Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Decent enough! I went for slate -wouldn’t ever go for plastic terracotta

The guy that delivered them mentioned taking off about a third off their height. It was discussed a while ago in this thread that when transplanting, the less foliage the plant has to keep alive, the easier it is for it.

I put aluminium sulphate on ours to keep them pink. Seems to work well.

Are there any compost bins that are worth buying or does it not matter and will a small one from the city council do?

It looks to me that if you have a big garden/lost of compost yes you DO need to set up a "pro" system, with different areas (from new to old, then turn it over) and a lid on it.

Perhaps I am overthinking it and a £10 bin from the council will be fine, assuming I turn over the compost every so often.

Right now it's all in garden waste bags, so it is composting OK but it's a bit untidy. We have lots of coffee grounds for

Just get a council one. Watch Charles Dowding’s YouTube about composting and you’ll be golden.

https://www.hotbincomposting.com/

I've had mine for 2 plus years now and it's fabulous! Have had 11 200l batches so far in that time. Heartily recommended.

Composting is all about getting your carbon and nitrogen sources in balance though. Heat just speeds it up and makesnit useable quicker.

Thank you!

I have no earthworms for some reason, somebody a mile away from me has the same problem.

But the council gardens DO have them, should I get some cow dung/worm eggs?

We have poor clay soil that is very damp where we live, but he has been gardening for 20 years and still has none, so not sure there is a point to try...

You need compost (sometimes called tiger) worms rather than the bigger earthworms - lumbricus terrestris. Once you start the compost bin they will find it. If you lay a few planks or pot bases out in the garden for a week or so you’ll find them stuck to the bottom.

I built a hot composter. In hindsight buying the legit hot composter although much more expensive might have been better for me. My wife insisted that our one go to our allotment. The hotconposter looks nice so probably would have been allowed that at home.

It works well though, loads of worms. I refill it once a month with household waste and then it’ll be about 3 months until we have useable compost.

Does it smell?

I've had compost out for a while in ugly bags with holes, there are critters under it:

Earwigs, woodlice, black millipedes, centipedes, springtails, mystery small critters, a huge millipede occasionally, ground beetles, a devil's coach horse beetle... and 0 worms.

Will try to get buy some tiger worms.

We have the dreaded new zealand flatworm (GROSS looking things) which may not help...but perhaps buying some worms and adding them may get things started.

Gonna dig a wildlife pond. Have seen info on the wildlife trust website, but wondered if anyone has any key bits of advice, things to do/avoid. Current thought is to go the liner route rather than clay/precast.

No experience. But Charlie Dymock (sp?) knows a lot about ponds if you're doing any YouTube searching for inspiration.

I can't remember the tip, but she had a really good one on getting a natural transition. To me that's the key difference between nice looking ponds and less nice ones.

Definitely keep the thread updated and post some pics of the process though.

Thanks will take a look at those videos then, and will post photos as we go. Hopefully start this weekend if the weather is kind.

How deep a pond are you considering?
Might want to think to incorporate linked steps/shelves for the banks.
This ensures whatever the water level wildlife can access it for drinking water,
and can safely exit the pond.

Picture shows a pond dug back in March '22 in Ruislip Woods NNR.
Leaflitter is accumulating on the shelves.
There are slopes between the shelves.

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I dug one about two years ago. I think I broadly followed the wildlife trusts guide.

It's quite small, about 1.2m by 80cm. I used an underlay as well as a water proof pond liner because some guides recommended that. Not sure how necessary the underlay was, but didn't add much to the cost, the liner is the expensive bit.

It's been great, has attracted some frogs and the birds like having a bath in it.

These guys are great for native plants. They tell you which ones are oxygenating, how deep they should go etc.

I've always wanted a pond or some other water feature, but my OH is too prang about kids drowning so 🤷‍♀️

Is it too late to put grass seed down now? Seems late but it doesn't feel that cold.

My grass is hardly growing so I wouldn't fancy the chances of seed getting a decent start.

Good point. Mine is still growing but not that quickly.

I guess the other question is will putting some down now cause any issues if it doesn't germinate?

I've had a few batches that didn't germinate. A lot of the time, they just did nothing and the next batch was fine. But one got particularly damp and there was no wind for a good while so the whole lawn developed a whispy mold/fungus. That went away too eventually and didn't really harm the existing grass, but it wasn't pleasant.

With the warm and windy spell is it worth me trying to mow the lawn on Sunday?

I'm planning to, if it dries out. It is still growing, if slowly, so I want to give the younger shoots as much chance before the older grass and the leaves choke them before it properly gets cold. Just don't take too much off in one go.