What are we doing in the garden 2025

You can't have a small accident with a chainsaw.....

https://www.radmoretucker.co.uk/product-category/clothing-ppe/chainsaw-gloves/

 

@pete What was your hand doing in front of the guard and handle? Mine has a grip/handle at the back, another at the side and then a guard in front of the side one to keep my hand from sliding into the blade.

Were you trying to do some fancy acrobatics while operating the thing?

I hope your finger heals quickly.

And @NigelJ that sounds like a lot of Sunday style work!

It is raining today so I will just be tending to the last few chillie plants in the greenhouse. Easy peasy.

 

Hopefully cutting the back property with riding mower today. Maybe light the burn pile. But stuff inside the house is calling to me also.

 

These days any day can be Sunday in the garden. I only differentiate if planning to use the shredder, mower or strimmer.

 

While putting bulbs in holes I did notice that the spring crocuses in the ground all had got roots and shoots on them.
Ate some fruit of my favourite ornamenatl Rubus R calophyllus, better than a fuchsia berry. This Rubus after taking a few years to settle in is now producing suckers and has come through the dry summer well although it really doesn't like dry winds.

 

Its a smaller one I bought Lori that is good just for pruning cuts, it doesn't have any guards as such, I was reducing branches down to go through the chipper holding the branch with one hand and the saw in the other, somehow it bounced back on a fairly small cut and caught my hand with the top of the chain.
Its nothing bad but I was lucky.

The bigger one is actually safer as you need both hands on the saw.

 

Sweet Wiiliam, got some free plants from a garden centre I use the other day, I've potted them up, grew some from seed about 5 yrs ago and there are still a few around, I cut them back hard after flowering and have taken cuttings, of the new shoots that form, of the ones that have the best coloured flowers.

 

I took cuttings of my rose-scented Geranium and potted them up. I got the original as a cutting from Italy last year and rooted it. It has done very well so time to get more.

 

Hope your geranium cuttings root for you, @Victoria, rose scented ones sound gorgeous.

Not been doing much these last two days, my back is twinging so taking it easy. Managed to sweep the paving this afternoon but only did half way round the house.

 

I topped up the bark mulch on one of the borders in my front garden then potted up two Abelias for some colour in my sitting area. One, Kaleidoscope, is still a bright lime green and yellow, the other, Edward Goucher is still flowering. I also repotted a Thuja Smaragd which I’d put in a pot with some ivy which was getting out of hand. The Thuja looks better on its own. I added some fresh soil based ericaceous compost and composted bark. I also removed a rose which I planted as a bare root last winter but it never really took off so I replaced it with an Echinacea from elsewhere which will enjoy the sunnier spot.

 

Hi,

Not in the garden today; Covid & flu jabs this morning. After dinner I wandered down to the workshop to have a look at the petrol rotavator which died and was now sitting on the bench.

I'm more at home with mechanical repairs than gardening. I knew without having to take a compression test that compression was well down if there at all but before stripping it down I tried against all odds to fire it up in case it was just kidding.

I checked for spark at the plug and it had a fat healthy spark; I poured a drop of petrol into the bore and replaced the spark plug but as expected it just laughed at me. Two hours later it was in bits and I'd found the problem;


Here's the piston which is damaged and having a broken piston ring hence no compression; no surprise though to me. When I was 18 I had a 1,000cc Ariel Square Four motorcycle which destroyed itself internally at only 70mph on the M6 motorway near Preston. I've seen lots of such damage over the years; the bike had shattered two pistons and broken a con rod; I spent the night on the table of Crewe Railway Station whilst my chum slept on the bench in the waiting room.


Here's a roller/pin which dropped out but as yet unidentified.


I've suffered the worst ever year of my life this year and I think I'll now pass this on to the rotavator and take to a place it deserves; the local tip for recycling. Compared to my much heavier industrial quality 64 year old Howard Bulldog rotavator I restored this cheap lightweight is rubbish and not worth the time; effort or expense to source a new piston and rings then rebuild it; I'd never trust it again so it can go to the tip taking my bad luck with it.

Kind regards, Col.

 

That's sensible Col @Retired. Sometimes you do a job and the results are not worth all the work you put in. (Done that too often.) Better you spend time keeping your restored one in good fettle, and save the rest of the time for the violin!
As for me, all I've done today is plant a couple of Gaultheria (I have a male one, but my previous female seems to have died), and go to a talk on taking hardwood cuttings.

 

Sorry to hear about Bron @Retired you spoke often fondly of her .
I thought it were the little Howard Piston had gone at first thankfully not, as you've said they not up to proper rotavating these machines more like tillers.

Chainsaw Gloves for @pete if you are cutting up small ish stuff I hear good thing about battery secateurs , smaller sticks do tend to move / snag using chainsaws unless you can hold it down firmly .

@shiney I've had a 4 yard skip recently you should be fine they are bigger than you think . I'd leave the wood last though it can go on the bonfire if need be. What GH are you looking at ? Rhino - Robinson - Elite etc ?

I've not done anything in the garden today mum Birthday so decided to go out for a brew and cake, off to RHS Bridgewater its not to far away from me except I have to go on Manchester ring road EVIL hate that ruddy road . £17.80 to get in now for 1 adult so got a membership for £55 and take a guest in for free, its matured quite a bit since I last went beautiful day to go as well.

 

Some things look quite elegant as they die back but our large stand of Crocosmia lucifer was starting to look rather unsightly so I chopped it back today. Yeah I know I should have let it die down naturally but I'm a bit OCD like that, and to be honest I'm always looking for things to feed to my compost bugs.

I really should commit to memory though that the shredder just doesn't seem to like Crocosmia leaves. They're like hemp fibre and eventually tie up the motor after winding tightly around the centre spindle.