I'm having my garden landscaped. Previous owner of our new home laid decking to level off the garden at the rear. I'm having a retaining wall built to level things off properly so decking is no longer required. Our kids, and ourselves to be honest, had a few slippery moments on the decking anyway.
So I've got a few options -
our landscape gardener can just do what he wants with the decking wood
we can give the decking to an aquaintance for their garden
But I'm wondering if anyone has any other suggestions where used decking wood can be put to good use??
if you're stuck for ideas, don't want to just take it down the tip & you're anywhere near Richmond-upon-Thames then I'll take a load off your hands! It makes good raised beds for the allotment.... (& the allotment creed is "reuse - don't buy new materials!").
Sounds like there is a bit of algae on it, a gentle pressure wash or some decking cleaner will make a big difference. Also some decking stain would help it lose the green colour and make it a nice deep colour.
I joined in with the young folks on the M32 roundabout in Bristol about five years ago protesting about IKEA - even though I couldn't wait for it to open myself - but left quietly when I heard the rave wagon had been stopped by the police ... I have to say as a 40 year old fogey I was slightly intimidated by the police dogs especially when it dawned on me that they might also be the sort of dog that could smell the "hand-rolled cigarette" in my pocket ;-)
As it was, I discreetly disposed of the afore-mentioned item and left, tipping my hat to the Kevlar armoured policemen little more than half my age and they were similarly respectful in return :-)
They probably assumed I was a journalist or a social scientist or something so I wasn't in any danger of arrest in any case and hence wasn't very cool at all ;-)
I acknowledge Ikea /is/ annoyingly laid-out and is frequented by a lot of "Sunday Supplement" types, but I'm way too lazy to spend hours fashioning slatted wooden shelves when I can buy a couple of "hat racks" for less than the price of the materials.
As it happens the long-term plans for my house feature no laminate flooring or decking and very little from Ikea, but I still find much of their stuff to be functional rational good design .....
Actualy a shitload of builders rubble went in there, and crap cement, building sand, hardcore , most of teh original gravel drive and the mud it was mixed with, and, indeed, anything else left over.
If you are referring to the fact that you shouldn't eat green potatoes then the poison is not arsenic. The poison is actually and alkaloid called solanine. The green is actually chlorophyll but it is a good indication that the potato has produced solanine as well. Solanine is very poisonous but fortunately present in small quantities even in very green potatoes (you could eat a green potato and not die). The, I suppose, positive aspect of solanine is that it is very bitter, as most alkaloids are, so you wouldn't want to eat it anyway. Deep peeling a green potato will remove all the solanine as it is only present in the skin and just below.
As for arsenic, plants will take it up into their leaves and fruit to some extent if there is any in the ground and some plants are better at it than others. However, if there isn't arsenic in the ground then there wont, in fact can't, be any in the plant.
They are ftom te same family as datura, belladonna, and several other members oa a family most of which are deadly poisonous, and used in the manufacture of witches ointment. ;)
I think tomatoes are in the same family.
It is reckoned that potatoes would not pass FDA regulatuions if they ever had to take the test...
I must say - maybe its urban legend that arsenic was what the skins suposedly had.
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it is not urban legend, and that potatoes are just great at incorporating any heavy metals into their skins.
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