It's Good To Be Back.......Pt 1

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Well, I’ve had a very nice but busy AND expensive week off!

As some of you will know, we are celebrating 3 birthdays this week and so had a BBQ last Saturday with the kids and grandson around. Myself and Ali were out bright and early Saturday morning to pick up Cuprinol Autumn Gold fence paint on offer in Wilkinsons at £5 for a 5ltr tub – ready for our new fence should it go ahead – and also to get the food and drink for the BBQ. All was going well until we came out of Asda and the car wouldn’t start! Half hour later we admitted defeat and called the AA who duly towed Ali and the car to the garage, which was shut until Monday whilst I made my way home with all the shopping in a cab! She followed in another cab from the garage!

Anyway, the evening was a great success and both Ali and her son got rather tipsy – fatal for Ali as she is not a big drinker! So fatal in fact, that the next day, my birthday, saw me spend the whole day alone watching TV and doing a spot in the garden whilst a certain someone slept off a BIG hangover and was sick through the day!! Still, we couldn’t have gone anywhere as we were carless and remained that way until Wednesday night when we finally got it back. The crank saft sensor had gone and was a real pain to replace on our petrol VW Golf – £180 worth of a pain and that after just short of a grand spent on it in January!! Money we have not got and was put very reluctantly on the card!

So, whilst there have been some down points to this week, we have also had some good things happen too and none more than in the shape of the garden, which is slowly finding it’s form again.

We let it go a bit the past 2 years with other things going on and with my long hours in work, I didn’t always feel up to it but hopefully, we are finding our feet again so I thought I would share a few pics with you.

Some of you may remember we had large conifers right down the one side, which we tried to make into a woodland area. Well, those trees were taken down last year and with next door’s huge Oak now gone, we have a lot more sunshine and our best show of Bluebells since our daughter gave us a load 3 years ago from their garden.

This is how the side of the garden looks presently with the Conifers gone – Rowan still intact and doing mighty fine…..

The pieces of wood you can see attached to the fence and trees were done by me during the winter storms/winds as the posts of the fence are rotten and would have gone over had I not battened down the hatches – at 12.15am in the lashing rain back a few months ago!!

From some of the thicker trunks of the felled Conifers, I got creative and made a kind of wood sculpture-type thingy and intend chiselling out the top one to plant in – an ongoing project! Meanwhile, I have simply placed some smaller containers on the different levels to create a flower stand of sorts…….

The lady from across the road moved about a year ago after her husband of 25 years came home from his job in Saudi for a 2 week family visiting trip and duly asked for a divorce on his last night! She has now got over it and literally moved on but was kind enough to give us quite a few bits and bobs. None moreso than this nice little wooden bench, which we have at the top of the garden in front f the Potting Shed. Well, on some of the thinner Conifer trunks, Ali had the novel idea last week of using some of them as tables for drinks by the side of the bench – who’s a clever girl?

Yesterday, on an unexpected day of sunshine, we visited the daughter to say Happy Birthday and then came home for a few hours in the garden. Spurred on by her idea for the tables, I left her potting on a few bits in the Greenhouse – Cosmos, Asters, 1 Lavender, Rudbeckis and also planting some new seeds – and took a few small metal buckets that we acquired a couple of years ago and set to work. Popped a Lobelia in each one and now just wait for the colour to show and trail….

What do you think?

And one with a Passionfruit Cider sat upon it – well deserved after 3 hours in the early evening sun planting and bending!

A look down the garden and some new planting in the long wooden troughs – some grasses, Purple Palace Heuchuras and a few snapdragons for a splash of colour – when they flower.

Just behind the Conifer stump structure lies the old tin bath we got 2 years ago from a boot sale for a tenner and now planted up with a couple of Hollyhocks and some Ivy…..

The central veg patch this year taken over with many flowers – some bought, some grown and some moved from pots on the decking…..

Lots of activity in the GH…..

Toms coming along…..

Runner Beas fighting hard against the slugs!

A few years ago, I bought a few slug traps that you pour beer in and wait for the buggers to party on down. Well, I hadn’t used them until this week because my 3 mini Dahlias were getting chomped away at and it has to be said that whilst not stopping it completely, it is slowing the process down and they are climbing into the traps. Spurred on by this success, Ali came up with the idea of a homemade slug beer trap – only on a grander and cruder scale – see the result below nest to one of the bought ones…..

Red Sun Sun Flowers coming along……

And the Cherry Tree we bought 3 years ago for £4.99 in Wilko’s and left in the bag for 3 weeks before planting – oops!

The flower is lovely and now the cherries are forming…..

I also bought some Sloeberry bushes online from a Nursery and they are coming along nicely too….

I won’t bore you anymore as this is already rather long but I will finish by saying that with the flowers and sun comes wildlife and we are slowly getting some back. the birds never really went away as we have always maintained the feeders for them but tonight we were able to confirm that along with our Saprrow couple who have been nesting just under the roof for 3 years, we now have Blue Tits nesting in a bird box I put up on the back of the house also 3 years ago! So exciting!

I leave you with a few different shots of the garden and will be back soon with Part 2……

And how was your week?

• 22 May, 2014
• 13 likes

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