First-time house renovation

aliasojo

TomsMom wrote: »

Your girls should enjoy growing things. A good way to get them interested in the garden - they can sow the seeds, nurture the plants and then taste the fruits of their efforts. Great for getting them to try something they've never tasted before.

Lol, good luck with that. When my youngest got her school photo taken, it came with a unique number that entered you into a draw to win a children's 'Rocket Garden'. We won one and received a huge box with all sorts of veg plants in.

Not having grown anything other than grass before, I thought this was an ideal opportunity to get her involved in nature. Boy was I ever wrong, the end result is that I am more excited about things that appear on the plants than she is. She sits watching me with her DS in her hand, looking bored. I despair sometimes, she is her Father's daughter without doubt. If it isn't electronic, it's not interesting.

Anyway, look what I did....:rotfl:

Sweetcorn (too close together but never mind )



Tub of carrots



Potatoes



Peas (Don't know why the leaves have holes, there doesn't seem to be any beasties or flies )



Strawberry pot (if anyone dares to swipe my first red strawbs, I'll have them! ) Leaves are a bit dead round the edges but I watered them in the sun one day so maybe that's why? No idea really, I make it up as I go along. :rotfl:



I've been bitten by the gardening / growing things bug now.

Our garden plans have been put on hold as we've just had an unexpected big expense so I'm a bit ticked off at that. Our garden is like a building site and I was looking forward to getting it done once and for all.

We've swapped the trampoline and shed around so that has given more space for a table & chairs and I've tarted the sheds up as best I can with filler, sealant and new paint. I've wrapped willow screening around the trampoline and put pots with bright flowers all over the place but I still have a centre patch of earth right in front of the back doorstep that I'm not sure what to do with. It's 4m x 5m roughly. Any suggestions? Even if we got the cheapest fake grass we could find, it would still be costly considering the whole garden is to be taken back to scratch next year. Grass seed wouldn't have a chance to grow with the kids and dog (school holidays now so garden will likely have 10 year olds traipsing through it all day. I just need a quick and cheap cosmetic fix for the short term.

Any ideas?

Oh and for whoever asked about pics....I got a (free) account at photobucket.com, you upload your pics to there then copy the url of each pic to your post here. Sounds complicated but it's really not.

TomsMom

Ooh, looking good AJ. Most of my things are too close together, I'm learning as I go along. This year I've learnt that I wont put parsnips and carrots in the same tub. Parsnips are normally left until about November to harvest (errrrr, I didn't know that ) and the first sowing of carrots is almost ready to start picking. I also put a few radishes in the gaps, now I can't find the radishes 'cos the foliage on the parsnips and carrots is so big :rotfl: . I also found out that filling in gaps in the borders with onions wasn't a brilliant idea as now everything is growing the gaps are being filled anyway :rotfl: . But it's all a learning curve.

My DGS likes growing things but they haven't got a garden so he comes here and likes rummaging around in my potatoes "Can I pick the potatoes yet nan?" "Oh look, this tomato is red" which means "if I fiddle with it long enough it will come away in my hand and I can eat it". He'd love your sweetcorn, I haven't done any as I don't normally eat it. I'm thinking of doing a few cucumbers for him next year, he'll eat a whole one in one go!

Your patch of earth is bigger than our garden! Sorry, I can't think what you could do with it as a temporary measure. If your budget has had to be redirected, can you not just leave it for now rather than waste any money on a temporary fix?

aliasojo

TomsMom wrote: »

This year I've learnt that I wont put parsnips and carrots in the same tub. Parsnips are normally left until about November to harvest (errrrr, I didn't know that )

Your patch of earth is bigger than our garden! Sorry, I can't think what you could do with it as a temporary measure. If your budget has had to be redirected, can you not just leave it for now rather than waste any money on a temporary fix?

Lol, me neither.

Can't really leave it as the garden will be in constant use over the summer and a) an ex grassy and now muddy, weedy patch isn't practical as the kids will drag everything in on their feet and will get filthy playing out there and b) it looks horrible.

