Does anyone know anything about gardening?

You know what, you're only doing that one bit. So probably not.

I've just got flashbacks of filling our drive and it was night and day in terms of difficulty between dry vs mildly moist.

Amazing how much bigger it looks too!

My No Mow May is going to be a bit delayed having fucked up the lawn a fair bit and now in the process of repairing it.

Cheers, mainly moaning about the weather, but I can see how being dry would help. I’ll pick some sand up over the weekend and see how it goes.

Nope, knock away the surrounding pointing until you find a bit without a gap beneath. Fill with 1 part of cement to 3 parts of building sand mixed with just enough water to make it stick together. Karate chop the mix in with the edge of a trowel. Kiln dried is the perfect seed bed for weeds.

Thanks. Appreciate your thoughts. Shopping list duly changed.

Dry postcrete then water with a watering can and rose?

Will flow in like dry sand but the water from top and absorbing moisture from underneath should wet it out enough for pointing.

The risk is the whole thing is dot and dab so that there's effectively a massive void under the whole thing

Correct analysis of the likely problem, but postcrete is a weak and brittle mix, plus the stones have to be sieved out. This is why the karate chop method works, it forces the mix beneath the slab edges and any excess can be brushed off without staining once dryish, usually about 30 mins. Karate away until thr pointing is solid and then smooth to match the surface to the surrounding pointing with a gloved finger. The potentially of having to point a larger area does exist...

Thanks, any further tips will be gratefully received. I’m lining this job up for Monday (what bank holidays are made for right?), if the weather plays nicely.

My acer has got smaller leaves this year and a small amount have also just died off. There is one large branch off the main trunk that looks totally healthy with normal size leaves. The rest are about half the size.

Any ideas? :(

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Greenhouse is getting going

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Envious.

The slugs/snails make direct sowing a very frustrating/disappointing endeavour. Considering starting gladioli in pots then transferring to the ground, or is that a stupid idea?

Yeah that looks great, a greenhouse is so much win when it comes to growing stuff. I spent the morning potting on peppers, sweet peas and sowing the seed bed with carrots, salad and herbs.

All my dahlias are stumps from the slugs. I've performed a couple of late night culls but it really needs a week of solid de-molluscing. I've never noticed them going for my gladioli though, the leaf is quite solid compared to other soft new growth. I have a few corms in pots which I dug up last year with the intention of planting out but I just left them, worked great.

slugs are wee fucs. I’m about to get some urban ducks at this rate

I'll try the gladioli straight in the ground and a few insurance in a pot. Few years ago my sister gave me some enormous allium bulbs and although they tried coming up a few times they were in the end defeated by the slugs.

I was out at 5am this morning. Never seen so many snails in my life. Two handfuls yeeted over the fence into the railway.

I’m getting two handfuls off each of my plants at the moment!

I've been collecting snails solidly every day for 2 weeks and taking them for a walk down the road, definitely helped.

Why can’t the sizeable population of foxes eat all the slugs and snails? They fuck around in my garden enough, tuck in my mates

Maybe the only way to avoid snails is by taking to the water like this bonsai boat I saw at the weekend.

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Hedgehogs are what you want for slugs and snails. They're like liquorice allsorts for hedgehogs.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240503-why-you-should-let-insects-eat-your-plants

Seem to have fewer slugs than I would expect - wonder if the previous owners went hard on the nematodes

Some colour coming out:

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Been using nematodes for 2 years now, no slugs in the garden but loads of snails. I grew broad beans in the garden and on the allotment. Allotment broad beans got absolutely decimated, garden broad beans are nearly ready for picking and not a bit munched.

My gooseberry got munched by sawfly last year, no sign of them this year.