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.

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

DIY potting bench.

I've wanted to build a potting bench for the garden for quite a while now and wasted spent many a hour scouring Google and Pinterest for ideas and plans to make the ultimate bench.
I had huge ideas for this bench - it was going to have built in bins for compost, a sink, plenty of storage and hooks for hanging "stuff", but most of all it was going to be the prettiest little potting bench this side of Caithness.

My inspiration included this bench from 'My Honeys Place'.
Love the colour, the little heart cut out and especially the sink.

Or this one from 'Homeroad'.
I love that suzy uses old gates/wood, slates on the top, has the cute drawers and the window to the side.

There are free plans available all over the tinterweb for pretty much any design of potting bench you could possibly want.
But Linda doesn't 'do' plans!
One day Linda is going to learn the concept of planning and is going to have all timber correct in size ready to hand before attempting a project that can end up being big and complex.
On this particular build though I stuck to my usual 'make it up as I go along' method and lets just say I had many moments of seriously hating the project and it came veeeeery close to being dumped on Mr TGs burning heap (if I could have carried the beast that is).
The end result is not particularly pleasing to the eye, it has none of the special compartments I wanted, only has one shelf (which is already home to a Hosta rather than the compost and pots it was made for) and is made from so many odds and sods of scrapwood that it could never look very well put together BUT it does the job.....just!

Ultimately it is not long enough which is why I had to add to a side tray and I suspect I'm still going to end up using the patio table as a potting bench rather than this.
I did have one groovy idea though - I was worried that after a few uses the bench part of it was going to look seriously grotty and dirty from compost and I know I'd be forever painting over it, then I remembered that somewhere I had a bottle of Crystal resin (see where this is going). The resin was a fair few years old (I'm guessing at least 8) so I didn't know if it would work but I thought if I could coat the top with resin then it would make it wipeable.
I have to admit the resin did look a bit dodgy and had actually crystalised in parts but I mixed it all with the hardener and just spread the stuff. It took a good 2 days to harden but harden it has and I now have that wipeable surface.

I also built this planter for a standard Rose that I bought from Homebase. The Rose looks a tad dodgy as it was on the reduced isle (last step before the skip) and it doesn't look a pretty sight at the moment but at least it has a pretty planter.
I made the whole thing from scrapwood (of course) and made it up as I went along (of course), lined it with large dog food bags (wish I'd used compost bags as at least they'd be black) and coated it with Cuprinol Garden shades 'Summer Damson'

Beechers Brook & those Fuchsias.

I finally got around to making the sign for the trellis I made earlier in the year for a climbing Rose - I made the trellis from an old metal bed frame and wooden upright supports and Mr TG commented that it looked like a horse jump so the name 'Beechers brook' has stuck ever since. I'm not entirely sure why I didn't change it though because a) it looks nothing like Beechers brook, more a showjumping upright and b) I loathe the Grand National and every barbaric jump on its course so why would I hang the name in my lovely garden!

Anyway here's the sign made from a old piece of wood sanded down, painted 'Cuprinol' Stone, sanded again for a weathered look and varnished.

I decided to make a hook for it too because I thought a nail would look a bit naff and boring so I used a trowel that Mr TG bought me from the pound shop and which kept falling apart and bending from first use (get what you pay for).
It had a rubber pink handle so I removed that and replaced it with Sisal rope and then set about bending the trowel base in to a hook

Here it is holding the awfully named sign

Mr TG was very pleased to find this Lily flowering on his pond. We moved it from the main pond a couple of months ago and to be honest I never thought it would establish quick enough to actually flower this year, shows what I know

And look what is growing in the polytunnel. Out of about 100 Fuchsia cuttings I have approx 8 that are thriving, though I did forget to label them because I didn't think it was worth it as I assumed they'd all die as per normal. I'm quite good at recognising leaf shape though so I should be able to ID them, if not the flowers will be a dead give away.

