Two questions

[beatts]

Hi all,

My first question is this:-

When it is saft to start planting. I have empty borders at the mo and want lots of colourful plants for the summer.

secondly,

I have a lap panel fence running down one side of my garden and one of the posts is inserted into one of those spiked post holders that you push into the ground. Well the fence is really wobbly in this post holder thing. Whats the best way of securing it without taking the fence panel out???

any ideas


thanks

 

[amandaeb]

Hi beatts

you could plant hardy perennials now, theres lots of bare rooted ones in shops at the mo in cardboard boxes.

The advice with tender annuals/bedding is to wait til the end of May-supposed to be no danger of frosts then. But in practice lots of people do plant out slightly earlier.

Hardy shrubs can be planted now, in fact its a good time while theres still lots of rain to come to help them settle in.

If you don't want to take the fence panel out, or the post, (assuming its timber) the best way would be to buy a small concrete godfather.

You bury 18-24" of it in the ground and have about 2 foot above ground and concrete in with aggregate etc. then bolt it with coach bolts to the existing fence post.

The only difficulty you may have, if the post has been concreted in previously, is that you have to dig past lumps of concrete. These can be broken up if necessary with a wrecking bar/long crow bar. If you come across the stump of the old post in a large lump of concrete this can be difficult to remove- you'd get better accesss to remove it if you take the post and fence away temporarily.

A temporary fix may be to attach batons at 45 degree angles, banged as far as poss into the ground to brace the post, (cut the end into a spike to aid insertion) preferably both sides if you have access.

Or to dig out around the spike fixing, and add aggregate, small rocks and concrete and really ram it down hard with a longish piece of say 3"x3" timber. This should firm it up reasonably but it may not be too long lasting.

Hope this helps

Amanda

 

[beatts]

thanks for the advice amanda I really appreciate it.

I'll prob have to take the fence panel out, because I am too limited for space to dig around the post or put braces in. bah!!