We have spent about 4 seasons getting the back garden in shape. Cleaned out the previous 15-20 years of neglect by previous owners. The weeds have taken a complete control of the garden and had grown like trees. We clear all the roots as well. - Planted some fruit trees, flower plants and installed a surface level Gardena drip irrigation - Took a couple of seasons to bring the lawn into a decent shape. The Grass People were helpful. - Our front lawn work is still pending - This season, we are planning to add a few more fruit trees, replace over-ground irrigation to root-level irrigation and put in place some raised decking boards for the trees and flower plants - As a side project, we plan to build some DIY side boards, side tables, kitchen an bed room cup boards. We need some recommendations 1. The lawn doesn’t have any major weed or moss problem as we have done a lot of work in the past. We are looking for an organic or a good liquid lawn weed and moss killers. Mo Bachter is one. The grass people’s 3-1 non-organic fertiliser is another. What do you guy use? We are looking for something, which won’t kill the lawn. 2. We have a gardena drip irrigation. We are thinking of grabbing some hunter popup sprinklers for the lawn and their root-zone watering. Is there a good alternative? I am not sure I want to integrate it with the proposed home automation project. 3: We need a plunge saw and a router. These are for the home use only and not for a commercial purposes. There are so many of them - Festool, Bosch, Dewalt, Triton, McAlister. I have spent some time watching Peter Millard’s reviews. The Festool is expensive. I am sure there will be a lot of skilled and talented DIYers here. Let’s know what you think please. Thx! Edit: The AVA pressure washer purchase is a part of the project!

Oh god, perfect timing Last few weeks in between the snow! Ive done a new fence And started to do decking [upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/kIwDLRd.jpeg] [upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/WXiA9Pg.jpeg]

For grass https://elixirgardensupplies.co.uk/ Sell good stuff, i had a really good product that i used on the front lawn last yr as it was neglected. Mine vs next door on left [upl-image-preview url=//i.imgur.com/TXVhsmJ.jpeg] Needs its first cut of the yr soon as it dries out then re feeding

@"Cuprajake"#p14814 Blimey, you've been busy. I'm lazy and just sit in it with the cat. Until it gets a bit warmer. [URL=https://i.imgur.com/9bfW7kP.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/9bfW7kP.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

😂 well 2 weeks ago was cracking the flags, then is snowed/hail all week. Was doing the fence, one minute roasting then hail😂🤦🏻♀️ uk weather

Very nice Jake! will check the grass site. We have enough grass seeds for the season. Thx

Amazing thread, always inspiring to see DIY projects outdoors or in! We’re renting between house purchases at the moment so no home improvements but I’ve been busy making wallets as a bit of a DIY project. [URL=https://i.imgur.com/YYK4g2Q.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/YYK4g2Q.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=https://i.imgur.com/SoYC96c.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/SoYC96c.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Lookjs really good…do you add any rf material for the credit cards?

@"DavecUK"#p14840 thanks, I haven’t done yet but that’s a great idea!

Another item for your tool list is a biscuit jointer, strong invisible joints in a variety of materials, you can even 'biscuit' joint mitres.👍

@"LMSC"#16, for the lawn, one thing you can do is not use a grass box, i.e. leave the clippings on the lawn. It then turns into nutrient for the grass. Saves taking time and effort to remove the nutrients the grass has grown, and then spend more time and money adding nutrient back. Also, you shouldn’t really need to water grass, unless it’s newly planted. Yes it will go yellow and stop growing if it gets very dry, but it will spring back. Save the water. For a plunge saw I can’t recommend the Festool HK55 highly enough. You can use it as a regular circular saw, you can do plunge cuts, you can do angled cuts, and with the rails you can do perfect straight cuts. Yes it’s expensive, but they have very good guarantees and continue to supply parts. It’s also less than hiring a chippy for a couple of days. We fitted our kitchen and utility room, as well as building desks etc, and it gave a very good finish. For a router I’m happy with our dewalt, but didn’t do as much research into that. Probably the biggest decision is what size, 1/4” or 1/2”. It’s tempting to think 1/2” so you can do everything, but you end up with a massive device that is hard to use for more delicate tasks. I decided to go 1/4”, and if I ever need a 1/2” (which is pretty much only needed for fitting worktops) then I’ll hire one. I hope that helps

Lawn, garden and DIY cupboards projects - What are you guys doing ?

tompoland

Compost bin project. Will finish over Easter.

LMSC

PortafilterProcrastinator Bosch GKT55 and have been really pleased with it. Very similar to the Mafell (rumour was Mafell make it for them).

Thx. I have been looking at this along with Festool. The Bosch’s review is very good.

simonc Many thanks. Those hunters look reasonable. The Stainless steel versions are expensive but may last for a long time.

Elcarajillo Yeah. I am not going to buy all in one go. I’m more likely to start with the plunge saw as we would require it for the garden project.

I saw Peter Millard making a wooden 2.4 m rail. That was interesting. Perhaps, will make one to cushion the financial impact.

What do guys do for the extractor? They cost the same, if not more.

