Garden DIY projects

I'm one of 'those' gardeners that despite having what seems like a hundred unfinished projects on the go I am always on the look out for inspiration for more to do. As a consequence of this I am adicted to 'Pinterest' and sadly can admit to spending a ridiculous amount of time on it most evenings.
The weather here has prevented any kind of gardening for some time now, I can't even mow the lawns as it's too wet and on the days when it's just cold rather than rainy it's just too windy to get motivated.
This has given me time to add to my growing 'Pinterest' folders and I thought that as I have nothing to show from my own garden right now I would post some wonderful garden projects that are cheap and easy to do - I'm all for cheap (preferably free) and easy.

I found these concrete globes on 'the garden glove' along with a fabulous tutorial with 4 different recipes depending on the finished look you prefer. For me it would have to be the pure cement one for 2 reasons - 1) Cheaper - I'm not into buying ingredients if I can help it and 2) I think it would lend itself to spray paint alot nicer than the others.

I came across this next project on 'Creek Tree USA' and they describe these as ceramic hummingbird feeders, obviously I would have no need for that here (though maybe Bee or Butterfly feeders) but I thought they would make the cutest plant supports with very little cost or time.
Pretty door knobs are selling for a couple of pounds for a set of 4 in many of the cheaper stores (none of which I have here) and the right gauge wire would only cost a few pounds too. It would be very easy to attach the wire to the door knobs and voila - no more poked eyes.

Hopefully this year we will be building new pillars at the top gate and I have always wanted to add a Narnia style lamp to the side of them. I did some research on the lamps though and to get the exact one I wanted I wasn't going to get much change from £400, plus the cost of then running electrics up to it. I turned to Pinterest to find an alternative.
This guy, Mark, has come up with the answer for me and I'll definitely be doing it. He's constructed a Narnia style lamp from wood and best of all he's included a solar light to the top so no need for wiring. It may not be the exact style I was looking for but it can easily be adapted to what I want and the guy has even done a video tutoral on it. Check it out on 'Mark's DIY solar lamp post'.

This next project is so simple and obvious yet I never would have thought of it in a million years. I'm always thinking that I wish decking was a bit more comfortable underfoot so I could go outside barefoot in summer, obviously a rug isn't going to last too long out there and will only end up smushy and horrible. Not now!
Laura from 'Design share' has given us a fab tutorial on how to turn a tablecloth into a waterproof patio / decking rug - imagine all the wonderful colour and pattern choices available. This is a definite project for me this year.

I have no lighting in my garden currently - I must be one of the few people who just hasn't got round to it - and so I'd like to start adding a few pieces especially around the patio seating areas. I'm not really into buying the ones on stakes though because I can get a bit OCD about them being perfectly upright but I found this great idea (one of many on Pinterest), unfortunately I cannot find an original link to who created it but the photo speaks for itself - vases, stones and solar lights.

Again I cannot find a direct link to the creator of this next one but I like it so much I wanted to include it. It really is a simple idea and seeing as I have all the ingredients to put it together I will definitely be doing this to add some attraction to my garden. I'm not sure how to do the knot but I'm sure a google search will be productive.

I have plenty of wood scraps laying around, usually I put them in the log shed for winter fuel but now I have seen these I think my garden will instead be plastered with scrap wood animals. I'm not sure whether I want a moose but definitely dogs, horses, hens etc.
'Painted Therapy' provides a good tutorial using a Silhouette Cameo but I think I'd prefer to freehand draw.

Pallet wood Adirondack chairs

My garden really is taking some neglect of late. I really should be much further along with the re-design than am I, in fact to be honest I've done nothing out there since my last post. It's not from a lack of caring though it's down to the fact that I've been super busy in the workshop building furniture for the new decking (that isn't even in place yet) and building planters for Roses.

I was super surprised the other day when my daughter came home from work with a boot full of plants that were headed for the skip, once I've sorted through them I'll post pix but I know for definite I'm  making a hedge from the amount of Viburnum Tinus I now have.

For now though I'm simply going to show you my latest project. Remember the Adirondack chairs I made last year? (or the year before - I forget), well I've made a second batch and MrTG has declared they far exceed the previous ones in both looks and comfort.
I couldn't find the exact plans I needed to make this design so I basically made it up as I went along but used inspiration from 3 seperate designs. Of course I made the footstools to match though I have since realised they don't actually match as they are angular on the ends as opposed to rounded like the chairs.

What i love most about these chairs is that they have cost me nothing more than time as all the wood is either from pallets or old stuff I have stored. All I have to do now is paint them and while I painted the last ones in 'Summer Damson' by Cuprinol I have chosed 'Fresh Rosemary' for these ones because I'm going much lighter on the new part of the garden.

