Gardening

I meant the rule of 45 degrees was broken by the wall /cum fence, your new and rather swish shed won’t upset any planning officer .

I remember there was a thread about this (or it featured heavily in a thread) .

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They left me the job of tidying up their leftover bricks.

The new retaining gabion wall and the Rufus Roughcut plankey fence doesn’t break any planning regs. In fact the County Council buildings surveyor was satisfied the new structure was safe and fit for purpose (of retaining). He was totally uninterested in the aesthetics.

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The wand and valve are from The Garden superstore. The rose was from LS Systems. There’s quite a few variables out there, but if you look carefully at mine, I would choose those.

Looks great, but it wouldn’t work for me unless I could adjust the spray pattern.

Is there a general indication when the potatoes are ready?

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That’s a lot of spuds, I did read here a year or so ago. Someone will come to your rescue.

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Some say let them flower first……but we prefer smaller new potatoes rather than huge ones. So we just dig around the base gently with our hands to find a few and judge the size, if they are big enough we harvest.

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Usually when they flower

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As others have stated after flowering gently remove some soil by hand and check for reasonable sized potatoes.
If they are small earth up and wait a week ensuring, if possible, they are well watered.

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One useful tip I was given by a tomato grower when my own seemed slow in ripening was to hang a ripe banana in the greenhouse. I’ve found this to be very effective.

Is hanging a banana a warning to the other fruit? :smiley:

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When the leaves start to die back and wilt. Usually you can get an idea with the variety and when you planted them.

Just given my Makita DLM 460 a try out. Used it on the orchard with high setting.

46cm blade using 2 x 18v batteries. I use 5ah which lasted the full cut with the mulcher and a bar of juice to spare.

Down side is it requires pushing but upside is all the battery power goes into the blade.

Another great purchase.

image

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Few photos of our recent project to get our patio sorted - the company we asked to carry out the work had a very full diary and we reserved a space in Feb for a June start

build took 7 working days from start to finish - Mrs Ant is delighted as I am - the quality of thier work, working practices and the finish is quite stunning - I think the results speak for themselves and far beyond my DIY


the classic before during and after photos

they removed 7 tons on the first day



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Very nice indeed

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It’s surprising how much spoil waste is produced when digging up for foundation work, but when all done it looks like the ground workers have done a very neat and tidy professional job.
How many square meters of patio did you have done, and at what cost?
(If you don’t mind me asking) :slightly_smiling_face:

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For the past month, i’ve been observing a couple of builders working on a neighbours garden, they’re a couple of middle-age plodders but appear to do everything to a high standard, and the finished patio of my neighbour looks very nice.

I recently asked them for a quote for my 30 square meterage at rear of house with new Indian sandstone, and to reuse (relocate) existing 2x3 slabs for the 12 square meter sideway which is already foundation dug and ready to hardcore, however the quote i have been given is an inexplicable £9,176 :money_with_wings:

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@Debs the paving stones are from Pavestone sawn Ash, natural sand stone just over 50sq metres which were just over 2k - slabs are 900m x 600m, they also tiled down the side of the house to our back gate which you can’t see -

spend quiet a long time on U tube looking at various Patio companies - the company we choose are an offical Pavestone contractor

the total work invoiced was just over £7.5k for rip out, hardcore, new wall, bicks, tiles etc - we also had a couple of “how much quotes”

we had 5 quotes in the end, some right chancers to a “How Much?” which was just over 11.8k

good look in your search…but done right and done once was our choice

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Thanks for comparing notes, looks like you got a good deal :+1:

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A lovely job, and I hate to be critical but…shouldn’t the surface of the patio be at least 6" (two brick courses) below your house DPC (Damp Proof Course) to comply with the Building Regulations (unless a gap is left between the paving and the brickwork)?

from discussing at the time this with our patio guys this was done, but I will double check with them later