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Or you could just sprinkle any surplus grounds around your beds/plants and let it break down and improve the soil a bit that way. I've heard they help stop slugs on choice plants but I don't know if that's true.

I am not sure why you left (or want) a space between the lawn and the edging. The idea is that one abuts the other so that you can put your mower wheel on the strip and it will cut the lawn to the right height. As for the moving lawn if it is just grass that it growing over the bricks then you...

If you screw them together then that should help with stability. (I think I might be able to just make out a nail or screwhead in your picture on the pond side of the sleeper, near where they touch.). Laying them on concrete would be better and would be nicely covered by of the gravel...

One thing you could try is indeed just to resurrect the grass that is there. Have a really good tidy up and dig out any obvious weeds and raise up any sunken areas with soil from elsewhere in the garden to get the levels satisfactory. Remember this is a garden not a bowling green. Give the...

No problem digging now, so long as the soil isn't too heavy. Actually, I quite like working in the autumn: weeds don't grow as quickly so you can take your time, and you can't really plant anything yet either so another reason not to rush! To my mind there are two options here. One is to take...

Don't know about best, but I used the heavy duty fabric from Toolstation about a year ago and haven't had any problems so far.

People use "mulch" for anything used to cover the ground and prevent weeds. So this could be fabric, cardboard, carpet, thick layer of compost, gravel etc etc. Stones straight onto the membrane will be fine. Bear in mind that the gravel should not be too thick if you want to walk on it, but...

Buying 25kg bags of dry mix is always going to be expensive. You'd be better off with a bulk bag of all in aggregate and some bags of cement, then mix those up. And you'll probably save even more if you get them from your local independent merchant.

There are calculators for the volume and for the amount of materials here: http://www.pavingexpert.com/calcall.htm

I would put about 600 mm in the ground for a 2 m post. Surrounding it with concrete might help prevent rot, but it will still rot eventually. You might want to soak the end of the post in wood preserver.

I have a brick mowing strip in my own garden at about the height of neatly cut grass so that when I mow the wheels go on the strip and cut the grass to the right height. Quick, easy, and no edging. (Well, maybe an annual tidy up with the strimmer). Personally I wouldn't go for anything like...

I wouldn't have the top of the grass, the edge, and the gravel at the same height. You will constantly be picking gravel off your grass and it will therefore be a swine to cut. The edge needs to stand proud of the grass (which you don't want), or at the same height as the grass with an inch or...

You might be able to use timber if you kerf one face of it as is done for curved formwork: http://www.pavingexpert.com/formwk01.htm I suppose if the timber is not treated all the way through it would be an idea to apply end grain treatment to the cuts to help prevent rot. Another thought: you...

If it's a stain-type treatment I'd have thought you would have no chance of getting it completely off. If it's some kind of gloss or something you might be able to try scraping it off, but I would have thought it would still leave a mess.

I recently needed to cut a 450 mm Clark Drain inspection chamber down. I cut the riser to height (and angle) then concreted round it. Seems fine. I used a combination of a handsaw and jigsaw to cut it down which worked fine. I'm not sure what you mean about cutting anything off the lid. If...

I would probably use concrete, though if there wasn't going to be any foot traffic over the edging, I might just lay it on sharp sand.

Some relevant information here: http://www.pavingexpert.com/featur08.htm

You can put pegs at equal distances and make sure the drop from the top of one peg to the next is the same each time. You can do this by placing a scrap of timber the right size on the top of the lower peg, and make sure your spirit level reads level when placed across the pegs.

Not tried it in that context. I suppose it will depend on how hard you whack it, how strong you are etc. Just try a bit and see if you can get it good and compacted in a sensible amount of time. Also, if money is tight make sure you try local builders merchants for your materials (type 1...

You can get a hand tamper for about £30 in Toolstation or Screwfix etc. Much easier than whacking a piece of timber.