A tonne bag of stones is around £50, that seems to be the cheapest and easiest cover up so far. Real grass wont be able to grow, fake grass is not worth it for the short term and decking is the same. Stones aren't very user friendly for the kids though. :undecided

spirit

My bedroom wallpaper before - all the rooms were like this, badly papered. I've stripped them all now and painted them.



nice carpets eh? All man made and the foam-back was just black dust when I lifted them.


More of the conservatory and slidey kitchen door,

The bathroom with the wall taken down and door to the old loo with new stud wall. don't ya just love the blue suite!

this is the kitchen/diner wall down.

conservatory gone and new dining room french doors in.


horrid window gone and bricked up with new window in.

spirit

kitchen slidey door gone and bigger window installed.

rear view showing new kitchen window without slidey door.

I took a saw to the bannisters. it's quite narrow there so needs opening up. might put spindles there. oh and my eldest cat Moofie

spirit

kitchen is next.

back garden work in progress (i put the arch up)

got the fr/fr and d/w in the foreground. it's tricky making do with this kitchen!

i took all those tiles off myself too. stood in the bath and cut my feet to ribbons as they fell in the bath!

spirit

this is my new bathroom-in-waiting in bedroom 3. i've stripped the wallpaper but can't get in there to finish til the stuff is out.

stolt

aliasojo wrote: »

Lol, good luck with that. When my youngest got her school photo taken, it came with a unique number that entered you into a draw to win a children's 'Rocket Garden'. We won one and received a huge box with all sorts of veg plants in.

Not having grown anything other than grass before, I thought this was an ideal opportunity to get her involved in nature. Boy was I ever wrong, the end result is that I am more excited about things that appear on the plants than she is. She sits watching me with her DS in her hand, looking bored. I despair sometimes, she is her Father's daughter without doubt. If it isn't electronic, it's not interesting.

Anyway, look what I did....:rotfl:

Sweetcorn (too close together but never mind )



Tub of carrots



Potatoes



Peas (Don't know why the leaves have holes, there doesn't seem to be any beasties or flies )



Strawberry pot (if anyone dares to swipe my first red strawbs, I'll have them! ) Leaves are a bit dead round the edges but I watered them in the sun one day so maybe that's why? No idea really, I make it up as I go along. :rotfl:



I've been bitten by the gardening / growing things bug now.

Our garden plans have been put on hold as we've just had an unexpected big expense so I'm a bit ticked off at that. Our garden is like a building site and I was looking forward to getting it done once and for all.

We've swapped the trampoline and shed around so that has given more space for a table & chairs and I've tarted the sheds up as best I can with filler, sealant and new paint. I've wrapped willow screening around the trampoline and put pots with bright flowers all over the place but I still have a centre patch of earth right in front of the back doorstep that I'm not sure what to do with. It's 4m x 5m roughly. Any suggestions? Even if we got the cheapest fake grass we could find, it would still be costly considering the whole garden is to be taken back to scratch next year. Grass seed wouldn't have a chance to grow with the kids and dog (school holidays now so garden will likely have 10 year olds traipsing through it all day. I just need a quick and cheap cosmetic fix for the short term.

Any ideas?

Oh and for whoever asked about pics....I got a (free) account at photobucket.com, you upload your pics to there then copy the url of each pic to your post here. Sounds complicated but it's really not.

would bark be ok for the area, wouldnt even need to be playbark, i went to local tree looping place and they did a transit van sized delivery for £40.00, just little bit of trees shreded, wouldnt call it play bark but its all squished down.

loving all the veggies growing, my girls are interested but only because i'm interested, far to busy playing with there friends up the road on there bikes. Next year definatley going to give the veg growing a try.

aliasojo

Did think about bark but I got put off because of where it would be iyswim. Because it's right in the centre of the garden, you'd have to walk over it (or through it in the case of the kids, I'm sure) to go anywhere in the garden. Think it might be even messier than stones maybe.

There's not really a perfect answer unfortunately. Damn not being rich.

typeractive

Well done everyone - in particular Spirit. Liking the photo's of your renovations as it encourages me (in a very similar position!) I need to get posting all my pics! Good choice on one of the windows - I went for a similar window (with the two side hinged panes that open like 'doors').