Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

PasturesNew

Grass all cut... thank god.... I thought that'd never end. As a competition entry for neatness, edges, actually cutting 100% of the grass.... I'd be thrown out of the building. But it's "done" to the best of my ability/energy/care.

chris_m

GDB2222 wrote: »

Are there no moles in Ireland? Like snakes?

Correct - that's why I was so amused that
a) B&Q offered the deterrents for sale in their Belfast store and
b) that some mugs actually bought some from that store.

:rotfl:

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've cut half the lawn.

Upper half or lower half ?

PasturesNew wrote: »

Grass all cut... thank god.... I thought that'd never end. As a competition entry for neatness, edges, actually cutting 100% of the grass.... I'd be thrown out of the building. But it's "done" to the best of my ability/energy/care.

I just do mine so that it looks tidier than it did before - any escaped clippings will serve as mulch so I don't bother about them.
Since the back lawn is a mix of proper lawn grass and a lot of something else (possibly Cooch) it ain't worth trying to do too much. The front lawn is a mix of grass (of some kind) and moss so the same applies.
I've come to the conclusion that it;'s mostly green so, if kept reasonably short, that'll do - to fix it properly really needs the whole lot ripping up, the soil mulched for a few months to kill anything remaining, properly levelling and rolling then returving or reseeding. Provided it looks reasonably tidy I can't be bothered with all that at present

I've attacked the weeds in the front flowerbeds, raking out the soil, sifting through it to extract as many roots as possible, laying weed barrier membrane around the plants as best fits, replacing the soil and dumping compost on top to replace the soil that I removed. When things die down in the Autumn I'll do the same under the shrubs, etc. I know I won't eliminate the weeds that spread via underground roots but at least the bu99ers will have to work harder - or move back next door :rotfl:
That's enough for this year, at least it all looks a darned sight better than before.

Jazee

I never realised that the windmills were mole deterrents, thought they were just some kind of decoration to put in pots (not that I have any). Maybe the peeps in Belfast thought the same.

PasturesNew

Jazee wrote: »

.... thought they were just some kind of decoration to put in pots (not that I have any). ...

Me too. I thought it was some nonsense, bought by people who had money burning a hole in their pocket who thought "that'd look nice in the garden, I could sit and look at that" ...

I'll admit to having looked at them myself in the past (£land have some), there's something about them that reminds me of childhood/summer. But even with that draw/reminder - and them only costing £1 I've still not been persuaded.

zagubov

chris_m wrote: »

Correct - that's why I was so amused that
a) B&Q offered the deterrents for sale in their Belfast store and
b) that some mugs actually bought some from that store.

:rotfl:

Hey, if you go to Tesco's in St Andrews they've been selling water softener for years. Somebody must be buying it.

chris_m wrote: »

Maybe the import restriction is because the Hawaiian ones are a distinct species which they don't want destroying or otherwise affected by interlopers.

But, if so, how did the indigenous worms get there in the first place?

vivatifosi

chris_m wrote: »

Correct - that's why I was so amused that
a) B&Q offered the deterrents for sale in their Belfast store and
b) that some mugs actually bought some from that store.

:rotfl:

To be fair, I've bought a ski jacket in Florida. As it had somehow ended up there, it was cheaper than buying one here.

chris_m

zagubov wrote: »

Maybe the import restriction is because the Hawaiian ones are a distinct species which they don't want destroying or otherwise affected by interlopers.

But, if so, how did the indigenous worms get there in the first place?

Assuming that my thought as to why the import ban is correct then I'd guess that the indigenous ones got there by one to the two usual methods - immigration or evolution.

ivyleaf

OH says he'd always thought the windmills were meant to help deter birds when you'd just sewn your grass seed.

Pastures The plants with hairy leaves and stems and blue flowers sound like a weed called alkanet, which our garden is plagued with. The bright blue flowers are pretty, but it spreads easily and has very deep roots.

PasturesNew

ivyleaf wrote: »

Pastures The plants with hairy leaves and stems and blue flowers sound like a weed called alkanet, which our garden is plagued with. The bright blue flowers are pretty, but it spreads easily and has very deep roots.

I googled that - they don't look dissimilar, almost the same, but I think mine have bigger leaves.

I might take a photo, I appear to have missed one, so still got one that could be photographed.

EDIT: I went and looked, I appear to have two varieties or ages. There's one that does look identical to Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens) - but some have bigger leaves close to the ground... so that might just be maturity (making it up now, as you can see!)