Busy, busy, busy

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Hi all, some of you may have noticed my absence of late. Sorry I’ve not been around I’ve just been so busy in the last few weeks I’ve barely picked up the laptop. Must say I’ve missed you all. Very much looking forward to catching up with whats been going on (although that may take a while lol).

I must be a mental person the amount of things I’m trying to do at the moment. I had two weeks off over Easter thinking I could use the time to sort out my parents garden, deal with all my seedlings and fingers crossed start getting things sorted to move out. At the same time I was also attempting to deal with my OHs front garden and two bedrooms in his house lol. Lets just say I’ve not done quite as much as I hoped, although the weather has stopped play quite a bit. Oh yes and pot up a plant for my nan (mom got her a Camelia for mothers day – she’s wanted one for years) and help her, my brother and cousin move the washing machine out of the kitchen and get the old carpet up ready for a new one to go down (it doesn’t sound it, but my oh my was that funny, frustrating but funny).

Over Easter I did manage to deal with the shady border in my parents garden. Its been driving me mad since last year. The only reason I didn’t deal with it last summer is because we were planning on putting a new fence in and the last thing I wanted was to dig the border and then have people walking all over it. So this is basically what it looked like before I started (an old photo – including the old fence – I may have forgotten to take a photo before I started digging):

In between rain showers over Easter (blinking typical eh, the two weeks prior to my holiday were glorious sunshine) I dashed in and out digging the border, getting out grass, weeds and strange bits of plastic (don’t ask). Till I eventually ended up with (doesn’t the new fence make a difference):

I’ve been looking for plants for that area of the garden for months. I’d got a fair few ideas of things I could try there (thanks to several wonderful people on here). Hywel very kindly sent me four pieces of geraniums (very very much appreciated). During the week I popped into a local GC to get some ericaceous compost for my nans plant and low and behold got very excited when I actually found shade garden plants!!!! I ended up comming home with a couple of Bergenia Cordifolias (one winterglut and one rotglut) and a Iris foetidisima (did I spell that right?). I’m seriously considering a Polemonium caerulem ‘Heaven Scent’ I saw and a foxglove x mertonesis ohh and a Euphorbia I spotted in B&Q. In addition to those I’d got a flat of 6 primroses and a primula veris I’d picked up in Morrisons a few weeks back. Plus I’ve also got a bare rooted Dicentra specatbilis, 4 bare rooted lilly of the valley and a Hebe to go in, but they all need hardening off first.
Dicentra


I just love the flowers on this plant :)

Anyway the end result of planting was:

I’ve still got some work to do on it when the spring bulbs die back but otherwise I think its looking a hell of a lot better. Plus plant out the Dicentra and Lilly of the Valley if the weather ever co-operates. I’ve decided not to plant the Hebe until after the last frost. Try to give it a chance of survival.

During rain showers I was back indoors where I’d turned the table in the front room into my potting bench lol. I spent a happy few hours pricking seedlings out and planted the last few seeds. So heres what we’ve got (not bad for a first attempt eh):
Before
(Left to Right) Lobelia, Anagalis Gentian Blue and Penstemon

(Left to Right) Busy Lizzie and Pentunia

After
(Left to Right) Penstemon and Dahlia’s

Pentunias

The black tray closest and furthest away contain Lobelia (I have stupid numbers of Lobelia, lets just say I’m not very good at sowing fine seed lol) and the middle tray contains Busy Lizzies and Anagalis Gentian Blue

As well as the above I’ve also got Candytuft, Rudbeckia, Poppy, Stock and Salvia, Mesembryanthemum and another whose name escapes me waiting to be pricked out. Plus a tray with some young marigold and lavender seedlings and hopefully if they come up cosmos. Not to mention the sweet peas in the greenhouse :) Think I may have gone a little mad lol.

The sunny border which I worked on last year is looking quite nice at the moment. Its absolutely full of spring bulbs (mostly bluebells):

Here’s a photo of a tulip I love in that border, not bad for a phone camera eh:

I finally managed a day out in my OHs front garden, where it didn’t throw it down on me. I did end up working on it on my own as he’s managed to pull his hamstring and was hobbling round (all better now thankfully). We’ve previously chopped down the two big trees up by the house and wow what a difference its made. The garden seems so much bigger and the front room is suddenly light. I’m basically working on digging pretty much everything up (apart from the big Silver Birch, Orange Blossom and white bush whose name is unknown) at the bottom and re-designing the whole thing. So here’s our handy work with the trees and my handy work with the grass (OH kept saying it was a nice border, then switched to big border lol):
Before

Going

Going

Gone


First Stage Grass Removal

Unfortunately the weather hasn’t really co-operated since then so I’ve been stuck indoors, either working on the bedrooms (can’t believe how long its taking to decorate them – someone is being very un-co-operative here) or doing my utmost to get my OHs house to some semblance of clean and tidy (men just don’t seem to do clean the way a woman does lol and my OH is no exception to the rule). Spent several hours scrubbing the kitchen yesterday – going back this morning. I’ve decided though, my first pruchases will be a dishwasher and vacuum (his has died a death).

All being well next weekend I should be moving in (scary thought). The big question is how on Earth am I going to move my greenhouse and where do I put it lol. Its a little full at the moment (and this is only one shelf):

Anyway hope I haven’t bored you all silly with this blog. I will eventually be back online a little more when things are little less crazy and will eventually catch up with everone. Hope your all ok and not going to mad stuck inside. I know we need the rain, but some dry weather of a weekend would be much appreciated lol.

• 29 Apr, 2012
• 5 likes

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