This morning.
B&Q Naas in County Kildare.
Staff from ‘essential retailer’ B&Q prepare for reopening on Monday as part of Phase One in the re-opening of shops and businesses.
The store is strictly limiting the number of customers in store, along with…
‘…preparing sanitiser stations for trolleys; safe queuing 2 metres apart before entering the store; 2 metre navigational markers on the floor and directional arrows to guide customers through the store; and Perspex screens and contactless-only payments at checkouts where the contactless limit has been increased to €50′. ..
Do come back.
Yesterday evening: Ready Phase One
Sponsored Link
Silent running or Soylent green?…
:-J
yippy, I have an awful itch to buy a rake of bedding plants
I’ve never had a spot for planting before so a bit of a Lear ING curve, on two fronts.
Learning 1. Planting – Start easy and simple – My box of mixed flowers for €1.99 in Aldi is coming along fine :)
Learning 2. It took a few attempts to stop the stray cats in the neighbourhood using the soft freshly prepared soil as their personal pooping area.
A web search offered some solutions:
2.1 Cocktail sticks scattered and sticking up all over the flower bed. But these were easy pawed out of the way.
2.2 Used filter coffee scattered on the plant bed. This was not a deterrent, as best I could tell.
2.3 Good old green net over the top. Appears to have stopped them.
2.4 Plus prepping an alternative spot / poop box for them up behind the shed seems to be working (Or it might just be they’re not pooping due to the net.)
That, and sowing a lawn for the first time in my life are the extent of my green finger knowledge to date… Neither myself nor herself consider ourselves green finigered at all :)
^learning curve
my first outdoor space in Ireland too ! , since my move, I have beds prepped, hanging baskets and hortensia’s in tubs I nicked from my Mams on the patio,
thanks for the tips Clamps,
I’m thinking sweet pea and lavender, I love the idea of strong perfumes wafting in windows
I tried the lavendar, half heartedly, to stop the cats as I read they don’t like ’em. I only bought two pots and ended up repiotting them in one bigger pot.
I think you’d need lavendar scattered every metre or so in your flower bed to keep the cats out… then again, I dunno… yet :)
You might get a giggle out of this…
….My sister told me cats hate marigolds, and to put them in the garden.
I asked “where did you here that? And does it matter of they are yellow or orange gloves”.
It was facepalms all over that family WhatsApp group :)
haha , I know slugs love marigolds, anyway all the cats seem to wander INSIDE, three visitors this week, might has something to do with the busted “cat whisperer’s” bowls of tuna
Fill up some clear plastic bottles with water and leave them around the garden. Cats hate the glare from them.
I was told of that one.
But I just spent a over a year including digging out a patio from the raised garden (3ft higher than the back door level) prepping a lawn and bedding area… And last thing I want is a load of plastic bottles littering it :)
If I resort to that, it’ll be because I’ve tried everything else!
Thanks for the tip tho! :)
Clampers, I’m not being smart, but the most effective way of keeping cats (and other animals) away is by marking your own territory – and I don’t mean with a flag.
Oh yeah, forgot that I tried that too Steph… my list wasn’t very comprehensive – Peeing on the flower bed.
I dunno was it the rain or what washed it away at the time but the cats used the spot again after I’d peed a few nights, so I stopped. I’d go out at night before bed.
Also the plants were starting to
appear through the soil and I didn’t want peeing there continuously :)
+1 for the water in bottles. Even as a short term deterrent.
Longer term you could grow some garlic. A few cloves across the garden and it should keep the cats away once they grow.
Garlic… that’s a new one for me. I love garlic, but not sure I want smelling it myself sitting in the garden.
Lots of tips on here, thanks again all.
Congratulations! You may find a motion-sensitive waterer that turns on the spray at even the softest footfall of a pussycat allows you some sadistic crowing as you watch out the sliding door of your kitchen. And for future ref, chicken wire with a little X cut out and bent back for the plants to come up through, and buried just under the soil, freaks the poor pussens right out.
But fair play to you for the alternate convenience, that’s a pretty courtesy.
I read it was a good way to move ’em away from the beds.
And in fairness there’s a new mother to two kittens in it. And I did feed the mother when she herself was a kitten… so kinda my own fault she came back with a brood :) …although I stopped feeding her close on two years ago now, (as my wife tells me she is allergic to cats) and all before the new garden was started.
My wife suspects they may be sleeping under the shed. So long as they stay out of the beds!
And ta for the sprinkler tip!
I need six inches of plumbing pipe, with a rubber seal at each end to attach to existing pipe. And it is an essential need :)
… stop that…
Actual plumbing pipe :)
you’re looking for someone to sort you out with a stretch of wavin, clamps? that more or less it?
Nah, just the smaller white pipes under a sink where two pieces had been holding together with a 1/2 cm to spare but will no longer stay stuck.
So I’m thinking a few inches of pipe with rubber sealer / screw able ends on either end to make a better join… This’ll be another learn as you go effort :)
bit of masking tape be grand- until tuesday or wednesday anyway
I left a cup over the sinkhole to remind me not to use that sink :)
Woodies have banned under-16s. Who’s gonna cut the grass now then?
if you have your own mower, I’ll pop over and do it in the morning
Lol! :)
Personally I think those plastic face coverings are a way better option than masks. They cover the whole face so prevent touching and protect the eyes as well as the mouth. And, you can actually see the other person’s face which is reassuring.
known in the industry as bukake masks, apparently
is that a Rhianna song ? ;)
If not, it should be
As opposed to a bukkake?
I wasnt offering, soq
You’ll still look like a div!
It’ll be like a scrum. Bedlem. The rush for bedding plants will be great crack.
Not if you rose early.
Or asked the staff, Holly, Ivy, or Basil for help.