Hi from Colin in Huddersfield.

[Colin]

Hi,

Having spent the last 31 years working on our detached bungalow I'm now free to concentrate on our gardens. I've just gone 70 and although I've done gardening on a need to do basis I'm now keen to get more serious. Our rear garden measures 120' x 60' and its like working on a mountainside it being steep with very shallow soil then clay and subsoil. Lots of mature trees including two oaks and a cedar plus conifers and laurels.

I'm a member of a number of other forums but this is the only gardening forum I've joined so may I please beg your indulgence whilst I start asking silly questions.

I've made a start by completely removing an 100' long x 8' tall conifer hedge and erecting a new fence; the hedge was shredded and is used as mulch the logs went for wood-burning. The new hut I've just built from scratch and had to clear the area; the side of the hut is now planted with Ajuga Metallica Crispa, Viburnum Royal Baby, Leucothoe keiskei Burning Love; French Lavender and a lovely Skimmia Japonica Magic Marlot.

The second picture shows the top right corner of the garden to give an indication of the job ahead. Mile a minute (?) vine has been a problem and was like thick rope as I removed most of it.

With a long winter approaching I can spend more time on the computer asking questions and gaining much needed information.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[zigs]

Welcome to the forums Colin

 

[MoonShadows]

You do have your work cut out for you with all that growth. That wood structure is impressive and beautiful. What kind of wood did you use to construct it?

 

[MaryMary]

Welcome to the forum!!

may I please beg your indulgence whilst I start asking silly questions. (...snip...)
With a long winter approaching I can spend more time on the computer asking questions and gaining much needed information.

There are no silly questions. And... Yay!! I was just starting to dread the slow-down of the winter, both in the garden and the forum.

Are you wanting to grow flowers, vegetables, or both?

Your hut is beautiful. So much so, I think @BigC ought to see it!

 

[Ian]

Howdy Colin, welcome to the forums !

 

[marlingardener]

Lovely garden, and likely to be even lovelier now you can spend more time with it. We are on a small farm in central Texas, both retired. We have found out that the tired part of retired seems to predominate!
Welcome!

 

[Beverly]

Welcome to the forums Colin

 

[Verdun]

Warm welcome Colin.....ask away; its what we are here for.
Looks pretty good there already

 

[Sheal]

Welcome Colin. 31 years working on your bungalow! I thought ten years was bad enough working on my last one.

 

[Colin]

Hi,


Many thanks zigs; MaryMary; Ian; marlingardner; Beverly and Verdun for your warm welcome to this forum which I much appreciate.


Thanks MoonShadows for your kind words. The hut is constructed using treated softwood; this is assorted native softwood (Yorkshire UK) processed by a local supplier who specializes in timber buildings and wooden garden items; the frame is heavy compared to bought huts and the boards are 6" x 1" bought in 3.6m lengths and machined by me using my radial arm saw and big router; I enjoy all aspects of woodwork and building huts is quite easy as great accuracy isn't called for unlike veneering a radio cabinet.


Thank you MaryMary; I'm pleased you like the hut. I've attended many meetings/seminars when I was working and I was the one who asked the questions others would like answers to but were afraid to ask in case they appeared to be stupid; it is often said better to let people think you are stupid than to speak out and prove you are stupid; if I want to know I ask whatever the question; we all have to start with basics and I can make the same mistake a few times? Good question; given our very steep site here on the valley and the soil resembling rock whilst dry all I want to do is to plant evergreen plants and shrubs; our rear garden we describe as our mini-park; it has a couple of inches of topsoil then straight into clay and subsoil it really is dreadful; digging a single hole for say a fence post is challenging in the extreme; I've just erected a new fence and it sure has been hard graft; I ended up buying an extra long chisel for my big SDS drill just to sink some of the holes; it worries me that when I plant anything in a hole the hole then will act like a tank retaining water? A lot of the garden is given to grass; not exactly a lawn because it is grass from a farmers field and the squirrels enjoy attacking it; the grass is more moss and I've just bought a lot of moss killer with the intention of doing away with the grass and replacing with ground cover like Ajuga? Walking up the garden and just standing in the garden is hard work given the steepness; I'll never need a gym to keep me fit.


