What Preps are you doing this week? Part 9

[Rusty74]

thanks for all the kind words peps,and as for mole hills i remember as a kid watching an elderly gentleman bagging the soil from them and when i asked why he said "its very good soil kid as moles dont surface in stoney areas",something that has always stuck in the back of my mind/got a mind full of useless information

[Kiwififer]

Sounds good and please let me know how it comes out. I noticed a little sediment at the bottom of a couple of bottles, I was sure I got rid of it all at the last rack so I may refill later today alongside the rest of the fruit salad.

I tried to join a FB foraging group up here a while back as I am a great believer in using what grows about me but I left they got a bit arsey about when I was picking dandelions. I have Rosehip and brambles growing wild at the back of where I live but I’m sure there’s other stuff. We do have an apple tree but everyone knows about it and gets the apples before I can get near the thing!

[jennyjj01]

[ForgeCorvus]

Checking out the stupid prices of planters... and everything...in the local garden centre, discovered that they set aside lots of quality pallets for 'Help yourself'. Raiding party planned for next week, with battery saw, crowbar etc. Sod their high priced raised beds if they are giving away the components.

Do a search for "Pallet Breaker". Its a tool with two tines and a fulcrum on a long handle, its shaped so the pressure is applied to the middle of the boards rather then the edges. This means you're less likely to split the planks when prying them apart.
Anyone with a welder and some scrap steel could knock one up..... I did after all.


I drill large holes (1 1/4 inch. Because thats my largest drillbit) in the bottom of my troughs, theres a layer of the woven stuff you put under gravel to keep the soil/ compost mix in and they're propped up on bricks....... I made them so the parts are fractions of a board-length and multiples of a board width to reduce cutting and wastage.
Playsafe wood treatment inside and out helps preserve the planter for next year and stops the garden looking like a junkyard

Also on the way to the garden centre, discovered LOTS of roadside mole-hills. We might go back and scoop up a boot-full of what looks like sifted topsoil. I wonder if that's legal?

I remember on The Victorian Kitchen Garden, the headman shovelling up molehills to use as potting medium

[British Red]

I remember on The Victorian Kitchen Garden, the headman shovelling up molehills to use as potting medium

Absolutely loved that series - still have it on DVD

Harry Dodson is a gardening hero of mine!

[ForgeCorvus]

I remember on The Victorian Kitchen Garden, the headman shovelling up molehills to use as potting medium

Absolutely loved that series - still have it on DVD

Harry Dodson is a gardening hero of mine!

Ah, that was his name.
Proper old school gardener...... Didn't they also do a "Wartime" version??

[British Red]

They did, it's on YouTube

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtcy ... hISVc9WyfB

[jansman]

They did, it's on YouTube

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtcy ... hISVc9WyfB

I have original first print books. When you tube is gone, I still have the books. You can get them easily second hand.

[jennyjj01]

Do a search for "Pallet Breaker".

Thanks.
An expensive looking 'power' tool.£40+ on amazon I'd need to stumble across one at a car boot sale or similar. Not something I would have recognised.

I drill large holes (1 1/4 inch. Because thats my largest drillbit) in the bottom of my troughs, theres a layer of the woven stuff you put under gravel to keep the soil/ compost mix in and they're propped up on bricks....... I made them so the parts are fractions of a board-length and multiples of a board width to reduce cutting and wastage.
Playsafe wood treatment inside and out helps preserve the planter for next year and stops the garden looking like a junkyard

Holes! I should have thought of holes! Mine are not water tight because of some gaps between the base boards, but I reckon I'll get some holes added. Mine also got lined with polythene sacks/ I think I need to do some googling on best practice. The decking is treated, but I was going to paint the outside with fence paint.

Wastage:
For mine, I used 5x 2.4m lengths. One board for each 800 short side and 3 boards in half to make the long sides. There was a bit of working out so that nothing got wasted where boards were overlapped. So no waste there. The planters have 3cm legs and stand on light concrete slabs.

[jansman]

Pallet buster. 28quid. On eBay. Best tool ever ! Or Screwfix