Does anyone know anything about gardening?

My azalea has gone fucking ballistic, it’s like it’s decided that it’s done with leaves, flowers are where it is at.

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So just watered my grass. Don't think I've needed to do that ever in April.

Until you break a collar bone and then she’ll batter you :)

I just ordered a ton of topsoil and 20 bags of play sand, sandpit to go under the gulag watch tower and what was going to be my niwaki buxus hedge is being reappropriated for carrots and peas this year.
Finally got my arse in gear today and finished the rendering on a step and retaining wall today.

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Four years ago when we bought it, no central heating, 1950’s wiring etc, hell of a project.

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Stunning.

You never need to water grass in the UK. It will go a bit brown sometimes but will be fine once it rains again.

@inchpincher why you no have flower beds?

Looks great by the way. Kudo to all the hard work.

Just how we’ve phased the work really, this spring we’d planned to have a big spend up on shrubs and the like but hey ho. There’s a few trees planted, a couple of Acers ready to go in, a weird crab apple that my sister bought us, a nice vibernum in a tub from my folks etc.

The last three fence panels worth of the garden will be given over to veggies with a greenhouse in the back corner, the rather imposing climbing frame has taken the spot of one of the borders.

I’ll deck the lower bit from the raised bed to the house but I’ve got a monumental dammit-esqe challenge cleaning and laying 45m² of reclaimed parquet. 🤦‍♂️

did you make the concrete planter yourself?

Ok long post warning.

I have a garden. I know nothing about gardening. What I do know is that I want to do something with the bland rectangle. I’ll break this down into several questions:

1. The ‘grass’ is mainly moss, cat shit and builder’s rubble. What’s the best way to resurrect this? Dig the whole thing over? Pick out the shit and rubble and scarify it?
   
2. I plan to make some (fairly low) raised beds along the left side using railway sleepers. The garden is on a slope so I want to even this out as much as possible and step the sleepers. What should I use against the fence to hold the soil and prevent it rotting? I’ve assumed the left side is the best side as it gets sun most of the day and the other side is almost permanently in the shade. Is this the best approach?
   
3. Does anyone have a good source for sleepers?
   
4. We plan to build a studio at the bottom at some point in the future (hello Golf Club thread). I’m guessing it’d make sense to run power under the raised beds while I’m digging in that area?
   

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That’s great!

1. Hire rotovator, break into fine tilth, throw away crap, roll and re-turf.

2. Best practice is a 9" block or brick wall with weep holes at the bottom. Possibly sleepers on top of block wall to hide ugly blocks. Proper railway sleepers would last probably 15 years if used as a wall, new pine ones would last five minutes.

3. Not at the moment, all suppliers closed!

4. Yes. Either run it through conduit or use armoured cable. Put shingle 4" all around and a warning plastic tape above. Go as deep as you can...

Do you plan a cover for your sandpit? Very popular with cats.

. 2. If you want really long term you want
jarrah sleepers. Oak should still last a long time ~15yrs iirc.

https://www.railwaysleepers.com/used-railway-sleepers/used-g1-2-jarrah-tropical-hardwood-railway-sleepers

It might be the way your photo is taken, but it looks a decent length, so grass + boarder might look a bit long and boring. I would think of something placed in the last 3rd to break it up visually. As it's on a slope the obvious thing would be to terrace the lawn.

Also have a think about where you're ultimately going to want to sit/hangout when the weather is nice.

Amazon did the business and the JB Weld arrived today. So I had a closer look at the hole in the can

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Used a small hammer to iron out the creases from the inside and the hole is far larger than the amount of water leaking would suggest

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Used a wire brush ting on the end of my cordless power tool to clean it up

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Didn't have a zinc patch/coke can so decided to use the nut and bolt method so used a drill to prepare two holes

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Mixed up some JB Weld and coated the inside and outside of the can as well as the bolt threads liberally, inserted them both and then tightened up the nuts.

Internal view courtesy of today's bright sun

It's currently being left overnight to dry before rust-proofing and painting

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External

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Raised planters in place ready for veg to be planted out in the next couple of weeks

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Does anyone have a good source for sleepers?

Not all suppliers are closed. Lawsons are open for example.

I don't know enough to recommend them or not.

V strong planter game

Cheers, that is one of 6 planters, 3 with full cages for raspberries, runners and sweet peas, the 3 low ones have strawberries, asparagus and mixed veg, there is all a quad of low level players which have gooseberries, rhubarb and other seasonals in.

Thread winner!