Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Who was it on here who had a new build with a massive wall at the back of the garden?

Looks exactly like these guys:

Your Garden Made Perfect, Series 2: 2. Andrew and Paolo: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0014c7b via @bbciplayer

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In have fond memories of dragging them out of the ground with my dad's Chelsea tractor.

Carnage with these winds in Epsom.

Ten fence panels blown out, mostly broken so will need replacing rather than just being stood up again when wind stops.

3 panes of glass in my greenhouse blown out and smashed and a medium sized Hazel tree rocking dangerously at its roots. So dangerous in fact that I chanced my arm up a ladder with a chainsaw to take some branches down to reduce the leverage caused by the wind rocking the top branches which were nicely fan-shaped

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Should I incorporate a sunken fire pit in my patio, or will it just be a death trap for small children? Would make a wooden hatch for it if I did and air feed from the adjacent flowerbed piped under the slab.

Yes. You can only really do it early winter.

Too late! Won't harvest any of it this year so hopefully it'll do ok.

My damage from yesterday was the bin store, weighed down by two wheelie bins, turning round 90 degrees and faceplanting into the hedge. Thankfully, no major injuries to either.

However, while surveying the damage this morning I noticed that a couple of the hedge plants have been through a rough time, which I think is from mould from the leaf litter. I've tried to remove the leaves as I go, but I live next to a park and under a tree, and so I've not kept up.

I've removed all the white mouldy stuff and as much of the leaf litter as I can.

Is there anything else I need to do before buying and putting down some new bark chippings?

Anyone reccomend a decent brand of metal bodied wheelbarrow with a proper pneumatic tyre? Decent bearings etc

Go twin-wheel.
The wide spaced wheels let you push the barrow rather than fighting to keep it balanced on a single, central wheel, putting all the stress on your fulcrums of shoulders meeting spine and hips meeting spine.

Mine came from Homebase a couple of years ago, when they were still reasonable garden centre. Haemmerlin do a couple.

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Oh, wow, that looks rad. Looks well made too.

All well and good till you want to get it up a single-planked ramp into a skip....

fire pit

Yes. Definitely.

I have a mini American-style trash can from the 90s, that I turn the lid upside down on and make little fires in to roast marshmallows. And my 3yo and their mates love it. I've done it since they were ~2yo, maybe even younger.

Realistically I don't think you'll get it to stay perfectly flush with the patio long term and it will create a trip hazard. So I would make it a feature or have some sort of obstacle to stop it getting run over.

What might be cool is a small raised bed around it, then make a removable hatch on top with a "living roof".

This stuff seems to crack on and cover everything.

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Just take off one of the wheels.

I have a load of Leylandi (about 6' tall at the moment) in my small garden. Original plan was to rip them all out as they're going to end up too big for the garden.

However, there's an ugly fence at the back that I'd like to cover so my new thinking is to move some of them to the back and keep them pruned to about 8' to hide that.

Is that realistic, are they OK with that level of pruning? Any suggestions on when the best time to dig them up and move them would be? So far as I can tell their roots aren't particularly aggressive so having them on a boundary shouldn't be an issue?

There's a hedge I know of that's been kept at 4' for many years, so yes. Plant at a minimum of 4' apart. You won't keep it under control with a yearly clip, 3 or 4 times is more likely. Clip as far back as the green growth will allow, if you clip back into the brown it will not grow again.

I'd take the opportunity to plant something else.

Clipped leylandii hedge is fairly ugly itself, and for the reasons ctb mentions above, is a pita to maintain.

ugly fence

Is it structurally sound?

If so why not fit a load of chicken wire and grown climbers over it?

I always travel with a pair of planks.

Treat yourself to some pro-trellis, (made from 19x38mm roofing lathes),
and plant some climbers,
clematis, jasmine, maybe even a thornless blackberry.
If you want a hedge, English Yew is easily clipped to shape,
is dense enough to support birds nests,
and provides winter fruit for resident and overwintering birds.

Very wise

Praise indeed, from a owl.

Cheers for all the responses. Good to see it should be possible.

We've pondered going with something else but we already have the leylandi and if I don't use them for this they'll be going to the tip after I've dug them up. As such, it's a low effort, zero cost option and if it does fail we can try something else.

The "fence" is actually corrugated iron and belongs to the house behind us. It's awkward to replace as their house is wide so it spans half of next door too. Given that, I think it would be awkward to fit a trellis to.

I would like to go with something more attractive but, aside from the issue of getting a trellis up, they all seem to be quite slow growing to get dense coverage (or very expensive for large plants). The only option that I could really spot where it wouldn't take years to get up to 8' or so was bamboo. If there are any options I've missed I'd be interested to hear them.

Pruning this hibiscus.

It flowers beautifully, so even though it's awkward for summer seating we put up with it. Long term I'd like to take it back to one central branch so we can keep it when we do the patio, but unfortunately it may end up going.

In the short term, any tips on pruning it? In particular heightwise.

I've taken a couple of the more intrusive branches back. There's not a huge number of crossing main branches and TBH I kinda like the shape. I'd just like to make sure it keeps proving lots of flowers and neaten it up a bit.

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A useless pile of crap (named Jamie). In the foreground is quite a lot of rubble and the Great Wall of Mel emerging like a Phoenix from the desolation.

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Nice wall.

Oppo wearing trainers... tuts