the daydream fund challenge thread

Davesnave

Lir, you don't know Deborah Van Der Beek, do you? She's near you and has had her garden in both 'The Garden' and 'English Gardens' in the last year. She has a white garden there, but I think you'd like all of it. Her sculptures may be an acquired taste, but after initially thinking "Hmmmm.." I grew to really like them.

http://www.deborahvanderbeek.com/

And maggie, inspired by your photo of the Moon, I've just been outside with my camera, to find it heavily obscured by cloud! :mad:

Rummer

I really like the pic with the steps going down to the pond. It would be lovely to have the space to have themed gardens here, guess I could have themed beds

We really enjoyed this garden when we visited Durham: http://www.crookhallgardens.co.uk/

Davesnave

Rummer wrote: »

I really like the pic with the steps going down to the pond. It would be lovely to have the space to have themed gardens here, guess I could have themed beds

It's actually a small river which flows through the grounds, which I'd guess to be 1.5 acres. I've always wanted a garden stream, but I've had to settle for a little one that dries up in summer....and it's in the field!

Rummer

I built a pond so we had water in the garden, I love it!

lostinrates

Rummer, I love that picture too! Like davesnave, we really wanted a stream. The lot here with the stream on (also field) we were out bid on. But we have our ''spring'' and the pond.....so ....we'll make do. I quite fancy water in the garden in a few ways, but don't want to clutter things up like a garden feature sales room. e.g. we have a recessed corner, totally shaded, behind the barn. I'm quite keen to put mirrors there and have a wide blade of water falling into a discrete trough at the bottom in there. I also fancy a path through the garden with a rill ether side, but DH thinks it would look like small piece of disused rail line gone to seed.

It looks like a very beautiful garden, I'd love to go. I'd seen the sculptures somewhere, the ned kelly ones I think. I like the pear and the skull...I'd give space to either here. Alfie, yes to big pots! I still have things bursting out of smaller pots that I need to either pot on or plant out, but big ones....yes please! I didn't get to do a Davesnave style run to my parent's garden as planned this week.

I have some things to pick up, some trees I should have moved a month ago A few roses. An elephant vine.....who's real name I can't remember...big leaves up to about a foot across but doesn't do much else Some currants. I guess I have two more runs to do from the garden, but I just can't prepare beds here with enough speed. The bed we dug last week looks forlorn and bare, but there is stuff underneath. The tiny white borded is starting to look really wonderful. The wall flowers are too densely planted though, but there are tulips about to burst growing up through them, and a white dicentra and lupin. The penstemon is gathering green at the bottom. I'd like a blowsy white peony in there next year. Oh, and a little white anemone is cheering me up too. It will be a riot soon I hope. Small beds are easier to stuff though!

Piccalily left some blood on her egg yesterday so I need to catch her and have a look. The chicks were moved out of the house. In fact, I'm trying something a bit different. I've given them a cage (which they can hop through the bars of but big chickens can't) heated with lamps from above. So they see big chicken behaviour. Charmingly the mother out there looked delighted about the new chicks and has been mothering them through the day, but at night takes ''her'' own chicks back to the nest and the ''orphans'' are left under the lights for the night. So far so good.

Our electrics get the electricity survey we should have had months ago on Friday...try and find out how serious that set of problems are.

lostinrates

Oh, and choille, thanks for the heads up about lidl. whenever I race down to a lidl after rugs I find they are really little sizes. They had rugs a couple of weeks ago too, really nice ones, but all pony sizes!

Davesnave

Rummer wrote: »

I built a pond so we had water in the garden, I love it!

Yes, we're planning a couple, but they need to be done when everything else has been decided as it's a bit hard to move them!
We're used to having one next to the house and observing that 'other world' daily through the seasons.

I found a newt yesterday, in the grass by the hedge we're doing, at least 150m from any standing water. They get around.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Hi all,

going to get my glasses today, so a good eccuse to go to poundland to see waht they have:D

scrapman is coming tomorrow morning, so really pleased the scrap is eventually going.

