Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Aye, I’ve got a few things on order that should help, just finishing off the paving by the shed first.

Did you cut the boards?
Nice extension of the patio though mate

Nah I got the people who did a bad job of prepping the sub base to cut them, cheers though, it’s far from perfect but has saved a couple of k.

some mind your own business amongst the boards, if you could stop it invading the whole garden

This is not a thing. If it's there is everywhere! (Is actually a plant I find little redeeming about)

Oh yeah, that’s what I’ve ordered!

I have it spilling out of pots in a paved part of my garden far from any beds or lawn, so it can't escape. Personally I love it

Oh interesting, just google image'd it and completely different plant to the one I had in mind. Baby's breath as an indoor plant. Huh. The plant I'm thinking of had always been nameless until this summer someone pointed some out and called it Mind Your Own Business, but seems a case of mistake identity.

forgot to post photo earlier

1 Attachment

Not sure if this is more diy but...

My OH is looking at picking up a 2nd hand Wendy house similar to this

240x170cm platform is 50cm high

Our garden has a slight slope and in the planed area its maybe a foot between the highest / lowest points. It is also heavy clay, although one side will sit on quite good earth. The garden is a thoroughfare for cats and foxes.

My questions are these:

1. I should put something under the feet right? Both to prevent rotting and sinking. Would this be a job for Eco bases? It feels like it.
   
2. Would you add feet to make them more stable with a larger surface area? Or will this just give a surface to collect water to help them rot?
   
3. What should go under it? Both in terms of plants and base. As fun as the kids playing under maybe due to the risk of animals, I'm inclined to add plants to discourage kids going under - am I right, or being silly? Plants I'm thinking Cyclamen, ferns, and something Junglely.
   
4. Any ideas for a "light" living roof? Ie shit growing on rather than full shabang
   
   

Cheers

Any ideas for a "light" living roof

Grow any climber that you like up it and drape it over the roof? Clematis etc

I like the texensis type clematis eg. Princess Kate. Awful name though. Or clematis armandii if you want evergreen.

What do you mean by 'risk of animals'? Foxes using it as a den?

soleirolia is the one I mean, but yeah the common names are often shared by multiple different plants. In the right setting I think it's charming

Cheers for the tips. Climbers are exactly what I was thinking.

What do you mean by 'risk of animals'? Foxes using it as a den?

Chilling underneath and shitting. I've had good luck to date at keeping my eldest out of the fox and cat shit. But the prospect of either of them crawling around and then getting it all over themselves doesn't bare thinking about. Also it's one of those jobs I have to deal with if/when it happens. Also rodents chilling and pissing shitting.

Install Siberian Tiger, litter trained of course.

Any idea how heavy it is? I would have thought there was a risk of tipping if you are in a windy area and it is top heavy, so I would be looking to bolt it down somehow. I guess minimum effort would be the post spikes, but I would be tempted to make 4 concrete pads for the legs to be bolted to.

No idea. But good point.

Although we get savage winds, it'll be in a fairly protected corner of the garden and the platform is only ½m high.

Concrete pads won't be feasible timewise. But the spikes look like a good idea. I'll treat the feet with some end grain and maybe some of that plastidip-like roofing paint.

Would the spikes prevent sinking?

I found it very hard to get those spikes in square, sockets in postcrete were much easier and didn’t take ages. Big trellis, not little house.

Thanks that's good to know.

My gut says it'll be ok, and will probably go with four ecobase's under each corner. But we'll see once I get it.

Quite enjoying the idea of making a jungle play area as it's something I saw on a gardening show back in the day. This will be a lot less impressive, but still. Also because we have an odd corner at the back behind the current planned location there will be a reasonable bit of "wasted" space. This opens up the option for a very deep boarder for layering, which in a family garden you don't usually have the luxury of doing.

Once I've actually sorted out getting it, building it, locating it, tarting it up, I'll post up some plant ideas.

This is what I was thinking of. It's kind of sticky/cobwebby.

1 Attachment

The Picture This app suggests that’s spreading pellitory, aka sticky-weed.

That's not what I call sticky weed, what I call sticky weed is also called cleavers (galium aparine)

Any ideas what this seedling could be?

There’s no thorns or anything in it.

1 Attachment

Picked up the Wendy House. Much easier than anticipated.

Will hold fire on doing an actual CP in case the light refresh/pimping and jungle planting doesn't happen. But here is the dumping bit of the garden where it'll live.

And here is the platform section, randomly placed to get that bit back together.

I've got a pressure hose at the moment, so wondering about cleaning it off with that, letting dry and treating. Thoughts? Wrong time of year?

Pressure hoses are too harsh for timber -erode the lignin or something - I know this from researching deck cleaning technique. Might be fine for something like this tho maybe - what I do recommend is ‘oxygen bleach’ which is powder you disolve - it foams up on wood and lifts all the gross green gunge. I also used osmo teak oil clear on my larch deck - joy to use and has revived it lovely.

Hawthorne?