Away with the privet...

Hi Sue, I wish I could get rid of my privets, but if I started to get rid of them, I would be invaded by garden thieves, until the replacements were grown, Derek.

The privets decimated last year are growing fast so when our conifer hedges were "done" by Charlie, our fantastic hedge-cutter, he cut the new growth at the top of the privet hedge also. It looks really good now.

I chose privet but I hadn't realised how intrusive it can get. Really regret "my" choice and blame Other Half for letting me have my way.

Your garden looks great, Steragram.

Thank you Eirlys. They do look good just after cutting don't they, but they need doing several times a year to look their best and they are so greedy, sucking up all the goodness from the soil.

I know what you mean Derek - its a shame we have to consider such things. I think this spot will be OK. The bank behind is almost vertical and its under the holly. I have piled grass cuttings behind the border too so anyone climbing up would have a great struggle even it they managed to climb from the road onto the path at the bottom of the bank..

Stera all your hard work has certainly paid off - lovely shots and I like the crocosmia - love your ginger helper too !

What a difference. Looks good. Can appreciate how much hard work it must of taken. Lucky (touch wood) we don't seem to have a problem here with plant thieves but used to have problem with vandals pulling up plants during the night in Pembury in my front garden and the school kids picking the flower head off as they walked by, they even lifted my driveway gates off the hinges and we found them up the road. In the end got some really thorny roses and planted them and welded the gates on. They then jumped on the gate, broke the hing of one gate off and again we found it up the road. Another thing I don't miss :-). Love you ginger helper as well.

Jen that sounds awful - must be such a relief to be away from all that. Thanks for the comments!

Lol, it wasn't all bad just village got a bad element for a while. I think the best story from there was early one morning , the lady who delived the village news booklet, knocked on the door as we had a body laying in our open porch. Unconscious and couldn't tell if male or female. I couldn't wake them so phoned for ambulance then had to phone my daughter collage and got answerphone to say she would be late as I have a body in my front porch and waiting for ambulance. Collage later said that they had decided it had to be true or one of the best excuses for being late. Anyway turned out to be a very drunk male who had walked up our 40ft garden in the night deciding to sleep it off in our porch. Lucky he was ok as was so out of it, he had been ill and wet himself while out of it. Will never understand people getting in that state.

Thank you Jane. She follows me everywhere when I'm gardening.

Jen, That sounds horrendous and rather scarey - but also familiar. We used to live in a vicarage and were visited regularly by one of the local white cider addicts, among others - one time just as we were going out we found him lying on the front parking space - he complained bitterly we wouldn't let him go to sleep there as we weren't going ot be in I could write a book...
I once went out and asked a woman who was crossing our back lawn if I could help her. She said she wanted to cut the corner off to get to the house next door and complained we didn't have a gate at the end so people could do that! Another time we found a man in the study using the phone - he thought it was quite reasonable that he could just pop in and make a call without asking - you wouldn't believe it. More stories where that came from...

Gosh, sound lovely, NOT. the cheek of people. Bet you find it alot nicer and quieter where you are now and with a lovely view.

A great deal quieter! Still worry about the drunk from time to time though - we got to know him pretty well.

Can understand that, its hard to see someone distroy themselves and not worry. lad we had in porch had just been binge drinking. The pub down the road had just reopened and had party with free drinks. The trouble with Tunbridge Wells is it is affluent area. Alot of the kids have money for drink and drugs.

Goodness I always thought of it as a very prim and proper place!

I'm all for extending/widening borders !
Nice to see Rowan was helping you ... :D

She does her best Hywel. She is good at supervising but not much good at potting.

lol ... but you wouldn't manage without her :D

She does keep me company but I wish i could eradicate the fleas...its not for want of trying..

Do you give her those drops ? Bella gets them every so often. They're expensive but worth it.

I try but there are two problems. She has such thick fur that I can't get at any bare skin and the drops tend to wet the fur instead of the skin, and also she really really hates it and does her best to prevent me doing it - she gets plenty of notice because of the time it takes to find some skin... Last time I used Broadline it all came out in one sudden blob and i don't think it is going to work as it just wet the fur. Do you use that or Advocate?

Sue, with Star I use Advocate, but I do it when I feed her her favorite wet food that I get In for the occasion :-). She doesn't like having it done but too busy eating.lol

Crafty! I don't think Mrs Pussycat knowall would fall for that one but its worth a try!

I can't remember the one she gets but I often ask the vet to put it on, because I get the same problem as you with Rowan.

We've done that too, its a good idea, but getting her into the carrier is just as difficult as a DIY job...

lol :D

Morning Sue, I had a good start to morning thanks to Star. I was in kitchen making tea and hubby was just coming down the stairs when Start rushed pass me to where hubby was on stairs and dropped a live mouse at his feet. She then given her present, walked off. Mouse ran down the stairs and into the dining room so there was me on my hands and knees trying to catch it. Managed to get a glass over it. Hubby can't bare to kill anything so then released it in field nextdoor :-). Cat do make lifes interesting.

Oh just a thought on cat carrier part. I was worried about Star with the journey up here and stressing her more due to being put in carrier. Vet surggest about month before we moved to 1st put carrier with top off and doors off next to her food. Once she got used to that then start putting her food in the carrier, then put top on but no doors still feeding her in it. Then door on but kept open again still feeding her in it. It really worked and she was brilliant on drive up here. Don't know if that would help Rowan to make vet visits easier?

I've tried putting cat biscuits in it but she refuses to take the bait, crafty madam. The nearest she would get was sitting in top of it until the novelty wore off. When we moved here ( a five hour journey) I took both cats (now no longer in the land of the living) to the vet who kindly and reluctantly gave them a sedative and they slept all the way here. I asked the vet here to give me something to relax her and he gave me something called Kalmex Cat to put on her food. But as she only eats biscuits and this smelled strongly of Marmite she wouldn't touch it. Shame as it cost me £15...

Sorry about your other cat. Rowan does keep you on your toes.

She does her best...,

Postscript, if anyone's still interested - through my tai chi class I have got to know a local small animal vet who kindly came round and did it for the price of the drops. Even she had a big struggle but wasn't as worried as me about upsetting the cat's feelings...I've had a wonderful bite free month!

Wow, that is wonderful. I was lucky in Kent, one of my hubby's friends was a Vet in our village. He helped us out one Saturday evening when I lost my 1st Springer Maxi. The out of hours cover for my practice was about 40mins drive away so we called him in desperation and he came over and then wouldn't let us pay him. It goes to show there are some very kind people out there.

:)
S

You've worked hard, Stera ... those are the type of garden tasks which are more demanding than some might realise !

OH got the privets out - I could have done it myself even five years ago but not now... My main trouble is trying to visualise which shrubs will look good but I've committed myself now...

Just added a 'like' to this blog
... I'm out of practice with GoY !

Thanks Terra. Took me ages to remember to add Likes.
Its brilliant the way you've gone through so many old blogs and added your comments - its really feelgood to know you are interested enough to do that for us. Its so nice to have you back.