Author Topic: Gardening  (Read 336297 times)

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Offline hollins

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #780 on: June 26, 2017, 11:37:58 am »
This week's star turn, cornus kousa, (dogwood).

Offline hollins

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #781 on: July 12, 2017, 10:48:03 pm »
The National Botanic Gardens of Wales are well worth a visit if you are down that way.
I hadn't realised that it was originally the site of a big house, Middleton House, now sadly gone.
the big dome is very impressive and there is also a huge walled garden.


Offline hollins

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #782 on: July 12, 2017, 10:54:59 pm »
There is also a butterfly house, an old ice house and a bee garden amongst other things of interest.

Offline hollins

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #783 on: July 17, 2017, 12:13:28 pm »
Late flowering rhododendron looking good this week.

Offline hollins

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #784 on: August 15, 2017, 05:23:23 pm »
Sweet pea heaven!

Offline hollins

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #785 on: August 25, 2017, 05:46:31 pm »
I've been away for a couple of days and came back to this lot.
Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Offline Nemesis

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #786 on: September 05, 2017, 07:49:49 pm »
These were from last year, we saved them, dusted them with sulphur powder and re-planted them.
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #787 on: September 05, 2017, 11:04:08 pm »
They look in very good condition Nemesis, I wish mine were like yours.     I save the Begonias from the previous yea and usually have a nice display of them but this year they have been very disappointing.  The leaves are covered in a powdery mildew and are brown and dying and the flowers are extremely poor.
It's nearly the end of the season anyway so I'm going to dig them up and throw them away and buy new ones next year.


By the way Bodnant Gardens has a free entry day this Saturday the 9th September 2017 but unfortunately the weather forecast for Saturday looks like rain for most of the day

Offline squigglev2

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #788 on: October 02, 2017, 11:41:59 am »
I’ve taken on the grass cutting this year, including  trying to reclaim some “lost” bits and keeping a farm track (needed by us for access to a septic tank and or deliveries of wood) and we got some new tools:

Petrol mower. We don’t have a great deal of width of grass but now I’ve got the initial clearance done (and provided farm tractors don’t decide to start using the track again and churn things up and create ruts), I can now mow from our gate, a good 100yds along the track and have that bit done in no time.

Cordless mower. Mostly with a change of plan for the veg plot in mind. We had been keeping  most paths in this small area  clear using weed killed but we’d like to grass them all.  The petrol mower is too wide and heavy for that but  this light weight 33cm job which cuts neatly to the boards for the raised beds should make the task easy.

Strimmer #1.  There will always be bits that can’t be mowed and this lightweight 25cc one seems just the job. Its easily manoeuvrable and is good eg between trees.

Strimmer #2.  I think we might look to sell this some time next year.  It’s a 50cc one with the cow horn bars. Used to clear some really dense patches, mostly on the track but once everything is under control I doubt there will be a need for it.

Maybe it’s all been a bit OTT but the other side of the coin is that even in a couple of 30 minute stints  on a fine day (I’m not up to long spells…and it’s not that vast an area, just feels big to me)  is that we have made progress and mum is delighted with what has been achieved so far.

Of course there is another tool I’d like but I think it would mean hiring someone to use it for a day. A power scythe would probably rip through a mixture of mostly blackthorn and bramble but there is no rush and I think secateurs, etc. will eventually get there,

Offline Hugo

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #789 on: October 02, 2017, 02:45:42 pm »
I've got an electric hedge cutter and an electric chain saw on a pole. mainly because the petrol ones are heavier and I've now got a trapped nerve in my back.
In August this year, I cut one of my three hedges and it's a conifer hedge about 8 foot high and over 100 foot long and I made the mistake of doing it all in one go.     Just before I finished the hedge the electric hedge cutter over heated and just blew up so I had to buy a new one.
I've now got to tackle the laurel hedge at the back which is over 11 foot high but only about 55 foot long.  I'll do that in two stages though in case the same thing happens again

Offline squigglev2

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #790 on: October 02, 2017, 03:23:51 pm »
On tool breakages etc.,  over the years, we had a couple of cheap strimmers break in the shaft and couldn't get the parts and there was one, a Mountfeild I think, I could barely use and mum struggled with that had a very sharp bend.  For the one that I think will stay in regular service, rather more then we need maybe but we went for the smallest of the Husqvarna pro range with straight shaft this time, hopeing it sees us out. It's really light (about 4.5kg) and low vibration. 

I got hit in the head (no real damage done) by a tool that can kick the same way a chainsaw does and won't use a chainsaw now.  I know there is safety equipment as well as protection devices on a modern saw but its a tool for a trained pro only as far as I'm concerned.

Offline SteveH

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #791 on: October 02, 2017, 04:42:38 pm »
All this talk is taking me back in time, when I lived up the valley, I have never been a "flower" gardener, but I liked a tidy garden, my wife will tell you the term "big boys toys" was invented just for me, I built a shed/barn to hold them all, .... quad bike truck, sit on lawnmower with pickup brush and collector, brush cutters, chain saws, as squigglev2 said extremely dangerous, but I had the good sense to attend the forestry commission courses and obtained my certificate plus all the safety gear, still a few scary moments though, we ran two wood burners that burned logs at a wicked rate, the shed also housed our wood pile, sorted by age and type, birch,oak,ash and pine, it is a work of art choosing the right combination, for heat and slow burning, anyway that was over 20 years ago, could'nt do it now, but I miss it.

Offline squigglev2

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #792 on: October 02, 2017, 05:16:01 pm »
I’ve often fancied a go on lawn tractor Steve.  And a on quad bike.  We are in the unusual position of renting a bit of otherwise working farm land (a service pipe to a septic tank prevents the farm ploughing or crossing a portion) for the back garden and out of our gate, I could have 90 acres to play on – but I don’t think they would approve…

Woodburners.  We had a scare once when in Pydew.  Dad had been burning a lot of wet pine, the sap built up and one day I think as mum opened the door it was “boom”.  I came home to a blazing (and at that time, unlined) chimney and although it had dampened by the time they got there, it was a fire brigade job – as they say if you are in doubt (and in this case, at one point, I had visions of the roof going up with this one), call them).  Still, I like them and we have one here. A bit more careful over what we burn  though.

Offline SteveH

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #793 on: October 02, 2017, 05:58:58 pm »
When your dad was a senior fire officer, you do not take chances, our house was built in 1850, so we had the chimney's Thermocreted , they pass an inflatable tube down, block the bottom, pump in the light weigh mix, and let it set, deflate the tube and remove, you are left with a reinforced chimney and a perfectly smooth vent.

Pine is the worst, it creates a lot of tar, as you found out, like I said it is a skill you acquire with experience, but definitely no green wood, the pine I got from the forestry commission had to be on the ground, which suited us, we were not allowed to cut standing trees. 

The sit on lawnmower is fun, no effort at all, and you can even drink and drive.  (small beer) for those of a nervous disposition.  8)

Offline squigglev2

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #794 on: October 02, 2017, 06:05:54 pm »
the chimney's Thermocreted , they pass an inflatable tube down, block the bottom, pump in the light weigh mix, and let it set, deflate the tube and remove, you are left with a reinforced chimney and a perfectly smooth vent.
Skerryvore (Pydew) was done that way after the incident.  I'm not sure that we were aware of lining chimneys before then.