Does anyone know anything about gardening?

I know I've asked you about his before but when you do nice big trees like that I'd be up for buying any stuff I could slab and dry (obviously not too much but really nice and unusual ones)

Unfortunately, you'd be better off seasoning it in sections of trunk before planking it at your friendly local sawmill. Cross sections tend to split like buggery unless seasoned first.

we moved into a new house in January and the lawn isn't a lawn, it's a lovely even square patch of moss. when we viewed the house in august, i remember it being a smart, striped affair, but the old lady who lived here died soon after and the garden's been a tiny bit neglected since.

i'm seeing all types of advice about aerating, scarifying and chemically blasting the moss at various times of year. i know just mowing the shit out of it will help. as might seeding? the ground seems well drained, or certainly not boggy. any tips to get the thing looking decent this year?

Depends on the species and thickness of the slab.

Most sawmills these days will slab a trunk any way an then bandsaw to separate the quarter sawn, rift sawn and through sawn timber. Traditional milling techniques are sadly dying out as they are not cost effective.

For example to get the maximum yield of quarter sawn (i.e top-grade) timber from a tree, the trunk must be quartered. Then when cutting planks after every cut you have to roll an rotate the quarter thus requiring more time and labour. Alternatively you can through cut the log into slabs and then season it or kiln dry it this will then allow you to rip off quarter sawn lumber, rift sawn lumber and through cut lumber. It also means less waste.

Big cavity at about 15ft up, all the root buttress were rotten although trunk was solid at base. Was chock full of meripilus brackets the last couple of years. Shame as it was a lovely tree. Root plate was waterlogged and spongy from about 10” below surface down, felt like grinding through wet polystyrene.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8_13h1Bshi/?igshid=sms14ge6iw29

Afaik the company have worked on the tree a few times over the years and monitored the cavity over that time. Was home to parakeets for the last few years as well.

@Bobbo it’s not that common for us to get anything worth planking that stays in the yard very long. Most fells are domestic so they have to get cut into man sized pieces(unless we can get the Norcar loader on site) and even then we never get whole trunks out. If you ever want to come over to iver and pick through the log pile it’s probably doable but tbh it goes out again to biomass as fast as it comes in. We’ve got an Alaskan mill frame in the yard but not dusted it off in like a year as never have the time for it.

I would be really interested as I'm just round the corner from Iver (Denham). Can't promise I'd be able to take much but would certainly be happy to match the price you'd get for biomass (especially if you ever fell a walnut tree 😉).

Edit: I don't know if you're aware but there is a guy in Oxfordshire who makes a decent second income selling unusual timber to hobbyists. https://blaiseintrees.com/

I’ll see what I can do. I’ve gone on unpaid covid leave against my bosses wishes but the company is still going. My name is mud in the yard at the mo so maybe wait a few weeks til I’m back ;)
Our big fells are predominantly oak and euc at the mo I reckon. Largest we usually load are about 5ft x 3ft as that’s about the limit of what the norcar will handle.
If you caught the boss in a good mood you’d be able to mill in the yard if you’ve got your own gear.

I don't have my own gear but do have access to a variety of different saws and sleds I could use (including an old saw pit and two man hand saws needed to achieve the desired effect).

Well if you’ve got something to take it away with we can always dump a couple of big lumps on yer truck and you can do with it as you please.
Will give you a shout when I’m back in if anything good crops up.

Sounds great.

I'm currently fighting the same battle. All this rain as completely trashed my lawn and left me with about 60% moss.
Firstly i cut the grass and went crazy with the strimmer on the large moss patches. I then put down some lawn treatment stuff that claims to feed the remaining grass and kill the moss. Four days later and it appears to be doing the trick, with the moss turning black and the grass looking perkier than before.

I'm not too sure exactly what this stuff was to be honest, but the cat is definitely not a fan, the garden smells like a beach and there are a crazy amount of dead grubs that have come up, so i'm guessing it's fairly high in salt.

I'll give it a few more days and then seed it and see what happens.

nice to know, ta. i think aerating could be a good idea for you (from my limited research, it sounds like drainage is an issue).

i was hoping to avoid chemicals too much because the grass is a key sanity restorer for my toddler and me during this lockdown! i think i have some organic stuff somewhere though. i tried scarifying but it just yanked up the moss carpet completely, leaving... er... soil.

Personally really glad to see my grass is suffering, trying to get much more biodiversity into it and it's hard to establish things like daisy, clover, etc when the lawn is thriving.

Hoping to mow it back extremely short as soon as the bulb leaves have died back.

The drainage isn't too bad but we had so few proper frosts here this winter and so much rain that the moss was just allowed to take over.

This is the first time i have resorted to these sort of tactics but i have a deal with the Mrs that is the lawn isn't tip top this year then it's going to be dug up and paved, which i do not want.

what this stuff was

Probably Iron Sulphate

I then put down some lawn treatment stuff that claims to feed the remaining grass and kill the moss. Four days later and it appears to be doing the trick

I used something similar years ago on my folks lawn which has heavy shade towards the end of summer. It was in granule form. Worked well. No smell as you described and not as fast.

@fizzy.bleach - There are lots of moss-killer lawn fertilizer products. I'd just have a look.

Struggled to get all the seeds I wanted, but marshalls seemed to have the best range in stock and have free P&P for seeds:

https://marshallsgarden.com/

Thought it might be useful for anyone else prepping.

Couple of questions:

1. I need to widen my driveway and now I have all this spare time on my hands it seems like the perfect opportunity. My plan is to cut down a couple of plants in the beech hedge and knock down the wall. What is the best way of removing the roots of the hedge? Do I need to remove all of them? Its a well established hedge but much smaller than a tree so I'm guessing the roots will be pretty shallow so will I be ok to remove the bulk of the root ball and concrete over?
   
2. We have this wattle tree that we love but it's growing sideways quickly. What is the best way to encourage it to grow up rather than out?
   
   

Thanks oh green fingered wonders

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Beech is fairly shallow rooted, so removing the bulk of the root ball should be fine. You need at least 4"/100mm of concrete, if your van is frequently heavily loaded I might be tempted to go to 6"/150mm, possibly with reinforcing mesh at half depth. Fill to the bottom of the root ball holes with concrete or backfill with rammed MOT Type 1. Don't backfill with soil or a void will develop and the concrete could crack.

I would just prune back the lower branches regularly.

Gooseberry moved. Pruning next year once re-established.

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Cheers, my van will continue to be parked where it is in that photo as I can back it tight up to the garage doors and hedge to prevent scrotes trying to break in. I'm widening the drive so that my wife's car will fit in when I'm parked up so 4" of cover will be more than enough.

Get rid of both cars, dig up the concrete and have a massive garden.

At the risk of appearing on the golf club thread again; the garden is a pretty good size already.

Cool, if you can get hold of some 4x2 timber set that into the ground parallel to and level with the existing concrete as shuttering. This will give you something to tamp to and provide a clean edge to the concrete.

I has a yard full of 4x2.