close look at front garden

Yes, perhaps Saxon gold! You do however have at least one Californian poppy( eschalotzia), feathery leaves in front of what look like daffodils coming up.

Welcome back Fran! (Thanks for the text - I did try to reply with no success and never got round to trying again - sorry....

Yes daffodils - lovely. If you find out how to grow money I hope you'll share the info with us...

I'm so ignorant of real plants, what they are, what they look like, how to look after them ... there's a rather steep learning curve ahead of me! I'll need to label the plants as I find out what's what, and take lotsa pics so I'll have a record of each at all stages.

Its going to be an exciting springtime for you Fran, a time of discovery in a new garden, I've had to pop a few bulbs back into the ground as well, mine were mainly Grape Hyacinths, it happens to them all the time as the birds are grubbing in and around them, possibly your bulbs were unearthed a bit when the people were tidying up ready for you to move in.
My mum always used to say if you find money laying about its always a good idea to double check in case there is more, lol........

Better keep checking that lawn for treasure Fran! The bulbs that are planted look like Daffodils to me. The ones that were on the surface look more like muscari or similar...and they were possibly dug out by blackbirds. I've got a few good clumps of bulbs appearing too...exciting isn't it! :))

lots of daffodils welcome back we have made you an honorary shropshire lass xxx steve

What an honour Fran! :))) Nice one Snoopy!

Somewhere like wilkinson have plastic plant labels, I, d get some and a notebook then when something like the poppy is identified put the name on it so you know what it is then write it in the book, when we planted our trees (over 100 now) I drew a plan each time , only simple 1p circles with a number in that cross referenced a list, now 20 years later I still know who is which if you see what I mean!

I did a separate plan for each area (maybe a folder from wilko too :0)
if you do it in pencil you can change the plan as you move plants around
have fun Fran, its an exciting time and lovely to be part of it x

The round bulb near to the grass might be an allium Fran. if so, well worth replanting. Lots to do and discover. The money comes in handy too. All donations thankfully received. It's going to be really exciting seeing what comes up. As your garden seems to have been planted by someone who loved gardening.

thanks for that, Lincs, I hadn't known that, only ever had pots before and the bulbs tended to stay put (apart from squirrels!) May have been garden tidying, as you said.

I couldn't get close enough to check for sure, Karen - lol going to have to get a mat to lie on so I can get *really* close to the plants! I've only evern grown narcissi from bulbs, so hardly a wide range of esperience to go on!!

Thanks, Snoopy, I'm honoured indeed - and the sooner I start taking on the lovely local accent the better! Mind you, there's a lot of London about as well - this estate is for people to retire out of London - I'll have to mix with the right people. (And now I'm here, there'd be some point to learning Welsh - I've wanted to for ages, but didn't seem much point in LondonJ: not anywhere local I could practice!)

I've got stacks of white plastic plant labels, Pam, the only prob is that I need extra-large ones, so that I can write big enough to be able to read it - thinking of just putting numbers on the tags, then listing the numbers with the plant names.
I do need to do some mpas, what's where, and what I could do with it. lol I did dozens of "deisisns" in Word, using a table and colouring the cells - that was before I had a garden at all, and were totally impracticala, but at least i was dreaming. I'm probably still going to be impractical, as this is all very new to me, but it'll be fun findingo ut how practical or otherwise my ideas are.
100 trees!!!!!!! wow and then double-wow!

it came to 65p, Dorjac, so that'll go into the chairty box at the local shop - once I remember to take it with me! I poked holes in the soil and plopped all the bulbs back in - the ground was rather hard and stony, and sloped a bit down from the hedge to the inside, but managed to get them at least more covered than they were before.

and I've still got my 20 boxes of bulbs to find homes for! I did have some idea about starting some beyond the fence, in the belt of trees and shrubs that are beteen the garden and the open ground.
I did try finding the bungalow from the back, on the open ground: there's a steep slope about ten feet up from the open ground to the back fences: the trees and shrubs wree severely overgrown, it was hard work. I reached my neighbour's fence but there was so much tangle that I couldn't get to mine: to give some idea of how thick it was, even with alll the rain we've been having, twigs were dry enough to crack underfoot. I might try it from the garden next time: hop over the fence and see how far I get! but then, too clear a path might be too much of an invitation, so I'll think a bit about that

Is there any Welsh spoken near you Fran? Here In Pembrokeshire you hardly ever hear any, which rather dampens the enthusiasm to have a go.

Be careful what you plant outside the garden - some things, eg crocosmia are naturalising and not welcome.

