Hubbies help!

A beautiful Sunday of the bank holiday weekend, so what do I do? Rope hubby in to helping with the planting of the jungle.

So what did I do?  Give instructions on how to do it......

How difficult can it be to follow instructions,
a) dig a hole for the plant,
b) no it has to be bigger than the plant pot,
c) loosen the soil at the bottom of the hole, so the roots can grow away,
d) put in chicken pellets, plant then water thoroughly, then back fill.

Apparently I was getting angry with him?  So I apologised and said it was, to me, a simple job, as I knew what to do and how to do it and where to tread!!!!

The majority of plants are in. The bananas are not as far advanced as usual, but I expect they will catch up. I have also bought a lot of my 'filler' plants as I either didn't get round to sowing them or they didn't come up!!

We are due a massive thunder storm this afternoon according to the weather forecast, which was one of the reasons I wanted to get stuff in!

We had a poke around in the side bed, removing the forget me nots

This bed is so bad, I say it every year, it needs the whole lot dug out, manure added then re planted.

Maybe I will get round to it later this year.

I have started to work on the end part of this bed.

A work in progress

I usually have quite a few Ricinus Plants at this time of year which I sow from seed every year. They are a big favourite of mine. They have the most amazing leaves and can reach a cracking height. Last year was the best year ever...

This is where I blogged about it!

This year I sowed the seeds as usual, about 12, four different varieties and 3!!! yes just 3 came up! Disastrous. These are a main stay of my planting. I have tried to buy some but no one is selling. Normally you can find loads on Ebay, all I can find are seeds.

So today I sowed some more,

if they come up they will be late, but its amazing how quickly some plants catch up. We will see.

Something I don't believe I have blogged about before, well not with photos, are my Paulownia tomentosa or foxglove tree at this time of year. I have shown you the great heights they reach by the end of the season, but at the beginning of the year they look totally different.

You can see the buds growing on the trunk. Basically you pick one, obviously neither of these would do as they are both growing in towards an old trunk so they get rubbed off.

This one was chosen as it was growing away from the fence.

The same for this one. This is on the patio and grows amazingly quickly.

Whereas this is down by the pond, where it is definitely cooler so slower to get going. I will keep you posted on these as they grow.

Meanwhile whilst there is a hive of activity in all the gardens around us

some just like to 'chillax'!!!

Jet Washing Everything!

When your down and need to keep busy on a sunny day what do you do???

Get the jet wash out.

It always needs doing at this time of year. I forgot to take before photos but I can assure you this is now sparkling compared to how it started.

It takes a fair but of time to do all of this, not something you can whizz over as you would leave marks all over otherwise.

The main patio is the worst and all the gunk and mud always ends up in the gravel just at the end of the patio and looks a right mess. So once its all dried out (hopefully this weekend, as the weather looks good) I shall dig all this gravel and mud out, put it in a riddle and wash the mud away on the flower beds. Probably find I won't have enough gravel after lol!

All the way down the path

Even did the decking in front of hubbies office.  Once this has dried I'm going to try some 'non skid' decking paint, as this is lethal in the winter, better than any ice rink.

I still need to do the other side of the pond and

the furniture. But this took me over 3 hours to do. I think the neighbours where quite pleased when I stopped.

I still have most of the furniture to do, although we where told when we bought it, that it would not need jet washing or oiling!!

I intend to do both this year, as you can see from the table what a great improvement it is when its been cleaned!

Darcy likes it too especially if he is in the sun!!

Dog Walk No 2!

Having had such an amazing brithday weekend, today I finds myself alone with my four legged friend.

Another glorious day, so I decided a walk along the canal in Devizes was in order. This is a big circular route, but I only decided to take pics from half way round!!! I apologise if the photos are not good quality they where taken with my phone.

Darcy raring to go. If dared to have a pair of rollerskates, we would do the walk in half the time, although stopping and taking short cuts through hedges may be problamatic.

The first part of the walk involves crossing some large fields, then along a tree lined path before coming to the canal.

It is a favourite walk of mine especially during the week when it is so much quieter.

I love seeing it during its different seasons.

The old bridges

Then there are some houses with gardens that back onto the canal you I'm sure could imagine all my jungle plants panted on these tiers!

I am really not sure what is going on here, they have chopped down a load of trees, but the way they have them stack is, I think rather dangerous, quite worried that some unsuspecting canal boater might end up underneath these!

To the last and newest bridge

Passing a 'shoe tree' (some people are bizarre)before travelling home.

Then once home, I did a 'first' of the year and hung some washing out!!

It is gloriously sunny and windy too, so should be dry in next to no time!

A Tough Week

We found out this week that the lovely Mr Darcy, has a slipped disc in his neck. He is very, very fortunate that it has not paralised him. The vet believes it has happened over a long period of time, hence he is still as 'bouncy' as he is.
But, and there is always a 'but' we have to try and stop him bouncing, jumping etc. He has to be lifted up and down, and only taken on short walks. Mainly because he still slows a lot on his walks. The vet thinks it is something else, I am not convinced. We will see in 3 weeks!

How can you not love him!

Anyway out in the garden all is growing well................

but the biggest surprise has been this cactus, flowering again yesterday

this was back in June.....

Exciting!

Gardening and Ground Elder

So the sun has been shining and I have been out in the garden (of course). I have been planting, shrubs and bulbs in the flower garden. That's this part of the garden.

I have also managed to get some more sleepers which will replace the smaller bits of wood which edge the beds currently.

lots more to go in, quite excited as I'm hoping it will look super.

I now have ground elder!!!! Lived here for 28 years never had it before. When my neighbour got her fence replaced it must have set something off. I've been told the best way to get rid of it is to dig out all the plants and pick out the roots!!

To the right of the old watering can is a Sambuca Nigra, which is huge and magnificent in the summer. Mind you looking at this photo from last year I can see ground elder there!!!

We also have little visitors, its most odd, there is a track to the hole in the middle of the lawn

and a pile of soil has appeared from nowhere. I think the hole is to small for rats, but that pile of soil is too big for mice, not looking forward to digging this out!!!

I love this hellabore, it flowers for ages and ages, and ages.

and as to this lawn, well I have no words, I have to replace this every year! Maybe I will paint it green!

Crammed Greenhouse.

and of course would I be in the garden and not think of some changes!! I had mentioned that we wanted a pergola, but after getting some quotes, they are quite expensive, so has been put on hold till after our daughters wedding.
But.............
                  we can always do something that just requires muscle......   so the old gunnera is not doing as well as it used to, so I think it will come out, as you can see the new pump is quite an eyesore.

 So, I thought I might swop the pump with the waterfall and plant my new Gunnera where the old water fall used to be, I think it will have more room and will hide the pump well.

plus excitement, I was told today that 15 of the old fence panels will be being changed, so will look like a new garden.

Of course Darcy is never far away.

More next time xxx