Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Weird addendum, the cherry tree must’ve been a graft that was in vogue in the 1980s - two different colour varieties grafted into one root stock. We get the earlier flowering pink ornamental side, they get a white flowered fruiting side. Bizarre.

Pros:

• apple tree and the end (they don't maintain it tho, so it's feast or famine)
  
• some random tree the parakeets live in
  
  

Cons:

• budlia at the end (not maintained)
  
• removing an epic blossoming cherry tree (not ours, but it brought joy every spring and I still miss it)
  
  
  

So pretty lucky overall.

I plan to replace the fence panels on one side in the next month, there are good posts to reuse and they seem to all be standard 6' square panels I can nail in pretty easily (probably). However I really feel like the standard stain/wood look is a bit dull, and actually a bit unpleasant when new so am considering a colour for the lot of it, the question is what, and also how? *

Thinking about a nice dark colour, ie black or very dark green? Not really inspired by anything more modern/colourful as I'm worried it will date a bit, and I'd like to avoid just-buy-a-fucking-new-build greige.

• Yes, two questions.
  

The area in question

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Some fencing wholesalers can supply darker brown fence panels rather than the standard tending to mucky orange.

Cuprinol Ducksback used to come in a range of colours. We previously had the panels blue on our side.

nail

Better off using screws and guide holes on the insubstantially dimensioned timber used for framing fence panels.

Cons: Sycamore and Acer throwing their seeds everywhere. And zero bramble control at their end. I have to keep fighting the root runners and branches.

Pros: Huge clematis with nice pink flowers
Wild ivy that attracts lots of insects
The Acer is very pretty with red leaves and the falling leaves improve the soil

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Bit of a pond refactor

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Cupranol. (or the premium ronseal if it's significantly cheaper).

Paint pannels before installation.

People say get a sprayer. IMO a big brush is fine, and I worried about spray back on the house/neighbours.

If you buy a diy grade sprayer, buy it from Screwfix so when it breaks (which it will) you can take it back and use the credit for something else.

Be aware that coloured pannels require repainting. Here are the ones I painted during lock down with Cupranol in Suburban Anthracite. IMO this is an excellent colour to contrast with foliage. The shed is also Cuprinol or Ronseal premium in Pinterest Grey - this is a much more capricious colour, and I wouldn't use it for fences.

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Another more complicated option is to put nicer slatted pannels ontop.

We painted these with diluted oil based external wood paint. This has held up much better than everything else.

(I'm really looking forward to getting this area sorted next year - I'm thinking about planting a creeping thyme lawn in place of the stones)

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Shed is cuprinol golden oak but it's a bit poo brown. Fence is ronseal fence life plus Tudor Oak which I quite like, plus as @hugo7 points out, dark works well as a foliage background.

Both require at least two coats and if you have anything other than flat fence panels they will take a long time to paint. We have some with a lattice along the top and it took forever.

Planed panels do look nice and clean though, vs sawn featheredge.

Be aware that if the panels are tongue and groove, the wood will likely shrink/expand and reveal unpainted bits.

The water based finishes make cleaning up easy but do make sure you protect the ground beneath where you paint. Our patio looks a bit Jackson Pollock.

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Pardon the slow reply to the concrete question., I was driving to Exmoor. Tiles are not famed for their bendy properties and if they aren't perfectly aligned at every corner they look bloody awful. Thus, the slightest ridge in the concrete of even 1mm will bugger the entire surface. If the ridge hasn't been spotted it is evil incarnate to attempt to make the tiles match up and the whole lot might have to be lifted, probably sacrificing any tiles that have already been laid. The adhesive goes off in minutes and makes shit to a blanket look an insecure bond.

You can get away with slight deviations with stone, particularly when using a 25mm bed of mortar, but anything ceramic is unforgiving.

Cheers.

Idk why but it stuck in my head. Always interesting to hear how this stuff works in reality.

Does that process then create problems for rain run-off? I guess in the sort of locations they were traditionally fitted, this isn't a concern. But in the UK it obviously is.

flat doesn't necessarily mean level. You'll still want some fall

Thank you, you're absolutely right, 1 degree is sufficient for ceramics, 2 for stone because of the irregular surface. The problem is generally not the 'from' but the 'to'.

Hyacinths going in today. Hopefully the soil is forgiving

Having an issue with one of our vines showing what looks like late blight - black marks on stems and brown patches on leaves
Anyone with grape vine experience can confirm this, and how to rectify? We don't want it spreading to our other vine. All our toms died from it so we think it's rife in the garden. Any help would be much appreciated!

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Thanks all, the ronseal fence life plus Tudor Oak looks like the ideal background colour for my planned leafy border (its in shade) - hoping to redo the other side but will keep that more wood colour.

Is it worthwhile in terms of longevity to go for something like this:
https://www.harlowbros.co.uk/6-x-6-feather-edge-close-board-fence-panel-golden-brown-treated-ffebp660gl

over this (which is a like for like swap):
https://www.harlowbros.co.uk/6-x-6-waney-edge-fence-panel-golden-brown-treated-fplp660gl

Fig update. 8/10 are now in leaf, just about. We're probably moving house soon so these will hopefully get to be trained up a nice sunny wall somewhere next year, assuming I can keep them alive through the winter (probably indoors). I want to try this technique with cuttings from my neighbor's cherry next.

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Props! Got some serious fig envy here.

I’ve got a big iris that I would like to move because it’s mostly all we can see from the window and it looks rubbish 90% of the year. Everywhere says to do it in July/Aug, but given the late summer we’re having am I alright to do it now? Can I cut it back hard and move the rhizomes? I’m not too fussed if it perishes to be honest.

We (our neighbours) used to have a huge fig tree that mostly fruited on our side of the fence and I used to gorge myself silly on fresh figs all summer. Now I have a 12 inch fig tree in a pot and it just isn't the same.

Just went for it with the iris, got 9 promising bits from the outside. Now a lovely big space to put some other stuff in!

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Found this via via, a cool read on how trees and garden plants can become part of a proper flood defense

https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/buildings/grey-to-green-sheffields-transformational-flood-defence-scheme

Free delivery at Thompson & Morgan this weekend btw