Cuprinol Garden Shades 'Fresh Rosemary'

The shade is actually a mintier green than is showing above.
Here's the Adirondack chairs I made previously. A very different style as they're more angular and don't have floating arms like the new ones do.

Pallet wood planter

My new workshop is now up and running ready for Spring and I couldn't be more chuffed and so grateful that Mr TG gave up one quarter of his own shed to make me my own area. I now have a 20ft by 20ft space with fabulous scaffold board work surfaces and every tool I imagine I will ever need - except for one of Mr TGs table saws which I have my eye on, I've never used one because they scare the heck out of me but I still need one lol.

So my first projects are pallet wood planters. I've made planters before and I didn't want just a bog standard boring square but I've made 6 sided ones before and tbh I can't remember the degrees etc so bog standard square it is.....with a little scallop included.
These take me one day to build and cost nothing to make cos it's all pallet wood

I know not many people will want a blow by blow account of how I made it so if that includes you then I guess you shouldn't read on. If however you want to make one and want to know how I did it then continue reading and I'll try to tell you as best as I can, plus you can learn from my many mistakes as we go.

First assemble your materials - I know this is common sense but when I made the prototype of this (I had no plans) I kinda made it up as I went along and by the time I was on my third panel I realised I was out of pallet wood that had the same dimensions as the other 2 panels and although it only made a teeny weeny increase it affected the entire structure.
So gather your pallet wood first ensuring you have enough of the same size for the 4 panels, my panels measured 20" high by the combined width of 4 pieces of pallet wood wide (14").

First I cut 16 pieces of pallet wood @20" high and 4 pieces of batten @ the width of the panel (I used pallet wood that was about 3.5" wide so we'll say the panel width was 14") We actually need 8 pieces of batten but we'll come to that later.

So, I lay 4 pieces of the 20" wood down on my workbench best side down as we're working on the inside of the planter here. I actually made use of this iron angle square screwed to my workbench and I cannot tell you how much it helped, not only did it help square everything up but it helped keep everything tight together.

Next I attached a scrap piece of wood across the centre to keep all those boards tight together (I forgot to photograph that though).
Next I started marking out the arches top and bottom of the panel. I made a pencil mark 2" in from either side at the top at the same at the bottom, then I took a huge round plate and placed the edges against those marks and traced round it to create the curve - I did this top and bottom.

Next I used a jigsaw to cut out the arch following my pencil line.

TIP: Once you have cut the arches out do not be tempted at this point to remove the scrap wood. I did that once and it was ridiculously annoying trying to get the arch back to shape.
Next make a pencil mark 3" up from the bottom and 3" down from the top on either side of the panel. Take your cut batten and screw it down to the panel making sure each end is flush with your pencil mark. Do this top and bottom and then remove the scrap piece from the middle.
Then turn your panel over and screw into those battens from this side also as this will help make it super secure - remember to pre-drill first and use a counter sinker if you like, I didn't in the prototype and the wood split terribly.

That's one panel complete and you now need to make one more exactly like that.
Next you need to make 2 more panels the same as the first two but with one slight difference, the batten pieces need to be shorter to enable the entire structure to fit together.
To get the desired width of the shorter battens I simply held up the two finished panels against my new panel and measured the width required. This next photo shows you the process and the yellow pencil shows the width I need to take the measurement of

Fix the shorter battens in place 3" up from the bottom and 3" down from the top as you did on the other two panels. Once that's done pre-drill and screw in from the front again and then make another panel exactly the same.
You should now have 4 panels looking like these

The next bit couldn't be simpler - construct a box with the four panels.
Then pre-drill pilot holes and screw the sides together, again using the counter sinker if you like - this made it easier when I gave it a light sand too as there were no screw heads to rip paper on.

Once constructed this is what the inside will look like (those shorter battens suddenly make sense).

Next I cut 3 pieces of scrap wood and screwed them to the bottom battens to form a base, I left gaps between so that I can puncture the lining to allow water to drain.

For the liner I would usually use some of Mr TGs DPM poly as it's really thick but I was feeling particularly lazy and wanted to use what was to hand - bin liners!
As it happened these particular bin liners were a perfect fit and I secured it by stapling it to the top batten supports with my nail gun.
To hide the plastic and the staples I cut some really thin laths to fit around the top of the battens and nailed them in place.

Finally a quick sand down with 60 grit and then another quick going over with 240 grit and a coat of external varnish and the job was done.

