2026 - What I did today.

I've cricked my back and have been out of action for nearly a week. P has be chopping tops off a very tall conifer hedge and the debris needed chopping up for the green bin collection tomorrow, so guess what I've been doing today. Two green bins filled to brim with P climbing inside to tamp them down. It was rather cold and I was very pleased to get back indoors and sitting down.

Hope your back improves soon. 

I have a squasher thing (technical term) for the bin. Like this https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71bm...L1500_.jpg  Its amazing how much more you can cram in!

I've cricked my back and have been out of action for nearly a week. P has be chopping tops off a very tall conifer hedge and the debris needed chopping up for the green bin collection tomorrow, so guess what I've been doing today. Two green bins filled to brim with P climbing inside to tamp them down. It was rather cold and I was very pleased to get back indoors and sitting down.

Hope your back improves soon. 

I have a squasher thing (technical term) for the bin. Like this https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71bm...L1500_.jpg  Its amazing how much more you can cram in!

Back's on the mend, thanks, it's only muscular and something that happens at least once a year. I've pulled these particular muscles by just sneezing in the past, this time was reaching over to close the car door. Daft really but its a sod when it happens and takes a week to get better.
That contraption is really good if you haven't got a Paul. It looks like an instrument of torture.

A bit more plasterboard put up and a big tidy up ready for the air source heat pump man . Who is coming tomorrow. Apparently going to take 5 days to complete the install. Nothing in the garden as weather has been mostly horrible.

P says pictures please. Heat pump not soggy garden 

A bit more plasterboard put up and a big tidy up ready for the air source heat pump man . Who is coming tomorrow. Apparently going to take 5 days to complete the install. Nothing in the garden as weather has been mostly horrible.

P says pictures please. Heat pump not soggy garden 

On the build thread   

Almost forgot. I did play in the garden for half an hour yesterday. Sieved the old compost from a hanging basket.
I tried for the second time to use my sieve like this https://amzn.eu/d/7DrxgkS
It’s going in the charity shop next time Bob is passing. Less than useless. First time it didn’t work. I guessed was because the compost was quite wet. But yesterday the compost from the hanging basket was very dry coir . That still didn’t go through.
Never waste your money on one of them. I only got one because it was second hand.

I've been mixing old compost too! I don't sieve it, only pull any roots out. One tub of old tomato compost and one of Oca compost. I mixed the two together with a helping of chicken manure pellets. Then refilled one tub and planted the saved Oca roots in it. Will probably plant spuds in the other tub and sow some salad leaves on top of both.
Did a load of washing with mostly dried before the rain arrived. Moved it into the log store to finish off.

Done a bit more sieving today. Much more successful with my trusty old really basic plastic garden sieve. Another hanging basket and a big square MFB (Tesco actually) emptied. Tidied a few things away that had been unceremoniously dumped in the tunnel after the big garden waiting room / pot plant collection area reorganise ( it was raining, wasn’t sorting out bits in the rain) . Cut down the now dry chilli plants and added to the compost. Found another spray carnation side shoots when emptying the vase of flowers during the holiday cottage change over this morning. So potted that up. A white one this time.

The ongoing conifer hedge topping and chopping up for green bin. Inbetween times, tidying up the loads of stuff from last year, row markers, some canes, errant labels and digging out old broccoli stalks whilt endeavouring not to tread on the soil, it's too claggy.

Bought my Charlotte seed potatoes this morning from the corn merchant when I nipped in for a bag of porridge oats.

Removed some suckers from the roots of a plum tree. One was quite a bit taller than me and should have been removed some years ago.

Finished off cutting the hedges. This had been interrupted by digging a new soakaway and then levelling it off.      It's about 5m long, just hope the lawn recovers enough now. ( It has always been a bit uneven because of mole activity and while I was working on the soakaway I was accompanied by a robin. Not sure if it's name is Vinny as it doesn't like the seeds on the bird table and much prefers meaty worms.)