Gardener in progress

[Recoverandthrive]

I'm trying to be productive during these times of limbo so could I please get some advice from you knowledgeable ones on improving my garden space. Having spent most of my life in a flat I'm sorry for the following list of questions which may seem common sense to others!

1. Quickest and best way to wash the patio slabs and external walls? I have bleach/fungicidal wash/pink stuff at home but not in a position to buy a pressure washer.
2. We have a pond which has been a wooden board over it due to the previous occupants having a young toddler. Can I just remove the board and will it self clean itself or do I need to drain it etc?
3. I have a hedge of trees, the soil below it constantly needs weeding. Would mulch be effective here?
4. Had a beautiful rhodendron which has died, no amount of feed has resurrected it-is there any hope?

You slabs and walls are going to be a bastard to do manually, and you’d need a shit ton of pink stuff to do that.

Is there no hope for a power washer, you can buy one for fifty quid on amazon,

If not then a hard bristle brush, soapy water and get scrubbing really.

Open the pond and smell it, if it smells okay I would leave it for a month and then stick some plants in. If it smells nasty you ll have to drain it and clean it.

Thanks for your reply. I do have a pressure washer but it's quite old so works but not perfect so need to apply something chemically first which I can then finish off with the pressure washer.

It doesn't smell! Do I need to buy a filter?

I saw someone on social media had used Pink stuff ( if that’s actually the name) to clean her patio. Where does all the run off go though? I would hate to be soaking lawn or flower beds in chemicals

If you're not in too much of a hurry, there is a product called 'Wet n Forget' which you dilute and apply with a garden sprayer. It is a fungicide which is activated by the weather. It will gently remove moss and mould without the aggressive action of a pressure washer.

Also I need something that isn't harmful for my children/cat to then walk on after using it.

Thanks I'll look to see if it can be delivered as can't go to the shops.

For the slabs and walls use sodium hypochlorite (bleach). Buy the very concentrated stuff from a swimming pool supplier (most will deliver ) and spray it on in a 50/50 water mix with a garden sprayer. It can then be rinsed off with the pressure washer and as long as you rinse it well it will be fine for people and pets. Household bleach is a bit weak and more expensive. Its actually better for the bricks and slabs than aggressive pressure washing which can strip the surface . Use rubber gloves and protect your eyes when spraying

anniegun-Is that good for black spots on the tiles too?

Do I need to buy a filter? If you have plants in it, then no. You'll need a filter if you decide to add fish.

Would mulch be effective here? It would help in two ways 1) it would reduce weed seedlings, although perennial weed with big roots would probably still push their way through 2) as the mulch rots, it creates a surface layer of friable soil which makes it much easier to uproot weeds.

Rhododendron - there's always hope. Don't uproot it too soon. If you scrape off a thin sliver of bark, and the branch is green underneath, then it's still alive. You can cut back anything that you are sure is dead, and hope it re-shoots from lower down.

You can probably source oxygenating plants for the pond online. Depending on the layout of the pond you will either be able to plant these in pond baskets on a shelf, or else wrap the roots in something like hessian, weight down with some pebbles and chuck them in the pond where they will root in the sediment on the bottom. If you are going to use pond baskets, you'll need something (like hessian again) to keep the compost in the basket or else it will just float out into the pond. In fact, I think you are supposed to use garden soil for pond plants rather than compost because of the chemicals.

The other way is extreme patio clean from Amazon, it’s fantastic, like a thick bleach, wet and forget is shit, made no difference to mine at all.

With xtreme patio clean you need to wet the patio, then apply it with a spray, I used mine undiluted for stronger results, make sure any grass surrounds etc are thoroughly soaked when you wash it off, so it’s heavily diluted and has no impact. You basically leave it on for a couple of hours , keep it wet with the hose spray and then wash it off.

I didn’t need to scrub with mine, it just bleached it back.

www.amazon.co.uk/Smartseal-Patio-Clean-Xtreme-Concentrated/dp/B01BTVNDHK/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&crid=OR5JH352SK42&keywords=xtreme+patio+cleaner&sprefix=Xtreme+%2Caps%2C160&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1588677539&sr=8-4

Thank you so much, all this is so helpful! I won't buy a filter then as don't have plants and will try the trick with the tree tomorrow. I tried to clean some of the slabs and it's about 50% better but there's loads of black spots which aren't shifting. Did the extreme patio clean remove those Bluntness? Having spent several hours scrubbing I'm all for something thatcan be left and works its magic...

MereDintofPandiculation-is there a time of year thats most effective to put mulch down or can I do it anytime?

RatherBeRiding I had no idea of any of that, thank you.