Mowing strip

We created a new lawn which earlier in the year to rejuvenate the front garden after house extension work last year.
A neighbour suggested putting a mowing strip around the garden edge to define the lawn edge and make it easy to mow the lawn to the edge as well.
Good idea we thought.

Just returned from Wickes with 130 driveway style blocks and some sharp sand to bed them in.

Using the ancient trailer (that has been on various camping holidays in the past when our children were children and not adults,  has had three paint makeovers to match various car colours, and has had all the wooden sides replaced and extended upwards once, and had "new" rubber indespension units fitted about 20 years ago) I managed to get them back home without mishap.

Looking up lawn edging / mowing strip on the InterWeb I came across a helpful guide at www.pavingexpert.com/edging4.htm which shows how easy it is to do.

I will do this bit by bit as other projects allow- such as the lean to shed.

Once started on the roof replacement, I decided to replace the cladding. I had used some thin cladding about 8 tears ago as thicker was more costly, but it was a false economy really. The cladding shrank and warped, so let water in at times, and it looked poor. So off to my local hardware store to buy new cladding. They had slightly fewer lengths of T&G wood than I needed, but I bought all they had. So assuming they would have more, went back after a few days to find the stock had not been replenished.
As I had used up all I bought, I tried searching other sources, a local timber merchants was closed on Saturday afternoon so can't ask them until Monday.

The Wickes I went to has something similar, but not in long enough lengths, so went back to original hardware store and asked if they were getting more in- "try later next week" came the not very reassuring reply.

Oh well. will keep looking and hope one of the possibilities comes off.

Apprentice piece and garden update

Having been very busy over the last two years before retirement the mosaic hobby I started took second or even third place to other tasks, especially last year when the house extension was built.

Last week attended the first of a one morning a week mosaic/craft course lasting 6/7 weeks (depending on the speed of the person in producing the finished articles)

Last week involved cutting up shapes from a clay sheet to be used in a future project, and making a small mosaic piece. The subject was compulsory, it had to be a heart on a wall tile base.

We all had different skills and knowledge, so some completed the preliminary design and some, like me, had to finish off at home.
The picture below shows the mosaic at the point of taking it home.

A week later allowing for an interruption to re-roof the lean to shed at the rear of the garage due to UV induced plastic fatigue, you can see the finished article.

I could tell I was a bit short on practice as I had difficulty cutting tiles in to even squares to fill in the background area.

This week it was glazing the pieces of bisque fired clay so that they could be fired again to produce a transparent glaze seal so the pieces could be used later.
Also a chance to use marble tiles al la roman mosaics using the reverse method, tiles are laid face down and using a frame to act as a mould, concrete is poured over the back of the tiles so that when released and turned over, the image can be seen.

Also a quick and cheerful small reverse mosaic using colourful small glass tiles and clear silicon adhesive to be stuck on to a glass pane, again when turned over the final image is revealed.

We have moved forward on planting up the raised beds.
The potatoes planted for a hopeful Christmas crop have shoots just peeping above the soil level. once grown a bit and before any frost, they will be earthed up progressivly so they occupy a bed of their own. We found at the local nursery, overwintering peas- initially it looked like a dozen or so, but once tipped out of the plastic tray they turned out to be nearer three dozen little pea plants. These have gone in staggard rows about six inches apart and are sharing with the rhubard plants.

Meanwhile the slugs or snails managed to eat all but a few brassica plants, so new ones were acquired and are firmly under a mesh covered cloche with slug pellets around them ( no birds or other animals should be able to get to them as the ends of the cloches are firmly sealed and the mesh pegged down.)
They are sharing the bed with the leeks and chives.

This leaves one last bed that will have dwarf french beans and also broad beans sown from seed to overwinter for next years crop - the planting is imminent..