September Roundup

25th September 2017

A long time writing...

As this summer has been wetter than most and I don't like gardening in the rain, despite praising it in August (its warm enough?), I have to look back and take stock over what I have managed and feel a little (wee) bit proud. We have semi-solved the dandelion crisis (amazing what difference a lawn mower makes... and its one that is easy to push and empty if anyone needs to know), and other things are moving forward with our building works to add a toilet (planning permission free if its to add a toilet for a disabled person! I'll take those advantages!) and the builders have been asked if they can remove the concrete slab we will be building on, and some of the concrete round the house. All a bonus if we can reduce internal damp, and not insurmountable if we can get it done to our not excessive budget. There are disadvantages to having spent my working life surrounded by architects and designers.

I have introduced some of my favourite plants and bulbs and some of the colours are changing from pink to deep purples, oranges and dark reds. Again, a win-win for me. But I haven't managed to create a proper plan and some of that is to do with technology and also uncertainty. We can't take down the sheds until we clear out some of the things we are holding onto and find alternative places to store the things I don't want to part with. I have lots of curtains but the windows need replacing that don't have curtain rails and its chicken-and-egg as to what gets done soonest.

This year has seen flowers of all different colours and I am even coming round to the roses...

I am developing patience in bucketloads as nothing gets fixed instantly.

I have now made contact with Extra Smile so keep your fingers crossed for me xxxxx

Scottish gardens in September

Dunninald Castle

Our trip to Scotland at the end of the school holidays down south, included this visit to Dunninald Castle and Gardens just outside Montrose on the road to Arbroath. We completed many steps by following the ramble on the map provided by the owners. I had never been to this little castle before and it was a pleasant little sojourn after a morning at Lunan Bay, a beach we have regularly visited and love. If I lived closer to the coast in reality this would be a gardening and beaches blog!
We were surrounded by butterflies in the walled garden and were able to view their impressive cottage-style walled garden. It was filled with an impressive array of sedums and wallflowers as well as walls of apples and plums.
(We also spent some time trying to find Arbikie which has been put on the map by a local Gin producer, Kirstie's Gin. We had tried this at a local music festival and will be looking to stock up once we find a supplier...) Not that I drink a lot, as my three-stone weight loss has a lot down to everything in moderation.

Brambles Sting!

Brambles are mostly finished.

Spot the two robins!
Hauling out bindweed and brambles have left me scratched and sore...

Brambles sting! And we have two Robins...

Chillies

After yesterday's rain, we managed to spend a few hours pulling up some of the rampant brambles and bindweed at the bottom end of the garden and I am scratched and stabbed.

Squeaky, my 6-year-old, took some pics of mum in action, picking brambles and rhubarb, pulling some more apples down, and working hard. Making up for my 'woe is me' post yesterday? I still feel overwhelmed by the work involved in taming our garden but I am being inspired with new things we can do.

Apples from tree have been juiced.

An aside, my hubby and I got a babysitter and went for a rare night out - to a quiz run by North Herts MS Society, which we had much fun doing and hopefully spending money on helping the branch to help others with the Monster. We neither won nor got the booby prize. And it had the bonus of putting me in touch with people who help with Extra Smile, a church group who support local families with house or garden projects.

Last of this years rhubarb.

Global Catastrophes Month

11th September, 2017

Typhoons and Hurricanes
All over the world there are all sorts of natural disasters taking place and its hard to equate it with our rainfall this year, which has been high but not catastrophic. Global warming is undoubtedly having an influence – the polar ice cap is melting at a rate unseen before – but politicians, don't make me mention the T word, don't want to acknowledge what the climate experts have been saying for the last few decades. *On finding out that future hurricane names will include my first name, I have been living with the moniker 'Mummy Hurricane'!

After a morning of little bits including juicing some apples, and fighting with random bramble spurs,
I am hunkered down, not watching the film with the family because I don't like watching films over again, but in front of my computer to relate the sad fact that my garden has suffered from three weeks of neglect and the morning just laid bare the fact of my inability to do the things I wrote of so glibly yesterday. I don't have the inclination today to weed, weed, weed or hack, hack, hack, nor the energy to dig much more than a sandcastle - I'd probably manage a few teaspoonsful before getting bored.

