Hey friends,

After the nursery I'm not quite ready to jump into another big project but doing something handy makes me happy so here are a few low cost tasks I've been doing around the house and garden.

🪥 Refurbishing An Old Stool

This stool once belonged to my grandmother. It would befit a farmhouse kitchen but we're using it for the lad to hop on for teeth brushing in the new bathroom so it deserves a more modern look.

What's the quickest makeover I could give it? I decided that as the yellow paint was already peeling I could sand that off easily but best to leave the blue paint as all the curves would be hassle to sand back to wood. I gave those a lick of Johnstones Aqua Guard, an off-white called Ammonite that I had left over from the wardrobe project.

The top I gave three coats of danish oil, surplus from my desk worktop. Did you know that oily rags can spontaneously combust when dry? Once you're done with them, best to pop them in an old jar and throw them out like that.

Not sure what kind of wood it is, but I like it.

For the finishing flourish I added rubber feet to make it more stable and stops the scraping noise over tile. When not in use we stow it away under the wall mounted sink. I think my grandma would be pleased her great grandson is getting use out of it :).

💧 Replacing A Downpipe

I've previously mentioned our blocked soakaways. The only one causing an issue right now is that shared between us and our attached neighbour which pours water on the wall and has produced peeling plaster internally (no mould though for some reason).

I was playing a game of chicken to see which of us would resolve it first but as the wet was working its way up the wall towards the 1st floor's joists I gave in. I guess I'm the chicken 🐥.

Now quite adept with breaking up cast iron, I tapped the coupler until it broke and the lower section of downpipe came away. Once I'd smashed it open the problem was all too clear.

The pipe below the ground which runs to a soakaway somewhere is also totally blocked so for an interim solution I've put on a new downpipe, a 92.5 angle and then run another downpipe horizontally along the fence line where it can drain off into the plants. I'll return to this project another time.

🥬 The Veg Patch

Before taking the shed down, this area of garden had become an overgrown mess.

After some toil it's ready for spring:

The berry patch has had a good sorting out. It's a neat square to better be able to fit a fruit cage at a later date to keep the pigeons out.

1. I moved this gooseberry to where a small pear tree was. I'm not fond of pears.
2. Blueberry. They love acidic soil. You can check your soil on this map but our house lies between two bands - one slightly acidic, the other alkaline. Rather than pay for a testing kit I thought I'd just see if it grows. We have other acidic loving plants like camellia and heather so it might be alright but I dug in plenty of ericaceous compost to give it a boost. You can always keep them in pots if you have alkaline soil.
3. These are raspberries that were here already. They're thornless but not very productive. I thought I'd give them another year before replacing to see if a good feed will bring them back to life.
4. I found another use for the slotted angle iron in the garage. I used a sledge hammer to insert them into the ground and strung garden wire between to train the plants on.
5. This is a new blackberry plant, thornless but as it's a floricane, i.e. puts out fruits on last year's growth, I decided to...
6. ...keep some of the old thorny blackberries for now and will replace them next year.
7. The clematis I planted here died, probably because its roots were in full sun so I've replaced it with a star jasmine which has the bonus of being evergreen.
8. By moving the potting bench here I've got a bit more space for the veg patch. The window above it is still on my list.

🔥 A Big Fire

I took advantage of the recent dry spell to get rid of the last of the old shed that didn't fit in the skip. Using a garden incinerator is good for keeping the fire contained and the smoke going upwards but it's a bit small if you have a lot to get rid of. I tend to overload it for...fun.

The empty space where the leylandii were is now free again. We added a secondhand slide to the swing set but there's still a good 7 metres to the right of it than can be used for something.

If you remember the plan was to build a workshop in this space but I've put that on hold because 1) the house takes priority and 2) I've noticed that whenever I'm doing a DIY task there's always another tool I didn't think I needed, but do - tape, pliers, bit of spray foam, you name it. Going back and forth to the end of the garden every time would be a bit of a faff. Better to keep my tools in the integral garage until I turn that into something else.

So I have a few years to put something in this space. If the workshop weren't the long term plan I'd probably plant a mini orchard. An interim option I'm very tempted by is an above ground pool like this one. During last summer's heatwaves I was about ready to immerse myself in the garden pond so a pool sounds great. The reality maybe less so - the cleaning and potential danger of it for the lad etc. Maybe a trampoline? 🦘

👋

Clarkson's Farm Season 1 was the best bit of tele I've watched in years and Season 2 was almost as good with plenty of humour, hi-jinx and heart. I know Clarkson isn't everyone's cup of tea - he doesn't like my Vauxall Astra and I heard he recently penned a mean piece about Meghan...quite what he's got against Renault I don't know - but I think most of you would enjoy the show. It's on Amazon Prime - 30 day free trial link.

Hit "reply" if you've got any comments on this week's newsletter – otherwise I'll see you next time. Have an epic week :)

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