My instructions may make this seem difficult but it really couldn't have been simpler to make nor quicker. It used minimal wood and cost nothing and a rose is going to look lovely in it.

I'm currently working on other planters, I'm hoping my mitre saw will cut accurate angles for an 8 sided planter and I'm trying to work out a square planter that staggers outward - could take a while.

DIY pallet wood decking

I finally got round to building the new deck on the back garden - with the help of Mr TG of course. I'm guessing it would have been less hassle to simply buy in some decent timbers and regular decking boards but I didn't want to spend a penny on this decking so despite Mr TGs reservations I insisted we use pallets and pallet wood.
I have to admit that there were several points in the first few hours of trying to lay pallets level and square when I wondered what on earth I was doing and seriously doubted my ability to see it through.
Levelling the initial layer of pallets was tedious, annoying and .....well....blinkin boring but I managed to get a base layer we could work from

Ideally I would have liked it much much bigger but I guess that's what happens when these things aren't planned within the original garden design - the rest of the patio shape and beds meant I couldn't really do one much bigger.
Once the pallets were layed we then had to create steps to the french doors and then start laying pallet wood over the top of everything to create a nice look.



I did like the weathered look of the boards and because I hate buying materials I would happily have left the boards just like that but Mr TG felt they needed some decking stain so that was our one and only expense on the decking. I used Ronseals decking stain as they were on a buy one get one half price offer and I figured I'd need the two tubs as they were only 2.5 litres each. As it turned out I used about 2 3rds of one tub only.


I know alot of people would prefer to buy the proper materials but I honestly love this decking. I was so chuffed last year when I managed to make a temporary deck from sleepers and scaffold boards but it was only big enough for one plastic chair, this one is plenty roomy enough for the two wooden chairs I made, the electric reel table I made, the chiminea and plenty of flower pots plus our bargain £5 parasol.
Here's the previous deck compared to the new one and the best bit is that the whole thing can be easily moved when Mr TG harls the house walls this year.



Now I get to relax out there and enjoy the view

A funny kind of few days.

I'm on top of the gardening at the moment so over the last couple of days I tackled a job I have been putting off - jet washing bird aviaries.
Not just any old bird though, this particular bird is my daughters Buzzard, Darla.
First I needed to jet wash the aviary next to her that is now empty (my daughter recently sold her Harris Hawks) then move Darla into it so I could then jet wash her aviary and then knock the two aviaries into one.
I don't have much to do with any of the Birds of prey here because they're my daughters and Mr TG's but I chat to Darla every day and I stupidly believed this daily chat would be sufficient to endear me to Darla who would then be completely cooperative during the moving procedure.
Let's just say I soon realised my folly. Darla doesn't have mews jesses for some reason which would have made her easy to catch and despite my chatting to her every day it seems she didn't like me quite as much as I'd thought. It took me about 10 minutes before I could even get close enough to entice her onto a glove but no way was she going to let me move her. After a couple of attacks from her feet I figured I needed a new method and it needed to be a quick method, Darla wasn't freaking out though - I was!
In the end I put on two hawking gloves and simply picker her up - yep, it was that easy. After all that effort before I just needed to pick her up.
With Darla safely in the first cleaned aviary I could get on with cleaning hers and then began taking down the middle partition, all under the watchful eye of Darla who now has a very large perfectly clean aviary.

Thankfully all the other Birds of prey (Barn Owl, 2x Eagle owls & 1 Great Horned Owl) all have external flight aviaries with inside nest areas so they don't get in the same mess as Darla's (hers is an internal flight with external areas) and just need daily raking of pellets etc (NOT my job).

It's a shame I'm not so careful when it comes to the cleaning of my PT. Look what I found growing in the waste heap dump

Looks like a lovely Asiatic Lily to me!

Not sure what this one is but it's certainly not a weed

I've also been taking pallets apart with my super duper pallet taker aparter, looks like I'm going to have a good supply of scrapwood for all those winter projects I like to do (and I have a whole load of them). This is the wood from just 2 6ft pallets - even the stringers are perfect for re-use.

The only problem I encountered while stripping the pallets was the weather, well the sun in particular. It's hard not to climb on top of the pallets and soak up the sun when the sky is this colour

So why fight it I say!

Be careful what you wish for!

