Getting things done

 My lovely astilbe was not doing well in the square bed, so I decided it was time to move a few plants, I dug out my red rose and put it in a pot, the astilbe I put in its place, it grew well in this bed before and will look good with all the fleabane daisies. I popped another shrub in the vacant hole in the square bed, it's got plenty of room to grow. After all the recent rain it's beginning to show signs of new growth.

 I have a composting issue, my hotbin is working, but since I have my veg beds, I have times more often when I have stuff waiting to go in. If it rains it all gets messy. I love my hotbin as it breaks everything down much quicker into compost with no smells or flies. I have ordered a second bin, expensive but useful, with all the issues with rats, it's a good option.

I've changed the small fences on my one of my raised veg bed, they are metal wrapped with plastic, they do look nice and should last longer, I really did not want to add more plastic in the garden, but prices dictated these were for me, I require 6 for each bed they do look good from our seating area. I have wrapped the bed in netting to stop our cat and others using the veg beds as a toilet. I will do the second bed in the coming days.

Apologies to anyone who has seen this post before, I published it in error on Monday, I often start a couple of post together on different subjects, I've never posted the wrong one before.

Molly helped me in the garden yesterday and was very helpful with my harvest, eating the raspberries and blueberries. I cut a cabbage and cauliflower for tea, and we dug out a potato bag, they were small as I expected, the other bag I will leave for a few more weeks, she was so happy telling me 'we are tato farmers'. I was overjoyed later to hear her tell her mum, 'did you know tatos grown in soil'.

I am working outside, doing all the messy jobs, I am in the right frame of mind to get stuck into them, keeps me from thinking too much, it's also nice to get things sorted before the coming heat wave, the recent rain has topped up all my waterbuts. My new composter is due later this week, so I will be able to place it and empty my tubs of green waste, the area behind the garage is always in shade so I can get it sorted quickly.

We recently went out to a show 'Go your own way', the music of Fleetwood Mac, at our local venue, it had been booked for ages, the first half was definitely not to our taste, focusing on Stevie Nicks, not my favourite band member, the final half focused on Christine McVie, much nicer. The night was billed as their legacy rather than a tribute band, which gave them more licence to play around with the music. 

Weekend

Molly's graduation photo, it was identical to Georges day last year, if it works best not to change it when working with young ones. Molly was almost the youngest one there, she is four this month and happy to be going to school. 

Playing in the garden on Sunday with new badminton set, huge rackets which helped them hit the shuttlecock a few more times, this was before the huge rain storm which made us all rush inside. 

Will never wants to be in photo's and I always respect his wishes, Sunday was very different, at Capel Military show with mummy and Grancha (hubby), Will is army mad and is always reading and watching items ref WW2 and the modern army, studying all the equipment used. He was very hands on through the whole show ground.

This was shown back in February wearing his 8th birthday gifts. 

Living so close to this lovely family brings joy to my heart, watching them grow and become little people is such an honour, daughter is a great mum, she allows them freedom to be themselves, they bring laughter to our home with every visit.

Molly starting school this September means we will see less of her, missing cake and drinks mornings, with a look at local shops, this past year we have seen less of George, he is still a nana's boy and will always come to me for cuddles and chatter. 

Family has always been everything to me, growing up with 8 siblings, we were all close and when anything happens we always close ranks together, it's the same with hubby's family as they go through these coming weeks. 

July already?

 I did finish The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling,  all 568 pages, what to say, the spiel on the back cover oversold it in my opinion,  1st book of hers which I didn't really enjoy. Book 47 read this year.

This is the second title by this author, I really enjoyed her first book, if was quirky and fun, very improbable and a great read. This title is as good as her first book, another improbable story which starts with 'I know I'm dead', I could not put it down, it's already been passed on to daughter. Book 48 read this year.

We had a lovely summer roast on Sunday, all the veg was home grown, with roast beef and Yorkshire puddings. It's the simple things which give me the greatest pleasure, they tasted good as well, better than any purchased veg, even the mint grown here in a pot.

