescue dublin about this, and last summer was their busiest summer ever, due to lockdown. people at home finally getting round to jobs they'd been putting off for years (such as lifting collapsed old sheds nursing hedgehog mothers were under) or cutting/strimming places which had been left undisturbed for years, and killing or maiming hogs which had set up home there.

    Ah that's sad! We have been trying to figure out which of the swiss cheese ditches around our garden are currently home to rabbits - the rabbits are still around but we think they have moved house over to the other side of the garden. So we stuffed one huge St Pancras Station type hole - the surface layer had collapsed and left a cavern about 15 inches across - with grass clippings. If the rabbits pushed their way out then the hole was still in use, and at the same time the cats would not go investigating it. So far the grass is still there.


  • Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 77,023 Mod ✭✭✭✭New Home




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    that cheapo washing powder for killing surface moss - does it have to be bio or non bio or does it matter?


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,172 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    bio, i think, but if it's only a small patch, boiling water is cheap, quick, and instantaneous.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,172 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    ‘Strange’ and ‘unusual’ weather conditions expected this week
    Met Éireann warns of temperatures of minus three overnight as gardeners fear frost
    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/strange-and-unusual-weather-conditions-expected-this-week-1.4555070


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    anyone watchin supergarden on RTE? fair bunch of airhead contestants they have this time around

    btw - is Bloom going ahead this year?


  • Advertisement
  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,172 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    it's not.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    so what's the point in the Supergarden TV show then?


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,172 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    quite an obvious frost here this morning (near DCU)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,456 ✭✭✭scarepanda


    Stupid frost :/

    We built a new flower bed last weekend. I was in the garden centre looking for pots on Monday, didn't find any pots but did come out with a load of plants to plant up the new bed. I got a bit over excited and planted everything out (stupid I know but it's my first proper flower bed:)). Silly old me knew the weather wasn't promised great but didn't realise till yesterday that frost was promised, so I spent the afternoon trying to find some frost blanket to protect dahlias. A local garden centre kindly gave me some used bits they had which was plenty to cover the main dahlias. But I completely forgot that 2 of the plants my daughter picked up were also dahlias and I didn't cover them :(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    Bad week ahead weather wise - lower than average temps & blustery showers:(


  • Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 77,023 Mod ✭✭✭✭New Home


    One thing for sure, this year's weather is not a patch on last year's.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,091 ✭✭✭The Continental Op


    Recent frosts were so bad here that even all the new ivy leaves are burnt off.

    Wake me up when it's all over.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,253 ✭✭✭✭GreeBo


    Recent frosts were so bad here that even all the new ivy leaves are burnt off.

    We had -4/-5 overnight and loads of things that had started have since died back, my poor golden acer is looking very bare :(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,777 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Has anyone else found seedlings very slow to get going? They sprouted and were pricked out into trays and put in the cold frame. And there they sit, quite alive and perky but not growing.


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,091 ✭✭✭The Continental Op


    looksee wrote: »
    Has anyone else found seedlings very slow to get going? They sprouted and were pricked out into trays and put in the cold frame. And there they sit, quite alive and perky but not growing.

    Don't mention seedlings in my house. My wife has had all her sweat pea seedlings eaten TWICE now by mice, about €20 worth of seed later she is on her third try. If they had grown perhaps I could have commented on how quick they were to grow :o

    Wake me up when it's all over.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,777 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Oh that's aggravating. I have a load more seed than I planted but realised that there is still so much basic construction and organising work to do that I really don't have time for a lot of seed minding, so what I sowed - about 6 different things - is what I have this year.

    Were they speciality sweet peas? Its been a bit chilly so far for them, some years are good and others you can wish you hadn't bothered!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,091 ✭✭✭The Continental Op


    looksee wrote: »
    Oh that's aggravating. I have a load more seed than I planted but realised that there is still so much basic construction and organising work to do that I really don't have time for a lot of seed minding, so what I sowed - about 6 different things - is what I have this year.

    Were they speciality sweet peas? Its been a bit chilly so far for them, some years are good and others you can wish you hadn't bothered!

