Biomass Finished

What a relief it is to have the house to ourselves again. Not that we haven't had a few teething problems with the boiler. Its so nice to make a cup of tea for 2, not 10. The milk doesn't go down so quickly and neither does the sugar lol! I shall write more about the Biomass boiler once it has been running awhile, in the meantime I have been able to get into the garden without nearly killing myself. The jungle is looking good and hasn't suffered too much damage

I have semi planted up the tree ferns

I bought a new passion flower

Sadly this photo does not do it justice, its the most beautiful pink.

I moved this passion flower as my neighbour kept cutting it off, sadly it hasn't flowered this year. But it will look like this when it flowers next year.

Thalia dealbata in the pond

My Bouganvillia, think I may need a new camera as they have all come out the same colour and they are very definitely not.

This one should be a little darker and has variegated leaves-

this is red

.
and this has a purple hue to it.

Have a good week.

Patio Finished.

All finished here, just waiting for the boiler to be commissioned today.

I love the clean lines looks so lovely and uncluttered. But I know I will fill it with plants very soon.

This is where the water butt goes. The bed next to it will be planted with ????????? I quite fancy putting a bamboo in here, but I am scared in case I pick the wrong one and it runs and wrecks our new patio. I am taking advice.

The hopper shed. Totally insulated, including doors to keep the pellets dry. The hopper was ordered 3 weeks ago from, Ireland. I think its coming by rowboat!

Jungle bed.

This is where I had a trough of bamboo, but I'm thinking, my living wall may look qite good and not take up so much room.

Off to get dressed before the builders turn up.

Bio-mess

Running out of time now. The builder has to go by the end of the week and having been held up left, right and centre. So we are prioritizing what needs to be done and what can wait a bit.
Hubby spent Saturday removing the fake bricks from where the flue had been.

Today has been one of those days when something has gone wrong for everyone. The builder wasn't able to get all the slabs he wanted from one supplier, so had to go to one he doesn't like. He ordered them last Friday for delivery this morning and they arrived at 4pm!!

As you can see the slabs he had, have gone a long way to finishing everything off. Looking good!

The electrician arrived to connect all the electrics (obviously) then our trip switch blew, it took me, hubby and the electrician about 2 hours to find what the problem was, before he could carry on. We have a 'dicky' switch which will need sorting. We have problems like this all the time, something to do with living in an old house.

The Biomass boiler hidden by the new shed, which will house the hopper when it arrives from Ireland, this was ordered 3 weeks ago and I think is coming by rowboat!

The holes all filled in the wall, with any luck this should be plastered by the end of the week. Then I can paint it. The boxing in of the pipes and the sun tube will be done at a later date.

So it is all slowly coming together, I will be glad to get the house back and give it a good clean, it is covered in dust and everything seems gritty!

Meanwhile the jungle is growing well!

Garden + Biomass 6

I know I shouldn't be, but I am bored with all the chaos this is causing now. I want to 'play' in the garden but its either too crowded or too hot.

Anyway, my friend and I went out for one of our summer holiday 'jollies' yesterday. She is a teacher and during the summer we go out to various garden centres, craft places etc. We have a few favourites which include craft and garden together. We have both been rather busy, so yesterday was our first outing and we found a new place, just outside Bradford-on-Avon. Westdale Nurseries which grows Bougainvillea and reguarly shows at Chelsea. There reception was covered in awards. How I never knew about them I have no idea, but I do now. There was also a lovely teashop, old furniture shop and a really lovely small garden centre which grew some of my type of plants.

At Westdale they had some amazing plants from small to huge. I already have some which I have successfully grown over the past  few years. So I chose this one as I love the variegated foliage.

After a rest and a drink and some Lemon Cake we went to the nursery, and the plants where gorgeous, I noticed some Datura that had a Brugmansia label on them. When I pointed this out to the owner, he raised his eyebrow and agreed they where Datura and asked how I knew the difference...... so I told him lol!!!

We had a lovely time and I spotted some very large Aloe underneath a display table, so I asked how much? they had very obviously been there a long time as there where quite a few really large ones £5
I chose this one as I loved the trailing succulent that covered the pot.

This morning I noticed my Gloriosa has flowered, I am thrilled as it has been out in the garden for awhile now.

Its now growing up the trachycarpus and looks rather good i think.

Meanwhile back with the Biomass, getting the boiler round via my neighbours proved to be a challenge

This is the new, insulated store that will hold the hopper and bags of pellets. Which hopefully will be disguised by the plants we plan to plant in the planter next to it.

A proper brick support for our waterbutt and an add on planter beside it.

The work continues.......