I like your hairstyle on your avatar Ian; years ago I installed 3 phase 415V into our garage for under £120 and it looks like you've come into direct contact with it?


You are so right marlingardner regarding retired; I fully retired 16 years ago aged 53 from a highly stressful job having paid a lot into the works pension; at work I did get holidays of a sort but being retired is full time with maximum overtime and no let up; Bron and I have worked on our bungalow for the last 31 years and at last its now to our liking hence I can break out into the garden; we would have been quicker demolishing and rebuilding? I'm never happy unless I'm working flat out and I'm always wanting to improve our home; I like woodwork of all kinds and can relax with garden woodwork but by contrast I'm adding a single picture of the work I've been doing inside the bungalow; now the bungalow is fully sorted I want the garden up to the same standard and hope it doesn't take another 30 years because I'm now 70? It must be nice to have plenty of space on your farm but do you have the time to enjoy it? What a small world; a few years ago I designed and made a belt grinder for sharpening my tools and I wanted a leather honing belt; I live in the UK and having spent many hours trying to source a belt here ended up buying from Texas and I still use it. One bonus here is that everything is so green given our climate.


Thanks Verdun; as I settle in I'll start asking lots of questions; I'm very much looking forward to all things gardening; I like to keep busy and to play with all my toys so I'll just go with it and see what develops?

The picture of our front room isn't on topic but hopefully it will demonstrate the level of work I wish to achieve in the garden; the hut is just a start.

Thanks Sheal for your welcome; your weather in Scotland is worse than ours in Yorkshire and that's saying something so I'm surprised you've managed to crack on with jobs?


Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Sheal]

You're living room looks lovely Colin. The weather's not been good over most of Britain in the last couple of months, I just wish it would make up it's mind, I'm fed up being caught out by heavy showers.

The only job I have at the moment is filling boxes. I'll be moving house in under two weeks.

 

[alp]

Welcome to the forum, @Colin !

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Thanks Sheal for your kind comments. I couldn't agree more regarding the terrible weather; the rain keeps upsetting all my plans and the thought of altering the clocks next month plunging us into darkness for months on end fills me with dread; I feel truly sorry for all those around the world where the bad weather has taken everything they have worked for from them; I can moan but still have a lovely home and wife. You've got my sympathies in moving house and I hope the weather is kind for you; our immediate neighbour is up your way at the moment in The Outer Hebrides; I've only visited Scotland once when I was courting Bron over 40 years ago camping in a tent and it was wall to wall rain; I won't be visiting again; I suffer enough rain here.

Thanks for your welcome alp; I've only just joined the forum but already feel settled in.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Ian]

What a beautiful fireplace!

I think you're going to fit right in here Colin .

I like your hairstyle on your avatar Ian; years ago I installed 3 phase 415V into our garage for under £120 and it looks like you've come into direct contact with it?

Haha, sadly I have a lot less hair than my avatar!

3 phase? You must have quite a workshop .

 

[Colin]

Hi,


Thanks Ian. Our front room carpet had been down for over 25 years and starting to wear a bit thin so it was time to replace it; in my usual manner why just replace the carpet after all the old original random stone fireplace was now looking rather dated and whilst I'm at it can I do something a bit different with the walls so a full makeover was in order. Bron and I set about sorting what we would like; we browsed the web for fireplace ideas and we wanted something special. We eventually settled on the fireplace we now have installed; there was a choice of colours and tile inserts but we both loved the ones shown; I'm hopelessly colour blind so Bron chose the colour; a local fireplace company in Horbury Bridge were absolutely brilliant; they installed the new high efficiency gas fire; tiled fire surround and marble hearth; the installation was just perfect and everything was perfectly aligned; two guys spent most of the day here doing the installation. At £1,600 in total we now have a wonderful fireplace to look at.


