Does anyone know anything about gardening?

er yea, by estate i don’t mean country estate, lol

Plenty of 'normal' folk on there. Just the other day they had a segment on a couple people who'd done up some rough ground on their estate.

I've put a couple of small ponds into the garden - one 40 litres and one 80 litres. What sort of plants should I get to encourage wildlife in? They're just large plastic troughs designed for livestock to drink from, so there's no soil or anything at the bottom.

Try a collection! I stocked my pond with plants from Puddleplants, who did all the thinking for me.

(Puddleplants are also more reliable than the big name plant merchants, I've got a lot of time for them, great webshop)

Puddleplants is a good shout. I just bought a few planting baskets from them for my new pond. I got plants from https://britishpondplants.co.uk/ who supplied a great native plant pond starter set. More photos to follow once we’ve got the baskets to plant things in - dummy here didn’t think about that until the plants arrived.

You've outed yourself there.

I think we'll try and do that. Gonna need a big old pot though.

Current state of play.

Sad bay.

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Apprentice in the Monty Don school of gardening.

thanks for all the recommendations
am thinking along the lines of a bosch battery powered mower now. it is for mum and dad, push mower would be too much effort for them at their time in life. they're not too keen on a cabled / petrol powered mower. bosch are a reliable well recommended electrical goods company. i think i'll head to the bosch website and make a selection.

i'll be picking up a petrol mower in the coming months for myself and the honda powered mountfield sounds like a winner. or maybe an older 2nd hand atco for those stripes

had a push mower off the internet for my garden in london and for a small compact bit off green it was perfect. quick easy and good for a bit of exercise

Do we need a push mower appreciation thread?

been using mine for about 15 years, was a cheap chinese ? model from ebay still going strong with very little maintenance and keeps the grass down. what more can you ask for.

I'll subscribe!! I love mine, wish I bought one years ago

I had one. Definitely wouldn't have an electric/petrol one. Love the sound (unlike the alternative). Got rid of lawn. Gave away mower.

If anyone has any tips on where to source an absolutely massive pot from for reasonable money please shout.

What’s reasonable?

They had some pretty big pots in Lidls the other day?

Short term get it into a plastic style trug like this thing. 100+ litre ones should be circa £20.00. I use these while sourcing/saving for better/nicer ones.

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Yep Peckham Lidl had some big pots at decent prices today

I had to buy some last summer and was quite shocked how much they cost!

Fingers crossed 🤞

Penstemon and dahlia seedlings potted and the tulips my mum got me are lovely.

Earthworms are returning with some help of leaves, woodchip and some breaking up the clay. And killing new Zealand flatworms so far no new ones but I keep an eye out.

Any idea what the plant on the other photo can be? It's not mint or oregano...worked it's way up in s chunk of clay.

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Cutting sleepers in situ with a hand saw isn't fun.

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at least the wood wasn't wet, eh (🙃)

What’s reasonable?

£100?

This would be the dream though

Not sure finance would approve 20% of our patio budget on a pot.

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I wasn't sure the ones in mine were big enough.

TBH I need to measure it up properly. I also thought about an interim bin as I have one to store my perlite(?). Maybe a trug would be better though as it's more slidy.

Self cast one from fibre reinforced concrete? Use sand or a plastic tub as a form?