Does anyone know anything about gardening?

So I removed the panel so I could paint both sides and avoid splashing the fence posts too.

I also removed the broken slat

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Picked a decent replacement from my stock of spares which are mainly from otherwise decent panels that were broken in the high winds last month so I dismantled them to save space and for ease of reuse

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Checked the level using my bubble and yup, not straight so I dug down to the foot of the gravel board and raised it a few cm

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Two block paviours for belt n braces

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Dry brushed the fence post and gravel board with grey paint to cover the fence paint splashes visible in the previous pic from the time a few years ago that I lazily painted the panels in situ rather than removing them.

Replaced the repainted panel, job done (although I now clearly have to do panel 26 to the right next...)

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Good work. Impressed by your diligence.

The fence in the spot I'm going to put our veg patch has awful movement from nextdoors higher garden and, I think from their massive storage container thing. I don't think I'll have the time this year or even ability to get supplies before the veg and trellis goes in.

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In between early am childcare duties I managed to take some rosemary cuttings.

As an experiment I did one just pearlite, one a sniff of potting compost, and one about ¼ compost.

Fingers crossed they will take. Hopefully with 6 I should get at least one.

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I also noticed that our conifer, that I've come to quite like has these little pink tips to it. Only visible up close, but actually really lovely.

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Thanks bud.

Moved down to panel number 26 today, its looking a bit tired.

Arty shot to show my plum tree that I pruned last month, the rhubarb which we harvested last week but have left some more to grow and our monkey puzzle tree

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Three of the slats are very warped and you can see through the fence

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So using the experience gained yesterday I removed and replaced three slats from my spares

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Medium oak fence paint (which has gradually changed from the Red cedar that I used on panels 1 to 10 as I progress up the garden)

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Painted both sides and replaced and looking good although obvs panel 25 now looks tired...

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Gap through fence now closed with the new slats

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Speaking as a weary jaded arborist, please promise you’ll kill that monkey puzzle before it gets big enough that some poor bugger has to climb it one day. Beautiful but evil.

Fence resto work is impressive.

Don't worry, I'm not a fan of large trees.

I've been in this property 23 years and over that time I have totally removed over 15 leylandii circa 30 feet high including root balls and pruned every other tree in the garden to keep them manageable.

Over the last two days I have also pruned trees on both sides of me for my neighbours. Not really out of any altruistic purpose, more just for my benefit to let more light into my garden.

The monkey puzzles are very sharp yes even at that size, certainly wouldn't fancy climbing or pruning a full size one

Thanks for the props re the fence panels.

I’ve also been on fence duty, last couple of a mammoth effort (all sides of the property) that I’d been putting off as I wanted to set them into the ledge. I never want to lift another fucking concrete post in my life.
And today I finally put back together a ridiculous climbing frame I got for cheap on eBay. This is not how I envisaged my garden.

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excellent work Smithers

And you Sir, not much fun lifting panels when it’s blowing a gale.

now that my friend is one of those little facts of life that I have noticed recently. It can be totally still and yet you get a six foot panel six foot in the air ready to drop it in and boom, along comes a gust of wind and you are staggering around trying to keep it balanced above your head like a madman.

It's like it just knows...

Envious of your big gardens. I'm lockdowned in a rental property at uni.
The houses in the area all have front and back gardens, but the landlords love the no fuss approach of tossing gravel all over them.

Decided to make a little flower bed. Bought compost (with groceries), borrowed some tools, dug out the gravel, folded back the plastic sheeting, mixed the compost into the compacted clay-soil beneath, mixed in some gravel for draining, planted some bee and butterfly-friendly bulbs.
Not sure if I'm even gonna be here in summer but hope it'll be a bit more colourful regardless.

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Nice. Kind of guerrilla gardening.

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Cross post from the home thread, but thought it might be more relevant here:

A neighbor on one side has a garden that is about 0.75-1m higher than ours. They've just built a climbing frame for the kids in sight line with our kitchen door. It's not that intrusive, but it's still intrusive in that when the parents are with them they have a straight view into part of our kitchen and where mini-H has would have his snacks.

What are the rules on the +2m high wall/fence? From this, it looks like that counts from our side not theirs. Is that correct? Seems like a fucker.

Initial thoughts are adding trellis on top of our fence. It's complicated by the fact that most of the wall is a brick wall, but then there is a wood fence section.

Will try and post a photo to illustrate the change in wall.

Is the climbing frame fixed to the floor? Could always ask them nicely to move it back a little from the fence if not.
I’m sure they wouldn’t want to overlook your space any more than you’d want to look into their kitchen. Over the years I’ve pruned hundreds of trees in weird wonderful ways to help people maintain privacy.

Trellis on top is always an option and gives you a little more space for growing awesome climbers.

Could a shade sail be a viable option as well? I’m a big fan of them.

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