Julian Cassell's DIY Blog

Lawn care and maintenance is a subject that most of us start to think about in early spring, and the autumn, as these are the optimum times for seasonal work to be carried out on your lawn. The following post provides a number of points you need to take into account for some simple but effective lawn care. Maintaining a lawn really doesn’t need to be a full time occupation, so try following these few principles to make your lawn look better than ever. read more »

Planning a garden needs to be a carefully considered decision-making process, where you take plenty of time in adding up the pros and cons of all your ideas and inspirations. Doing as much research as possible at the planning stage will always pay dividends in the long term, as your garden gradually matures. read more »

How to lay a deck or decking, or more specifically the techniques that are required, is much dependent on whether you are building at ground level, or creating a raised level deck. Raised decks are a much more involved undertaking as you need to build a substantial support framework, but with a ground level deck, the support is effectively already in place, and so it is much more straightforward. Building a ground level deck is shown in the sequence below. read more »

Wooden garden arches are excellent features for any garden and from a DIY perspective, they are simple to build because they are always supplied in a kit form. As shown in the sequence below, you literally require a few screws for assembly, which are often supplied with the arch, and then it just becomes a case of fixing it in position. I always favour concreting in the arch feet or posts, but you can use fence spikes if you prefer (for more about this, see ‘Things to consider’ below the sequence). If you do decide to erect a wooden garden arch, they are pretty weighty pieces of kit, so remember to find yourself a bit of help for getting it in place. read more »

Replacing a broken slab in a patio or path is a straightforward DIY job. What is also good news is that there is no need to mix up any mortar, as you can use a product called Slablayer to bed down a replacement slab, and this is the technique I’ve shown in the example below. For more details on general points about laying slabs and using Slablayer, see my guide ‘Laying a patio’. read more »