Lovely house

The front is now done, hubby painted both the white and the grey, I did think the grey was a bit light, but it looks good. It looks neat and tidy, just waiting for a new trellis to arrive to be placed between the windows for the rose, which already is growing back. 

Hubby has planted loads of lavender in here, it the english type and a Ceanothus Victoria, this one is a shrub, he does loves the blue flowers, we had a small shrub in our last house. We went with the stones as as ground cover, they keep the lavender stems dry, and they stop the foxes and cats digging and hopefully next year we won't see them as these plants grow and fill this space. 

This is the 2nd corner garden which has been planted for years, not my style of planting, but I do love it, hubby loves the cedar bark, it goes well with the shades of green. This bed is raised higher and next to the pavement. 

He chose 3 new pots for the side of the house, this is in front of the dustbins with heathers in and loads of grit on top. The other 2 pots are by our main entrance (side door) with Eucalyptus in, not my style of pot, but he loves them. The side of the house has not been painted yet, it's just too wet. 

Another plant I would not choose, Hydrangea, in the far corner, this is a smaller variety, and quite new, so it does have some growing to do. Last year we cut the dead heads off and then read you should leave them until the following spring, luckily the winter was not too harsh and it survived.  

 Our neighbours have given some lovely comments regarding the new look to the front of our house, we are both pleased with it, most of our conversations are on how we left it for so long. We have had the defusing blinds up since we moved it, the big window is our office space, the smaller window is the spare bedroom, I'm not keen on curtains and love the neat lines the blinds give us, I do have curtains but only in our 2 bedrooms. 

I am having a huge sort out at the bottom of the back garden, moving things out and making space for my composer, it's strange how you live with things for years and only once you decide to make changes can you see the improvements. 

Tidy house

 Under the smaller window the work is done, under the big window it's ready to render, he worked hard to ensure all the loose stuff was removed and the wall was sealed, the green stuff will help the render stay on the wall whilst wet. 

The front is now finished, it just needs to dry, ready for painting, the finish is excellent, not a mark or ridge anywhere. We will now purchase the paint, we are going light grey on the new render, the rest will stay white. We can now move the pots back and 🤞🤞watch hubby's rose regrow.

 Hubby decided to dig out the small corner garden and replant, the box hedge had blight, it's a nice size, and as he gardens very differently than me, I can't wait to see what he plants, this area has not been changed for years. 

Side of the house outside our gates is almost dry, we keep our dustbins here along with the bottle recycling box and some plants, I have new pots for our plants. Once swept and everything back in place it should look good, I already have new growth on the clematis we cut back. 

These are my neighbours bricks, aren't they lovely, can you now understand how much I wanted to see them on our house, sadly she has decided to have her bricks covered the same as ours, at least I won't be jealous each time I see her house once these are covered.  

We are in no hurry to get all the outside painting done, hubby is redoing the downstairs bathroom, refreshing all paintwork and then in July we are having a new floor laid, the slate tiles have cracked and needs replacing. Hubby does like to keep busy, he is worse than me for being bored, I am hoping I can help, he is such a perfectionist, I think he will want to do it himself. 

We have new plant pots for the side of the house, the 2 eucalyptus plant pots have holes in the bottom and when we moved them the roots were poking out, so we got plastic pots (much lighter), no holes so the vigorous growth can't excape, hubby got a matching pot for his Heather's. Again not my choice, but it's his area, and as I have said before it's nice to have something different. 

Ugly house

I have always thought the front of our home is ugly, I don't much like the yellow stones, and neither of us like the brown paint on the bricks, we do need to keep parking spaces for 2 cars, so the stones will stay, but we have tried many times to see if we can get the paint removed from the hand made local bricks underneath. 

This is hubby's garden, he get to choose what is grown here, this year he has removed the shrubs from these pots and popped in flowers, the shrubs each year have died in these pots. Both pots are special they belonged to our lovely neighbour Win and sat outside her front door, her nephew gifted them to me.

We have finally decided how we can be rid of the horrible brown paint, but these 3 plants are in the way, after discussion it is decided we will cut them all right back, they all should regrow without any issues. We also need to move the 2 smaller water butts at the side of the house, just until the work is done, hubby will decide what plants stay in the front and what he wants to change. 

Our house has lots of 'new' additions, extension at the back and a bedroom in the attic space, none of them show at the front of the house, which makes the front of the house original as it was built in the 1930's, making it over 90 years old. I would love to see the bricks again, but to remove the paint would be a hard task and would damage the bricks, therefore taking away the beauty of them. So sadly we have decided to have the house rendered, most of the loose stuff will be removed and the rest covered up, the house will look neat, but never to see the original bricks. It's taken us 11 years to make this decision, we always hoped we could find a solution, but everyone we have spoken too has said the same, and we don't want to damage the bricks. 

Other houses in our street with the same design have all different looks, the ones I love the most are the houses where their front garden is  traditional with flowers and a lawn, it does soften the look, if you are thinking why buy an ugly house, the back and inside the house is perfect for our way of living, I never expected it to take so long to sort the front. 

Flowers in the rain.

This hydrangea is in the corner of our front garden, by the house, this is hubby's area, he planted this 3 years ago, and it's taken it's time, but here are the 1st real flowers, it's tiny and will never get too  big. It's not a plant I would have in the back garden, but it's lovely. 

This Clematis was dug out of the ground over 10 years ago, before we moved in, Win next door moved it in her garden, but it decided it liked being here next to our front door, so the bit left grew and we love it. 

I have 3 pots all identical along the drive at the side of our house, they are starting to bloom. The Lobelia at the back has blue flowers to add colour. 

This raised bed was new last year, it's in the shade most of the day and therefore behind the rest of our back garden, I love Aquilegia, I did have a 2nd plant, but it choose not to grow this year. The summer plants are beginning to show, soon it will be full of colour. 

I got 2 plants locally 50p each, last year in a local garage/garden sale, Salvia hot lips, they are growing well, I have taken 4 soft wood cutting from them, I have a 2nd rose bush on the other side of my Peony and would like to plant hot lips around it to match. I only need 2 plants, but any extra which grow can be popped elsewhere.

This plant is years old and has been in this chimney all through our winter, we moved the pot when the fence behind was replaced, and now it has little soil. I will take cuttings soon to grow new plants and late summer we will move it to another pot and give it better soil. 

I love this area, English Lavender is my favorite, again I have soft wood cuttings, I would like more of these plants in this bed, I love the way it tumbles forward. The love in the mist growing through it just adds to my joy. Behind is a hedge full of flowers and later in the year berries, the bees love this area.

This pot hangs above the Lavender, I popped a spare Lobelia plant in this pot last year, it decided it wanted to grow again this year. In the pot below are Begonia's, which stay in the pot all year. 

I've been told off, I don't use these much, they sit in a drawer in my shed, the pair on the left was new last year, hubby was looking for my topiary snips to trim plants in front garden, he's going to clean these and oil them, my pair I use all the time, are in the greenhouse and are clean, I always clean them after use, as I do with all my tools.  

I thought it would be nice to show the flowers with the wet stuff on them, it did not rain as much I hoped in the early morning, later it rained enough for the garden to be watered well, but not enough to fill the water butts. We have found a place where we can add another (our 3rd) small water butt, our springs and summers are now having longer spells of dry hot weather and often our stored water is really low, we hope the extra storage will be enough to see me through the dry spells. It should be delivered next week, another small task for hubby and I to get done. 

It's the time of year where I watch to see what plants return to flower in my garden, it's a time of joy and planning, there is always an empty space, I am trying with most of the plot to have less bedding plants, which has to be purchased each year. With more established plants I am hoping they will require less watering, I will always grow bedding plants to fill gaps, I just find it easier as I cut their numbers back. 

I have been busy with softwood cuttings, I hope they work so I can fill some gaps, and with the lavender fill the front of a small bed in which very little will grow, it's solid clay and in this bed, nothing I do seems to improve the soil, so far everything I have added has washed away. My hope is next year I have a garden full of colour with less gaps to fill, when I purchase a plant I try and choose carefully, I have lost so many plants to our clay soil or pest eating them.

Today is dull, after more rain overnight, but like most gardeners I'm happy to have a few wet days, plus the smells and flies from next door almost disappear, making us able to open windows and patio doors.  

Are you singing The Move, Flowers in the rain, I am, it's a great tune. 

Relaxing

I enjoyed Never Greener, it's a good 1st book by Ruth Jones (Nessa in Gavin and Stacey)

Believe me by JP Delaney, was a bit of a struggle to start with, just the style of writing, but I kept with it and enjoyed the story.

My stitching is out again, 

I am still loving this, so simple and so effective. 

 Well over half way through, closer to the end line. 

I love this view so neat. 

I got some different (for me) bulbs to plant, these were from our local posh garden center. I also got a few packets of flower seeds for next summer. These were added to my stash list. 

 It's our anniversary soon and we were gifted some money, so we spent it on the garden, I already have another lamp like this, so I already love this one. Will loved the owl, and was cuddling it, so it came home with us, and hubby liked the bird feeder, we are having huge problems with squirrels. These items have not been added to my stash list. 

We had a lovely trip to the garden center, after visiting their house, mummy and Will came with us, we stopped for a cream tea each and found time to play in the kiddies area. I did look at the plants, I have 2 pots by our side door (main entrance) which I would like matching plants which have interest all through the year.
The sale was not that great, most of the items I was looking for was still at full price, not a price I want to pay. We spent afternoon relaxing at home, I did some sewing.
Thursday we had to pop to garage in town for tyre checks, we were sent away in May, being told our tyres would stay legal and good until September, we are on a trip to Wales soon, so it was time to get them changed, but again we were told come back early next year. We walked around town for about an hour, popping into Robert Dyas and Wilko's, again checking their sales, there is nothing I need, but it does not stop me looking, and nothing purchased.
This morning I have ironing to do, not too much, but I'm happiest when it done, a bit of housework and then another relaxing afternoon.
It's much cooler now, normally in early September it's very warm and sunny here along the south coast. I have started wearing light jumpers, and slippers at night, we are using lights insdie most evenings.
Autumn is early this year, I am looking at my tender plants and planning their move back in my greenhouse, I am leaving my summer plants in the ground to allow them to form seed heads for the birds and wildlife, I did this last year and loved the look in my garden.

Saturday at home

My 3rd dish made up this weekend

they were purchased for the stand

 Two new dishes on my lovely stand

the middle one will be changed soon. 

 Top shelf of my staging looking good

 Hubby choose and planted his front garden

 I have read cats don't like pine, part of the reason for these plants.

Just need bark to cover the soil. 

He did not want flowers here

I am sure in a previous post I said the garden was finished, so how did we spend 4 hours outside today.  I have moved one tomato plant out of my green house, I now have room to move about. The cucumbers are doing well, I have picked off a couple fruits, I had loads at the bottom of the plant all the same size. The tomatoes are doing well loads of fruit. I dug out the last two potato plants and we have a dish of new potatoes, they are a nice small size, which we prefer, I should have left them a bit longer, but I wanted the space in the raised garden.
This morning we had to rescue loads of worms, which were making a break from their new home, we need to check them each day until they have sorted themselves out, should be OK after a couple of weeks. I also woke up our lovely hedgehog, it's still hiding by my shed, once I noticed it I came away from him, I would not want to scare him, we love seeing hedgehogs in our garden.

I did get a pedicure and a manicure done this morning, it's like walking on air, as for the manicure as you can imagine after all the gardening my hands as as messy as normal. Now it's time to relax, read a book and enjoy another evening with hubby.