Compost Heap

Lee made me a compost heap 😊 hopefully it won't be home to lots of spiders. It has a hinged lid. 

Rustic Compost Heap :)

Arty Photo

 

New Patio!

Before Photo

Our garden is just so hot and there is little shade so we decided to put in a small patio under a large tree that we have. This space doesn't really have any purpose so it will be a little shady escape from the sun. I absolutely love it, the problem is the birds do too and we now have a poopy patio 😳 Lee did a fantastic job on this and I planted up the borders. Hopefully it will be nice and full when things start to grow. There are a lot of ferns in there but they are just coming to life. I've planted some hyacinths, little anemones (100 bulbs to be precise) sowed some seeds and put some ground cover in too. Lee bought some solar lights that flicker like candles and they really do. The whole thing looks like a teleport on Skyrim and it really does transport you to a tranquil place. This is going to be lush .. I hope.

Hooch helping again

The circle appears

Hey Presto!

Edging almost in

New path, lights and plants

Azaleas transplanted too

New Garden Toy - Woodchipper!

New wood chipper and carpet

After clearing the garden and having 15 bags of leaves from trees and bulbs etc. I decided that before Lee prunes the fruit trees I would get us a wood chipper to make life easier. We usually end up chopping the pieces of all our prunings into bits to fit in dustbin bags. This includes all the hedges, roses, shrubs etc plus we have the lawn clippings too and then we have to take our garden rubbish to the tip. It's only 20 minutes away but (wait for it) we have to go on an "even" day according to our car registration plate. So for us that is a Monday, Wednesday or Friday. 😂 I guess some council person gets paid to make these lifestyle decisions.

Anyway the wood chipper is great for trees and shrubs but not so good on green stuff. I have yet to try it on the laurel but I think it will be okay. It's definitely not so good on honeysuckle. That's another job that isn't on my list.

Lee testing it out ...

and a job for me too

Big improvement with all the wood chip from our ash tree.

2021 Garden To Do List

I can't keep up with everything so now have 3 lists, one for the garden, one for the house and one for my art. Pleased to say I am getting through this list. 15 bags of Winter rubbish! We've had some lovely sunny days so I've been out all day getting through the jobs. Lee has helped too but he has his own list 😊 Only 3 big jobs to do but one can wait until the weather gets better. My lists are never straight forward. Planting up cuttings isn't that easy when you have to dig a big mound of soil and save all the plants, plant them, mix the soil with compost and sand too and then do cuttings. But, (never start a sentence with but - rules are made to be broken) but, this Summer I am hoping that we can actually enjoy the garden without working in it all the time. We have spent 5 years doing the garden to make it easier for when we get old. It is finally starting to happen and gets easier each year if we have a good clean up in the Spring and Autumn. 

Number 10 isn't quite done yet, I need to take a trip to the garden centre. I have been ordering bargain plants on Ebay and they are minute 😂 that will teach me for trying to save money but plants are so expensive these days and people are so dishonest saying they are large plants. I have no idea what they are comparing large to but some of them are definitely not even 6". Apart from my dogwoods they are a good size but not a bargain.

 

2021 A Drastic Ash Tree Chop

Tree Surgeons at Plasnewydd

This year started off with us getting our Ash Tree cut back as it was diseased. Since then I have heard that the council are going to be make all ash trees on main roads cut back, so that was a good move on our part. We have been meaning to do it for a few years but knew we would need someone in to do it and that would be expensive. We had some great guys do the tree for us and they chopped the tree into manageable chunks for us and also left us a great pile of wood chips for us to spread in the little orchard. That was actually bigger than I thought and took hours to shift. It not only covered the little orchard but also the area by the caravan too. They cut the tree in the snow but it was a lovely sunny day. I made them chicken noodle soup. I think they were a bit surprised. 😂 I love the tree now. It's like a giant tree monolith. Shame I can't get up there to put a gargoyle on top.

Tree monolith

Lee shifting cut logs

Log Pile from our tree

Wood chip for the fruit trees

Loads of barrow loads

Garden by the caravan 1

Garden by the caravan 2

The May Garden

Not so many flowers in this part of the garden this year. We had a late frost which killed a lot of Lupins and left lots of gaps. I've replaced these now with some new plants but they are a little small to make a difference this year.

Left Hand Side Before new border

After Photo

Not as many flowers this year

A few new plants

Need to skim off the pond again

Must get some more Alliums for next year

Voles have been eating the Aquillegia

The Vegetable Patch has definitely gone

Replacing the Vegetable Patch has made such a difference to us. This section of the garden only needs mowing now and I really like the big open space.

Before Photos:

This patch got a little out of hand for us

Lots of lovely plants that were moved to other parts of garden

One section cleared

... and After.  Totally Transformed

Beautiful Clematis in the border

One Year On, Border by the Caravan

Seems like a lifetime ago since I put in loads of primroses to fill up this border. This border had absolutely nothing in it and I wasn't sure if anything would grow because it was so gravelly and hard to dig, so glad I was wrong :)

Putting in the Shrubs 

The start of Primrose planting

The border now 

Mended and Painted Fences

Old Leaky Birdbath planted up with Hens and Chicks

Can't remember what this is called :)

Beautiful May Border

Roses and Foxgloves

The Little Orchard and Greenhouse

Photos from around the garden with some Before and After Photos. The Little Orchard has really filled out this year but we haven't had much blossom, fingers crossed we get some fruit. Lee has been busy in the greenhouse growing Tomatoes, Strawberries, Peppers, Lettuce, Courgettes and Potatoes.

Chicken Coop went to a good home

Clearing the weeds

All clear and ready

The orchard in May 2017

Tomatoes growing underneath

Lee's Greenhouse

New Steps for our Archery Bit

This is going to be so much better for us as we can both just walk straight down the middle to collect our arrows. Lee has built some really good steps on quite a steep slope. It'll be really nice when the plants spill over and soften it up a bit. I've used the last of the stones to build another dry stone wall. We have almost used everything up in the garden now, very little has been thrown away, we have used, replanted and recycled everything.

This poor section looking very sorry for itself

Sun House Painted inside and out

New concrete steps and drystone wall

Little chair found at the skip and painted up