Kitchen Garden Forum

The founder of IKEA has died aged 91. I wonder if he will be sent off in a DIY flatpack chipboard coffin.


If so which bit will be missing

With a bit of luck it will be the base

I went over the allotment to see about doing a bit of Winter pruning on my fruit trees....soon returned home, as the North Easterly wind had a real bite to it.....so another job, for another day.

Turned out nice on lottie today, nippy but sunny. Finally got the raspberry beds weeded which was a challenge getting weeds out between the stems. Was hoping to cut down the autumn fruiting but didn't have the time, but I did manage to dig up some stragglers and re-locate them into the gaps.

I've got Thurs & Fri off this week & it looks like Friday may be a goer to get down and cut them back and mulch the beds, then I just have to finish digging out the herb bed & burn the prunings and then I can focus on the day to day little chores in preparation for the coming season.

The ground here is soggy and sticky, can't walk on it never mind dig. 
Walked the dog recently and got caught in a hailstorm.

Same here ,most places on the allotment is mud you struggle to stand up when walking on soil ,the plot next door to mine the bottom end is under six inches of water

Mine is still too wet also, still haven't started any digging yet....and looks like we are in for a chilly old week, but hopefully a bit drier.

Had about 3 hours on the lottie this morning got the beds ready for planting in the greenhouse and polytunnel then dug the bed for the spuds which turned over quite easy, i think a lot of the rain has missed us.

Lawn still very wet and boggy but growing rapidly, so a good time to book the mower in for a service before we get a few sunny days and everybody wants their mower serviced at the same time!

Good thinking Primrose....I bet the servicing department smile every year when we get the first warm and sunny day and their phones don't stop ringing, with people saying they can't get their mower started....

Well this one has better start first pop as it was new last Spring and we decided we’d better not let it deteriorate through neglect in the way our last one did. The guy who collected it did say their workshop gets so cluttered up with people
who have dropped their mowers off for servicing not collecting them speedily that it prevents them servicing new arrivals. Any mower not collected within 2 weeks now gets charged for storage.

I guess it’s difficult for working people who can’t collect during normal hours during a working week
. We have to rely on collection and delivery now. Mower is too heavy and wouldn,t fit in the boot of our small car anyway.

I think old petrol is the biggest problem for any machinery these days....

It looks like it's going to be a chilly night. It's already -1.5° and it's only 17.30. I've just spent 20 minutes gritting the road and pavement as the council have decided the steep hill doesn't need gritting by them despite cars crashing and knocking walls down every time it's icy. They solved it a couple of weeks ago by putting road closed signs up as their lorry couldn't get up the hill to fill the grit bin!!!

Buy an aerosol of carburetor cleaner a quick squirt and your engine will start , old petrol coating the carb is the culprit when you have trouble starting small engines

We have snow this morning so that sort of puts an end to any thoughts of gardening for the day