The weather looks set fine for today, in fact my daughter and I have just been out for a run and it felt really hot (I say 'run' but as it's my first time out since slipping a disc it was more of a walk spattered with jogs).
I've made a start on the potting bench so I'll get some more of that done today. I really need to get some more seeds sown for the veg garden and salad sown for the PT but it's just going to be too hot in there today so it may have to wait until tonight, plus it's the time of year when I take loads of cuttings from my favourite shrubs.

Hope the sun is shining wherever you are!

Garden projects and another plant ID

Yesterday was my first  day of doing anything resembling 'real' gardening since popping a disc in my back, I'm not fully recovered but I think I did pretty darned well to hold back for 3 weeks so I thought 'why not give it a go'.
I'll admit I could have started with something less taxing on the back than shifting slabs and heavy pots (I never learn) and yes my back is sore today but I don't care, I had a blast!

It took me pretty much all day to complete 2 small jobs but hey ho I got there in the end. The first job was to replace this scaffold board walkway at the pond with something a tad better looking, obviously this involved plentiful weeding too but it's certainly improved it.
This is the before  (look at all those weeds - eek!)

And after - excuse all the mud/stone/weed right at the back, that whole area is going to be decked ........ eventually!

Next job was to pot up a climbing Fuchsia 'Mrs Boothby' and provide some kind of trellis for her to cling to. Originally I came up with this first trellis simply because it was lightweight and meant less bending etc for me

but I thought it look blah and that the Fuchsia would soon outgrown the trellis so I changed it. Whatever I put there has to be moveable until Mr TG has finished the Harling to the external walls and all I could find big enough and moveable was this

At first I liked it but the more I looked at it the less I liked the colour, the creamy first one looked much better against the wall and suited the plant better so I'm either going to spray this one ream (it's a metal bed frame incidentally) or I'm going to build a brand new one and paint it the cream I use all over the garden - 'Cuprinol garden shades - Old stone (I think)'.
I've hankered after a climbing Fuchsia for a while and I love it, obviously it will need protecting in the winter so will go in the poly tunnel but I can't wait to see how it performs next year - I may even attempt cuttings.

I have this lovely yellow plant flowering in the garden this year. I remember planting it last year but assumed it had died over winter, for the life of me I cannot remember the name of it - any ideas? I think it began with an 'S' but I could be wrong.

I'm supposed to be taking it easy today, supposed to be making a start on Christmas cards and I was happy to do that when the weather man claimed we'd have rain all day today, but there's no sign of rain and I want to make an outdoor potting bench - what to do, what to do!

Birds, flowers and Pergolas

Despite the wind today I got the pergola finished. I didn't get the trellis up as well though because I came across a problem that could see me damaging a pipe that I would really rather not damage, so I'm going to have to think it through first.
Here's the finished pergola though

I'm not sure what to do with the sides yet (if anything), I'll make a decision once the trellis is up.

Remember those Bamboo plants that my daughter saved for me from work, the ones that were in the skip? The ones that were about 15ft tall and we had to transport them home in a car? Well it seems that not even Homebase can kill Golden bamboo - a bit of repotting, feed, lots of water and some TLC and they're paying me back

I'm so pleased they survived even though they looked just about had it, I now have £120.00 worth of bamboo for free.

I've never grown Verbena but I picked up 3 plants on sale at a garden centre earlier in the year. The 3 plants are still in pots and growing well but a week ago I thought I'd snip the tops off, bung them in some compost and put them in the heated propagator.
I'm not the best cutting taker and 99% of what I cut usually dies but lookit

Only a week old and they're shooting up. Think I'm going to take some more!

Finally can anyone name this plant, I got it from my mums old garden and left it in a pot just to see what it does. I'd love to know what it is.

Oh, one more thing. After 3 years absence look what has come back to the new feeding station in my garden

Siskins - I think!

