The Garden Shed

Clay! Yes, the trick for clay soils is the use of gypsum. You can dig it in with compost, or simply sprinkle it on the surface and let the water percolate it down into the soil for a while. Then add some more when you add the compost.

It took me all day to remember the term, but it works great and isn't expensive here. I don't know about Wales?

Our soil here is a igneous clay but yields to gypsum well. I suspect that our soil is compacting in the baking heat just now.
 
Clay! Yes, the trick for clay soils is the use of gypsum. You can dig it in with compost, or simply sprinkle it on the surface and let the water percolate it down into the soil for a while. Then add some more when you add the compost.

It took me all day to remember the term, but it works great and isn't expensive here. I don't know about Wales?

Our soil here is a igneous clay but yields to gypsum well. I suspect that our soil is compacting in the baking heat just now.

like this?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vitax-Ltd-2-5Kg-Clay-Breaker/dp/B002ATLTE0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1434789613&sr=8-3&keywords=gypsum
 
Clay! Yes, the trick for clay soils is the use of gypsum. You can dig it in with compost, or simply sprinkle it on the surface and let the water percolate it down into the soil for a while. Then add some more when you add the compost.

It took me all day to remember the term, but it works great and isn't expensive here. I don't know about Wales?

Our soil here is a igneous clay but yields to gypsum well. I suspect that our soil is compacting in the baking heat just now.

Our soil is very clay-y. When we finished building our house, our contractor who was also planning on cutting hay in our meadow, scattered the leftover pieces of drywall onto the field.
 
In my experience, one of the best things for clay soil is compost - lots of compost. And even more compost. :)

'Lo Sugar :)

I am a compost virgin so I am very grateful for all advice. I will look around for gypsum and aged horse poos to add to the mix.
:)

Our soil is very clay-y. When we finished building our house, our contractor who was also planning on cutting hay in our meadow, scattered the leftover pieces of drywall onto the field.

I am a bit puzzled by this, good witch of the South. Did the pieces of wall help with the clay, didn't they mangle the mower blades?

I have been assiduously raking out my lawn so twigs don't get caught in my mini mower blades. I thought I was going to mow this weekend but then of course Stuff happened (at last my friend was able to move house!) and anyway it's raining a bit. Probably mid week next week. Piglet and I are having a pyjama day but I may have to get dressed in a bit so I can do some raking - as there is a spectacular view of our garden over the very low wall from the road. I have no wish to treat the many dog walkers coming past to the sight of me raking in pyjamas. Most of them are pretty elderly and I am a bit choosy whom I do CPR on.
:)
 
'Lo Sugar :)

I am a compost virgin so I am very grateful for all advice. I will look around for gypsum and aged horse poos to add to the mix.
:)

I am a bit puzzled by this, good witch of the South. Did the pieces of wall help with the clay, didn't they mangle the mower blades?
Maybe this will help: Wiki: drywall

It's "north", by the way.


Wow, I clicked on that link - and now ClayBreaker is popping up in my Facebook advert bar! along with various other weird things which they think I might buy based on my Googling and cruising habits: smut, chichi items for my new home, cat illnesses and educational literature for the Piglet. :rolleyes:
I've apparently clicked something odd along the way because just about half my banner ads and such are now in Spanish. "Un Pedazo de Dulce Diversion"!
 
Maybe this will help: Wiki: drywall

It's "north", by the way.


I've apparently clicked something odd along the way because just about half my banner ads and such are now in Spanish. "Un Pedazo de Dulce Diversion"!

Ah I see now!

(Sorry! :eek:, I thought I'd done my research so carefully, too.)

Ever since I looked at a couple of Rome sites in Italian, I get lots of Italian stuff. But the most annoying thing on FB is the number of adverts I get for hair dyes and anti-aging skin lotions :mad: They are such a superficial bunch on there. Just because I'm over 50, OF COURSE I will be wanting something to help me look like I'm 16 :rolleyes: I mean, do they pay attention to my posts and my friends' posts castigating the young-and-beautiful industry? No no, I know they don't :rolleyes: You can't make money out of people who don't give a poo - except about aged horse poo.

Maybe now I will get some adverts for aged equestrians into scat! :D
 
What amuses me are the ads I get on FB for products I've just bought on line. Umm, I just bought that. Why would I need another one?
 
What amuses me are the ads I get on FB for products I've just bought on line. Umm, I just bought that. Why would I need another one?

God I get that from Amazon!

Uh ... I just bought this from you. So why am I going to buy it again?

Although admittedly when I was in a rush one time I made an error and reviewed Blue Bath Gel as Naoko Smith alongside several reveiws of smutty stories, and had to hurriedly take the review down, LOL.

BTW, it really doesn't stain your bath and all goes away very neatly. Except the bits the kids splashed all over the bathroom floor in their excitement - those have to be mopped up.
 
I still get advertising material from Chester Fields and Amazon and E-Bay,
and I'm heartily peeved with the lot of 'em.
 
I have raked my whole lawn! well, all the bits I can currently mow. The grass is as high as an elephant's eye in some bits so I have to trim them and then rake and then mow.

It's only taken two weeks *puff pant*. Maybe I will be able to mow later this evening, after fetching Piglet home, shovelling buccatini Bolognese into its trough, swilling it down and putting it to bed.

zzzzz
 
Reminder

The main purpose of holding children's parties is
to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own.
 
Reminder

The main purpose of holding children's parties is
to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own.

:D
That was also the great value of those parenting advice tv programmes. I used to watch with glee while other people totally indulged and spoilt their kids, and then were surprised that the kid grew up snotty and rude.
 
Well, I have neglected my poor thread over the summer but I want to assure you that I haven't neglected the garden. I have been raking out the lawn, piece by piece and finally yesterday I managed to get the whole part of the garden laid to grass mowed! There's still two more chunks of it, one of which has such pretty weeds in it that I have gone fashionable and designated it a wild flower meadow. The other is going to be turned over during winter and made into a flower bed, so there's not much point in mowing those.

There was an astonishing amount of old leaves, twigs, moss and dried grass that came out of the lawn (which I believe had not been raked out properly for some time). It's still full of weeds, but next summer I can start to dig those out and put down more grass seed. Any advice on kind of seed gratefully received. All the patches are quite damp and there is that section under the oak trees which is shaded most of the day.

It's kind of the start of the gardeners' year here in Brit, and my thoughts are turning to narcissus and other bulbs. I am very keen to get some pheasant eye narcissus and snakeshead fritillaries. I usually buy either from Thompson and Morgan or on a whim from some local nursery. T&M have a really pretty selection of the fritillaries this year, but no pheasant eye narcissus :(
 

Attachments

  • Garden 1.jpg
    Garden 1.jpg
    77.1 KB · Views: 0
  • Garden 2.jpg
    Garden 2.jpg
    77.3 KB · Views: 0
  • Garden 3.jpg
    Garden 3.jpg
    90.3 KB · Views: 0
This is the main stretch looking back from the 'wild flower meadow' (OK, 'wild flower pocket handkerchief patch' is a more accurate nomenclature!). That bit by the wall on the left had a little flood in it - in August! It rained so hard that while I was cutting back the wild flower bit, I found a small frog. I do hope the cats never found him.

attachment.php


Living by the park, there is a lot of wildlife round here. At the moment, it's giant moths which blunder in at night attracted by the light. The other night one flew into my bedroom, closely followed by one cat - then the other cat. I tried to catch it to put it out the window, and the cats were trying to catch it to eat it! Three pussies running round tripping over each other, what a sight ;)
 
Here is the bit in front of the shed. It was very bare when I first raked and mowed it, and has started to grow back nicely now.

attachment.php


(Yes, yes, HP! I am going to try to sand down the shed before winter and paint Sadolin on it.)
 
That bit by the wall was drifted up with leaves, and when I raked them off it was all bare earth underneath of course. I threw some grass seeds down and they have just started to grow back nicely. However, I guess it's too late now for sowing grass seed and I'll wait till next Spring to start again.

You can see our vegetable patch. We managed to get a few potatoes in - very late. We have been digging our small crop out and Piglet cooked and mashed some the other day - very delicious.

attachment.php
 
Naoko,

What you need for your grass is EVERGREEN 4 in 1.

It kills the weeds and feeds the grass at the same time. For the first time you need to buy it in the applicator, then buy refills afterwards. You need to shop around. Garden centres often sell it cheaper than DIY stores but sometimes it is on offer in the 'Seasonal' aisles of supermarkets.

