Does anyone know anything about gardening?

I used to have one that I'd bring indoors over winter

Outdoors in summer, in partial shade.
Unheated conservatory in winter, and water sparingly or it will deposit a sticky film.
Over the last ten years we've had flowers but fruit never grows to more than pea size before dropping off, so I'm not claiming any expertise.

Build an orangery

Ha! Progression of the "it's broken, buy a new bike" theory, did laugh!

I really can't imagine them growing this time of year... Have you got a picture?

I bought a mower. Even thought the lawn is less than 20 square meters, the hack job I was doing with just the strimmer was bugging me.

I don't know yet if there is a knack to it or the grass was a bit longer than it would have liked but the hover vac seemed to chuck grass about more than it collected.

Clippings are good for the lawn, says the internet. I let them return from whence they came.

If cut regularly so they are short or you use a mulching mower. Yesterday's mow took about 5 inches off in places, silage territory.

I have a railway siding behind my house. It is a square mile rats nest of bindweed. It was in my garden too.

I attacked my garden with 40litres of the most heavy duty, unethical, weapons grade weed killer I could buy. Turned the whole thing to a dead patch.
Turned the earth.
Laid down two tonnes of top soil and laid a new lawn.

6 weeks later I have bind weed coming up through my new lawn.
Mother fucker.

I do not have green fingers.
What are my options?

Getting rid of bind weed is a long term job, not something you can do in one hit.

The simplest thing is to keep pulling it up when you see it, eventually it'll stop being able to replenish itself. But it'll take time.

Can you get over the fence too? We've bindweed on the railway embankment behind our house, and I tend to go over once a year and cut it right back to stop it engulfing our fence.

Roundup weedkiller gel. Dab on underside of leaves. Repeat every couple of days until they are all gone.

As andyp says - it takes time.

If you have pets or leaf eating kids, get a roll of small sandwich or freezer bags to cover the dabbed leaves after application. Tie handle bags work well.

roundup has been banned in a lot of european countries

try and avoid chemicals if you possibly can

I was very unethical and used SBK to get rid of it in our last place

If you cover it ( black polythene sheet/old carpet) to starve it of light the roots will gather on the soil surface and you can then gather it all up and dispose. It takes a while because you are gradually exhausting it.
No chemicals involved.

We took the fence down.
They say railway siding, I say extra garden.

Going to go for the 'let it grow out for a bit, then bundle it into a bag and let it drink the poison' approach.

This maybe better suited to the DIY thread but I thought I might float it here first.

I just moved into a new house with a sloped garden. Ideally I'd like to level it so I can have somewhere for my son to play, grow some veg and put a little shed it the corner for bike and gardening stuff.

Searching the net I've found people who have done some interesting things with sleepers. I really like the idea of building a couple of benches either side of some steps up to the grass. The slope in my garden isn't as severe as the ones in the below examples.

Does anyone have any advice? There's a load of articles online about how to build a retaining wall and I know a carpenter and a builder so I'm hoping this is something I can do myself with their help rather than employing someone to do it. After buying the house I'm smashed so I'll have to do this on the cheap.

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Those sleepers look deadly slippy in the wet!

My other half did something similar at her flat before we moved in together. I got roped in to move the sleepers (which was fun as they all had to go through the house).

It was pretty straightforward - clear the area where you want to put the sleepers, we then put down a waterproof membrane to protect the bottom one, then build them up. By the looks of it you'll need some additional top soil, but that's easy enough to get.

Good to hear. I've a decent sized side passage so thankfully we won't have to go through the house. So essentially the bottom sleepers acted as a foundation? Any worries with rot? Did you build steps too?

I'll need a load of topsoil but I'm leaving on a building site at the moment so I'm hoping they'll be kind enough to donate a skip or two.

Good point @mashton didn't think of that. Griptape maybe?

Yeah, industrial strength grip tape or some kind of metal thibgummy, is think.

It looks really good btw.

Or instead of steps, leave a gap and have a sloped grass path in the middle or at one side? Would certainly be cheaper.

Don't do wooden steps. They're slippery when wet and children have a habit of running about with no shoes on and splinters in feet are not good. If you can get bona fide railway sleepers they will last forever due to the amount of oil etc soaked into them. Put the dirty side to the garden good side to the house and you can forget them. Stagger them like bricks and get some freecycle paving slabs and bricks to make some steps.

Also great for getting up speed on a scooter or balance bike etc.