Sharing this post over at

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Tantrums and pergolas

I really wasn't looking forward to tackling the pergola again yesterday, in fact I headed straight for the polytunnel and decided I wasn't going to bother - it was the thought of taking apart the work I'd already done for the sake of the 1/2" I was out in measurements.
By the the time I'd finished in the PT though I decided I may as well give it a go, well you can imagine how well it went with a 'give it a go' attitude can't you.
I re-measured and re-measured, took everything apart and re-built to my exact new measurements - nothing could go wrong!
I began erecting the structure and despite bracing the darned thing with battens I could not get the structure square - one side kept pulling the other side out and vice versa.
Mr TG who decided to go to work yesterday due to the nice weather (he's been rained off alot lately) received some very choice texts along the lines of

"This stupid $%£*ing pergola will not square up"  followed shortly by
"I don't want a pergola anymore"

By this time I had had a right royal tantrum and was kicking grass and throwing tools. Only the night before Mr TG had reminded me sarcastically what I say to him in his fits of "Bo$$ox to the whole thing". "Remember what you tell me" says Mr TG "there's no point having a childish tantrum just walk away and leave it"
Well Mr TG I offer advice all the time doesn't mean I follow it!

Anyway I did take a deep breath and figured I'd get the top permanent braces cut, fix them and see from there.
Suddenly it all took shape, the top braces fixed the sides at the correct spacings and once I'd finally managed to get the sides spirit level straight I fixed em toot sweet with 6" nails.
I'd hoped to get it completely finished but I was starting to make silly mistakes on the top cross sections and wasted 2 lengths of wood so I called it a day.
Here's where it's at at the moment

All built from scrap wood which makes it all the more pleasing and I'm so glad I stuck at it now.
Mr TG was most impressed when he got home cos he thought he was going to see a new pile of firewood - O ye of little faith Mr TG - I call myself tenacious for a reason.

The Bees are finally buzzing...at least one is anyway!

I had the best surprise ever when I went into the Polytunnel yesterday - a Bee! But not just any Bee, this is the first Bee I have seen this year and I have a Pear tree and a Plum tree in there that could seriously do with some pollinating.
Shame the little guy took off from this position though and proceeded to buzz around the plastic

This is where I need the little guy to be

I did try hand pollinating as all my fruit trees are self fertile but I don't think I did a good job of it - much better if Mr Bee does it.

I also managed to get some of the veggies pricked out and potted up individually. It's going to be a fair few weeks before it's safe to plant these guys out though

The original Sweetcorn that I sowed died. I thought I may have been able to save them but it wasn't to be and luckily I made another sowing just in case they didn't make it, so thankfully I have more Sweetcorn on its way.
I have plenty of Cabbage (Greyhound & Golden Acre) and Cauli (All the year round) for the first sowing, I'll make another sowing in a few weeks.
The Tomatoes (Roma, Black Russian & Gardeners delight) all seem to be doing well. The Swede (Invitation), Cucumbers and Courgettes (I must post the varieties) are all romping away in the polytunnel.
I've got French beans growing too but they won't be able to go out for a few weeks neither will the Leeks.
The ground is still quite cold at the moment so I am going to have cover it with plastic to warm it up a bit so that I can get the Parsnips in.
So far I have had absolutely no success with the Celeriac sowings. I've done two seperate sowings and tried one in the heated propagator and one in the polytunnel. The propagator ones grew sporadically then just withered away and the polytunnel ones have yet to show any life at all.

And because all the veggies are growing I needed to make some more veg markers. I didn't want to make completely wooden ones for the veggies though because I needed something that would be quick to make and require nothing more than cutting and nailing, plus I wanted whatever I wrote the veggie name on to be weather proof so here's what I came up with

Granted they're not the most stunning of markers but they were quick, easy and free to make. All I did was cut that wood to the length I wanted, cut up an old milk carton to get the plastic I wanted then folded the plastic over on top and nailed it to the wood

I'll make the more ornamental ones I posted about HERE for the garden plants or plants that are in tubs.

All in a good days work..