Elsewhere, we ordered these two!

envii SeaFeed Xtra – Organic Liquid Seaweed Fertiliser Multipurpose Plant Food - 1 Litre

Pro-Kleen 2.5 KG PREMIUM Iron Sulphate (Makes up to 2500L When Diluted & Covers up to 2500m2) Pure Lawn Tonic- Ferrous Sulphate of Iron Lawn Conditioner and Turf Hardener. Dry Powder easily soluble in water

hornbyben

LMSC What do guys do for the extractor? They cost the same, if not more

I didn’t bother. Usually I try to cut outside, or hook up to the old dyson vac

PortafilterProcrastinator

LMSC What do guys do for the extractor? They cost the same, if not more.

If cutting outside, still use decent protection - I recommend the JSP Force 8. Sheet material especially is bloody horrible - don’t want it in your lungs.

Extraction helps a lot with routing in terms of seeing what’s going on.

If you don’t need power pass-through I’d recommend CamVac.

If you want another DIY project you could mock up a master/slave using the Kemo module - decent rating - for convenience.

LMSC

Ordered this as well!

https://www.toolstation.com/pressure-sprayer/p44493

LMSC

hornbyben Yeah! I was thinking of hooking the Miele with an adaptor. That’s what we do while using the electric sander for decorations. Works very well. 😊

LMSC

PortafilterProcrastinator JSP Force 8. Sheet Material

Mate, you’re a walking library! 👏👍 Is that a respiratory mask?

Absolutely agree, I have no intentions of exposing myself to dust.

The problem is these extractors are so expensive. I will aim to connect the vac while working. Could you share the CamVac link please ?

Could you tell me more about the Kemo please ?

Is there a free design tool for designing cup boards, tables, landscaping garden please ? Windows or iOS.

Elcarajillo

LMSC Take a look at Axminster Tools to view variety of makes / models.

PortafilterProcrastinator

LMSC The mask - yes. You can get different filters depending on the job. Creates a great seal - cheaper disposable alternatives leak like a sieve.

CamVac: https://www.recordpower.co.uk/category/dust-extraction

Yes pricey, but very good indeed. £380 for the smallest with two motors. Having that option is great, especially if you ever get a planer/ thicknesser.

The Kemo module will allow you to create a master/ slave set up so turning on your tool will then power up the extraction. You’d need a double gang plug socket and project box to wire it together.

https://www.conrad.com/p/kemo-m103n-master-slave-switch-component-230-v-ac-1091973

Ready made options don’t have great power ratings, but this one seems to have enough headroom. I’ve not done it myself yet, but it’s on the list just as soon as I can get some time.

I’m afraid I’m a pencil and paper man, technologically inept.

I also agree with @CoyoteOldMan - there are so many more options with a ½″ router. Have a look at the UJK router table for instance - a whole new world of possibilities.

CoyoteOldMan

One more recommendation for Festool - not just the plunge saw, but the OF1400 router. I haven’t used the Bosch (which by all accounts is excellent too), but I found an open-box OF1400 on eBay at a great price, and I haven’t looked back. It’s an excellent tool, and as long as it’s connected to a shop vac (not the Festool mortgage-requiring type) there is practically no dust, even when working on MDF.

On the ¼ vs. ½″ collet, I would go diametrically (!) opposite - unless you are planning to use the router only as a trim router. You can fit a ¼″ collet on a ½″ capable router body, but you can’t do the reverse, and any shaping/moulding capability is severely restricted if you only have ¼″ bits.

LMSC

One thing is sure! My wife is going to kill me for planning to run down our bank accounts!

CoyoteOldMan Interesting take on routers. Thx

Pompeyexile This is absolutely beautiful. What a grand design and development! Well done. Retaining walls and slabs will be very expensive! Let me think about it as we plan to extend the back garden enhancement this season and aim to wrap up everything next, if we can’t finish this season. It’s mostly a one-man job. It takes time, unfortunately. 😊

simonc I don’t remember. I remember measuring 2 or 3 bars! I was planning to bury PVC pipes. Does it work? How is it different to to MDPE.

RDC8 Thx for the heads up. We purchased Bosch Vericutter 1100W 2 years ago. It is good, though one needs to be careful. The lowest setting will rip all the grass out! 😂 I plan to scarify today or tomorrow. We will be getting the Moss killer. It is good to scarify today, apply the moss killer tmrw and rains the day after. The advisory is a wet / moist lawn and not a sunny or a dry lawn.

Pompeyexile

About 28 years ago I totally transformed our sloping back garden from this…

to this…

At the time I chose to use wood to make a decked area and a product called Woodblox for the beds due to cost. It was cheaper then than building retaining walls and backfiling and laying slabs and stone steps. Now though, I wish I had waited and saved up a bit and gone down the brick/patio slab route, as even though everything was pressure treated and looked after every year, it has rotted in places. Because it was built so long ago I can no longer get the same size decking, which means replacing the whole lot and as we all know, the price of wood now is rediculous.

