Potty gardener

I love my pots, I am always showing them on here, I even did a post about them back in 2018, seen here, I did say I would cut back on the number of pots I have, and promised hubby I would not litter the new decking with pots, Well.............

Decking is clear only 3 pots, 2 along the fence are placed for the lemon smells near our table, and Kirk sits under the other table. Both tables have a flowering plant pot and there is a pot in the corner with yew in, but that's on the ground not on the decking. The chicken pot above is on the shelf along by our neighbours fence, seen here.

So how many pots do I have? 

Hubby will say too many, but I do love growing in pots, there are 2 pots in the front garden but these are hubby's so I'm not adding them into my count. 

• 6 pots along the side of the house, 3 oblong matching planted with flowers, 2 planted with eucalyptus by front door and 1 planted with shrubs by dustbins. 
• 9 pots at house end of garden, 3 on decking, 1 in corner next to house, 2 planted with Olives, 2 planted with flowers on table, and my chicken, which was a watering can. 
• 19 in middle lawn area, 4 pots have fruit bushes in, 5 pots have plants grown from my seeds and pips, 2 have herbs in, 8 planted with flowers.
• 4 chimney pots, 3 are planted with flowers. 
• 22 in back section, 1 planted with Acer, 3 planted with Hosta's, 8 planted with spring bulbs and flowers, 3 planted with mixed plants, 1 succulent tower (3 pots high), 2 planted with saplings, the last 2 big pots are empty, but I would like more fruit in these. 

I am not counting in my greenhouse, almost everything in there is in a clay pot or a pretty kitchen pot, that's a lot of pots, most of them are not too big,  but I do have loads of time on my hands, to care for them. The back section up by my greenhouse is often a holding spot, the spring pots stay here most of the year and are popped closer to the house when they start to grow. 

I do love the bright blue glazed pots and have a few around the garden, most of the outside pots are much bigger, they have their permanent place and add height to my tiny spaces. All my other pots are years old, they are not plastic, I do like natural pots, I do have one hosta in a copper coal bucket, which helps stop the slugs. 

The fruits, Olive's and the pots on the decking are all plastic, all these pots are huge, so I use the lighter plastic, I don't move them often they are all heavy. The large Olive pot has a water system in it's base and also has wheels, we would not be able to move it, in winter we can wrap it and pop in down the side of the garage to keep it out of the wind. 

My pips and seed plants and the smaller Olive will later in the year go back inside my greenhouse, I have planned space for them inside. All flowering pots get 2 planting per year summer and winter, the rest stay in place all through the year. 

I do love my pots, I have a trio of Acer plants due, and guess what no pot to plant them in, oh well better start looking.

Lastly for honesty, I have 16 plants in pots inside the house, some are tiny pots with nasties in the bathroom, up to a big pot with my coffee plants in in the sitting room. 

Keeping busy

I can taste the finish on this blanket, it helps most evenings feel much cooler, so having this on my lap gives me pleasure in more ways than one. It is now the length I require, so each row is one square shorter, so it's getting quicker to do each colour.

The top is my start line, this will be a my lap end, the section I am working on will be the bottom, I wanted the colours to match on both ends. I am going to edge this blanket, something I have never done, so a session on you-tube is needed to ensure I get it right, I have a different shade for the edging. 

Joy my yarn came, much quicker than I expected, this is for the summer top shown here, then disappointment as I ordered 4 balls of this yarn and only 3 were in the parcel, I have emailed the company, but their automated reply was bear with us, we are extra busy and down on staff, but we will get to you. So I can't start my knitting because at this moment I don't have enough yarn. 

But don't you love the shades, it looks and feels like summer, and  it's a bit thicker than my Spanish cotton, this is 100% cotton. I do have some fabric which would match this, I've had it for years, purchased on a trip to The Gambia for youngest daughter, she just never used it, it's a lightweight pure cotton. 

I'm doing a zoom course this weekend both mornings, with a 9am start, there is no chance we will be able to do the 2nd part of this course any other way, should be interesting. I have been reading through level one again, in places it's hard, some signs are different from the BSL I have already learnt.

I have been reading, this series I have read books 1, 2 and 3 I'm reading book 4, all with the same DI, these are lighter crime thrillers and an easy read, hubby put this set on my kindle. Once finished this book it will take my reading to 41 books this year. 

Whilst on a walk earlier this week we saw loads of boxes of books outside homes, I choose the top 3 books, 2 new authors for me and another book by Karen Rose, so plenty of reading to be done.

Thank you to everyone for you kind comments from my last post, I am extremely pleased with my weight loss, hubby has helped, he has been eating the same foods as me, so no preparing 2 different meals, and he has lost weight as well, it has also helped the weather was so hot, salads are easier to eat in the heat, we have salads most days for lunch. 

I have done nothing in the garden, nothing needs doing, we are both pleased with the views from our windows, we are eating raspberries and a few strawberries from our garden, I have purchase UK grown strawberries as I now consider them to be in season, and they taste wonderful, we both love eating seasonally, having a break from foods makes them taste much better when they come back into season, we can't do it with all foods, but we do it as often as we can. I finished making mask and packed the sewing machine away, and I've changed buttons on hubby's new blazer. Hubby is sanding the last chair from the outside dining set, he still has the table to do, in each case he takes the item to bits, sands and stains before putting it back together, he is a bit of a perfectionist, which I don't mind. After the rainstorms yesterday all our water butts are full again, and the garden has had a good soak, it's sunny now but more rain is expected.

We sorted some kitchen cupboards, doing so much baking has shown us what we use and what is just stored, youngest daughter took a few items home with her, we have a few more items, and with some books I have we will put a box outside this weekend, see how much can be passed on. 