However, the more it rains, the more I realise I need to have a plan, and after a pleasant sunny morning, the downpour that took us to the film also pushed me to the realisation that we need to start to think creatively and cheaply for stopping the water from wrecking our future plans and future climate changes in our own little ecocentre.

I desperately need to have a scheme of work, and have priorities for things that will make the garden work for the future, such as:
1 - hire a green skip and take down excess tree stumps, weeds, shrubs and bushes that we don't want
2 - clear excess stuff from old decrepit sheds so that they can be destroyed
3 - work out drainage options and get large quantities of gravel
4 - remove areas of old concrete and take down and dispose of barbecue, garden walls that are crumbling and concrete of broken compost bin
5 - look at recycling some garden slabs and make a new seating area
6 - establish new compost area.

The list isn't complete, or including any 'nice' stuff like new plants or trellises or (do I dare say it?) home offices, or repairing the book shed, and I feel fatigued... Each of those things will take planning, resources and diggers!

PS: Next post will have pretty pictures and a review of something nice I think

September musings
It's hard to say this is garden related but... it is. I've spent the last week talking to builders and roofers and discussing why we have such damp issues in the house and a lot of it comes down to the orientation of our house and the gentle slope up to the back of the garden. A factory was behind our house and it was knocked down and housing built. The house next to us became the access road, and it looks like the run off from heavy storms runs from the estate into our back garden.

So we do have to consider taking up the concrete paths in the garden, round the house, and down the side into the front garden. Yay! Those things were on my wishlist and our works list. Now they will make the garden nicer to be in after we work out who's the lucky tradesperson/people.

A sunken area in the middle of the garden could incorporate a sunken pond? A gravel soakaway could incorporate a bog garden? A workshed is on my wishlist still but it could happen sooner if one of the old shed areas became a soakaway? Plotting all manner of changes now in my head, some of which have been talked about and affect my little electronic garden sketch I still haven't done...

A chunk of render fell off one chimney recently and nearly fell onto the neighbour's car. That could have been costlier if it had been a foot over. However, I should let the neighbour know the work is scheduled.

August over before you know it

August Enjoyment

Summer holidays took over and gardening was reduced to weeding and grass cutting. But we did enjoy the fruits of the hard work as we enjoyed time in the garden, as well as visits to gardens while on holiday in Norfolk - Felbrigg Estate was one stunning garden visited - we completed some amazing walks through different Broads and 10 different beaches were visited in a week.

Reeds on Blickling Broad

Schools In, September  6th September 2017

And another month slipped in and we are facing the builders coming in to add to the house. Added to the builder’s tasks are hard landscaping, or the removal of serious amounts of concrete. My architect liked my ideas of ponds to try and stop the flow of water from the housing estate behind and above our house straight through the garden along the concrete and eroding the surfaces as it goes. However as the levels are higher it would need to be a sunken pool, so I started to envisage a sunken seating area too. I dug a pond before preMS: it would be great exercise!

Planting in my wooden planters have been a mixture of unforeseen pests and great success! I pulled out three carrots yesterday, which we were never able to grow in St Albans (which I was told was an allotment bugbear). The ones we pulled yesterday were chunky and sweet. 

Sweet chunky carrots!

The chilli plants (another bargain from Morrisons) have given us lots of sweet red chillies. And the courgettes, surprisingly, grew really well. My family in Scotland benefited from them during our travels in August. 

A baby pigeon grew up in the conker tree and chomped through the Brussels sprouts (I am not heartbroken about it really). Strawberries also disappeared but they were 50p in a pound shop sale so again not a disaster. Lettuces grew so well and profusely we couldn't eat them all so they are needing composted as soon as I get off my computer.

Landscaping the garden is not in our budget, unfortunately, so I will have to look at inventiveness as my desires continue apace. I will have to be truly patient over my dream space and work shed, and be content with drawing little doodles of my imaginary home office and the demise of the rickety decrepit sheds. Even my book shed, or library, as my girls have nicknamed it, has been less than successful in displaying my exceedingly heavy book shelves. A load fell over with an almighty crash one day when we were doing other work. The girls were less keen to sleep there after that happened.

Broads in August?

I love the frondy reed beds in Norfolk. 

I planted these a year ago. Plans and colours!

Flat concrete is good for Jenga. Pigeons attack on the plants in this bed...

Painting rusty furniture...