We also browsed the web for mantle ideas and chose a style similar to the one we now have; I downloaded a picture and used a pair of dividers to determine roughly the proportions; I had some 18mm thick MDF left over from the coffered ceiling I installed so used this; also the old fireplace had a nice mahogany surround; I used this adding all the mouldings with my big Makita router; the mantle is in four parts; the two upright pedestals; the main cross member and the flat top; all that holds this in place are three heavy gauge wood screws so it can easily be removed if required; the only timber cost was two lengths of MDF at £12; the Dulux diamond white emulsion paint was also from the ceiling job. I sprayed the mantle in the workshop. So the wooden mantle only cost £12 in total as I say I already had most of the materials and also plenty of paint; Bron loves it and I must admit it pleases me.


We spent ages trying to find decent moulded timber lengths on the web but it was a waste of time and given the total length of moulding I wanted this was another money saving project; I had long lengths of PAR softwood delivered and set about moulding this using the big router fitted with a Roman Ogee cutter; I set the router up on the bench adding guides and set the cutter at full depth in one pass and simply pushed the timber through; it worked a treat. It wasn't worth the trouble to grind up a pair of knives to fit the Whitehill moulding head on the Startrite combination woodworking machine I had at the time; the router did a lovely job. The dado was straightforward to install but the panel frames were a lot more complicated; these were joined at the corners with mitered half laps involving jig making but once everything was set up the jigs speeded the job up; the frame joints were then glued; the dado and panel frames were secured to the wall using lost head 60mm nails and the nail holes filled.


We chose the Dulux red and coupled to the brilliant white the effect is stunning in fact it took us ages to become accustomed to seeing it; at night when its dark the new gas fire creates a very cosy ambience with the lights out and TV switched on. Bron was given free range to choose whatever carpet she wished and I'm delighted with her choice; the carpet cost £800 fitted; I wonder how much it would have cost to get a team in to do all this work. I must stress that I'm not an average guy who is content to sit of an evening with lager in hand watching nothing but sport on TV. I don't drink alcohol; smoke nor do drugs and sport holds zero interest to me. I'd rather spend my money bettering myself and now aged 70 I've got a well kitted workshop with funds to make anything I like; life is good but it's been a lifetimes hard graft for both Bron and me to reach this happy position in our lives.


I'm encourageable Ian and ramble on but I hope my stories are of interest; regarding the 3 phase; I'm by trade a mechanical engineer being an indentured apprentice with the National Coal Board in the sixties; I was working underground in a deep coal mine at the age of 15 helping (hindering) the engineers; I owe so much to these engineers who taught me so many skills and I'll forever be indebted to them; these were proper engineers not "fitters" there is a huge difference between the two; engineers can make the parts and I was taught this which remains with me. I'm not smart or a know it all its just that at my age and the training I've been subjected to over 50 years I've picked up few skills along the way. When I turned 16 this meant I could use the big machines and oxy/acetylene gear so first job was to send me to Crigglestone Colliery Training Centre on a six months course on hand tools and machines; I excelled and completed the course quickly; many dinnertimes I was quietly let home on full pay whilst the other apprentices battled on with their training; in the mornings I was allowed to wander over and pester the electrical apprentices and here aged 16 I was taught how to connect big industrial 3 phase motors to the supply; this is the only electrical training I've ever received but I'm inquisitive and pick things up quickly; I can now connect three phase motors to single phase supply and as stated I installed 3 phase 415V at 10hp into our garage quite a few years ago; I'll not go into details but this installation or more accurately the method is the invention of an American guy who sells the details on eBay and on the web; I bought the three DVD's. This is extremely dangerous work because at 10hp supplied by a 32A mcb it doesn't take prisoners and a silly mistake could prove the last mistake ever made; I successfully wound a huge transformer and am now credited for my winding method which I dreamt up using a wooden shuttle. All my big 3 phase machines and the transformer have been recently sold but I've still got lots of decent kit left to play with.


Being new to this forum I don't want to upset anyone by rambling on especially when it comes to non gardening stories but I do like to add my stories in the hope of encouraging others to have a go at new things; hopefully I'll be able to add more stories which include the use of all my kit; the hut I've just built is a good example and now I'm working on a very basic cold frame. If of interest I don't mind adding a few pictures of the machines I still have and what was involved in restoring them?


Here are a few pictures of the front room makeover together with the 3 phase transformer.


Kind regards, Colin.