The first of my zinnias have started flowering in the bags I have for cut flowers, it did feel very strange to cut all the blooms, normally I resist cutting anything from my garden, one lot of my sweet peas look as if they are going over, the second tub is now flowering. Only another small bunch, I'm so pleased to have flowers next to my inside chair. 

Just a couple of flower photos, we gave away the children's small bench which always sat by our patio doors, this pot is not new, it does look good here. The boots belonged to hubby, he wore them as part of his motorcycle gear, he was going to pass them on, I nicked them, planted them, each plant should tumble down over the boot.

Thank you for your comment about my ripped nail, I did put it in my last post a bit tongue in cheek, seams we are a group of danger gardeners, it's OK, just a bit tender at the rip point. 

Sunday afternoon we caught up with some Glastonbury, watching Lewis Capaldi and then Rod Stewart live, so pleased to see Lewis back on the stage, I was devastated to watch his breakdown last time he appeared, Rod, whist like so many is showing his age, his voice has changed, he looked tired to me, I found his set disappointing. I had hoped to watch Neil Young, but he restricted the BBC coverage, something he had done many times, I have loved his music since my brother shared his first album, back in the 70's, I had hoped when he changed his mind to appear, a deal was done to see him on TV.

Monday afternoon was spent watching the opening match at Wimbledon, which was not as I expected, neither player could hold on to their good game, it did have brilliant moments, but at times was very frustrating to watch. Tuesday was far too hot, I spend the daytime reading and watching tennis,  Djokovic annoyed me, he always does, I've never warmed to him. Wednesday we woke up to rain, enough to keep me happy, a dull grey morning. 

We had had some devastating family news, life can change so quickly.

Weeds

 Dave has been talking about weeds on his blog, Northsider, he has a lovely organic growing space, it's hard work, he grows all his veg and propagate plants to sell, it's somewhere I would love, it would be my hubby's nightmare. 

Dave asked me to show my fake grass paths around the raised beds, if you remember almost 2 years ago hubby made 2 raised beds, which we placed on our back section of our fake lawn, you can see the whole post here. After placing the beds, we cut away the grass and dug out back to the soil, 

They have been a huge success for me, I manage a small veg harvest, each bed is 200cm x 100cm, the size was decided on the space we had, taking the width of our lawn, less the width of 2 paths, roughly 2 meters, therefore making 2 x 1 meter beds.

There is never enough room, I have a raspberry bed, with my blueberries in a tub in the middle, in another bed I have a strawberry tower, with rhubarb and a gooseberry bush. I have loads of buckets and round bags, which allows more summer veg.

I am always on the lookout for weeds, with 6foot fences around our garden, they help keep weeds out, I try and grow as much as I can from self sown seeds, I have more weeds in my flower beds, I often purchase plants and weeds are arrive in those pots. I am outside every day, so as soon as I see a weed I pull it, I know birds drop seeds, I have found a couple flowering plants which I have not planted. 

With my green paths, I get very few weeds, nothing in the middle, only ever along the decking boards of the raised beds, I pull them whilst they are tiny before the roots get too huge, I don't add weeds to my compost bin, and if I purchase any compost I try and use good brands, I'm using Westlands at the moment.

We have lived here 16 years, it is a small space, easy to maintain, my different beds have been well looked after, the redesigned garden added 3 beds, 2 veg and 1 flower all at the back of our old lawn, hubby built them, I filled them with quality soil, again I'm in control.

I grew up in Somerset, one of 9 children, dad had a huge back garden all full of veg, I understand neat rows, the ability to hoe around the plants, always working to ensure everything grew well, my older brother Mel also loved the veg garden, sadly I don't have any photo's, I have asked my sister to send me copies, she has all mums photo albums, sadly she will ignore my request, I'm visiting soon, maybe she will let me look through them.