    Having had similar issues in the past I don't think she spends as much on them now as she once did, well apart from multiple tries.

    Wake me up when it's all over.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,890 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    looksee wrote: »
    I have a load more seed than I planted but realised that there is still so much basic construction and organising work to do that I really don't have time for a lot of seed minding, so what I sowed - about 6 different things - is what I have this year.

    A similar story here: this year's crazy swings in the weather means that the seeds/seedlings need a lot more minding than usual, which is too much to fit in alongside building and remodelling.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    "Craft" Gardener ...and what be that??

    indeed.ie

    not a bad wage, i wonder would they take on a DIY'er like myself


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,172 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    needs official qualifications and seemingly the ability to manage a team - i suspect a DIYer would be on the team being managed, at best...


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    so craft gardener basically means professional gardener?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,091 ✭✭✭The Continental Op


    fryup wrote: »
    so craft gardener basically means professional gardener?

    Working for the council, they don't do any gardening so the adverts a joke.

    Edit> And probably a soul destroying job for anyone that was a real gardener.

    Wake me up when it's all over.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    you'd be working in public parks won't you? and public parks have garden beds and the like and trees that need to be maintained


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,091 ✭✭✭The Continental Op


    fryup wrote: »
    you'd be working in public parks won't you? and public parks have garden beds and the like and trees that need to be maintained

    Show me a public park that is well maintained nowadays. I've seen a couple of good attempts at imaginative planting schemes by my own coco but after a couple of years of bad maintenance by guys that didn't know what they were doing and couldn't care less they were ripped out again.

    Wake me up when it's all over.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    what makes a good natural weedkiller?


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,091 ✭✭✭The Continental Op


    fryup wrote: »
    what makes a good natural weedkiller?

    Tarmac or concrete the thicker the better :D

    Vinegar is the one you'll find mentioned a lot but its just another chemical.

    Wake me up when it's all over.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,927 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    The peoples gardens in the phoenix park were always well maintained.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,220 ✭✭✭✭Jim_Hodge


    fryup wrote: »
    what makes a good natural weedkiller?

    On driveways or hard surfaces a touch of boiling water does the trick nicely.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,172 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    Vinegar is the one you'll find mentioned a lot but its just another chemical.
    'just another chemical' is a rather trite way of putting it. everything is 'just another chemical' but some chemicals are far, far worse than others.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,483 ✭✭✭macraignil


    fryup wrote: »
    what makes a good natural weedkiller?


    Flame torch works well on driveways. Otherwise a hoe or a trowel or if they are really small finger and thumb to simply pull them up.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,067 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    Jim_Hodge wrote: »
    On driveways or hard surfaces a touch of boiling water does the trick nicely.

    well in a raised bed amongst the veg i suppose vinegar with salt and washing up liquid?
    'just another chemical' is a rather trite way of putting it. everything is 'just another chemical' but some chemicals are far, far worse than others.

    yes, vinegar wouldn't be in the stratosphere as roundup...(or would it?)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,443 ✭✭✭blackbox


    fryup wrote: »
    what makes a good natural weedkiller?

    Fire


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 50,172 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    fryup wrote: »
    yes, vinegar wouldn't be in the stratosphere as roundup...(or would it?)
    on the continuum of 'not organic' weed killers, roundup is not the worst.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,890 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    fryup wrote: »
    well in a raised bed amongst the veg i suppose vinegar with salt and washing up liquid?

    As a weedkiller? There's no way I'd use that concoction on my veg beds. Apart from being completely useless and a waste of salt, vinegar and washing-up liquid, it'd play havoc with your soil chemistry.

    If it's weeds in a raised veg bed, pull them out with your fingers. Job done. No chemicals (organic or otherwise) needed.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 870 ✭✭✭SnowyMuckish


    Saw an interesting piece last night on GW where someone pulled dandelions from their veg patch, didn’t get all the deep tap root so covered the patch with a small piece of cardboard to exclude light. Says she repeats the process a few times and it eventually kills off the root.


  • Advertisement
Advertisement