When applied you need to keep Piglet off it until it has rained (or you have watered it) because it stains clothing and shoes until watered in. You can't keep cats and wildlife off it, but the cats soon discover that they don't like walking on it because the taste is nasty when they try to wash it off!

A couple of applications of Evergreen six weeks apart and you probably won't need grass seed most of which the birds would eat. You will need to mow the grass more frequently...
 
I have found that, regularly mowed, the best fertilizer for grass is dead grass stalks. If you keep the grass mowed regularly, you build up an ecology in the grass so that the microscopic beasties in the soil use the dead grass stalks to generate fertilizer for the living grass stalks.
 
I have found that, regularly mowed, the best fertilizer for grass is dead grass stalks. If you keep the grass mowed regularly, you build up an ecology in the grass so that the microscopic beasties in the soil use the dead grass stalks to generate fertilizer for the living grass stalks.

Mulching in the dead leaves is even better.
 
I read all these gardening hints and tips with a growing sense of envy at how easy you all seem to find gardening; when I die, someone else will be the world's worst gardener. My wife says that while good gardeners have green-fingers, I've been cursed with shit-finger, because any plant I touch goes black and dies a horrible death. To that end, I'm banned from her vegetable garden, her fruit garden, and the orchard; I can look over the hedge, but only as long as I don't actually touch it...

We have a fairly bizarre menagerie of animals who choose to live with us, among them a pygmy goat called Roger who was my daughter's pet, but she left, and neglected to take that destructive, smelly little menace with her, much to my wife's annoyance; she did try to see if my 'Hand of Death' worked as a goat repellent, but he seems to be thriving, so scratch Plan A; there is no Plan B, except to accidentally shoot him, which hasn't occurred to her yet. I'm not allowed in the paddock, though, just in case it works on horses or kills off their grazing...
 
LOL @ poor beachbum, to have a daughter who has gone off with a Frenchman (I think he was French?) and left him with a smelly goat - that just doesn't sound fair.

Hmm, Ogg, I promise to have a think about the Evergreen. However owing to the low wall, everyone and their dog (literally! and the dogs leave their poo sometimes) comes into my garden. The cats spend a lot of time rolling on the lawn too.

Does anyone feel strongly about grass seed? I currently just buy a small bag every now and then of nondescript 'lawn seed' to scatter on patches which I manage to rake free of moss, weeds and anthills. This has actually worked very well. One patch at the back which was quite bald is looking like a tourist poster of Ireland - all emerald, now.

RR, and TX, if I leave the dead leaves and grass to mulch then they lie about discouraging the grass from growing and encouraging moss instead. There is a big stand of oaks overhanging the back of the garden and this leads to an 'interesting' ecological habitat. In August I had a little flood down by the wall! :eek: I shall be back to ask advice about that.

Well, I have had a real good stint out there today. As it's going to rain tonight, I thought I'd just rake my patch ;) - I mean the wildflower meadow. I was enjoying it so I kept going, and I have managed to rake the whole lawn and mow it :) It has taken me four hours and given my glutes a very good workout :devil: I should think that would be it before winter? The wildflower 'meadow' is still a bit shaggy so if I get a chance I will rake and mow it again - or at least rake it. I expect I will have to rake up leaves more than once before winter really sets in too :rolleyes:

I managed to fill a whole bin full of moss, leaves, twigs and grass cuttings!!! It was empty when I started and this is what it looked like when I had finished dumping the rakings and mowings in it.

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • DSC_3377.jpg
    DSC_3377.jpg
    55.1 KB · Views: 0
Naoko! That looks so fantastic. All our our landscaping needs trimming now that the flowering is over and the fall is coming.
 
Chaps, I am having a thought. How about if I dig all the grass clippings I've mowed into the vegetable patch to mulch in? Would that be a good idea? I have dug out the last of the potatoes now and it only has cat poo in it. I was thinking the grass would rot down nicely over winter and be good for the soil.
:cattail:

And the shed ?
:)

I know, I know. I have to do this small bed by the fence for bulbs, otherwise I will have no Spring bulbs. After that, I will try to do the shed before winter! *puff pant*
 
Back
Top