On the non-neighbour side of our garden, we had an old lattice type fence on top of the 3 - 4ft wall, which we put up nealry 17 years ago, the honeysuckle, celantis and the brambles, were holding it up....lol.. and to be honest it had really run a riot, even with cutting back most years, so yesturday, hubby bought fence panels and pull down the old fence and put the new ones up....wow what a difference, really makes the garden look bigger...he stayed out in the rain to finish it...

we burned the old fence on the fire last night... so it was usefull right up until the end....:rotfl:

A close biker friend died last week in a road accident, so the funeral is on saturday.... hubby had to mot his bike this week, been off hte road for nealry 2 years, it flew through the mot, so just waiting for hte new log book to turn up ( lost the old one:cool:) so we can tax it on-line...Its going to be a huge fueneral...

Davesnave

Rummer wrote: »

We really enjoyed this garden when we visited Durham: http://www.crookhallgardens.co.uk/

Yes, looks interesting and the origins are very old. Pity the pictures are so tiny. I see they use the house & gardens for films too.

I forgot to mention, in case there are any Harry Potter fans, that the house in the garden I posted is Professor Slughorn's house in (I think!) 'The Half Blood Prince.' :cool:

Winged_one

Morning all, wasn't it great weather over the last while?! (Well, here at least, for a change!). I managed to take most of Friday off, as well as having St Patrick's Day on Thurs, and DH took DD down to see MIL so I had almost 3 days to myself and spent 4-5 hours of each on the plot!!

It took me 4 hours each on Thurs and Fri to dig over the pea and bean bed - I was double-digging this as I was adding shredded paper (for water retention) and compost from home bin to each trench. I want a LARGE yield from this bed this year!! I didn't get a lot more than that done, except to cover over 1 other bed.

On Sat, I managed to cover over the other 2 beds (potatoes until needed, roots until needed, and a bed I am leaving fallow this year, unless I get a rush of blood to the head and think of something extra I want to grow!). I dug the first half of the onions bed, and put in a half dozen garlic cloves (the bulbs were a bit rotten so I just put in those that seemed OK, and I'll have to buy a couple of othe bulbs to plant). I covered the rest of the dug area with cordboard until I get back to do the rest of the garlic and the onion sets I already have. I raked the legumes bed flat (it was all moundy heaps from the digging) and sowed 2 rows of peas (Rondo and Canoe) and a double row of broad beans (Witikem).

I also planted out 4 cabbage plants I had bought in Woodies on Fri am (I was buying cauliflower, but picked up the wrong tray in the end, damn!). I only noticed that they were wrong after I had planted the ones I was doing initially (keeping the other 9 in the tray for a week or 2 anyway, so to try and have a succession rather than 12 cabbages/caulis ready in 1 week!). So I must get a tray of caulis as well now. And I also got 6 bare rooted savoy cabbage plants from FIL over the weekend, so they are in the back garden now.

Brought home a large batch of rhubarb (enough for us for tonight, and a bundle as a Thank You to my aunt for taking DD for Sat night while we went out), 6 leeks and a night's worth of PSB that we are having with pork chops tonight. And I only got burnt on Fri afternoon - remembered to put on suncream on Sat!

I also made progress at home over the weekend. I planted out the savoys, and 3 broad bean plants I had been nurturing. I have 3 more to put on the plot next weekend. I sowed some mangetout against the fence, which will be nice, and a large container of carrots. I sowed 15 small pots with a variety of tomatoes and peppers (sweet and chilli) - some are for us, and some for neighbours and 2 aunts. And if all come up, I can give some to the Cork relatives too. Only 2 tomatoes and 2 peppers came up from the earlier sowing, but the basil and coriander are looking good.

I spent a couple of hours on Thurs night trying to sort out the composter in the garden (lopsided and needing the bottom emptied). So I got FILTHY doing it, but the results were good (mostly now straight, and plenty of good stuff that was rich, crumbly soily stuff to put onto the plot and the front garden - and space for more compostable stuff to go in at the top).

This week's plans are to sow a pot of spinach for the garden, a seed tray (already in rows) of spinach for the plot, another pot each of basil and coriander to follow on, and maybe some more radishes and lettuces. And to plant out the broadies, onions, garlic and caulis (if I get to buy the latter 2).

I know, buying a tray of plants is cheating (a bit), but my own sowings are way behind, I’ll share some of the shop bought with an aunt who is just getting started, and it’s still cheaper than buying 13 fullgrown veggies from the shops (there were 2 in 1 plug! Bonus!).