Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Our heap just got lots of privet clippings, old window basket compost, lots of lawn cuttings and stinky dandelion tea and about 40 banana skins a week and came out lovely. The little red worms go freaking nuts for the banana skins and form golf-ball sized knots of writhing worms.

Turned ours today. Compostable bags are poorly named

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Most of them are not designed for domestic composting methods and say as much on the bag.

The compost bin liners we have a pretty good - they're gone at the base of the heap (12 months ish).

A bit of mechanical degradation, and putting them in wet seems to help.

Don't be tempted to put compostible nappies in, either - Domestic composts are nowhere near hot enough, plus there's the whole bacterial contamination thing.

Also, given that councils will not take them for composting, nor will any other commercial composters in the UK, and the only place in the world that does accept them is in California, I'd say don't bother with them at all.

Oh yeah - and they take longer to decompose in landfill that normal disposable nappies...

they take longer to decompose

wat

About as quick as tea bags then. Was throwing those things in with the veg for a couple of years and what a bloody nuisance they proved to be.

Did a few bits this week/weekend, not much else to do, thoroughly enjoying it. Need to buy some plants for shade and some long grass, pampas grass for the front garden obviously...

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These are home compostable but just a bit crap. I think they will decompose if you have decent composting conditions but turning that heap is such a faff I only do it about once a year

Two questions:

1. Does anyone have a picture or story of a privet hedge that they've planted themselves which has established reasonably well? I planted one last autumn and just gave it its first proper pruning and it seems to be shaping up well, but any tips would be great.

2. If I bought some wild flower seed mix and scattered it on a portion of my lawn, would it grow reasonably well there or would I need a more precise method?

On 2, to do it properly you'd need to remove the grass first, as it stops other plants growing by taking all the moisture and nutrients out of the soil. There's loads of online resources to describe how to do it.

I believe that sowing yellow rattle seed is an easier way to start as it inhibits grass growth, but you need to do it in autumn and give it a head start by raking the lawn and exposing some bare soil.

The really easy way to do it, and now is the right time to start, is to stop mowing the lawn through the spring and just let it grow, then mow in the late summer or autumn. However there might not be other plants in your lawn that can benefit from this.

just dug my lawn over to reseed again but with the whole end of the world thing going on would i be better turning it over to veg ?

size 4m x 2m ?

Any thoughts on what to do with this?

It's pretty small, 4m x 4m maybe.

Would like grass (preferably real). How long do you have to stay off after laying new turf? Assume I'd have to do a fair bit of digging to break up that soil for turf.

It's an end of terrace so the brick wall faces out onto the street. Eventually I'd like something high and reasonably impenetrable growing along there. Any suggestions?

The side "corridor" is about 6' x 20'. Any ideas what to do there? (Although there is a reasonable chance that a bike shed will be going there)

Cheers

A modern bramble/blackberry is Natures' barbed wire
and,
gives a much more useful crop.

Berberis is something I wouldn't like to climb through

pruned one of those today, worse than razor wire, spikes in ALL the directions

A rotavator and water filled roller from your local hire centre will do the job in a couple of hours. Rotavate to a fine tilth, rake and roll flat, repeating until you have a firm flat surface. Turf it over using standard turf, fine turf is more expensive than standard and is only an advantage if you want to pay bowls. Expect to pay about £5 per metre roll, I pay £3 trade. You can walk on it immediately in flat shoes, it actually helps to flatten it down. BUT, you absolutely must keep it damp for at least a month to allow it to root into the soil. If it dries out it it will shrink, curl up, go brown and be generally permanently fucked.

I also recommend berberis, it is quite decorative, particularly in the red form. It is also an absolute cunt. Have fun pruning it!

feeds the birds right through till xmas, with it's mass of berries

What's the aspect? A shrub higher than the wall will take up a lot of space and light, you could try a climbing rose:

https://www.britishroses.co.uk/acatalog/dense_thorny_rose_barriers.html

Eventually I'd like something high and reasonably impenetrable growing along there. Any suggestions?

Why not attach anti-climb spikes on the top and garden side of the wall and grow something worthwhile and pleasing at the base. To get something spikey to grow to the top of the wall would mean a wait of years and it will grow outwards too, reducing the width of your passage, ooh matron etc.

Cheers all. Sounds like the turfing should be pretty doable so I can ignore my girlfriend's suggestion of fake grass.

It's south facing. Anti-climb spikes are an option but they're all pretty ugly so far as I've seen. Anyone any suggestions for nice looking ones? I like the idea of blackberries or berberis for stuff to eat for me or the birds but I guess that it may not be the best idea in a small garden with a small child.

Pop a 1ft trellis up, things grow quicker along trellis and they are not easy to climb over without breaking them and making a lot of noise. There’s the added benefit that in breaking the trellis you get long spikes of wood that can puncture a spleen.

For plant ideas on the trellis, a nice bee friendly jasmine. Not spiky and the smell will fill the garden.

Compost bins made from old pallets overflowing here as its spring and almost everything in the garden needs pruning.
Also my shredder blades appear to need sharpening or I need to let the cuttings dry out a bit before shredding them

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#selfisolation is giving me time to fix my fence line though, going from this

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