A Venture into the Garden

[Rob Pulham]

Looking good Jim,

We seem to have acquired 3 of those radios which we have in various rooms - bought for next to nothing with Tesco clubcard points

 

[JimG]

We seem to have acquired 3 of those radios which we have in various rooms - bought for next to nothing with Tesco clubcard points

Rob,

The radio does work very well but it seems to eat batteries - hence the ever present mains extension and USB power pack.

Jim.

 

[JimG]

It's been a long time waiting on a long enough dry period to let the ground dry out a bit to let the earth work easily, but this last week was pretty well dry from the start, with just an early morning shower on Thursday, so I managed to get more done on the path.



The worst bit was the four or five slabs in the top right area which had to be inclined and I had to work through a lot of surface roots as well. I'm trying to maintain as much of the existing plants as possible so a lot of the work is with a trowel and a set of secaturs to expose and cut the minimum amount of roots necessary.

So it's nearly there. Poor weather is forecast for the next day or two and I might not get the last few slabs in place until next week. Once the path is complete I might get a bit of woodworking done on the trackbase before winter starts to close in.

Jim.

 

[JohnFla]

I trust that strategically placed mug on post is another of your cunning home made leveling devices Jim.

Coming on a treat.

 

[JimG]

I trust that strategically placed mug on post is another of your cunning home made leveling devices Jim.

Coming on a treat.

John,

I'm afraid such a development was short lived since the vessel didn't seem capable of retaining fluids.

Jim.

 

[JimG]

The reasonably good weather over the past day or two has let me get more work done on the apple tree area.



Yesterday, the yellow brick road was completed. The slabs are all laid as level as I can get them but I expect to have to fine tune them again next year after the winter frosts get to work on the clay soil. I have previous experience when laying a patio some years ago when it took about two years of fine adjustment until the slabs stayed level.


The next gardening job, which was done today, was to cover the area which would be under the baseboards with bark chips to control the weeds. Once the hedges on each side of the boards are established this area will be well nigh inaccessible. The edging boards containing the bark are made from some thin tapered planks from B&Q which were halved into 75mm strips. They are a bit obvious at the moment but I'm hoping that a winter's weathering will merge them into the scene. I've also planted out the hedging cuttings from the spring. They are at the far end in the picture and are hardly visible. But the hedge in the front garden needs cutting again so there will be a good source of cuttings to plant out the rest of the layout.

I can now start contemplating doing more work on the baseboards. I had to get the path and the earthworks done before more woodwork was put in place otherwise access to get the gardening work done would have been difficult. I'll just have to hope for fair weather coming up.

Jim.

 

[JimG]

Not much has been done in the garden lately, down to other activities - like getting the US S scale layout ready for exhibition - having taken over. However the recent spell of good weather has got me out to exercise my limited horticultural abilities.

I had planted out more hedge clippings from the last time of cutting the hedge last year. I planted them in a couple of gro-bags from B&Q to see how they got on and the success rate was good with probably about 90% of them striking successfully. So I took the chance to plant them out around the layout.


Planting out between the support posts with base of the plum tree on the right.


Not quite the "Gardener's World" set of tools. The lump hammer and bolster chisel are handy to cut a planting hole in the clay soil which has now begun to bake hard. The brickie's trowel is handy for cutting plants out of the gro-bag and carting them over to the planting site.


Last year's path work has started to blend into the scenery. The day lilies have started to take over already and my bark chips don't seem to have been very successful at suppressing the weeds. The hedge cuttings in this area were planted at the end of last year and seem to have taken well. The soil in this garden is quite poor - builder's heavy clay muck with a sprinkle of top soil, and the years haven't improved it. Typically, plants take a long time to establish and I think it will take four or five years for the hedge to attain the height I want it to, hence I'm getting the planting done now. I've now got about 75% of the oval planted out with hedge and I'll do another set of cuttings to complete it in the summer.

Jim.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

my bark chips don't seem to have been very successful at suppressing the weeds

It may be worth investing in a weed suppressant membrane. Alternatively turn it into a thyme bed with various varieties of thyme or a herb garden with marjoram, thyme, lavender, oregano, sage, rosemary, chives, rosemary, parsley and even curry plant.

 

[JimG]

It may be worth investing in a weed suppressant membrane. Alternatively turn it into a thyme bed with various varieties of thyme or a herb garden with marjoram, thyme, lavender, oregano, sage, rosemary, chives, rosemary, parsley and even curry plant.

Dave,

Most of the weed on the bark chips is Sticky Willie and there is quite an infestation in the garden which I'm trying to control by weeding as much of it out before it gets to seed. It could be that the bark got a lot of seed in it last year. I'm reckoning on the bark area being a "dead" area once the hedging round it is established. The hedge will probably control any weed generation in any case. I'll keep weeding the bark and see if it suppresses other weeds once the Sticky Willie is got rid of.

Jim.