So Much to do So Little Time to Do It!

Blogging between now and 2nd June (ish), will be a bit irratic. I have spent so much time in the garden recently that my house has been sadly neglected and my mother is coming to stay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is the reason 'bloggin' maybe irratic! I may not have the opportunity to sit down and write. We will see!!!

Anyway the current state of the house is to be expected when you look at what has been achieved in the garden....




I am really chuffed to bits with how its turned out!

So whats left to be done in the garden,

I managed to fit everything into my little car and get it to the tip, when I came back I had to hoover it out!!!!!!
I need to edge the beds and then cover in bark chippings, what I can't decide is whether to use weed membrane or not as some of the plants will only be in for the summer??
Harden off the remaining plants that are in the greenhouse.
Pot up the tracycarpus and brugmansia into bigger pots.

In the house,

Well I did the whole of the lounge, up the stairs across the landing and the bathroom yesterday. Tori did her room over the weekend, so we just need to hoover and change the sheets. (Mum sleeps in here), Tori will move across to K's room which is currently full to the ceiling with ironing! So that has to be done today! Then theres just the kitchen and downstairs loo to be done. Not much really but my goodness I have neglected them and they are a bit of a state!!!!!!

Wednesday is cake making day! Its K's birthday on Thursday and on my way up to mums (on Thursday) I am calling in at the Uni to give her, her birthday presents and birthday cake! Friday we should be returning provided the appointment with the specialist goes well. Then mum will be here for a week!

Right must dash, got to take T to school she has an English Literature exam today, it is based on Lord of the Flies by William Golding! I did this for my exams too, but I can assure you my result was consideranly lower than I expect T's to be!!!!

Jungle Rock!

We decided to crack on in the jungle plot today, I knew where I wanted the tree ferns so hubby dug a big hole and hit rock!



Well possibly Bath Stone which is exceedingly pourous, or then again it could be cement. Could this be where the well is?? We have been told on a number of occasions that there is a well in the garden and this is in approximately the right place. So what did we do? Went ahead and planted the tree ferns!! They don't produce any roots so are easily removed. I think I know someone who is a 'dowser' so I will get them round and we will see! Anyway this is the finished area!



Then we got on with the bigger area, I haven't planted everything yet as I'm not a hundred percent sure about there placing! will leave them in pots for a week and see how I feel!



I still have some big leaved plants in the greenhouse which I have started to bring outside to harden up!

The chickens have been very interested in whats been going on and have enjoyed eating all the 'leatherjackets' we chuck into them!





Right off to get some dinner and a large gin!!!!

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Awaiting the Arrival of a Few More Jungle Plants

I have been digging again, remember the pic of the patio in yesterdays post, well I have dug up the bed and some more of the slabs



The big part of the bed measures 142cm x 470 (4ft 8in x 15ft 5in)



with a banana in it. I can move the banana if necessary (I think). I have redeployed the plants I dug up around the garden. The smaller bed




now measures 100 x 170 (3ft 3in x 5ft 7in)since I lifted a row of slabs. I will probably keep the angelica and fennel for now as it gives me instant height. I need to paint the delapidated fence, which belongs to my neighbour but she thinks belongs to us! I am also debating about buying some bamboo barrier to sink along the boundary as most of her shrubs roots like to grow into my garden!!! The soil is quite good and has had the chicken run contents added to it over the winter. It is also quite stony as the outside privy used to be here. So now all I need is a man!!!! to help me lift all my jungle plants over to the bed so we can move them around etc. etc.

Just to show you how things are growing, my caster oil plant has had a burst of growth


so it is obviously happy here which I think is good, because we are going to have to dig it up!! The down pipe behind it is where the rainwater from the main roof and 2 flat roofs (sp) goes to a soak away ideally we should dig up the whole patio and sink a huge tank underneath, but this is not an ideal world!

My brugmansia which was lifting the roof off the greenhouse got moved close to the house and seems to be enjoying the position,



I need to repot it and I may move it. I would really love another one, but where I bought it from has not had anymore in!!

Just to finish on................
The most amazing thing happened at breakfast this morning, Tori said ' I will have to tidy my room tonight, it is really getting on my nerves'!

Music to my ears!!!

T has never kept her room tidy even though I have encourages her to do a little on a daily basis! I must admit since Feb. I have said nothing and done nothing, as I didn't want to upset her or nag her, I felt she had enough on her plate. To be honest getting into her room at the moment is rather like an obstacle course and how on earth she finds things for school I never know!
So maybe I have been doing it wrong all along! Maybe I should have left her to it. She has agreed with me a while back that over the summer she will have a really good clear out to make way for all the college stuff! I live in hope!

Before & After!

I saw blue sky today!!! Not much but as my Nana would say 'enough to make a pair of sailors trousers' what ever that means!!
Tori had her first part of the art exam yesterday, 5 hours!!!! Today is R.E! She I must admit is fairly upbeat, not sure whether thats good or bad!?

I got out into the garden again today and I must admit I am thrilled with how its coming along. When I started today it looked like this




and by the time I had finished it looked like this



I have re-seeded the bare patch in the corner, it is so damp and humid I think it has a good chance of coming up!





I was accompanied by



Sassy! I say accompanied as she is not a bit like Tango, she finds a nice sunny spot, fairly close to you and sunbathes, but keeping an eye on you making sure you don't move to far away!

So whats next, well, I need to move the slabs from the top to the bottom to lay here



then I can set up my tomato house! Of course I really need to crack on with the patio area, soon to be a jungle




there you go, one looking up the garden and one looking down! So I hope to tackle this, this weekend. I may start tomorrow depends on how my back is holding out as I think I might have over done it today!! SSHHHHHHHHHHH!!!