The one plant I have introduced is a creeping buttercup, only in the back fruit bed infront of the greenhouse, it was a mistake, I am pulling up runners in hope I can stop it spreading too much, I do love the tiny yellow flowers. The heat has stopped us doing much, so a bit boring here at mo. 

June round up

 Very little on craft, I have not included the cost of the tunic material to make the cushions, hubby paid for it. I have credits shown on my garden list it's for the raised bed and metal table and chairs I sold, I managed to get new hurdles for my raised veg beds and a couple low metal fence edging panels. 

I got more new clothes, 2 pair of shorts and 4 T shirts, all on sale.

My half year figures are better than expected, selling two items helped bring my spend back to where I wanted it. I have loads of nice clothes, I don't need sandals, so again I'm happy with the half year figure. 

3 Books read this month. 

We managed to turn a 'no spend month' into another expensive one, we did sell both our wooden and metal furniture sets for a decent price and we got 10% discount off the new set, it was always planed to get new, just not yet. Plus a few things inside.

We are eating small harvest, a few bits have gone into the freezer in order not to waste anything, we have been enjoying the strawberries this year, they are huge and so many of them.

My weight has settled at the lower end, still too high, I am more active and tired most evenings. 

Herbs and flower's

 More plants, both my sage and thyme have gone very woody in my huge herb pot, I have cut them back many times, now is a good time to replace them. I got another Gaura, this one pink as I love their flowers, I've never grown these before. I also got two low metal fences to replace some flimsy ones, for under the Magnolia tree.

As you can see Friday was a cloudy day, here locally at Garson's garden centre, Titchfield, which is my favourite plant place, we treated everyone (daughter and her 3 children) to a drink and cake, loads of happy faces.

Another small bunch of cut flowers from the garden, including a big daisy as well as my fleabane ones, the zinnias are starting to bloom. I am enjoying having real flowers inside, the sweet peas are in a lull, loads of buds still to come.

Anyone who has ripped their nail this low will know it hurts, I have really weak nails which I try to keep tidy, I went to turn a pot without putting on my gloves, and caught myself, lesson learnt. 

I am struggling reading The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling, I'm on page 201, at the start of part two of the book, it's really slow going, I am hoping it rises up to the spiel on the back of the cover.

Saturday was another cloudy start, no rain just grey skies, the blues skies and heat arrived, it stayed windy all day, we sat in the shade for ages. We had homemade pizza for tea with red wine and chocolate, living life to the full here, I did give the garden a good soak before we settled down to our evening.

Today hubby is making a roast dinner, from my garden we have new potatoes, broad beans and cabbage, sadly no carrots yet. I have lettuce, and salad leaves as well, my runner beans are flowering, tomatoes are really behind and my cucumber plants have died. Strawberries are almost finished, now picking blueberries and a final pull of rhubarb, the raspberries are beginning to turn red.

Today is another day at home together, depending on the heat I may get my sewing machine out, I have cushions to make for hubby. 

And home

We spent Tuesday morning walking around Saville gardens on the edge of Windsor great park, which also has loads of woodland areas, some of the gardens were past their prime, the rose garden was going over, still pretty.

Lots of lovely high hedges hiding beautiful gardens

This menace was stealing bits from plates, there were 5 of them in the outside cafe area. 

I could not resist the plant section, these are already planted after a good soak, nice strong plants at a very cheap price £17.50 for all five of these.

It was a lovely morning before driving home, we picked up a very happy Lilly, she leaped into her cat carrier, and once home did a couple tours of our garden, it does feel good to be home.

I watered my garden on Tuesday evening, I enjoyed being outside after a few hours in the car. Wednesday was a lazy day at home, I finished the book for my brother, it will be here within 2 weeks, I always use the same publisher, I like the quality of the books. 

