Ta Daaaaaaaaa!

The old veg bed has gone, all of the soil has been moved, it has been dug over, weeded, the trellis moved and then re-concreted in, new beds made and turf laid!

I am now broken! Getting to old for all this heavy work. So if ever I mention doing a big job again, please tell me NO!
The view now the 3 Silver Birch and the apple tree have gone.

I am thrilled with the extended lawn, I think it opens up the garden.
Just tidying up to do now. All the top soil lined up by the office is off to my friend in the village. Loads of seeds planted and to be planted. Then its just a matter of jet washing anything that looks dirty. Weeding, chucking rubbish away, as I still have far too many plant pots. The old sleepers will make a new planter once the neighbours on the right decide to replace the old fence panels. Sorting out the veg beds. But that can all wait, as I'm off to visit mum next week.

2013 a Mild Winter!

We have had a lovely weekend working away in the garden. It was just like an Easter weekend, so lovely. Yesterday we where busily sorting out the bottom where the new lawn is going, hopefully the turf will be in later this week. Today I was doing some light work, hoeing, as the soil needed breaking up and whilst ho,ho,hoeing I found thisone of my many Xanthosoma's, now this is tender and I forgot about it, so it has been out all winter, instead of in my heated greenhouse, as you can see it is already shooting.

This is one of my hardy bananas, you can see I wrapped one up for winter but this one has been totally exposed. I had hoped it would get 'mushed' over winter as I need to reduce this crop abit, but as you can see it has come through fine and is growing away already!

The Trachy which I think I will call 'Trevor' (because I can) has had abit of a tidy up. I cannot believe how much he has grown. When I opened the garden in 2012, my giraffe, was just poking through the top, he is now dwarfed by Trevor. I cut off some fronds as there are already 5 spears pushing out. I think it likes all the rain we have had.

I just love Trevors trunk, it is so fluffy and whispy. Some people I know strip these back so they have like a shiny trunk. I am not sure I like them this way, but even if I did, I would probably not do this as it would mean climbing a ladder as the Trachy got taller to strip it, and Im not good with ladders!!

Must remember to start the Gloriosa seeds off, as I thought these looked amazing growing up Trevors trunk last year.

Did you spot the difference in my last post? My neighbour has had 2 of the Silver Birch Trees taken down. So with them and the apple tree gone, I cannot tell you the difference it has made. I think the plants will enjoy the sun. Although my shady area plants may have to be moved now!

Spot The Difference!!!

Can you see the difference, I know it will make a huge difference to us and our garden. Quite excited!

More Greenhouse time.....

We had a fantastic day in the garden on Sunday, the sun shone all day, we had morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea in the garden, plus got loads done as well, we all thoroughly enjoyed it. We have moved all the 'Box Balls' out of the veg beds as they where beginning to take up alot of space, I only need to find homes for 3 more. The lawn is no longer lawn, but moss. It will need a serious amount of work done to get it back to how it was 2 years ago!! I went down to the greenhouse today as I needed to do some pricking out, I know I am quite ahead, but I need to be, as I am now in charge of the organisation of the 'Village Open Gardens'. It seems very apparent that everyone else wants to open June and I need September. So we bow down to the majority, but I may just open September on my own as well. Anyway full cheat mode maybe put into operation and I may well start off Bananas etc in the heated Greenhouse in pots to get them going and hopefully a bit taller than they would be normally.

So on the heatmat we have Canna's, Brugmansia, some pricked out seedlings of Black Eyed Susan and Cobea Scandon Alba.

My Aeoniums seem very happy underneath the propagater. I don't do an awful lot to them over winter.

As you can see the propagater mat is full. I pricked out alot today and like to put them back on the heat mat for a little while to settle them down, then they will be place on shelving and I can start some more seeds off, it is all planned out. The problem is do I have space?? I haven't even thought about starting any veg yet! I may have to cheat a buy seedlings, not something I normally do!!!

Here I have 4 very large Brugmansia, one of my potted bananas has decided to start growing,which I may continue to encourage, the palm is quite happy. You can just see the new shelving I have put up to help take the seedlings as they begin to take over the greenhouse.

On the plus side the 4 Silver Birch in my neighbours garden are now 3, you can just make out the mound of ivy in between the remaining trees. It blew down at the end of last week.

Also a very old apple tree in the neighbours garden is very, very wobbly and has a decided lean to our garden. When we mentioned it to our neighbour she said she would chop off a few branches. We are not convinced, once in full leaf and covered in apples this may very well arrive in our garden!!!!