Son of the Secret Gardener

 

Most of us have read the book or have seen one of the four films made based on the children's classic novel The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgeson Burnett

It's beautiful story about friendship, secrets, and the human spirit, The Secret Garden tells the story of the courage of two unhappy and withering children who become determined to make their lives, and the lives of others around them, more joyful. 

Orphaned Mary Lennox is sent to live in her uncle's house on the Yorkshire moors, and the house is an unhappy one. 

Miserable and lonely, Mary starts to explore the house's gardens and she discovers a key to the secret garden.

Burnett based the story on her own beautiful and extensive garden at Maytham Hall (in Rolvenden, Kent). Burnett’s Head Gardener at the time was Trevor Millum’s grandfather, George Owen Millum (the inspiration for the gardener in the novel, Ben Weatherstaff). 

When Trevor Millum discovered the diaries of his father, the Son of the Secret Gardener, he decided to make them available to everyone and, in the process, to tell the story of his green-fingered father and grandfather. 

The result is this engaging book – destined to become much-loved bedtime reading for gardeners and nature lovers. This is an absorbing and entertaining read for all – especially those interested in the lives of workers on the country estates during the 1930s, the war years and in post-war Britain. 

The book is packed with fascinating details for gardeners and horticulturalists. It is illustrated with photos from the time, photos of the diary pages and charming drawings by Twink Addison. 

 A treasure trove of trugs & trowels, spuddling & shrubberies, pruning & potting, and weeding in all weathers! Yep Spuddling is a real word! page 38 explains it's origin, I looked it up before I found page 38.   

A window into a bygone world of great houses, serviced by a host of servants. Fascinating reading for all those who love historic houses and gardens – and a great gift for any garden-lover.

The Secret Garden is my eldest daughters favourite book and then when she saw the 1993 film (The third film version) and loved that as much as the book, and I ended up buying her the DVD and we watched it many times as she grew up. 

I also love reading historical books, and period publications about gardening and allotments like Your Garden in War-Time by C.H.Middlrton and Diggers Diary Tales from the Allotment by Victor Osborne and The Victorian Kitchen Garden by Jennifer Davies. So if you are anything like me you are going to love this book. 

Son of the Secret Gardener comes out on 4^th April 

ISBN: 978 1 86151 971 9 Paperback 120 pages RRP: £11.50 April 2022 Quadrant Books is an imprint of the Memoirs Group www.quadrant-books.com Available through: the publisher, internet booksellers and all good bookshops.

Ryobi Christmas Promotion

As you may be aware I’m a bit of a Ryobi Man fundamentally due to my Brother-in-Law Keith who lent me his Rotary Saw to try out before I bought one to cut up all the roof joist that I scrounged from the building site behind my plot when they started making alterations and extending the height of an industrial unit and converting it to residential. 

I keep an eye on some Ryobi Facebook groups and I have to say Ryobi in the UK really need to get their act together when we see the prices and availability of Ryobi equipment in the rest of the world.

I became aware of the Christmas Offer from Ryobi and decided to have a look

So basically there is a list of Eligible Starter Kits/ Retailers that can be found on the RyobiChristmas Promotion Web Site, and you buy one and then apply for you Free Gift power Tool from this selection.

Click on image to zoom in

These are the tools that are available for you to select from. As can be seen there is a huge difference in the value of what you can claim, and quite frankly one would like to maximise the cost benefit of the promotion.

The cost of these tools ranges from £6:30 to £45.95 using the prices from CBS as a guide as there are no RRP Quoted on the Ryobi UK / Europe site only links to where you can purchase the item from. So realistically no one in their right mind would select the £6.30 Charger and why would one settle for a tool costing £24 when there are tools worth between £38 - £45

For allotment Holders who are going to need to maintain grass paths and have a garden buying a One+ Starter Kit and claiming the Grass Trimmer is ideal, what one needs to do is to decide which Starter Kit and where to get it from for the cheapest cost.