Thursday we had a plumber here, we have a damp spot in one corner of our downstairs bathroom, which was worse last winter, it was suggested we replace the small towel radiator for a tall thin radiator, to help heat the wall, it's an internal wall, the corner is by the outside wall. Most of the day was wet and dull, not huge amounts of rain, and very windy.

Friday we got up to a wet garden, a bit more rain overnight, not so windy, we went to our favourite garden centre and met daughter and her three, George had an inset day from school and Will whilst feeling a bit better was not at school, he was sent home on Monday feeling unwell. Plants were purchased, of course, they will be in the ground soon. 

Windsor

We spent Monday afternoon and early evening in Windsor, we did not visit the castle, on our last visit we spent the day in the castle, post here. 

We decided to walk around the town enjoying the views and catching different glimpses of the castle above the rooftops. 

Loads of union jacks everywhere 

A walk along the river Thames 

The weather was very kind, not so hot and a lovely breeze, we parked the car at our hotel and took a bus into Windsor, I love how easy it is to find bus routes on my phone. It was packed with tourists, we sat people watching for ages, so many different languages, tour guides everywhere. It was much quieter along the river bank and in the huge park, a break from the noise.

Our hotel room had the air-conditioning on, so our room was nice and cool, it was noisy through the night, but that's expected when staying in a urban place. 

Sunny weekend

 I got this fuchsia as a tiny plug plant earlier in the year, it's now in a big pot. decorating our garden, I have 3 other fuchsia plants, this is the best colour I have.

My sweet peas are giving me a tiny bunch every other day, this is the first year I have had success with them, I am so pleased, they smell divine, I keep one pot next to my chair in the sitting room and the other in the down stairs bathroom.

My red rose has finally bloomed, I cut it right back in the spring in hope to get decent growth, the plant is still small, it's looking healthy.

This was Saturday, it was very hot, but lovely in the shade sat here, these pair were full of mischief and giggles. 

This was on Sunday, much cooler so they played on the lawn, here they are making music, well a din, again so happy. 

Will who is 8 was reading this book, he has read a couple of chapters to me, it's a young adults book, I asked if I could read it afterwards, a very easy book to read with a big message. 3 separate stories, which all lead to a single path, Book 46 read this year.

We made the right decision on Saturday to say at ours, it was far to hot to do much, we did spend most of the day outside in the shade, Molly and George had great fun, Will visited as well, but does not like his photo taken.

Sunday we had a BBQ, so daughter and her three came as well, we had an extra couple, daughter's so to be ex's brother was visiting from Australia with his other half, it was much cooler and cloudy, still lovely to be sitting outside, it was easier to have the BBQ at ours, everyone ate well. The children facetime their uncle often, so they were happy to see him, Grandpa and Grandma were away on holiday, so sadly not with us, again another day outside, easy chatter and laughter. 

Lilly went to stay with Jackie this morning, we are away over night in Windsor, hopefully next post I will have different photo's, life is very simple at the moment and not full of brilliant interesting post. 

Inside

I do love how this plant gives me flowers all through the year, I have recently moved it from the bathroom to the kitchen window sill, it's a compact plant and will sit better here, it is still on the same sunny wall.

Back in January Lilly had a go at this spider plant and bit off the babies, it was popped on the kitchen window sill where Lilly does not go, it's now looking good, I have moved it to a different spot in the bathroom, there is space here for any babies to hang, I can see two forming, and Lilly can't get to it. 

I found a plant for hubby's pot, it was in another pot in this spot, it works well and has plenty of root space. Shaun the sheep has lived on this shelf for years. 

The plant I moved from Betty's head is settling into it's new bigger pot, there is new growth, I have raised it so his hair can fall, it will look better once more has grown. I would like a nicer stand, if I can find one I like, I got this new plant when in Lidl's, hubby did not realise it was a house plant, hubby is not keen on too many plants around the house. I would love to pop him in our shower room upstairs, but I don't think I would get away with it, still I might try.

