Xann Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 The battle against the slugs and snails continues for another year. The snails I'll transplant from the back. The slugs, executed on the spot. Slightly freaky - The next day you can see other slugs have congregated around the corpses in the night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 4 minutes ago, Xann said: The battle against the slugs and snails continues for another year. The snails I'll transplant from the back. The slugs, executed on the spot. Slightly freaky - The next day you can see other slugs have congregated around the corpses in the night. Are they the non-native ones coming out to eat the natives? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 The bodies remain. Weird. They might be sucking the juice out? I think they're just looking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 (edited) I also have something in the back of my mind about them being attracted by the smell of other dead slugs. I may, however (and totally unintentionally), be talking utter cock. Edit: Perhaps they're like the animal world version of Indiana Jones and they think that if another slug has died somewhere that they were in pursuit of some sort of prize loot? Edited July 17, 2016 by snowychap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 17, 2016 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 17, 2016 Today I created a flower bed in my garden Successfully. And I planted a load of flowers. It's shit, but **** you I'm proud of it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 15 minutes ago, Stevo985 said: Today I created a flower bed in my garden Successfully. And I planted a load of flowers. It's shit, but **** you I'm proud of it! Pics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 17, 2016 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 17, 2016 I'll take one tomorrow 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 19 minutes ago, Stevo985 said: It's shit, but **** you I'm proud of it! Btw, I doubt it is shit. It doesn't have to look like some show garden or as good as your neighbour's garden but if it's got some flowers and some colour and you've got some bees coming in there then you've nailed it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 18, 2016 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 18, 2016 Not much colour yet but in a couple of weeks we should be cooking. The soil was shite so bit worried about that but added plenty of compost. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 I moved into a new house a week or so ago. The wife of the family was a Landscape Designer. I now have a nice frontage and back garden without trying, although I do need to replace a couple of fence panels due to her love of Ivy I love eating outside, without being overlooked by anyone. Bliss. Bought myself a bee house, ladybird house and a bird feeder immediately, can already see the results, lots of bumbles in there yesterday and I got to cut the grass as it's a NW facing garden (although still much of a sun trap at this time of year, due to it's slight bank nature). Really pleased and my 18 month old absolutely loves it, so much so that he cries his eyes out when it's time to go in doors 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 18, 2016 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 18, 2016 Jealous. My garden is shite. It needs ripping up and starting again. Even the bit that is actually lawn isn't very good grass or soil. If I was staying there for a few years I think I'd just pay someone to come and dig it all up and start from scratch. But I'm in limbo now where I need to improve the garden but don't want to spend loads of money. Urgh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 7 minutes ago, Stevo985 said: Jealous. My garden is shite. It needs ripping up and starting again. Even the bit that is actually lawn isn't very good grass or soil. If I was staying there for a few years I think I'd just pay someone to come and dig it all up and start from scratch. But I'm in limbo now where I need to improve the garden but don't want to spend loads of money. Urgh If you're going to sell it, keep it extremely simple. People don't "do" gardening anymore, even mowing the grass is a chore for some people. Plus, if they do like gardening, it's a blank slate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 18, 2016 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 18, 2016 3 minutes ago, lapal_fan said: If you're going to sell it, keep it extremely simple. People don't "do" gardening anymore, even mowing the grass is a chore for some people. Plus, if they do like gardening, it's a blank slate. I'm probably going to let, but same thing applies. Yeah I'm keeping it simple. It's basically all grass at the moment. Half the lawn is ok, half is absolutely shit. But it looks so bare and horrible I need to put a few things in. A big garden seemed like a great idea when I was buying a house. Before I remembered that I hate gardening and don't really use my garden. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 My lawn was wrecked. I just put down a load of grass seed covered it with top layer of compost to stop the birds from eating it and kept hosing it to keep moist and its fine now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 18, 2016 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 18, 2016 Yeah I've bought some grass seed as had some patches I need to do anyway. Can I just chuck it on top of normal grass? It's so annoying looking out of my window and seeing the two house either side of mine with their lucious green lawn, and then my dry yellowish mess in between. Not inviting whatsoever (although it is slowly greening up) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choffer Posted July 18, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted July 18, 2016 Living in a flat, albeit a garden flat, this is the extent of my accomplishments this year. Two ailing orange trees, a rose bush (dying), some pink flowers (already dead since I took the pic), some sunflowers (which have grown a lot since I took the pic) and some pink and white daisy-looking things which are also dead now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 (edited) 2 hours ago, Stevo985 said: Yeah I've bought some grass seed as had some patches I need to do anyway. Can I just chuck it on top of normal grass? It's so annoying looking out of my window and seeing the two house either side of mine with their lucious green lawn, and then my dry yellowish mess in between. Not inviting whatsoever (although it is slowly greening up) I never tried that but I would wait until the warm spell is over. I just did the bare patches and also grew some seed in trays. It takes 7-10 days for the seed to germinate but the first lot I did i let dry out and it didn't grow. Edited July 18, 2016 by PaulC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan. Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 It's a good idea to spike the ground with a fork first too. I used one of those lawn feed/moss killer combos last year and ended up with a black lawn I scattered seed and the birds just ate most of them. Tried again but spiked the ground, sprinkled the seeds and covered with a thin layer of compost. Worked a treat. (That sounds like a cake recipe lol) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderball Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 I had the same issue: terrible lawn - patchy, full of moss, Daisy's and dandelions, really wet. Thought I would have to re-turf but read up an tried a few things: 1. aeration with a hollow tine fork (absolute brain numbing this, but it's important). You can use a fork, but be methodical. 2. Spread ¾ tonne of sand over the lawn and brush over and into the holes 3. Scarified and de-thatched the lawn (filled 3 wheelie bins from don't know where!) 4. Employed Green thumb to do quarterly treatments At this stage my lawn looked like I'd killed it, black patches and the rest mud - virtually no grass. I thought I ruined it, but this spring it has grown into a lush weed free lawn. Next year it will be even better. In the Vietnam war there was a famous quote along the lines of "in order to save the village we had to destroy the village", I wondered what that meant until now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 18, 2016 Author VT Supporter Share Posted July 18, 2016 Got my place valued today and the estate agent said I didn't really need to do anything with mine to get tenants. I'm still going to try and green the lawn up but I don't need to do any major work to the place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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