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Gardeners with questions can attend the Garden Fence Chats virtual hotline hours hosted by the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Erie County’s Horticultural Volunteer Hotline Masters. (Sharon Cantillon / News File Photo)

From BN

By Susan Martin

Gardeners Attention: The Cornell Cooperative Extension of Erie County’s Voluntary Gardener Hotline is scheduling Garden Fence Chats – virtual hotline hours – via Zoom Monday through Friday from 10am to 12pm.

You should start today.

Participants can share their gardening questions either over the phone or on the computer. The Garden Fence Chats room will be occupied by volunteer master gardeners and the horticulture educator.

The master gardeners open each day with a 10 to 15 minute presentation on a current topic or a frequently asked question and then keep the line open so that people can call or virtually drop by with questions, according to the press release.

Here are the topics planned for this week:

• April 6th: Garden safety with social distancing; What Are Community Gardening Best Practices?

• 7th of April: Cornell’s Gardening-Based Learning, Just Plant It, New York! Food Gardening for All – Resources and Access to Soil Testing.

• April 8th: What is happening on our urban farms this spring?

• 9th April: Avoid ticks while spending time outdoors.

The post Gardening questions? Discover some solutions on Backyard Fence Chats | House & Backyard first appeared on DECKSAND FENCES DAILY.

His dilemma is that he replaces posts that were replacements for previous posts, and those replacements have been made concrete. Apparently removing the original posts left very large holes that the previous fence builder filled with concrete.

So my buddy is dealing with a lot of concrete.

First rule, gang: do not put wooden posts in concrete.

Look, no matter what preventive steps you take (and I’ll come back to that), wooden posts will eventually rot, and eventually you’ll have to put new ones. Burying it in concrete not only adds more work down the line, but it can also speed up the rot.

The concrete forms a collar around the post, and as different materials at different pressures and temperatures expand and contract at different speeds, there is inevitably a small space around the post.

Water likes to seep into small spaces.

But it doesn’t ooze out because the concrete isn’t just a collar; It’s a cup too.

If you have a post in a cup of water, is no wonder the post will rot at some point?

The post HouseWorks: Concrete is a giant no-no for fence posts | House and Backyard first appeared on DECKSAND FENCES DAILY.