As well as DIY I count gardening as one of my other major interests, the similarities between the two are obvious. Just like ‘Doing It Yourself‘, there are certain items of gardening equipment, material or treatments that you are never without in the shed and always at hand.
These essentials are usually borne of years experience in knowing that the particular product or tool will do the job for you, in others words they won’t let you down. However there comes a time, with some products, when they are removed from the market and are no longer available so you search for alternatives, but somehow you can never find a suitable replacement.
I’m going on a bit at the moment because the trend of changing DIY or Gardening products for the sake of change or because someone had a bad reaction from sniffing a solvent based product, gets right up my nose! I have no idea why the product I’m going to talk about was removed from the shelf some time ago other than the information in chat sites on the web and they may or may not be accurate. The product that I found essential for many things around the home and garden was Jeyes Fluid! Yes, that smelly old disinfectant that evokes memories of childhood and father’s garden shed.
By they way did you know, that Jeyes was granted the Royal Warrant in 1896 to supply the Royal Household? Anyway, I digress but remember that fact in case it comes up during Quiz Night!
It must have been a couple of years ago when Jeyes went off the market and at the time I was told by a salesman in one of the major hardware chains “That it is now off the market and that it is illegal to sell it because it contains creosote”. How true that was I never did find out. Then the good news came just last week, when I read in a magazine that Jeyes was available again.
The reason why I wax lyrical about Jeyes is that it’s so handy for outdoor use around the house and garden. It has far too many uses to go into detail here but in general terms it’s use include; Sterilising Drains Rubbish Bins; Garden Tools and Equipment, Greenhouses, Cold Frames, Potting Soil and Plant Pots, Cleaning Fungi and Algae off Garden Paths, Patios, Fences etc. More importantly for me is its ability to sterilise and recondition the soil in my garden beds, particularly as I had a dose of powdery mildew on my peas this year!
It’s somehow comforting having a container of Jeyes back in the shed again and that smell is so powerful you know it must be doing a good job.
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