So to save you all surfing and looking I have done it for you and here they are in Specification order

Ryobi RLM18X41H240 18V ONE+ Cordless 40cm Lawnmower Starter Kit (2 x 4.0Ah)

£397.95 CBS
£399.99 Very (3 Negative Reviews 1 Positive)
£499.99 Littlewoods
£383.00 Machine Mart
£324.99 Amazon (Limited Time Deal

Me thinks Littlewoods have made an error on their web site

Ryobi RLM18C36H225 18V ONE+ Hybrid 36cm Lawnmower Starter Kit (2 x 2.5Ah)

£347.95 CBS
£382.49 Amazon
£350.95 Tooled Up

Ryobi RLM18X33H50 18V ONE+ Cordless 33cm Lawnmower Starter Kit (1 x 5.0Ah)

£199.00 Homebase
£199.99 CBS
£229.95 Tooled Up
£189.58 CPC
NONE in Stock Powertool Mate although listed on the Ryobi site

Tooled Up - Not Direct Product Code on web site built up by adding battery & Charger

Ryobi RLM18X33B40 18V ONE+ Cordless 33cm Lawnmower Starter Kit (1 x 4.0Ah)

£163.67 Amazon

Ryobi RLM18C33B25 18V ONE+ Cordless 33cm Lawnmower Starter Kit (1 x 2.5Ah)

£180 Argos

Now a couple of observations from my research, I have to ask why would anyone buy the RLM18C33B25 from Argos for £180 when you can get same lawnmower with a 4.0Ah Battery from Amazon for £163.67?

My choice (had I not already got the Grass Trimmer) would be to buy the RLM18X33H50 and although £10 cheaper from CPC I would more than likely get it from Homebase, it’s 99p cheaper than CBS and if picked up from the store you have eliminated the possibility of damage in delivery, which is a common problem these days.

£240.95 Worth of Tools for £199 RLM18X33H50 and the Ryobi OLT1825M on Christmas Promotion as a Free Gift worth  £41.95.

<<<< There are links to all the Ryobi Retailers on the left panel of this Blog

Now, I have been waiting for the price of the Ryobi OLM18X33H 18V ONE+ Cordless 33cm Lawnmower (Zero Battery) to drop below £ 129.95 CBS as I already have a Cordless Grass Trimmer that I bought from Homebase when they were closing down and managed to get one with a battery and charger for less than the cost of the battery and charger.

Unfortunately Ryobi bargains like that in the UK a few and far between, and it's sad when it's due to closure of a local store.

The current cost of a Body only (Zero Battery) Mower is

£ 129.95 CBS - Ryobi OLM18X33H 18V ONE+ Cordless 33cm Lawnmower (Zero Battery)
£   68.95 CBS - Ryobi RB18L50 18v 5.0Ah Li-ion Battery
£   27.95 CBS - Ryobi BCL1418H 14.4V-18V Dual Charger
------------
£ 226.85 When bought together so approx. saving buying as a starter kit with a price of say £ 199 is £27.85 or the cost of the charger.

Reverse Engineering the cost above including the Dual Charger

£ 199.00 Homebase RLM18X33H50 18V ONE+ Cordless 33cm Lawnmower Starter Kit
£   68.95 CBS - Ryobi RB18L50 18v 5.0Ah Li-ion Battery
£   27.95 CBS - Ryobi BCL1418H 14.4V-18V Dual Charger
------------
£102.10 I would propose that as a more realistic price for the Zero Battery option inclusive of VAT than £129.95 when one considers the other battery mower are selling with the specifications and at the prices listed below, and some of them also come with a Grass Trimmer:- 

£ 99.99 Einhell Power X-Change GE-CM 18/30 Li 18V 30cm Cordless Lawnmower 1 x (3.0Ah) from Toolstation

