u/young__ruffian

I’m just curious to know what everyone else uses to suppress weeds in their flower beds.

This is our first house where we’ve had a proper garden so it’s all new to me. I’ve used ‘Landscaping Garden Bark Mulch’ from Dandy’s. I bought a 1000ltr bulk bag which I’ve just gotten though but I’m not really keen on the size of it, there are a lot of big chunks of bark & I don’t think it looks nice. I’d like to find something finer.

Our next-door neighbour’s visitor parked their car in front of the brown wooden gates & unfortunately left the handbrake off, resulting in the car rolling down the drive & into our metal gate.

We don’t use the gate, as it’s on a shared driveway, but it’s been there for decades & I’d like to keep it.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I could straighten it out?

We’ve had a big 13x2m flower bed removed so our boys can have more lawn space & the garden as a whole is easier for us to manage.

They dug down 8” or so & put 10 tonnes of top soil back in. It was finished a week ago & was levelled off but it’s since dropped in height with the huge amount of rain we’ve had.

Today I’ve heeled all over it in my wellies, added more top soil to bring it back up to level & shuffled all over it again to compress that down slightly.

I plan on doing that all the way to the top (& around the big tree stump they couldn’t persuade out with the mini digger), before seeding it with some GroundMaster Premium Lawn Grass Seed, then covering in garden fleece & keeping it all watered if the weather doesn’t do it for me.

I’ve seeded some small patches before but never on this scale so it all feels a bit daunting! Am I along the right lines? Any tips or advice?

I know an Explorer isn’t a ‘grail’ piece but it’s my first luxury watch & I’m absolutely over the moon with it. Hopefully the first of a few over the years!

I wanted something understated, timeless & that I could keep forever. The Explorer just felt right on the wrist.

Also a big shoutout to Pragnell in Leicester. From my first visit to picking the watch up today, the whole experience has been an absolute pleasure. No pressure, no nonsense, just genuinely friendly people who made buying my first Rolex feel like the occasion it should be.

Now to try & stop looking at my wrist every five minutes…

Terrible photo but we had a plasterer fill some chases & he decided to skim the wall whilst he was at it to give a better finish. It all looks good but because he’s built the wall out I’ve got a sizeable gap between where the architrave will sit & the door frame.

I’ve been asked to install supplies for 6 AC units. He’s having 2 to begin with at 16A a piece & then a further 4 somewhere down the line to serve the bedrooms upstairs at 10A a piece.

The existing CU is right in the middle of the house so a no-go from the customer as he doesn’t want to be patching up & redecorating.

I’m thinking about installing an SWA from the electrical meter cupboard, taking it to a GRP box where I can install a CU & then running out with cables to the various isolators.

I personally wouldn’t want all of that plastered over the side of my house but hey ho!

My question is, how would you go about getting a SWA out of this meter cupboard? There isn’t a lot of real estate…

I get a fair few referrals from a local lighting shop so I’ve been out to quote these two separate jobs within the last week.

One ceiling is 4.8m high & the other is 6.9m.

The lower ceiling is a big base with 12 separate pendants that hang at various heights & the taller ceiling is a simple big globe pendant.

I’ve allowed for the cost of a one-man tower as I work alone & a full (albeit easy) day to complete each job.

My usual day rate is £360+VAT but I went for £450+VAT instead.

Both quotes were accepted almost instantly!

I’m in the Midlands for what it’s worth.

What would you have charged?

120/350?
Symbol/450?

I've just been to a Rolex AD in Nottingham (Goldsmiths) to enquire about a no-date Submariner & a Datejust.

It's the second AD I've visited & I came away feeling like the whole conversation was really just a pitch for their Certified Pre-Owned collection.

The sales associate kept saying that, yes, I'd pay more today but I could walk out with one immediately, whereas if I wanted a new Submariner I'd likely be waiting 8-10 years for the call!

I've genuinely never heard anyone quote a wait anywhere near that long for a no-date Sub, so it got me wondering whether it was just a pretty poor attempt to steer me towards buying pre-owned.

Has anyone else in the UK been told similar recently or was this just a terrible sales tactic?

I’m planning on taking one leg, joining line & neutral in a Wago then testing for continuity at each socket until I don’t get a reading, make a note of it & then repeat the same on the other leg which’ll hopefully narrow it down.

I know the kitchen looks recently renovated with decorative sockets so I may just whip a few of those off first to check.

I’m just curious what your methods would be to see if I can learn anything & speed up the process.

I’ve just been out for 1 1/2 hours in the low 20s & my legs were SWEATY. I’m currently wearing the Rev’it Horizon 3 H20 trousers (with the thermals removed & vents open, of course) & they were still uncomfortable.

I’ve got a road trip to Keswick this weekend with some friends & need some cooler trousers, whilst still feeling protected.

Any recommendations? Eyeing up the Rev’it Territory 2s but there doesn’t seem to be stock anywhere. I’m a medium & a short leg 🤏🏼

I’ve been away on holiday for a week & was delighted to come home to a full looking new patch of grass until I got closer!

What’s the best way to go about filling in the blanks?

We’ve deleted one of our big flowers beds in an attempt to make our large garden easier to manage & provide a bit more lawn for our two boys.

It all got dug out last September then was covered over with two layers of cardboard until a couple of months ago. I removed it all & have been digging up any weeds or plants that started to grow again since.

The weekend just gone I added 2-3 wheelbarrows worth of top soil then used a huge straight edge to drag it all back to make a nice level transition between the two sides as one is slightly higher than the other.

I shuffled back & forth in my boots to tamper it all down, added a load of GroundMaster hard-wearing pro premium lawn seed, cast half a dozen more shovels of top soil over the top then used a rake to level it all off & bury the seed a bit.

I’ve set a sprinkler up to water it for 15 mins at a time in the morning & evening. It looks like the weather will be a lot more cooler here with some rain this week anyway.

All sound okay? I’ve never seeded a new lawn before!

As above, they’re absolutely fine whilst moving but as soon as I come to a stop or slow down they fog up.

Are there better goggles out there (whilst still looking the part) or is there something I can apply to them to stop them fogging up?

Ta!

We completely overturned & replanted this bed about a year ago. The third photo shows it all when we bought the house!

We had some hollyhocks up the wall which looked fantastic last year but they haven’t done anything this year. We also had a huge cat mint down that end but I think the frost got it as it died off.

It all looks quite established now down the front end, bar a salvia which doesn’t seem to have done anything this year.

The far end gets partial sun & the front end gets full sun.

I can’t help but feel something would look really nice grown up that wall on a stainless steel wire trellis but I’ve no idea what.