My 4 plants here are doing well and getting huge, I don't do much to these plants, I have only changed the soil once, I do feed a couple times a year, I have had most of these plants since 2021. The Haworthia Cooperi in the round metal pot is a baby from my original plant, the mother plant got huge so she lives in the greenhouse, this spring I have 2 lovely babies. My pregnant onion is in the greenhouse, it released loads of sap, making my desk top sticky, it seams happy in there. 

Betty is moved to the back wall of my office, I'm not happy with her fake hair, I struggle to grow hair her pot is not very big, for now she is where I can still see her. 

Another plant coming back to life is Albuca Spiralis Frizzle Sizzle, I popped both plants back into the greenhouse to rest for a while, I have two because a second bulb grew from the first, I have repotted them and watching closely for new growth and maybe flowers.

I am going to say it, it's just too hot to do much, we sit outside in the shade more, our seating is very comfortable and cool, Lilly is the same, she rest inside near our open patio door to catch any breeze, I am still saving water from the kitchen sink, Southern Water has stated we are on course for a hosepipe ban later in the summer.

Daughter took me out for lunch on Wednesday,  a very late Mothers day treat, we went to  courtyard bistro, only 15 minutes drive from us, it was lovely, great fresh food, I promised hubby we would go back next week, sadly it's just a bit too far to walk there in this heat.

Thursday we enjoyed the lovely weather in the garden, Friday hubby spent the day DIYing at daughters house, daughter and I with Molly went shopping at Dunelm and B&M, both huge stores with great air-conditioning. Today is our Gala at our castle, its always a fantastic family day, daughter will be here with her 3, we are going to miss it as its far too hot for any of us, there is almost no shade there or on the walk to and from.

Productive space

My sister gave me this peace lily years ago, I had it in a pot for a while and then planted it into this spot, I'm not keen on it, so I dug it out, it regrew, I have dug it out 4 times and again it has grown, so for this summer it can bloom, it's very close to my rose bush and I can't get all the bulbs out, they multiply like mad. 

June is a good month for blooms in the flower beds, there are still gaps which are filling out. there is always  room for improvement. The roses are in full colour, my red bush is still buds, it has never thrived in our garden, the agapanthus have loads of buds, I have them in 3 different spots around the garden. I do love all the different blooms, I don't follow gardening planting rules, it more wild here.

These fleabane daises fill the back bed,

 I just adore them.

The veg beds and bags are doing well, I emptied my first bag of potatoes, which was mixed, they tasted great but just not enough of a harvest, I picked loads of broad beans and strawberries, sadly no carrots ready yet, my runner beans are setting their first flowers, I have tomatoes forming on 2 plants. 

My shallots are in two bags, the space I was going to use in raised bed is not yet empty, I have also planted one of my butternut squash plants, I moved the cucumbers out of the big pot, they were struggling. Everywhere has something growing filling all my space.

Lilly loves to hide, she is very happy under the raspberries, often at the back where she can't be seen, she is also very noisy and will often peek out when I am near.

Sunday I was home alone, hubby was out at a petanque tournament, his team lost in the semi final, it kept clouding over, so was not great to be outside, when the sun shone it was a bit too hot, the wind had dropped. I did sell my metal table and chairs, the lady was very happy with it which pleased me, I've had it for over 10 years, the far side of the garden does not looked cluttered anymore, I was sad to see it go, I have no where for my spring pots. 

Monday we took the bus to town, I had returns to give in at Next, we had a wander around, nothing much caught my eye, it's nice to be somewhere different. Tuesday was a day at home, not much to do, sat in the shade, restful garden time, enjoying the sunny weather.

Thank you for all your kind comments about the garden space, we have lived here for over 16 years, and most days we are outside, in the warmer months we are outside for most of the day. It is a small space with loads of different beds, all have edging to help keep it tidy, I regularly have a pair of snips in my hand, just 30 minutes each day can keep every thing looking tidy. Since the arrival of the new furniture we are sitting out much later in the evenings, I often now read, the seats are very comfortable.