This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Rigger gloves not gardening gloves
Four days of 'hard labour' including pulling up scratty lawn, old membrane, lumps of masonry and then yesterday a huge 6 foot square slab of concrete foundation (shed previously?) under about six inches of soil. i am transforming long rectangle garden which had shrubs down each side and landing strip lawn into an artisan cottage garden with bendy curvy path and beds/borders - what I am discovering is horror after horror - rigger gloves not gardening gloves, lump hammer not secateurs for me.
Am I alone here or are you all out there pruning and planting 
PS Who needs a gym if you're a gardener.
0
Posts
Lightweights
we have huge concrete lumps, (useful for steps and retaining walls), agricultural containers, (plastic sacks and metal), loads of bits of asbestos, bikes, great lumps of assorted metal, carpets, bricks (some good, built a summerhouse with them). Washing machines, galvanised iron tanks (also useful) and broken up Tarmac. That's all I can think of at the moment
My neighbour tells me there's a Reliant Robin in the somewhere, he dumped it.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Lol.. I actually found a plastic washing up bowl sunk into ground - think predecessor was going for 'quirky pond' - it just looked rubbish and of course full of septic water. I've had to keep the concrete foundation can't do that on my own, needs a pro. Thinking it could be a seating area so will border it with plants and layer over it with bark chips maybe. It's in a good spot to sit, gardening is all about compromises and improvisation I am learning fast!!
In the sticks near Peterborough
My gardening can be a bit like that, though for me it is stone. Not little itty bitty stones, but hulking great rocks. Nearly everywhere you dig you hit something hard and you never know how big it is going to be.
I collect the smaller stones for making paths through boggy places, but I use the big pieces too, for walling if chunky and not too large, or for stepping stones or steps. I have dug up large paving flags that I can't even lift and 'walked' them to where I wanted them. I found one old brown glazed sink in the bottom of a pond and part of another shallow carved stone one that was probably from the 19th century dairy that was here. We already had the draining stone and weight from the old press they used when they made cheese here.
Plus we have removed a number of over grown shrubs and several trees that were unsuitable or had grown too large for where they had been planted, so for me it is gloves, full size crow bar and bow saw that are often the tools of choice. I just laugh when I see those flimsy 'gardening' gloves for ladies, all pink and blue with pretty flower print. My tough gloves are usually filthy from grubbing up rocks or dry stone walling
Hurray! I'm not alone out there in my walking boots, rigger gloves, old fleece and dungarees... Don't knock it, they have huge pockets which are so handy. I'm in a lovely thatch and (fool that I am) assumed I'd be gardening gorgeous soil thats been growing carrots and potatoes since the 16th century. I have what I affectionately call my masonry pile which is growing by the day.
....hmmm not sure I'd wear those flowery gloves even cometh the day when I can stroll around doing a bit of dead heading here and there....will that day come?
Mine too. Pretty gardening gloves are just for people who want to do a little light pruning without soiling their pretty little hands by coming into contact with nature.
When my best friends moved into their current house, about 14 years ago, they had half an acre of rough scrubby grass and rubbish with an enormous mound in the middle. In clearing it all and turning it into a garden (you should see it now!) we removed over 20 trailer-loads of miscellaneous rubble, iron work and rubbish. He had to hire a man with a JCB to get it all out!
I have done a lot of gardening with a lump hammer!