This looks like someone put in a lot of time enjoying your garden. Maybe the money donor is trying to tell you the garden is something special. To see better what you have can you blow up photos you take. i know from experience that I see a huge amount on a digital photo that I do not see with the naked eye. I'm so glad you are happy in your new home. It was a brave decision to make such a move.

I don't know if Welsh is spoken locally, Stera, but at least I'm neraer to Wales than I was in London! and I'd like to have a go, for when I visit - *s* I've heard of some places where they won't speak English to obvoius "foreigners"!

I'd only plant "natural" bulbs outside: bluebells and maybe narcissi, but mainly bluebells - lol that's why I bought four packs of them! they should be ok in woodland, though the ground might need a bit of clearing cos even at this time of year, as i said, there's enough cover for twigs to be dry enough to snap. But maybe that'll go on the back burner: i'll have enough stuff to do inside the garden to keep me going for some time ...

lol Scotsgran, most of my pics tend to be blurred: somehow i can't get the hang of pressing the shutter gently enough not to blur. (this is one reason i wanted a remote control, then I can't blur!) but once I can get clear pix of each plant I can number and name those and keep a record that way

There's a lot that can be done with the front garden. a square of lawn with a "lollipop" bush in the middle and thin beds on three sides is rather unimaginative; there's so much more that could go in there ...

Maybe the previous owner did not want to have to pay the gardener too much for the upkeep of an area she used less often than the back garden. The spring bulbs will be a welcome sight while everything else is still asleep. I hope you have nice neighbours.

Sounds like you've settled in well in your new home, Fran, and are finding new things every day. Never found any money in any of my gardens - perhaps the fairies thought you'd lost a tooth!! You are going to have an exciting and interesting time watching what appears throughout the spring and summer - Enjoy :)

That could be true, Scotsgran: this is a retirement estate, after all. There is a local gardener that some people here use, one said she'd get him to call here after he does her garden, but that won't be till there's any gardening to be done, ie months away.

Apart from needing to find out what plants I've got (which I'm assuming he'll know, being an expert, well, more expert than me!) I'll need him for hedge-trimming, shrub-pruning and lawn-cutting on a regular basis - can't see me even being able to lift shears, let alone use them effectively - and in a straight line! and don't even want to *think* about holding electrical cutting tools!!

Once I know what's where, I can look them up and see what they do in season and how to look after them - and if I want to keep them.

I've met three neighbours so far, and got about half a dozen Christmas cards, this isn't the time of year to be out-and-about-ing, so once the weather warms up more likely to meet more.

Thanks, Gee - I'm getting there, bit by bit, day by day. progress is so slow that I don't feel that I'm moving - it's only when I look back that I see I've come half a mile without noticing.

I still can't figure who tossed the money over the hedge, or why, but I'll keep looking, there might be more there that I hadn't noticed before.

Planning what to do will be even more fun than actually doing it - lol I can fly freely on paper, it's only when I actually start doing stuff that I need to work to limits!

I'm slightly hampered by the HA person telling me that if-when I leave, I've got to leave the place as I found it - any holes for wall shelves have to be filled in, I can't have a wheelie bin store unless it can be dismantled and removed, and I suppose that applies to raised beds as well. So I can only have semi-permanent garden fittings - strong enough to stand for a while but not actually nailed down so they can be removed.

bloody jobs worths they make normal people sick and shropshire council must have some of the worst in the country not much old fashioned give and take is there makes me mad fran there are very few welsh people who will not speak to you in english i have traveled to all parts of wales and only once did that happen 99.9% of welsh are very nice and every time a woman or girl spoke to me when in south wales i fell in love every time beutiful lilt as for learning welsh what can i say my wife is welsh and can,t speak a word of welsh it is very difficult give up now before you go mad xxx steve

I think the Welsh Won't Speak To English is mainly in North Wales when it occasionally does happen Fran. Did you know North Wales Welsh is rather different from the south Wales Welsh, which is much looked down on by the northeners! You wouldn't think it was worth it in such a small country would you? I can understand why they hated the English in days gone by, they had good reason, but its pointless blaming them now for what happened in the past.

That 10 foot slope at the back of your garden sounds like good protection from that busy little stream down the field Fran. Lots of habitat for wild life too. So you might see some interesting creatures in your lovely little garden. Over a long timescale our little river has gone potty and flooded in about 10 different places further up . We are about 200 feet away.I hope you won't be leaving too soon what seems like a dream come true. So HA dragons can back off. Yesterday there were 2 very handsome foxes resting in the garden. They looked knackered, kept falling asleep. Wonder what they had been up to? The vixen kept returning to the same spot in the border and curling up with her huge bushy tail over her face. Mr fox would then dash over and sniff at her.....sexual harrassment? Inspected the estate afterwards to see if they had tried dig a den in our 40 times 50 foot garden.