So, I am now thinking brick retaining walls and slabs will at least see me out. Trouble is, I’m 30 years older and no way can I do it. Also, we have some major work being done in the house replacing all the lower ground joists and floors throughout (cowboy house builders say no more) back end of September, so it’s going to have to wait another year or two at least.

Wood decking looks good, but if I had my time again, I wouldn’t.

CoyoteOldMan

Pompeyexile 30 years for an “all wood” work of that type and extent is fantastically good durability.

Perhaps a mad idea, but - depending on what is rotting, and how much - would recycling most of the current “healthy” decking and adding new (similar or deliberately dissimilar) decking “around the edges” be feasible? It may be cheaper than replacing everything…

simonc

LMSC We have a gardena 6 zones digital timer controlled irrigation along with 6 zones distributor. At the moment, We are using only one; plan to use 3 more of these for the lawn, front and split the watering for plants. We will still have 2 spares. 😊

What is your pressure like? You might find if you want to run 2 pop ups at the same time, that you would need larger supply hose than this would take, or you would have to run 2 hoses all the way from this to each pop up, does depend a bit on size of garden and how easy it is to hide them. At the very least you will be burying pipe for the pop ups and the tree irrigation and you will need to make sure the hose you use and connectors are up to the job. I wouldn’t want to bury a normal garden hose and click connector as I know how often they leak above the ground as bits become loose. Hopefully you will be able to connect MDPE supply pipe to this controller.

If not, you will be looking at solenoid valves (all easy to do) and a 12v controller (and might be able to help you out there).

RDC8

@LMSC You may have done this already, but I highly recommend a programme of removing the thatch from your lawn(s) on a regular basis, I started doing this two years ago on a very tired, run-down lawn and it makes a world of difference. Use an electric powered “scarifier” rather than a manual scarifying rake. The lawn will look pretty roughed up to begin with but will soon recover.

Pompeyexile

LMSC This is absolutely beautiful. What a grand design and development! Well done. Retaining walls and slabs will be very expensive! Let me think about it as we plan to extend the back garden enhancement this season and aim to wrap up everything next, if we can’t finish this season. It’s mostly a one-man job. It takes time, unfortunately. 😊

Thanks. Those pictures were taken when I had finished the main work. The bricks and pieces of wood on the beds were to stop the local felines doing their business and had to stay unti I managed to find a way using slightly raised chicken wire to stop them and until plants were established. As I said that was years ago and now it all needs replacing. Also, virtually every year I treated the wood too which was a major job and not cheap, which you don’t need to do with brickwork and slabs.

I’m going to price up both ways and if brickwork and slabs comes close to the cost of wood either more or less, I’m going for the brickwork… maintenance free.

simonc

LMSC simonc I don’t remember. I remember measuring 2 or 3 bars! I was planning to bury PVC pipes. Does it work? How is it different to to MDPE.

its more common to bury PVC in the US than here from what I have seen. You can, but joints are more effort and less forgiving in movement than hose. This in either 25mm or 30mm is ideal, and then easy to get connectors to the pop ups. Much like flow profiling, pressure and flow are related and depend on the pipe. You also need to measure how much flow you have as the sprinkler heads are rated by flow. Not enough and you can only run one at a time, which just means more zones and more pipes back to the controller, rather than plumbing them in on the same pipe.

simonc

LMSC simonc I don’t remember. I remember measuring 2 or 3 bars! I was planning to bury PVC pipes. Does it work? How is it different to to MDPE

That’s the problem in the UK, our domestic pressure is so low. 3 bars will be ok, 2 might be too low but you need to check flow and importantly pressure whilst a tap is full open too.

I am just getting mine set up and cleaned and tested again and was reading up on the specs.

LMSC

Pompeyexile I’m going to price up both ways and if brickwork and slabs comes close to the cost of wood either more or less, I’m going for the brickwork… maintenance free.

Pl keep us posted. We will do some measurements for our garden. Am thinking, once done measuring, go to Selco for a chat.

LMSC

simonc Thanks again! We do have something similar to your link, which we purchased from Gardena. This can go under the ground as well. The cost those MDPE looks fine for 100m.

It is definitely a separate pipe lay out per zone. My controller has 6, which is more than enough. 😊

Cheers mate!

Edit: We any way require a new set of pipes for sure. The MDPE looks good for us.?

Cuprajake

So had a right couple days of it and im propper annoyed

The company supplying the grass and decking were ti deliver yesterday. The dacking came with a grass to follow at some point. It came at 7pm. One man on his own with 7mx5m of grass

So today i un pack and start doing the grass, theres no driver bit for the decking screws so had to order that last night off Amazon. Came today at 3, with all the excitement, i lay the grass and trum, then remembered id the sample in the car, only the wrong grass!!! Now i questioned this pre order, so today spoke to the owner, tough poo you cut it !!!

So suck it up, and lay it. Do the decking and heres the next kicker. I built my frame to spec to finish on 44 boards.

Asked the company the size of the board, 150mm. Not an odball is it, nope true 150mm

Turns out there 147mm ffs, so i have lost 130mm over the run and now have a 20mm gap. To say im annoyed is an understatement.

So heres the end of todays work

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