£ 149.99 Yard Force 40V 32cm Cordless Lawnmower Plus Cordless Grass Trimmer with ONE Lithium-ion Battery & Quick Charger LM G32 + LT G30 No 7 10 Best Battery Powered Lawnmowers - November 2019 , UK

£ 148.00 Flymo Mighti-Mo 300 Li Cordless Battery Lawn Mower, 40 V, Cutting Width 30 cm from Amazon No 3 10 Best Battery Powered Lawnmowers - November 2019 , UK

£ 159.99 Yard Force 40V 32cm Cordless Lawnmower with Lithium-ion Battery and Quick Charger LM G32 No 5 10 Best Battery Powered Lawnmowers - November 2019 , UK

£ 160  Spear & Jackson Cordless Lawnmower and Trimmer 2 x 24V Batteries and Quick Charger

£ 210 WORX WG927E Dual 20V Battery 34cm Cordless Lawn Mower & 18V (20V MAX) Cordless Grass Trimmer Winner of 10 Best Battery Powered Lawnmowers - November 2019 , UK

Hopefully Ryobi will re evaluate they pricing policy for zero battery models next year especially in the gardening Mower market looking at whats available above. There is a lot of competition out there and the one battery for all is now very common place, and it's a more level playing field and quite frankly Ryobi have lost the lead they once had. 

At the moment for me as an owner of the items above and a number of starter kits and batteries & Ryobi Grass Trimmer already the incentive merit to purchase a Body only model at the current cost is not there. 

I have been evaluating perhaps buying a mower starter kit from the above Ryobi list but would not want anything with less than a 4Ah Lion Battery.

I did muse purchasing the Ryobi RLM18X33B40 from Amazon for £163.67 and select a gift from what's left but there is nothing there that I have not already got and that I'm desperate to own. Then one worries that as this model is an end of line model that no other Retailer is selling it has been in the warehouse for some time and what shape is the battery in and how long is it likely to last. 

Umm I think I may wait for Argos to discover that their model is not selling and see if they half price it in the January sales because this promotion is going to do nothing for them if the end user looks at what's available. so for the moment it looks like I'm using the Ryobi Grass Trimmer I already have and the Manual Push Mower that I got off Freecycle on the allotment.     

Boundaries and Kerb Stones

Saturday 21st September 2019 and its been another nice hot and sunny day with temperatures of 21C  - 22C. I took the hand mower to the main path as it had grown a few inches following being cut by idverde and the path between my plots 1 & 1A and 2 & 2A were very overgrown.

I decided to bite the bullet and install the kerb edgings along my side of the paths, so I strimmed and used my 175mm (7") 75mm 3" Diameter Power Planter auger to cut into the hard dry clay to form the base trench for the kerb stones. It wound the bind weed up and I placed the auger in the bucket and reversed the direction off the drill and spun out the bindweed. It would have taken me much longer if I had to trench by hand, the Power Planter is a god send. 

When I get around to doing the front of the plot on the main path I will video just how fast the Power Planter makes putting in these kerb edgings. 

The weather has been so hot and dry this year that the T&G Cladding on the shed is not coping very well and once these come apart they don't tend to re engage. It looks like I will have some more sealing from the inside to stop the weather getting in to do.

The gaps that I filled in a few weeks ago in the middle photo have opened up even more 

TESCO Long Handled Weed Knife

I had to do some shopping today and now that Easter is over and the last of the Easter Eggs are being sold off at less than half price the seasonal gardening stuff is hitting the shelfs again on the seasonal aisle, and I just had to treat myself to a couple of Long Handled Weed Knifes one for the allotment and the other for home.

At £3 each they didn't break the bank, and the weed knife is one of my favorite hand tools to use, and as I have problems getting down on my knees at the moment is a sensible purchase. 

You twist the top and the inner tube is telescopic and extends making the tool extend from 690mm to 1000mm or 1m.

Care Instructions - Wipe clean with a damp cloth and dry thoroughly before storing.