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.
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
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 begginggrovelling 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.