I have moaned quite a lot lately to Mr TG regarding the lack of scrap wood I currently have, in fact I don't remember my supplies ever being this low - non existent actually.
With this lack of scrapwood in mind you can imagine my horror as we pass a derelict barn that is being renovated and every time the scrapwood pile seems to be growing and growing, it's obvious from the design of the pile that the guy is intending to burn the stuff too - probably on bonfire night.
I finally begged, grovelled convinced Mr TG to pop in one day and just find out whether the owner would mind me hauling as much of it away as I can. Apparently Mr TG claims he did pop in but that the wood is so naff that even I wouldn't use it, it's just old lath out of an old building and it's rotting and no good for nothing but a bonfire. I was gutted because that bonfire looks like it's getting larger by the day!
I've noticed some of the wooden reels that electric cable arrives on at the same guys house so I'm currently begging grovelling convincing Mr TG to go ask about them for me, in the mean time I just kept moaning and moaning and moaning about my lack of scrap wood and all the containers I need to make for the garden.
It would seem that Mr TG actually does listen though and does take on board my problems and even tries to sort something out for me - I only want scrap wood. New wood is a waste of money and doesn't have the same appeal to me, I want to produce something for no cost - but his latest solution wasn't quite what I had in mind.
While I was out collecting my daughter from work Mr TG had a delivery of scrap wood arrive at home, the only problem with this particular scrap wood is......well.....take a look

At first I wasn't sure whether it was an act of kindness, sarcasm or evilness but then I had to admit I've moaned so much lately about needing wood - even pallets - that Mr TG was just doing something nice. It seems his friend has a waste licence and redirected a container load of wood at his request, Mr TG had hoped there would be some sleepers included because the stuff comes from SubSea 7 and that's where we got 50 or so sleepers from earlier in the year but it seems the sleepers have to go straight to landfill now. We assume it's because they're treated and therefore not 'clean' wood but it seems such a shame.
The initial horror of being greeted with 15mtrs of dumped pallet soon made way to excitement as I worked out all the things I could make once they're taken apart - sheds, fences, pots etc but then reality dawned and I understood that I was going to be the one taking these things apart.
I don't know if you've ever tried taking a pallet apart before but it's nigh on impossible, the wood just splits or snaps rendering it no good for anything but burning.
So I had a dilemma to think through!
Not for long though - look what I found on FB

Sounded too good to be true so I watched the Youtube video

Yup, I had to get me one of those!
I emailed Gareth (the maker) straight away and he gave me the price £45 plus shipping costs of £17.50 and said he would ship immediately from Norwich.
I'm now waiting for my bar to arrive and then I'll show Mr TG just how quickly I can dismantle a pallet - I mean even forget to mention that I have a tool for the job lol.

What have I started

That's exactly what I was asking screaming at myself this morning.
You see yesterday I decided on a whim that it was the day I was going to build my 3 bay compost area. Originally I was going to build it on a fresh area of land next to the polytunnel but I didnt think I would have all the materials I would have needed to do that and so because I am the sort of person who wants what I want when I want it, I started looking around at what I could adapt to fit.
At first I figured I shouldn't dismantle the plant pot holder I made a few years back out of old pallets

but then I figured 'what the heck', I didn't use it that much last year and anyways it just encourages me to keep stuff in small pots for too long plus the current plastic compost bin is in a bay directly to the right of the pallet pot holder.
So I ripped the whole thing apart!
Well it seemed like a good idea at the time and when I went in last night with an unfinished project on my mind I was quite oblivious as to how awkward the project would prove to be. It wouldn't have been at all awkward if I'd just started the darned thing from scratch but the way I was doing it (making it up as I go along) meant alot of hand sawing and attempting to make the whole thing at least look level (no spirit level was involved - too much hassle when I just want a job 'done').
When I eagerly walked over this morning to continue the job this is what I was faced with

That is so not how I remember leaving it last night.
After alot of jaw gaping and confusion I set to work to get the entire thing finished today. The  thing that makes my projects so unpredictable and messy is that I never ever EVER work from a plan, not even in my head in this instance. I literally made the whole thing up as I went along and finding materials to fit the mess I had created was getting a bit annoying, it has to be said.
Eventually (when I left it this afternoon) it looked like this

It's not finished. I still need to add wooden slats to the two end pallets to keep the compost in (I only got round to doing the middle bay) and I need two more decent pallets for gates but it'll do the job.
Now I'm hoping I can finally get some decent compost going because the stuff I've been making over the last couple of years is pretty naff.
I had a plastic bin in that right hand bay and I emptied it all into the middle bay but after being in the plastic bin for approx 18 months this is what it looked like

Seriously slow at rotting down and absolutely no heat.
I'm hoping the bigger bays combined with better chopping up of materials will get me some of the good stuff. I haven't made lids for the bays so I'm going to keep an eye on them and cover with polythene if I think they need it.