Missing my Tuesday fix!

It's Tuesday and I'm missing my fix - my usual weekly session at Men and Women in Sheds in Loughborough.

Like most other activities its been put on hold because of the Covid thing, though hopefully opening again soon. See what we get up to at www.charnwoodshed.co.uk

Pottering around the garden I see some of the things I made:

Garden table and a store for all those awkward bamboos and stakes.

Staging for the strawberries and seed trays in the greenhouse.

A-frame to support climbing rose

Couch grass campaign

We've been making headway with clearing the rhubarb patch of couch grass and bindweed.

Electric rotary soil sieve

A few weeks ago we started off digging up rhubarb plants and putting them in pots and fencing off the "good" bit from the "bad" bit of soil. Very hard work to clear the soil of couch grass roots, especially with the very wet weather making the ground heavy. But hubby always attempts to find a better - i.e. mechanised - way of doing things. He did lots of research on the web and eventually purchased a SCHEPPACH RS350 compact electric garden rotary sieve.  

I was a bit skeptical, but actually it does the job pretty well. There's still a lot of shovelling dirt to be done but it does a good job of separating out the stones and, importantly, the couch grass roots. It's a bit easier because we had a few days dry weather and the soil was drier. We're about half way through the first section and between sessions we're covering the un-sieved soil to prevent it getting drenched again. (Last night we had another downpour). The sieve folds up so we can store it in the greenhouse.

Remains to be seen whether the cleared soil will be completely couch grass free because from experience the wretched stuff will grow from the tiniest bit of root. And after the rhubarb patch there's the rest of the garden......

2-wheel-barrow

We've just bought a new 2-wheel wheel-barrow. We already own two which have done good service. The first one we inherited from Mum & Dad who bought it for their house in Dorset over 20 years ago. The second we bought from the same manufacturer not long after we moved in here.

But you can always do with another barrow. On sunny weekends there are often three of us working on different projects in the garden and each needing a barrow. And unfortunately they don't last for ever and one of them needs a new tyre.

So, last week when we visited the local Aldi in Coalville to buy a couple of rose arches they were advertising, we were pleased to see they had 2-wheeled barrows on offer at a very reasonable price.

Seems crazy that gardeners use one-wheelers. They are handy for wheeling along narrow paths and wooden boards, but they are fiddly to balance and you need both hands. The two-wheelers, with pram handles, are easy to push or pull along with one hand and are always stable.

You may still be able to get some from Aldi, although they tend to have "special purchases" and not keep them as a regular item - but you can get something very similar (if not identical) from Clifford James who sell via Amazon. I wrote about these a couple of years ago >>   or click on the photo for more info.

Garden tools and machines

Well, it's April - well into the gardening year now! Still lots of tidying up and digging over to do.
I'm not a great fan of tools and gizmos but my son and hubby reckon gardening is an excuse for getting out the toys (sorry - tools) like hedge-cutters, rotovators, lawn-mowers etc. I occasionally get slightly excited about secateurs and loppers but really enjoy digging with the old heavy spage and yanking at weeds with my bare, muddy, hands.

But if mechanisation is where you're at try this link to Garden tools and stuff from Amazon and have a look around. (I get tuppence per cent from anything you buy - so go for the really, really expensive machines!)

Two-wheeled wheelbarrow

We live on a country lane so our small strip of front garden is directly onto the road. It's a great place on Sunday afternoon to pretend to be gardening - interrupted every 5 minutes by neighbours and walkers for a chat and setting the world to rights.

This afternoon I was clearing weeds from the gravel path and was hailed by a lady walking with her young son and dog. She admired our two-wheeled wheelbarrow and wanted to know where she could get one for her Dad.

My Mum & Dad bought one in Dorset and when we came up here to Froggarts Cottage we bought another because they are so useful.

A standard one-wheeled barrow is awkward to balance with a heavy load and with the standard two handles you need both hands to steer. Our barrows have two pneumatic tyres and a pram-style handle which you can push with one hand. They are also light enough to pick up over steps if necessary. They are made by Haemmerlin based in Walsall (wheelbarrow capital of the world apparently) but I haven't seen them in the shops. Amazon have a similar barrow - see below - which has a good review so may be worth a look (click on the picture for more).