Then & Now - August 2011

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Hello everyone.

I thought it about time i did a catch up on the garden as i have some free time at work – school holidays, so the phone doesn’t ring for 6 weeks – bliss…!!!!

This blog may or may not work as i want to try and show how we looked a year ago and how we are now.

So here goes……..

Starting with the front garden – this was the begininning of this year

and this was 08:30 this morning

Margy, my OH did all the planting this year and it ended up just a bit on the white side – (although the white flowers of the edging plants have nearly all gone over now and we are just left with green) – but i think she did a fair job.

I have promised Salvias to add some bright reds next year … so watch this space.

… and so to the back garden ……

Remember this from our moving in day – 17th June last year…..

well this was 08:30 this morning …. the bald patch at the bottom right is where we stored all of the paving slabs and bricks for the patio. So there is some work to do with re-grassing that area.

Just to bring some of it into focus for you ….

This was the apple tree last year when we thought that we would lose all of the crop because we dug it up to bring it with us …..

and this is the same tree this year …….

Can’t wait to get my teeth into these – they are so scrummy when they are fully ripe.

Two weeks ago, this central trellis was an abundance of sweet peas. The smell as you walked past it was/is fantastic. We have had vases full of them for the past six weeks. Unfortunately they are just starting to go over now…

The hanging baskets that we attached to each fence post have come on really well and add a lot of colour to the otherwise bare unpainted fencing. We hope to add more next year.

This area is our granddaughters patch. She’s not too hot at weeding at the moment but the reason for the photo is we wondered what these 4 flowers were. They were some unnamed seeds that she just put in … the second picture is a close up of the flower head and the stems are very prickly.

This is our first daliah of the year with many more to comel.

This is OH’s wild garden

These are our cucumbers growing outdoors – we have been eating the greenhouse grown ones for weeks now and these are just about to bear fruit

Our wigwam of beans has produced an absolute winner this year. We have had so many and they are still coming.
We have also eaten all of our cauliflowers and the savoy cabbage are just starting to become a decent size heart ready for eating.
Still got carrots, parsnips, beetroot & garlic to come……

We are a little dissapointed with the fruit canes but there again we dont have enough of them to make a difference. Next year we will allocate the space to veg and place the fruit canes somewhere else against a fence.
We can walk outside the back gate and pick pounds of blackberries if we want to so having a fruit section seems a little pointless.
The gooseberries and the rhubarb provided well.

These are our indoor tomatos – still producing brilliant fruit

….and these are our outdoor ones just showing some green fruit now

This is our chill out space……..

…and this is flower beds and water feature ….. in the making …. still don’t quite know how i’m going to finish it yet but should be done ready for next year.

Mr rotorvator (my son with muscles)

is coming to stay for a few days next weekend …. so …. i am hoping that we can get a bit more heavy work done ….. like clearing the area of the last photo to make room for my ambitious plans.

Hope you enjoyed my rendition so far and i will endeavour to keep you posted when we have achieved a bit more progress.

FOOTNOTE

I sometimes forget that we have only been here just 2 months over a year and keep thinking i should have more progress to show.

I also have to remember that i am only 1 year off retirement and would like to live just a litle longer in order to enjoy the fruits of my /our hard work.

• 8 Aug, 2011
• 10 likes

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