This weekend I have promised to help replace 70ft of decayed log roll, which was never secure to start with.
I was thinking of pre treating it with cuprinol, or similar, one night this week (I have yet to buy it) then putting some large staples in the back of the roll, say two thirds of the way down, then holding in place with cheap tent pegs. Very Heath Robinson I know, but can anyone suggest a better method?
I am not the worlds keenest gardener, prefering to sit in them, preferably with a book and several bottles of Golden Pippin.
Thanks in advance.
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I read the title as "loo roll" at first :) What's a log roll - something cullinary?
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>> I read the title as "loo roll" at first :) What's a log roll -
>> something cullinary?
>>
I had to do a search, it is a portable garden trip hazard.
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By portable garden do you mean flower pot?
Last edited by: Crocks on Tue 7 Jun 11 at 15:58
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>> By portable garden do you mean flower pot?
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No, portable as in it is rolled up firewood that will move if not set in concrete. :-)
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Unfortunately this will involve work! Buy log roll which is deep enough to go in the ground for 6 - 8 inches and dig a narrow trench. Insert roll and pack earth tightly around it. Log Roll comes come in various sizes. I have used some successfully to make a coupe of raised flower beds on the patio. Don't but the very cheap stuff - it will rot away in a couple of years, you need to buy the vacuum treated stuff which should last around 10 years.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Tue 7 Jun 11 at 12:52
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thanks CG,
I had a suspicious feeling I would get a reply such as yours!
This is not my garden and is being done as a favour, so digging out 70ft could take quite some time and I don't intend to give up more than one day of my weekend. I hate doing anything half heartedly so I will make a start as you suggest and see how quickly progess can be made.
I still think my tent peg idea is quite a good one though. In practice it is probably a non starter!
Thanks.
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I have used the tent peg method for runs of a few feet were a trench would've been difficult, seemed to work OK. Even the pressure treated stuff only seems to have lasted 6-7 years though. What would be good would be a concrete version that should last yonks.
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so digging out 70ft could take quite some time
Do you have a mattock? You only need a narrow trench.
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When I was a kid my father used to use a 'bisgey', which was the Somerset version of a mattock. I can't find the word in the OED or anywhere else but I remember it well enough.
I used to know a farmer called Mattock.
Sorry - wandering off again...
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>> When I was a kid my father used to use a 'bisgey', which was the
>> Somerset version of a mattock. I can't find the word in the OED or anywhere
>> else but I remember it well enough.
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Scroll right to the bottom. It's about four lines up from the bottom.
www.ugborough.com/history/The%20Blacksmiths%20of%20Ugborough%20Parish.html
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Good word, 'mattock'.
But isn't it the same as a pickaxe?
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I'm also a mattock user.
It doesn't have a point like a pickaxe but two shorter flat bladed ends, one horizontal and one vertical.
Very useful for lifting small areas of turf and/or weeds.
If you are going to have to get down on your knees to dig the trench for the log roll I would recommend one of these -
www.toolstation.com/shop/Hand+Tools/Landscaping+Tools/Round+Mini+Shovel/d10/sd2669/p24561
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No, not quite a pickaxe. I do know what a mattock is.
It has a long slightly curved blade set at 90 degrees, so that as you swing it in front of you it chops off weeds just under the surface, and generally breaks up the soil too.
My old one has only the one blade.
Picture old photographs of long rows of Ukrainian peasant women working backwards across a field.
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Tue 7 Jun 11 at 16:41
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Excuse me! I resemble that remark.
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This thread has made me feel quite exhausted.
Gonna have a nap.
Ted
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I know a man with a mattock. In fact, I have swung it several times in anger. Looks like it is time to borrow it again!
Splendid idea.
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Holding log roll in place - Cliff Pope
