New Year New Start

Had not realised how long it had been since i had updated the blog but will make a determined effort to update it from now on.

Big changes to the garden as its much more lived in now :) Will upload photos soon !!

Greenhouse had been producing really well had kilos of tomatos, chillis and peppers. Currently its full of seedlings and i still have a large row of carrots growing.

Aubergines did not do well but will try again as i suspect pollonation was the issue.

Now have 4 large veggie trugs all full of plants in different rates or growth.

Well after a week of having the landscapers i now have my perfect (almost) garden and not only does garage and greenhouse has power but also the pond has power :)

Cant walk on the grass for a while and there is extra slate to cover over the electrics when there plumbed in :)

Jobs outstanding

• Remove rubbish from garden that is for us to sort out.
• finish paining fence (forest oak) and Trellis needs to be painted (Autumn gold)
• There will be some lengths of wood put on the bottom of the fence (see the second photo) and this will raise the planting level against the fence and make it easier to manage.
• What you cant see in photos is the path from front of house to the garden and this has had the gravel removed and nothing put back so were going to get more blue slate and complete the job
• The other part you cant see if behind the greenhouse there is some sunken slabs this allows for maintenance and we will need to add more slate there this will hide the slabs and make the garden look uniform. 

Sewing by Candle Light

Currently the greenhouse has got no power and no lights but thats not stopping me.

Harriet came out and joined me cleaning up all the pots from the garden and then having taken receipt of a "Surprise Box" for £20 from Sutton Seeds we decided to plant out the large bag of bulbs we received and 2 massive garlic bulbs (solient white).

Everything was potted up into individual fibre pots as much as possible with the idea that they will be planted in the herb bed by the apple trees when the landscapers pull away the woodchips and before they pop down the slate.

Today we visited the Skylark Garden center and my daughter Harriet and her friend made wooden bird boxes (5 year olds and hammers are not to be recommended) but it was fun. We had a great lunch and then hit the shops. I picked up 2 lily bulbs (i think) and 10 hyacinths (pink, yellow and deep red) and 10 Tulips (non standard looking petals) and one amaryllis all for £2.50. Given how cold its getting i though best plan was to get these potted up but that was after 5 pm so i lit a candle into the potting tray and carefully planted everything up. The Amaryllis was sweating in the box it was in and starting to rot so i potted this in dry John Innis (number 2) in the hope that it would soak up some of the liquid. The bulb was still hard so fingers crossed!!

 

Hard Landscaping Part 2

Due to start in Feb

• Complete the concrete pad
• relay the slabs and repoint
• remove and relay grass with edging stones which also needs to be repoint
• dig out and install pond
• Add door to back of garage and facilitate power into the garden.
• remove woodchips on 2 beds which are now large cat litter tray and replace the hard aggregate.
• Add trellis to fence
• Add steps to patio doors and garden door so allow me to get out with ease when legs are not working well.

Hard Landscaping Part 1

Having decided for health reasons to not use beds in the ground i have now purchased 4 veg trugs and had a large concrete pad poured over the veg part of the garden.

http://www.vegtrug.com/range/medium/medium-18m-vegtrug/

I have also purchased a 8x10 rhino greenhouse (sage green) and this was fitted in first week of the new year.

Unfortunately the builder who laid the concrete did not complete the job and walked off so i am getting someone else to complete the other jobs.