Gardening with Platypus

Oooh, gardening.

I bought my house three years ago and have finally got round to starting the garden at the end of last year. It was a very mature garden and we liked it, but it everything was getting too big and too old so we are getting rid of everything and starting again.

I've felled nine 20' laylandai and had the tree surgeons in to fell another five that were well over the height of the house. Since we dont have access for a stump grinder though the house I've been trying to get access though the garden of the houses behind, but one is rented and the owner of the other has been away for six months so no joy. I've spent the last two weekends digging out the stumps.

It's hard work (bloody hard) but don't let anyone tell you it's not doable. You just need the right tools, which in my case was an axe, a hatchet, a bow saw and a digging bar.

Next job it to dig over the lawn, remove any major masonary (I never fail to be surprised by what I find), and then level the earth ready to be reseeded. At the moment I'm jsut going to lawn the lot and then decide what I want to do with beds, shrubs and trees in the autumn.

As long as it's usable for BBQ season I'll be happy.
 
[DOD]Asprilla;13853241 said:
As long as it's usable for BBQ season I'll be happy.
Click to expand...
Thats my aim. To have the turf bedded down, vegetables planted and the weeding done in time for nicer weather. I'll then get to work on 'prettying' it with flowers.
 
last year I spent a couple of long days trying to loosen up the soil on our lawn with a fork as it was pretty water logged and probably about 30% moss. Then used lawn sand and scarified it using a cheapo electric lawn rake, filling our wheelie bin twice (and its not a large patch of grass!). Put more lawn sand down a couple of weeks ago and will hopefully get a chance to put the lawn rake over it again over the weekend. Grass already looks a lot better than last year and I've got some seed to put down on any bare/thin patches I make. Fingers crossed it might look like its mostly grass by the end of the spring :D
 
Last edited:
Well I didn't manage to get the potatoes in yet, although I cleared the patch for them, and hopefully weeded it properly. Tiring day all in all :p.

@Mat, I emailed you but no response!
 
Good stuff platypus,

I supervised the misses putting in spuds, carrots, runner beans, strawberries and some flower things this weekend. :)
 
I really want a Asparagus patch in my Garden but failing.... The roots arn't growing and its 5/6 years old now..
Best stick to what im best at with Fruit yielding trees. yummy too.
 
Put in my first potato patch this weekend:

2922_75552767950_512407950_1753421_7670713_n.jpg


and my beans have started to grow well:

2922_75552772950_512407950_1753422_5917922_n.jpg
 
Looking good!

I spend a day cutting the grass, scarifying it twice, then raking the bad bits and finally putting down some compost and grass seed as per instructions. So far nothing. Rather gutted to be honest but I'm guessing the couple of cold nights night have something to do with it.

Will give it another few days and if there is nothing by the weekend then I'll start cut the grass and try again. All advice welcome :)
 
What are you using for pest control?

I bought a scarifier on the weekend and was shocked to see how much it managed to pull out! I went up and down the lawn half a dozen times (covering about 20% of it) and managed to fill the wheelie-bin from empty. I'm going to have to use it quite a lot to get a proper result. I was, however, disappointed with the collection bin at the front. Not only is it too small (I would only get half way across the lawn before having to empty it) but its angled so that anything that is thrown into it just slides back down into the hooks!
 
Wish I was at that stage.

I've spent that last two weekends taking two van loads and three car loads of assorted tree stumps, paving slabs, bricks and concrete to the tip.

I've also started to dig over the existing lawn, but I've found loads of inch thick roots, just below the surface. This is going to take a bit longer than I suspected.

Finally I've found that the lawn is full of cockchafers (you boy, stop sniggering at the back) and so I neet to get hold of a load of nematode worms to munch though them.
 
My lawn is a complete wreck, and I'm intending to tackle it this year, and I've been a little slow in getting my french beans and other bits going for the veg patch. :(

However, the raspberries, tayberry, blackberry and other fruit bushes are shooting well, and we did pick our first rhubarb of the season on Sunday and had a lovely crumble. Yum :)
 
latercomer2 said:
Will give it another few days and if there is nothing by the weekend then I'll start cut the grass and try again. All advice welcome :)
Click to expand...
I know nothing about growing a lawn I'm afraid.

Getting help from a friend who is a professional gardener this weekend to lay turf :).

Mat said:
What are you using for pest control?
Click to expand...
A few ways: I'm planting nettles (yes nettles!) near the vegetables. A small amount that I will proactively keep under control (otherwise they'll take over!). These attract nettle aphids - which only feed on nettles. Nettle aphids attract hoverflies and ladybirds who munch on aphids - the main enemy to my beans and radishes!

I'm also buying a packet of ladybird lavae, which I will place on plants I'm planting opposite my vegetable patch.

For the potatoes - garlic cloves placed in and around the chittings help keep slugs away apparently - this is something that remains to be seen, was hinted to me by a gardening friend.

Spray luke warm water with a dash of washing up liquid over the plants once a fortnight.
 
Last edited:
[DOD]Asprilla;13966415 said:
You're probably looking at 4-6 weeks for a lawn to establish itself from seed unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Also, and whilst again I say I'm no expert, I believe you're too late to seed a new lawn now, due to the heat (yeah I know its not that hot!). You might have to settle for turf.
 
[DOD]Asprilla;13966267 said:
I've found that the lawn is full of cockchafers
Click to expand...

*chokes on coffee* Full of what?!! Explain please to save me googling & getting fired as a result of my IE history.

Nice to have a gardening/grow your own thread on here.

I've two gardens on the go at the moment; well, one garden and an allotment. Allotment is doing pretty poorly at the mo. I spent most of March getting my potato patch cleared and sorting out weed control. Have got spuds in and gooseberries, blackcurrants and rhubard on the go too with tomatoes at home in the mini greenhouse. Plenty more digging and weeding in the weeks to come. An OcUK online veg show in the summer perhaps?

We spent most of last year ripping things out of our garden as it was badly overgrown and full of poisonous plants (not good with a toddler!). There are 3 tree stumps to take out and a whole load of their roots, plus a whole bunch of self seeded lillies and various other plants-come-weeds and the lawn is like a scale relief map of the Brecon Beacons & full of ants:(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom