Hmm................

I enjoyed this book, she writes a good plot, again slightly different, I guessed who done it, with a twist in the middle, but not how, so a clever revel at the end, a really enjoyable book. Book 28 read this year. No crafting again I can't concentrate on anything for too long. 

This tiny bulb in my small apline dish is Weldenia Candida, I purchased it last year, whilst not expensive, it cost more than I would normally pay, I loved the blooms last spring. I hoped it would survive in my alpine dish as there is no drainage holes, just plenty of gravel, so I am overjoyed to see it again this year, it has one flower every day, which only last for just one day, last year we have 14 blooms, you can see the next bud below the flower. 

Peonies are one of my favourite flowers, so again this time of year is special, this plant came from my mum's garden, this is the 2nd garden we have planted it in, only 5 buds are going to open, I think I might need to dig around and remove some of the roots. I hope to find a yellow one this spring, I have just the perfect spot of it. 

This camellia was purchased last year, I had thought at one point the buds would fail, but it has been blooming for a couple of weeks. It's my first time of growing one, in a tub as our soil is not right conditions, whilst it's flowering it's near the front of the garden, later I will pop it to the back. 

I deleted my extra comments of the last post, as from Thursday hubby was unwell and got worse each day, Monday we called 111 and the doctor made an appointment at our local A&E, he was seen at the time given and taken straight to a cubical, he was suffering extreme diarrhoea, loads of test were done, his kidneys were playing up, so they kept him in. They have stabilized his kidneys, and on Wednesday we got the results, he had Campobylactor food poising, the infections doctor came to speak to him when I was visiting, hubby knew about the bug he had, as it was part of the H&S food handling courses he ran for years, the doctor was impressed, it was his first time of finding someone who under stood the bug. We think we know where it came from, we had lunch out last week on Tuesday, hubby had a cold chicken sandwich. 

I got an secondary infection, so I too have been unwell, we both have lost days, mine has started to clear up, and hubby is looking much better, he had been in isolation the whole time, his room does have a window, so it's not to bad. The hardest part was coming home to an empty house, something I have not done for 45 years, having said that I was still feeling unwell, so I went straight to bed. 

Yesterday was a long day, hubby was told they would allow him home, that was before lunch, his antibiotics arrived mid afternoon, so it was a case of waiting. I visited in hope I could drive him home, but just before 6pm there were no signs of any consent for him to leave, so I drove home. Luckily we live just 20mins drive from hospital, I sat at home waiting to hear from him, he came home later last evening.

The garden is not being touched, I did manage to water the veg and greenhouse once, and netted my pea shoots as the pigeons were eating them, I might have to sow some more. I'm having a social media break this weekend, we are doing nothing, loads of rest in the sunshine.

This year so far has not been nice to us, we are hoping things turn for the better very quickly. 

Veg post

 My broad beans pods are filling out, soon we will get our first harvest, much earlier as these were planted late last year. I have nipped the tops off, as I want all the energy going into turning the numerous flowers into pods. I have some blackfly, but I won't do much about it, I am organic so I don't spray, maybe Northsider , Dave can give me a few tips. 

My second raised bed is going well, the runner beans are now at the top of the willow fence, my broccoli is looking strong, and I have both beetroot and parsnip seedlings showing, I have some marigolds I want to pop in this bed, to attract the bugs away from my veg. There are a few potato plants which I did not plant, left over from my Christmas crop. 

The last minute peas are now doing well, they are all looking strong, as are my potatoes in their bags, I am really hopefully to have some small but tasty harvest from this new section. The potato bag in the front will need another earth up, and then it's a case of watch and hope. 

The last place outside is this raise bed, now my salad bed, lettuce are doing well along the middle, these were purchased as plug plants, there are a mixed salad leaf and a baby salad leaf in the front, both grown from seed. At the back radishes and spring onions are showing, we have had our first harvest of these lettuce, just cutting the leaves and allowing the plants to grow. 

My carrots in both buckets are doing well, these are still in my greenhouse, along with the horseradish root I planted, I've used an old chicken poo pellet container. I have also got tomato plants and cucumber plants, they are all doing well, as is the numerous herb seedlings. My greenhouse is in full production at this time of year.

Saturday more flowering plants found their way into the ground, mainly in the old herb bed, I now have pots for seedings, again flowers, should be full of colour this year.

This week

 It's been a week of getting by, we had George on Thursday, which was wonderful, except, he has Downs Syndrome and does not like change, therefore he searched the whole house looking for Grace, daughter was worried, but I found it helpful, in a strange way. He will do the same for the next few visits, Molly was at nursery.

I have spent loads of time on my computer, I have finished my 2022 book, it is ready for printing, I have started on 2023, it is time consuming but fun, a great way to look back on my simple life. If you want to know more, click on My books on my side bar. 

I have struggled with this book, I know it's me, I'm not in the mood to read, but I need to do anything rather than sit here and feel sorry for myself. It's a good plot, old friends on a wedding week break, what could go wrong. Well loads, it was a huge book, 564 pages, Book 27 read this year.

Today is special, 40 years ago hubby and I became a couple, he moved in with us, (me and two young daughters) and started our lovely journey together, our 40th wedding anniversary is in a couple of years, we had to save to afford to tie the knot. We are not doing much, it's a normal day, laundry is on the line, it's sunny and no rain due, I will be outside, I don't have much to do, but will spend all day outside. 

I am wearing sandals and long shorts, I am fed up of being wrapped up, I will need to change later as it cools down, but for today I can hope May is giving us some nice weather. I did not realise until last night it's a bank holiday here, which makes no difference to us, we never go anywhere at the weekends, preferring to go out in the week, when places are not so busy. 

Flowers

 I have planted loads in this bed, 2 lupins, a white aster, hollyhock, foxglove, delphinium, scabiosa and a penstemon, most purchased as nice sized plants, I moved my red rose from this bed, it was not thriving. This is a deep bed, so with all these new plants I am hoping for a busy tall back section, I have calendula for the middle section and bedding plants for the front. I planted a big daisy last year and I'm hoping it will grow again this year. I also got a saxifraga with tiny white flowers, but I cut the plant in half, they are in my greenhouse for now. 

I put the red rose in the middle of my new back flower bed, I can see already it is growing, I dug out a lavender and a hellebore which I have not planted, it's small, I don't need it so I will pass it to my sister along with a pieris, which I had in a pot. I have ordered 10 small plug plants, Erigeron karvinskianus Profusion, or Fleabane, which have tiny pale daisy like flowers, I want them along the front of this bed, should fill the space and look good, they also self-seed and return each year. 

I finally spent my gift card from my last birthday, so more plants for the garden, some seeds and lettuce plants, my lettuce seedlings are still a bit small. We went to 2 local garden centres, I had £40 for one and £10 at another.

I'm going to try and grow horseradish, I got a couple of roots, only hubby eats it, so I don't need much, but I do need a cheap bucket to grow it in, like mint if put in the ground it spreads. We also go a couple packs of half price gladiolas, hubby will plant in his front garden, he loves the tall blooms.

I am moving away from loads of bedding plants which need to be replace twice a year, summer and winter, perennials and shrubs are more widespread in my garden, I often get them early in the season and grow them on to a great size before planting out. Bedding plants will always fill gaps and add colour, but not so many, I'm looking for less work in my flower beds. 

Plants in the greenhouse are starting to move out, I still have seedlings and tender plants in there, I have planted most of the small plants I grew on, purchased from the village pet shop. I have one cucumber plant ready to go outside, I will wait a couple more weeks, the other plant is not dong well, I will sow a few more seeds. My 3rd tomato plant is growing, I thought I had lost it, but with a bit of care, it's surviving. 

Thank you for all your kind comments, I am keeping busy in the garden, finding things to do, hubby is so kind to me, understanding I need some time, Grace had a huge chuck of my life, she was my lap cat and it's hard to sit still, she won't be forgotten anytime soon. 

Loss

I have seen something similar made by an Instagram gardener who I follow, hubby chose the sempervivums, they will grow and fill this pot, as soon as the rain stops I will pop it on our green metal table, I am reusing this pot I've had for years. 

Monday and Tuesday were bright sunny warm days, I did not enjoy much, sadly Grace's health declined over the weekend, and we took her for her final visit to the vets on Monday morning, leaving without her was heart breaking, so the house and garden feels empty. On 5th May she would have been 20 years old, earlier this year I did this happy post, knowing her health was failing. 

I am missing my pretty warm lap cat, daytimes are not to bad, but evenings are sad, she always curled up on my lap for most of the evening.

We took Purdy to the vets in March, so now we have an empty home, I have decided not to look for another cat yet, we have a few trips planned and we should look at having our oak wooden floors re-varnished. 

Using John Greys words, both our girls heard my voice and my smell as they drifted off, I was cheered when I read his words after losing Purdy and they were again in my head with Grace. 

April roundup

 Another expensive month, hubby found the ready made willow woven panels for the veg beds at a great price, they were not needed, a complete luxury, plus more house plants and plants for flower bed. I have promised hubby I will cut back on my spending for the garden, the past few months have been expensive, with soil, bulbs, seeds and structural bits, our garden does look good. Nothing on crafting, it's outside garden time mostly here. I have not added the new garden table on my spending as hubby purchased it, I would have kept our old table longer.

I have spent on clothes, I got 2 T shirts from M&S, some pants, and a fleece, which I had been looking for and was on sale, I don't often see a fleece without a hood which I do not like. 

We also had the cost of the final vet bill for Grace.

My composter is full again, using our kitchen waste which is raw veg peeling, without onion or peppers, adding teabags, ground coffee, and more garden waste, we again only purchase what food we need, and ensure we use it, we don't often find out of date items, we have a good system in fridge and pantry.

My weight is back up, fat certainly clings as I get older, my steps are better and without all the chocolate from Easter life is settling down, sadly few walks as again the weather is unkind.

Strange.....

 I have been shopping, from a good supplier, Coastal Succulents, Cacti and Alpines, based in Somerset, they are not the cheapest, but they do have some very different plants. I am hoping betty's new hair will grow and look as good as the advertised photo, it has already grown loads. The string of pearls worked but it was time for a change.

I also got a praying hands, back left hand corner, I have changed this trio of pots about, the living stones were not happy, so they are in a pot in the greenhouse, the Haworthia Cooperi I have put into the right hand pot in front, I think it will be better on it's own, it's a baby off the original plant which is now huge and in the greenhouse, three of these plants were purchased in March 2021, so I am happy they are growing so well, these stay on my desk.

We all love a free plant, this one Mangave 'snow leopard' was in my parcel, I've planted it and popped it in the sitting room. I do like the red edges to the leaves, I've not seen this plant before so growing it will be fun, it already looks to be growing another leaf.

My pregnant onion has bumps, I can see three, hopefully babies, it's sat on my desk by our huge window, a very sunny spot. I have loads of tiny flies off this plant, a bit annoying, but not enough for me to move the plant.

I got a new plant for my spaceman pot, sadly I don't know what it is called as it came from the garden centre in a tiny pot with a generic label, looks good, this trio on my electric wood burner always looks good, we only ever have the lamp on in the dark evenings so it's a perfect spot for them. 

I do love the weird and wonderful when it comes to houseplants, same with my choice of pots, most of which I get off line as local garden centres are very mainstream with their plants, no pretty flowers here, spiky, weird rules for me. I have a wall of shelves in the greenhouse which has more evil ones, away from the grandchildren. 

My desk is clear of seedlings, everything is back in the greenhouse, hubby is happy, he hates the cluttered look, I don't mind for the few weeks to be able to watch them grow. Other than inside the greenhouse there is little to do in the garden, give it a few weeks and I will be busy again. 

Meanwhile

 After suffering with backache potting on my seedlings last week, I decided I needed to use my potting tray, it's been in the greenhouse for years on my bench, I moved plants around to make the space usable. I sorted my leek seedings into one per unit and had no issues with my back. It was lovely to be inside the warm space, surrounded with plants. I will need to start moving things outside soon.

My runner bean plants are doing well, they have stayed looking strong and even got a bit of growth. My beetroot seeds have sprouted, no sign of the parsnip's yet, the small pot has 2 cauliflower plants in, I'm trying something different.. Our broad beans have small pods on, they have been in the ground since last autumn, the onions growing down the middle are looking good. 

My two buckets with carrots in are both doing well, not sown at the same time, so at different stages, I have another pack of seed to sow, probably early next month, we both love small carrots. This season I have purchased better brands of seeds in hope I get the harvest I want. My bucket with peas in have shoots, I was not going to grow any as they take up room and frozen peas are so cheap to buy, I am using another spare big bucket. 

The tulips are on their last showing, the wind will finish them off, these white ones are very tall, the frilly ones in my cider jar have lovely mixed colours. I am definitely going to find more for next spring, their blooms have been a joy in the past month. Both these pots can be seen from my chair, they are positioned well. 

I don't have much to do outside, everything is up to date, my growing area is so small, it's easy to keep on top of everything. It's a case of watching everything grow, the nets are keeping the pigeons off the new plants, the only item letting me down is a yellow tomato plant, it's just stopped growing, I might just purchase a plant. Once the white tulips have finished and their leaves die back, I will dig out the bulbs and reset the pot for my big tomato plant, it should grow well in that spot, it's a sunny spot, it's in a big pot in the greenhouse for now. 

My bedding plants are all coming along well, I will soon need to plant the purchased plug plants I have grown on, my potted seedlings are filling out. I did order some plug plants offline, due to me last week from a big name supplier, I complained I had not had a delivery date and was informed, they are not ready to be sent, so why say delivery is within 5 working days of my order, I have no idea when I might see them, it's a plant I've not seen locally. 

Wednesday daughter and Molly came for a visit, we walked to our local bistro for lunch, Molly is waking most days just after 5am, daughter has tried everything to keep her in bed, she is waking both brothers, which is far to early for them, we hoped lunch out would be a nice treat for daughter. Thursday we popped to a different nursery, the owner does deliveries of compost, grit and other stuff in our area every Friday evening, so it was good to go and look at his plants, a few came home with me, great prices and good quality plants.

Home

 I got myself 4 good books to read from the local charity shop, this one was gripping, I do like her style of writing, with police officers from other books and stories, it's not part of a set, each book is a stand alone story. This was very clever and built from almost nothing until the crime along with others were solved, always with a twist or two, a brilliant final chapter. Book 25 read this year.

Another good book, very different, it's set in UK not USA, days gone by, no mobile phones, it's a chase, there are two different people after them, one they know, who is the other, the plot unwound as the days passed. A very easy read, not up to the standard of her usual plots. Book 26 read this year. I have done more knitting one front side is done, the dark yarn is not great to knit with, I've not looked at my cross stitch.

Both Molly and George do loads of interesting things at home, most of these task are for George to help with his coordination and skills, but Molly loves to play as well, learning is always so much better when it's fun. Molly is almost 3 years old, George is 5 later this year. I help mummy as much as I can, it's a hard time when your younger child is overtaking and Georges disability is showing. He is a clever little boy and with an older brother Will and Molly, he is always included and picks things up well, with their help his talking is getting much better.

It's a much better time for me, the cough is almost gone, just at night and not too bad, hubby caught it, but he has got rid of his, so we are both happier. Grace is sleeping most of the day and all night, she is only eating her wet food, over the weekend she was in the garden with us enjoying the warm sunshine, she is fading before us, not in any discomfort. Every morning I go to check on my runner beans, which are doing well, they have not faded in any way and are upright and healthy, phew, hoping here I have got away with the early planting. We are not doing much this week, the weather is again dull and cool, no plans before Friday, so a lazy ish week.

Sunday our BBQ at our neighbours turned into a drink in the garden, his coal BBQ would not stay alight, so we left before the food was ready, as always a lovely mix of people to chat to, nice music and loads of sunshine, these are the neighbour at the bottom of our garden.

Monday we had friends in for afternoon tea, they were on their way back from Cornwall, going to East Sussex, and had a break in driving with us, we have not seen them since our trip to London in December, hubby made a marmalade cake and chocolate brownies as a treat, a couple hours catching up, whilst it tried to rain outside.

Locally there are loads of happy people, Pompey, Portsmouth Football club have just won their league, and will go up to the champions league in the new season, in this area if you love football you are either red (Southampton) or blue (Portsmouth), here it's mainly blue.  

Inside out

 This past week has mainly been dry, loads of blue skies and even sunshine, but the icy cold wind has made everywhere except my greenhouse feel really cold. My pots with geraniums and begonias which I over winter inside my cool greenhouse are growing again this year, it's still far to early to pop them outside, I still have my covers on the begonias, to get them growing a bit earlier.

I have taken the plastic cover off my little greenhouse, now it's a shelving unit, it worked well through the cooler months, I have cucumber, pepper plants on top shelf, and the flowering plant I cut in half, now two plants, 2nd shelf are my calendula seedlings, 3rd shelf all the bedding plants I purchased and potted up, 

I have bedding plant seeds on top level of my staging, and salad and herbs on lower level, there are 6 cauliflower plants I am growing on, as yet I have no room to plant them, I have leeks and spare runner beans in the deep planter. I only ever use the top two levels here for plants, it gives me enough space, the rest is storage of trays and other useful items and stones and gravel underneath, this is the sunny side of my greenhouse. 

I have planted out my runner beans in my raised bed, I had sown them in deep plug trays and the roots were all coming out the bottoms, they look healthy and strong, so I have taken a chance with them. I have 5 small plants as backup, I don't think we will get any more frost here, our nights are warm, it's a couple weeks early, only time will tell. This bed has broccoli in the middle, parsnip's and beetroot either side and space at the end for 2 cucumbers. I must have left a few tiny  potatoes in the ground, I have a few sprouting, they can stay, hopefully a cheeky harvest, the whole bed has a net over to stop the pigeons. 

The cold wind kept us inside most of the week, my cough, whilst not as bad as before is irritating in the day time and keeps me and hubby awake at night, so I'm not very happy at this point. Saturday was a warm day, we were both outside most of the day, I sorted some of my seedlings, and started a few more flower seeds, I had to reconfigure my nets on my veg bed after planting the beans. My broad beans have tiny pods, I watered both veg beds, it's been a dry windy week, so they needed a good soak.

My back is still sore, I am using my potting table in the garage for storage, I purchased a builder mixing tray, which keeps all my mess together, but bending or even kneeling  does not help, it's like having a big mixing tray, and works perfectly other than an aching back. 

Today we have been invited to a neighbours BBQ, we will pop around for an hour, there are always a nice mix of people there. It will be nice to sit in a different garden, where I'm not looking at things to do.

I will do a craft, book and family post next time, at this time of year so much of my time and this blog is all about the garden and with veg beds this spring, I have more than ever too do, which is OK, because I love to garden. 

Bags, buckets and pots

 I like to use different things in our garden, this container was purchased for a flower pot, but it works better as a water bowl, the birds love to land on the pebbles for a drink, I have other places they use for bathing.

This is another lovely spot, I'm using a square washing up bowl for my water plant, the old sink is my grass bed and the birdbath is now an alpine garden, with a couple metal chickens, it's a lovely view. The triple acers behind and the red and white flowers of the azalea make it colourful.

Hosta's when in the ground are decimated by slugs and snails, these live happily in the bucket and an old brass coal bucket, I have the extra copper ring around the plant, whilst these are in leaf they need to be away from walls as snails do try every trick to get to them.

In the greenhouse I have two buckets with carrots growing, they will be popped outside soon, two compost bags full ready for tomatoes, I know one has a cucumber pot resting on top for now, To the left is a BBQ bucket, re-purposed for my Aloe Vera, and on the right two huge plant saucers for my sphagnum moss.  

This year I am trying harder with veg, my new raised beds are great, but as always I want to grow more, so here on the path by the greenhouse and tucked behind the raised bed is a compost bag with some sweetpeas, the grey tub has a mock orange in, both of these should fill this back corner with colour. Two bags with second early potatoes and a big pot with some peas in, which is on an old water-but stand. 

The green square bowl has a cranberry plant in it, I got it last year, not sure what I am doing, along with trying to grow peanuts (Monkey nuts), I do like to try new things. 

The weather for most of the week has been dry, just one wet day on Monday, we have seen sunshine, but a rather cold northern wind has kept me inside, alongside another horrible dry cough, so another boring post. 

I've always used different containers for growing in and decoration around the flower section of the garden, now I have my veg section my containers don't need to be pretty, just practical, I am filling any space I have, luckily hubby does not come up around the greenhouse much, he hates having to step over pots and other things. I need to leave space for my tomato plants, I have grown them before in the greenhouse, they do get far to big for the space. 

Most can be tucked away in the cooler months and give me back my space for other items, it's the best of both worlds, allowing me more growing room whilst I need it. 

Repurpose

 I have spend loads of money finishing off our new layout garden getting the veg section sorted,  normally when in the garden I do like to reuse bits, I also save stuff, just in case. I have had some small black fencing left over from around my butlers sink with my grasses in, having stored these for ages, I am now using here in the front of this rhubarb bed.

I had these bigger loops in the bed, I purchased them for the back of my now rhubarb bed 3 years ago and then used them in my tall raised bed, I then put them in the front of my rhubarb bed, but they did not look right, too tall. Sunday I used hubby's hacksaw and cut off the loops, I can now use these as cloche frames, I was going to purchase some to make a run, I already have netting or fleece, these are the perfect height to protect my seedlings and will make a nice run.

I love lights in the garden, neither of these lamps were cheap, both are years old and I've had good service from them, but the solar tops have gone, rather than purchase new lamps, I have got these smaller ones and popped them inside a very cheap way to prolong the lives of the lamps. 

I have the underside of our old outside round table as half hoops, the chains holding up the nets are from cheap hanging baskets, the baskets I cut the outer ring off and use them upside down to protect my young plants, purchased from B&Q years ago, again much cheaper than cloches.

All my raised beds were made from our decking planks, which only had been down a few years, hubby used wood from the frame to join every bit together, he even reused the screws. he made more into raised beds for our neighbours, the rest of the planks are beside my greenhouse, just in case.

My ponds were made reusing containers and pebbles I already had, sadly I did waste money on a pond liner, which did not work. I am always looking at what I have, as much as I can spend loads in the garden, I do love a bargain or a recycle and as I have said, I throw very little away. 

The one main thing I now do is when purchasing new I buy quality, for years I got cheap obelisks, which maybe lasted 2 years, this time we paid much more for ours and they are solid and will last years. I tried to save money going for a bargain, but it's not cheap over time. 

My biggest savings is to purchase off Facebook market place, I have had many bargains over the years, I prefer second hand bits to new stuff outside. I got most of my clay pots from one person who was clearing their grans greenhouse, I also love old chimneys, which I reuse as planters.

What's you best garden recycle. 

Sunshine and sandals

 Friday, Saturday and Sunday I wore sandals they were sunny warm days, I'm back in socks and shoes now the cooler weather is back, I do love having my toes out, hopefully the warm days will return soon. It was so good for my soul to sit outside listen and watch the tiny birds, slowly relaxing for more than one day.

Saturday we had a BBQ, daughter came with her 3 children, daddy was working, 1st BBQ of the year is special, and we could all sit around our new bigger table. Hubby has a new spot to cook from as we use the new garden layout, still loads of room for the children to run about. We sat outside for ages, listening to the little ones laughter, Will checked out my wildlife ponds and agreed they looked good, still waiting for frogs. 

The tulips in my cider jar are looking good, the two red ones have been blooming for days, I can't wait for the others to bloom, these were a pack of mixed colour frilly ones, planted with some tall snowdrops. The tulips have done much better than the snowdrops, this photo is taken from the back of the garden, it sits behind the railings in my veg section, but can be clearly seen from the house and our seating area.

Molly randomly asked mummy if she could ride a horse, we don't know where she got the idea from, we don't have any interaction with horses. So she had a trial on a lovely Shetland pony, she patted and brushed the pony before riding. Quickly daughter could see Molly was not enjoying herself, and when Dinky did a poo whilst she was riding, Molly was very unhappy, she does not want another go.

I have finished importing all my post for 2022 into my book, it is a lot of work, I do enjoy the process, 183 pages, I did 168 post, so a few went over 2 pages, I have checked the placing of headers, titles and dates, to ensure they are all looking right, I have also checked the spelling. Now I need to read each page and have a final check of the layout and it will be ready for printing, which won't happen until they offer a great discount, normally in November on Black Friday.

Every day I do a bit outside in our garden and say that's it for now, and the following day I find more to do, Friday I did loads outside, we had lunch outside enjoying the sunshine, Saturday was a day off, family time, they went home just after 3pm, so relaxing time for hubby and I. Sunday I did not do much outside, a short time was spent in my greenhouse, the rest of the day was on here and knitting, I have finished one side of the jacket. Monday was another day at home, we did not pop into town, back to another wet blustery day and much cooler, I did some housework in the morning and I chatted with my sister in the afternoon, we often chat on a Monday.

I have an aching back again, a mixture of gardening and playing with George and Molly, and just for a change I have another cough, which is irritating me already, I hope I can shift it quickly. We are now half way through April, how quickly this month and year is going, days seam long and leisurely, but weeks, months fly by. 

Improvement

Taken late last summer, this was the last photo before the changes made in our garden, it does look lovely, until you try to use the space. The big decking is a perfect family space other than flies and smells coming from next door, the decking is higher, the paving path is another different height, the lawn had loads of odd angles and was lower.

Photo taken last week from the same place, everywhere is the same level, the flower bed at the back of the lawn is now clearly seen from the sitting room, the veg beds behind are seen but the railings put them in a different part of the garden. The lawn is smaller as we made the paving outside the patio doors wider and made it into a rectangle. 

We have a new table, hubby saw it online at a bargain price, it goes with our original chairs and bench and can be made bigger when family arrive. I now have less pots in this area, over winter some cracked and I've not replaced them, only herbs around here and near the back door and handy for use.

Here is the plan I drew up, we did change one spot, the path along the garage we decided to run it down to the house, making the lawn not so wide and removing the corner inset in the lawn. We also paved all the way to the garage. In this plan the lawn does look much bigger, the plan is not to any true scale. 

Having spend a lot of money on the refit, plus we did loads of hard work ourselves, we were chatting, did we get what we wanted, hoped for, value for money spent. This was all done for me, hubby wanted to remove the decking and nothing more, I knew our garden was huge, and we were not using it all, I hoped for veg beds, my growing space and plenty of family space so three little ones could run around and play outside. 

Our first thoughts are we are both happy with the finished design, and the standard of work done, our landscaper made suggestions, which we took on board, after all he is the expert, he digested my plan, understood what we wanted, and created it and all on one level. I have done work before in the garden and then later changed it, no chance of that here, sitting on the patio side of the garden last summer helped us to see how we can now use all of the area. My growing area, which we can close off when the children are here, is perfect, we made the veg beds as big as we could, ensuring the paths between were not to tight, reusing everything from the decking. I am excited to be growing vegetables, I have most everything I need. One sad note as I looked through my garden purchase list, so much of my seeds and bits came from Wilko's, I am missing their shop in town, Wilko seeds are sold at The Range, but the store is not local. 

I have had comments about how tidy the garden looks, I'm outside every time I can be, even on cold days, I don't pop out when it's raining, we have a cat and she use the flower beds, Grace is getting older, so I do need to go out and clear up after her regularly. We have lots of different beds, so it is easy to tidy a bed quickly, I am always picking up leaves and bits, I adore dead heading when needed, it always leads to more blooms. Our garden is my healing place and my work in retirement.