Never before have I had Tomato seedlings pricked out and potted individually by the end of March, but I'm at least 1 month ahead of normal due to my fabulous heated propagator.
The chives and Garlic chives are also now ready for pricking out and potting up and the Peppers will also be soon too (peppers are not usually even sown until end of April due to low temps).
I'm surprised that the Cucumbers and Courgettes are not showing signs of life yet though so I think today I'll move those into the heated propagator to give them the warmth they obviously need.
But hey, I'm delighted with the Tomatoes!

Yesterday I decided to whip up a quick trug from recycled materials to carry my gardening tools from one area to the other. I sometimes use those pouches that clip round the waist but I find them uncomfortable and no way can you get down and dirty with the weeds when you have several hand tools, secateurs and scissors strapped to your waist.
A while ago I made a scrapwood trug but decided not to use it in the garden because it's too pretty and I'd be really bugged if I got it dirty so it sits in the craft room.

Here's the one I whipped up yesterday

I decided against any prettifying of it because it's going to get battered and in fact - to prove a point - when I put it down on the garden the first thing Huntly tried to do was pee up it! I saved it that time but next time who knows...

Once I had my trug made I went to tackle these

Those are Pampas grass that I planted last year to form a hedge that could withstand the wind we get here. There's other plants I could use as I don't particulary like handling pampas grass but I had a whole heap of these that needed using.
The only problem is the dogs! You can see the damage they've caused by trampling on them and laying on them (originally they looked very healthy plants - honest).
I contemplated pulling them all out and planting something on the other side of the fence where the dogs dont go but instead I did this

It's only temporary to allow the plants to grow but I'm still not sure it's a great idea. My back was turned for 5 minutes after I finished staking those tubes and Huntly had already pulled a tube from the stake and was chucking it around in the air. Think I need to come up with a different plant plan before the Pampas grows too big and is an issue to remove.

More land clearance was tackled by Mr TG yesterday (with the unexpected help form one of daughters) and we didnt get back in doors until sundown

I hope the weather is improving wherever you are today and allowing you to get out and treat yourself to some garden therapy.

Look what can be made...

I bet many of us garden bloggers spend a fair bit of time reading other blogs of interest and/or typing some relevant search into Google and seeing what it comes up with (I seriously can't be the only one that does this.....can I).
I'm more of a visual gal so once I've typed in what I'm looking for I go straight to 'images' and check out the results that way.
There's been many times when I've seen something so awesome and yet so obvious and thought to myself 'why the heck didn't I come up with that?' and I'll often pin them to 'Pinterest' even though I hardly ever go back to look at them afterwards.

Today I just have to share some of the awesomeness I've found online and I found this idea over at 'Creative DIY Gardening'. If you live with a sloping garden I think this would be an amazing way to grow veggies - if you're not a veggie grower then just imagine it plastered with flower power

Creative DIY Gardening

How's this next one for a veggie or flower trellis from 'The stir', or even just as a garden divide as a piece of art in its own right. Easy to make with copper pipe and joins and when it's weathered it will take on a more muted  tone (though personally I would want it to stay looking this good and copperish)

'The stir'

This 'DIY garden hose hanger' is one of those obvious ones that I wish I'd thought of, however I will definitely be doing this as it's such a nice way of keeping that unsightly hose tidy. It could also have a couple of hanging baskets attached to it to make it look even prettier.

DIY garden hose hanger

I have very clear ideas of what I want in a garden (even though my garden resembles none of them) and this next image of 'Eudora Welty's backyard garden' shows it perfectly. I love this

I could spend so much time sitting there surrounded by my favourite flower - the Rose.


This next one is another project I have had on my to do list for the past couple of years - leaf castings. 'The Yarnability' made some as bird baths but whatever use you want a leaf casting for 'The Yarnability' have a very clear and concise tutorial on their web. I've planned to do Gunnera and Fatsia leaves so hopefully this year I'll actually get round to it.

Hope you enjoyed all the awesomeness.