Hi Fran ...
looks like the garden is well stocked with bulbs and plants ... I'm so pleased you're safely in your new home :o) x

lol Snoopy, when they say "leave it as you found it" they never mean "remove all the *improvements* you paid to have installed"! I was looking around, thinking, I must leave things right for the next tenant, then I thought, I AM the next tenant!!

I don’t doubt that most Welsh people are as courteous as anyone else, but one hears stories of some who aren’t.

Sigh, Stera, some people need to find a “reason” to look down on other people, even if that “reason” is totally pathetic to anyone with three working brain cells.

Rueful lol, everyone had good reason to hate the English, even the English! The ordinary working English people had no reason to love their English overlords any more than any ordinary Welsh or Scots or Irish person.

I think I’m nearer to North Wales than South, so maybe an extra incentive to at least show willing with the language!

The main reason I wanted to learn Welsh was that it’s the nearest thing we still have to original British. Besides, back then there was fear that it might die out, and it’s a shame for any language to die out.

I do love the Welsh lilt, not sure if that’s Northern or Southern Welsh. And how come only Welsh men sing so beautifully? Why aren’t there any Welsh female-voice choirs??

Hi Dorjac, yes, I feel a lot happier now I know that slope is there! Even if the brook overflowed to such an extend that it flooded the open ground between it and me, there are round bales of hay all along the edge, just inside the trees – not sure if that’s an added flood precaution, or wildlife encouragement, or trespasser discouragement! (I took some pics on my last stroll, which I’ll put up as soon as I find the USB card reader))

The only way to get to the back is walk round the block – there’s a footpath both up and down the road. But there was no appreciable downwards slope, so it must have been a very gentle decline – and that made it harder for me to spot the back of my own place, because the bungalows up a slope looked as tall as houses from the lower level. Luckily I have a landmark in my “inclined conifer” – windblown to have a distinct lean.

I’ll probably see lots of animals as well as birds – well, given my vision, I’ll probably see a few – but identifying them will be something else. I Googled for “garden birds in Shropshire” and found a few Shropshire Birder associations; I’m more concerned at the moment with common-or-garden (ha!) birds at the moment, the exotic can wait a while.

I moved the bird feeder station today: it was quite near to the fence and the tall shrubbery, so I thought I’d see if I’d get visitors if I moved it further away. But don’t want it too near the house, cos that won’t encourage them either. No doubt I’ll find the best placement eventually. Of course, it might be that I’ve not got the right seed varieties to tempt birds at this time of year, but one would think this a good season for suet-munching! So much to learn …

Lol I think the only way I’ll leave here is if I won the lottery and could buy a completely detached bungalow with its own grounds (not very likely as I’ve stopped buying tickets) or when I’m carried out in a box – which I hope will be a veeeeeeeeery long time in the future. In which case I’ll leave ‘em money in my will to tidy up after me – as if! Besides, the next people might like some of my changes; they should at least have the choice

Don’t know if there are foxes here – must be some, but don’t know how close. Though there is a nature reserve all long the brook, so there’s room for a lot of wildlife that probably wouldn’t need to hike up the slope, even if the undergrowth wasn’t so tangled it’d make a dandy ambush trap. Saw a small squirrel a little while ago: grey, but the tail had white edges – new one on me.

thanks, TT. There are certainly several bulbs showing green, and probably lots more still to poke up above ground enough for me to see them, even at close range. And there'll be a fair few more once i work out where to start placing my "sainsbury splurge" bubls!

We have fat foxes due to not having wheely bins. The late night drinking culture in town centre means lots of fast food for foxes, so they thrive Gee. One urban fox was collared and seems to have wandered over 100 kilometres. Mostly in countryside after his own son chased him off! So they are flexible......amazing animals, but not to be fed, as many do feed them. Lovely to be able to walk in a pleasant place near to your house. Maybe you could creep the feeders nearer to the house Fran. Ours are about 15 feet away.They come and feed when we are sitting there.

I'd like to see foxes, but only in their own environment, doing what comes naturally in that environement - which don't include fast food!! can't be doing them any good, any more than it'd do humans much good. Apart from forgetting how to hunt for themselves, which is why I'd prefer to set up a natural-istic situation where birds could feed themselves, rather than depend on the buffet set out in feeders. lol but doing that anyway!

I moved the feeder with "one giant step" - lol ground was too hard for me to get the pole into anything in between. I't about ten feet from the back door, probaboy much too close, but at least it's in the open all round now. Have to see if that makes any difference - and have to try going out to kitchen without putting the light on first, that would probably be too much for htem