Away for a While!

My mum has been called into hospital for an operation under full anisthetic,unexpectedly. So I am travelling up tomorrow and may be away a week!

Things to Do! & Things I've Done!

I though I would be very organised, especially as spring appears to be round the corner, and write a list of all the jobs that need doing in the garden....

not in any particular order

Move one foxglove tree
Paint Coal Bunker lids and gate
Take down trellis behind baytree and arch
Put up new arch for Blackberry
Paint Rabbit hutch (where cats like to sit)
Paint table and chairs in Potager
Cut lower branches off Rocket Tree
Plant other Box plants round Potager
Repot or plant eucalyptus
Dig over veg bed 1, 2 & 4
Plant 150 bulbs I have
Make & fix wooden kick boards around chicken run (should stop them kicking out all the bark)
Dig out dead Smoke tree
Put new weed membrane down Far side of Bed 4 & Gravel
Sort out bottom of Garden:-
Decide what to plant round bottom patio
Decide what to do with stone river bed bit
Resite pond pump box and hide
Major sort out of bottom flower bed
Serious tidy up round Greenhouses
Sort out waterbutts round greenhouses
Dig out stumps outside big greenhouse and decide what to do with that area?
Sort out shed contents
Do something with compost bins
Dig out raspberry canes & give to neighbour
Plant Trachycarpus
Plant Cordylines
Consider whether to buy more gravel or slabs
Plant veggie seeds
Get more staging for greenhouse

Front Garden
Clear leaves
Replant clematis
Find new home for Minature hop
Plan & Plant up summer window box

I wish I hadn't as its just getting longer and longer!!!!

I have also been to Wilkinsons, my favourite shop and acquired some more tree ferns.


At a garden centre near by (not my usual one) I also acquired another Caster Oil plant,


at the bargain price of £5.99. I expect your wondering why I should duplicate my plants, well....................... after much deliberation I have decided that this year my front garden should reflect my tropical garden. Now both the Castor Oil and the Tree Ferns grow well on the shady side of the house (its north facing)and by the time its warm enough for them to be round there, the caster oil should be quite large. The Tree Fern (Dicksonia Robusta)is slow growing but is still of a size I can lift back through to over winter it>

I have planted today the seeds of this plant

Ricinus New Zealand Purple (Caster Oil Plant) its an annual and provided they all come through I may pop one out the front.If you remember I grew a couple last year and the foliage is pretty spectacular!

My really, really naughty buy (please don't tell hubby)is this

a double Brugmansia, I know I have loads already, but the worst of it is I bought 2 and they are white! (he goes mad when I buy white flowered plants) They are potted up and will be brought on with the view to grow them as standards and have one either side of the front door!!!

Awhile back I purchased the seeds of the Hardy Tapioca (Manihot Grahamii)


these I planted today also. Apparently although easily germinated they more often than not get to the 2 leaf stage and keel over. So I have planted 8 out of the 32 seeds I have, six have gone into a heated propagator and 2 are just covered and in the heated greenhouse. By the way if I am successful this could be a nice little earner!!!!!!!!! I will keep you posted!

Pics That Should Have Gone With Yesterdays Blog!

The patio all tidied up

the path down to the chickens all brushed and weeded!

The new pond pump, which still needs to be re-sited.

but after 24hours has really helped clear the pond, look....
it has a UV light as well so whatever that does to the pond will take a little while longer!

If you remember a week or so ago I spent some time in the greenhouse planting seeds etc. well look whats been going on....

these are my Heritage Peas and Trail of Tears French Beans, now the reason I have a pic of them is because these plants have grown from seed I saved! I am thrilled as I had never seed saved before and wasn't sure if I had stored them correctly, I obviously did!!!!

My sweetpeas have slowed considerably, but that is because they have had there little cover off, as they where getting too big!

Here we have 5 sections, section one closest to the camera has a stray tomato plant, section 2, more tomatoes,they where sold as specifically for outdoor growing and when you look at the next pic you can see what sturdy characters they will be. Then I am really surprised about section 3, as you can just see aubergine plants popping through!!

This is all tomato's, bit sad really!!

Finally my onions.
Right must dash K is leaving to go back to Uni, so chaos surrounds us!!!

Chicken Sitting!

We are chicken sitting at the mo! We often do! But I don't mind as I can pretend for a week that I own a huge garden!!
Meet Dot & Doris



They live in an Eglu too. I can never remember which is which, anyway one is wanting to come out and the other is doing the business of laying an egg!


They live here


and soon Dot & Doris will have 3 sister chickens living in their garden as well in a brand new Purple Eglu!!!


These ladies are the reason I got mine!They arrived at my good friends house I think Nov 2005, 6 months later May 2006 we got ours!

Yesterday (Thursday) was a glorious day especially when the sun was out, we where in our T-shirts, when it went behind a cloud we had to put jumpers on. But with lots and lots of K's help, we managed to do alot of tidying up! Although I forgot the photos!
I don't know if you remember me fitting the super dooper huge new waterbutt close to the house? Well we have been having problems with it and it needed re-adjusting and as rain was due (again) this weekend we decided to empty it, sort it out and set it up again. Which ment charging up and down the garden with buckets as the stupid hose wouldn't fit to the tap! So we did that, then had breakfast! Very civilised here you know!
K then started on sorting the patio tidying, brushing and bagging up the accumulated winter rubbish! She continued down the path weeding as she went.
My chickens where busy having fun in the garden sunning and dust bathing


Big Bird wanted to join them but as she is blind in one eye couldn't work out how to get through!


Once we where down the garden this far, we realised that the pond pump was miss behaving again. It has been latterly but we haven't really had the weather to sort it out. Anyway in the autumn hubby bought a filter box with UV light and it has been sitting waiting to be fitted, so thats what we did. What a palarva! Anyway after much huffing and puffing and nearly falling in it is now fitted. As soon as the rain stops (yes its back)I shall take some pics!

Chicken & Egg Situation!

My Chickens have gone mad?????

Bunty


Big Bird


Bree


and Babs

have laid 52 eggs since the beginning of March!

Thats an average of 2 a day, 14 a week. Well actually it doesn't work like that as last week we had 21!

Today we had 4


anyone for omlette, quiche, scrambled egg, Egg custard, fried eggs, poached eggs, boiled eggs and soldiers?