Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi All

On my allotment I am lucky to have a south facing wall running along its full length, Against this wall I have erected a Dahlia frame, the frame has a temporary cover on it to protect the blooms from full Sun, but the problem is the dahlias lean towards the sun and to stop this happening I was going to paint the wall white so the they would grow up straight. But the cost of the masonry paint put me off £40 plus, I was told to get some whitewash as it would have the same effect but would a lot easier on the pocket, Can I buy whitewash, oh you can not get that sir stopped doing that years ago, it is like trying to find hens teeth.

Does anyone know how to make Whitewash please I would be most grateful if anyone could help


Kind Regards


Kevin

Hi Kevin,

If you do receive a recipe from anyone I would be very wary of actually attempting to create Whitewash.

Also known as Limewash it is made using quick lime (burn lime) which is very caustic and can cause severe burns if splashed on the skin, let alone what it would do to your insides if you breathed it in.

The masonry paint may seem expensive, but it must be the safer option.

Edit: just found this link http://www.midsuffolk.gov.uk/Environmen ... htm#MAKING

the hydrated lime appears a safer option but the comment given is not favourable.

You could always try a cheap white emulsion... it probably wouldn't run in the rain...

Being in merseyside you must have some of these cheap hyper shops wilko's / buyology / hypervalue, or even wickes of focus own make who would have white masonry paint at a much cheaper rate, failing that go on freecycle if you have it in your area (a web site where you can ask people to donate their surpluses - you can specify what you are looking for), I reckon if you got mixtures of cream and white which will be the common masonry colours you will be ok, emulsion will last a year or two then start to flake, but probably won't run.

White undercoat will probably do alright too.

Compo

I remember talking, several ago now, to a builder who works mainly with traditional materials about whitewashing some old outbuildings. He suggested using lime putty. You mix the putty with water and apply several coats. Its another job that is still on my 'to do when I've got time' list. One advantage of it is that it allows the wall to breath naturally which I was told was most important on old stone walls. It's also self cleaning.
It can be obtained from proper builders merchants but only in quantities for larger jobs.
Modern paints will have various metal oxides and adhesive chemicals in them.

John

can Isuggest you paint a small portion to check that it actually makes the dahlias grow up straight..bet you it doesn't..