We saw daughter, Will and George, on Wednesday, it was chilly, and George was on the sitting room floor with doors open, he is moving, always on his tummy and very interested in everything around him, Will was so good, he was allowed in to get his cars and doctors kit out. I was at one point showing him the robin on the bird feeders and I put my hand on his back, only to be told, 'don't touch, you have germs', bless him. 

Changing and shrinking

I've changed so much since the beginning of lock down in March, I have lost 20 pounds of fat this year, I look and feel slimmer, it's great to pull out clothes I have not worn for years, my taste does not change, it feels as if I have been clothes shopping. 

As a child I always had very long hair at 19 I had it all cut for a fashionable pageboy cut, I wanted a feather cut but the hairdresser was unwilling to make that huge change, I did later get my feather cut, and since then my hair has always been short. A few years ago I grew my hair into a short Bob, it been like that for 4 or 5 years, now it's a long Bob, it looks OK, but I don't like it, it never looks tidy and blows all over my face, I could pop it into a ponytail, but again I'm not keen. The other thing with my hair is I have stopped colouring it last year, so I am shades of grey at the roots and a pale brown at the ends, I only had highlights so the middle bit fades rather than a line of colour. I can't wait until I can get my haircut again.

I have done nothing with my nails, fingers or toes, I am not taking care of my hands, too much gardening and hand washing, my hands are always sore, I use creams but never enough to sort the issues. I normally get pedicures and have brightly coloured toe nails, but so far I've not done anything myself. 

I have an amazing suntan, like most of the UK , lock down has been spent in the garden, but I have T shirt tan lines, gone are the days of wearing swimwear to gain maximum suntan.

The final change is my attitude, I loved going out with hubby, we started visiting UK cites for short breaks, we love garden centres, but neither of these hold any joy, we are not planning to go anywhere, as we are being given more freedom, we both choose to stay at home, it feels safe at home. We do walk to our village and use local shops, not the cheapest option, but we both feel we have to support our local businesses. I have made online purchases, you can get most of what you need, I have always preferred to go to a shop feeling we have to use shops or they will be lost.

The hardest change is not cuddling our close family, many members are spread around the UK, visiting is not an option, but missing them does not go away. 

How have you changed in these strange times and are some of them permanent. 

This week I have hit my 2nd weight loss target, I have dropped another level, my weigh now starts with a 10 rather than 11 or 12 stone, I am really pleased, I am now focusing on my last target, to be below 10.7 (147 lbs), I will still be over weight, I can't see me getting to 9.7 ( 134lbs), I'm happy to be back at my weight same as I was in 2010. My BMI is 26.1, it was 29.5 at the start. We celebrated with home made pizza for a late lunch, naughty but oh so nice. 

Things to come

We now have a 3rd water butt, these 2 slimline ones are just outside our gates, collecting water from our house roof, I have another bigger butt by the garage. Hubby has put all the over flows in, one from the higher butt to the lower, and another in the top of the lower butt to the drain, already one butt is full and there is water in the 2nd.  

I am watching just how quickly the cucumber plant grows, it stays inside the greenhouse, there are 2 plants in this grow bag. The 2 tomato plants are outside in separate pots in front of the greenhouse, so the glass reflect the heat and light. I have a 3rd plant growing but I have deliberately ensured it's behind to lengthen the harvest period.  

Fruit bushes are full of fruits, I'm going to have great harvest this summer, Blackcurrants stems are full. I have 3 blueberry bushes, 2 in the big tub, one is an early cropper, so the season again will we longer for us. The bottom photo is my pink blueberry bush, my sister gifted me this bush, it's in it's 3rd year and I hope to have some fruit this summer. We covered these with my pop up fruit cage to stop the birds eating our crop. We are already eating raspberries, I sorted the summer canes last year and for the 1st time we have early raspberries, and soon we will have a few strawberries. 

The Olive tree is full, it looks beautiful, but if not enough of these drop, I will remove some, the tree is ornamental and whilst I would like some Olives, I don't want to weaken it in any way. The smaller bush which I brought back from the brink of death is not showing any signs of flowers or fruit, if it has flowers I will knock them all off before they set to fruit.  

We are both pleased with the gardens front (hubby's) and back (mine), after 11 summers here they are sorted and not too much hard work, I don't suffer with many weeds in the back, and hubby pulls any small weeds out before they can root down. 

I am overjoyed with the greenhouse, I am always in it, I will want to purchase some more nasties, I have room for more in my display, but I have no desire to go to any garden centres, I might look on line. I have already ordered a pot with 3 Acers in, I have wanted an acid green Acer for ages and had decided I would get one this year, before the lock down stopped normal life, the company had loads of recent (in June) reviews and they were on the whole positive, I will have to wait and see what arrive, plus it's attached to Amazon, so I have their backup if I need it.

Husband has finished sanding and staining the outside bench and again it looks fantastic, he had to replace some of the screws but now it's strong and looks like new, just my chair and the table to do. It has made the outside dining set look new again, and I love the shade of oak, you can see the grain, which I love.   

The only space not producing again is my raised bed outside of the greenhouse, it should be for cut flowers but again it's almost empty, I have popped all the spring bulbs from my pots in for next year. I have a couple of Dahlias, but I would like flowers sooner, I might check our local market on Wednesday, but they need to be plants I can cut and bring into the house. 

The recent rain has helped the garden, it's looking great, with having fake grass it is always green, and always makes the garden as a whole look good. We have never regretted removing our natural grass, I was unsure at the beginning, but it works well for us. 

I often say the garden is finished, but I'm always making plans, what are you planning in your garden this summer.