the daydream fund challenge thread

Davesnave

We had a bit of a frost last night and my peas were OK, as were the conservatory plants I've kicked out, but those had a bit of fleece over them. It's that time of year when plants are in and out more often than someone doing the Hokey Cokey in a silent movie! :rotfl:

Hellebores are easy enough, Rummer, but mine have to live in pots ATM, which they don't really enjoy. They like a bit of shade, so in the shadow of a hedge is good, or under trees where a little sun gets through...that sort of place. While dry doesn't suit, a really wet soil isn't wanted either; in fact they'll cope better with drought than waterlogging. Here's one I liked when it opened for the first time last month:


I don't really 'breed' our hellebores, I just put the best ones together and let them get on with it, but last year I had a bit of an oddity, so I took the trouble to cross it in an organised way. This year I have some seedlings from it, and in 2013 I'll get to see what the flowers look like! Of course, they could all be Plain Janes, but the unpredictability makes it more fun.

Well, the new hens have just been chased to bed in the hen house by one of the 'round-em-up' Vorwerks, so I guess that's acceptance. One of the more assertive Dorkings is proving more of a challenge though! I love this bed time routine.

Final score: Dorking 1 Vorwerk 0 :T

Rummer

They would be perfect for my shady border then, I was hoping they would be! I need to decide what colour scheme I want in the garden, I am thinking blues and purples would be nice.

ukmaggie45

Hi Rummer, here's a pic of our hellebores near the house.


Hellebore by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

They get a tiny amount of sun first thing in the morning, but are mostly in the shade. Back of house faces roughly North East. One of the inherited plants that I really love... Will be moving a lot of bulbs this year and getting rid of a lot more stuff too I think - if we have the energy of course! But these will be staying.

Poosmate

lostinrates wrote: »

OK, what's going on here, the white border where the tulips turned out to be yellow? Now the wallflowers are just starting to open an they are looking yellow too. What gives? What could be causing this?

You know the way men's wee is supposed to be good for the garden .......?

Well I was wondering if maybe your hubby has been peeing on your white flowers to make them really healthy for you and maybe that's why they are coming up yellowish?


Well done to all on your very busy days! I feel tired just reading about it!

I need some advice and would like you all to vote if I should do this or not. Here goes:

I have some EXTREME EMERGENCY money that I can access through my mortgage account. It's credit but would be charged at mortgage rate interest. The account is in debit anyway but I am paying it off slowly but surely. I am toying with the idea of using some of that cash to get my back garden levelled and secured. For securing I need 1 brick course on about 10m of wall and a few columns built on it - about 5 bricks high and then fence panels between the columns - I was thinking trellis to a) let the light through, b) let the wind through so it doesn't knock my wall down again, c) trellis will be too flimsy to be climbed over without bringing it down and making a lot of noise and should be cheaper to replace and d) I like the open aspect of my garden now - I don't want a solid brick wall or solid fencing).

For levelling, the garden is maybe 25-30 sq yds and is somewhat overgrown with grass, weeds, ivy stuff, blackberry thing. I can get rid of most of the stuff when it's cut (I have 2 wheelie bins for green rubbish for some reason - maybe the Council giving me a hint?), I could also use my neighbour's bin and the two who want to use my garden - so 5 wheelie bins plus a compost bin should be rid of it quite quickly.

I just don't have the time to commit to getting it done (plus I am scared of the garden), I feel very overwhelmed by it. My neighbour who will mainly be using the garden is no spring chicken and I think she finds it a little overwhelming too. I do feel that if I can start with a blank canvass we will both have more wind in our sails and more get up and go to get out and do.

I also see it as a home improvement (hence using the money from the mortgage account) and feel it's more like a "speculate to accumulate" spend rather than a spend for the sake of it.

I really don't think it will make much difference to my overall "Debt Free Plan" may even help it! But I think it will pay dividends in my emotional state.

So, what would you all do?

Any comments accepted with appreciation.

Poo

Rummer

Poo it is difficult to say one way or the other, maybe you could get some quotes etc so that you have a better idea of the costs and the impact that will have on your savings/debt?

Poosmate

If it helps any, I was hoping to pay a maximum of £150. I have the bricks for the brickwork that needs doing.

Poo

Rummer

That doesn't seem like a ridiculous amount of money to pay if it is going to give you peace of mind and a better quality of life.

Lotus-eater

Poo, for goodness sake don't get yourself further into debt to do up a bit of your garden.

You can handle it in other ways. For a start, you are thinking about the whole thing and it's daunting you, so you want the whole thing to be a blank canvas, well sorry, but I think the whole thing will still overwhelm you then.

Try with smaller areas, google Lasagne gardening, I think this could be a good way of starting. See if you can get any path material, cardboard got free from shops could be the basic one, if you have nothing else. But if you can afford weed control fabric and maybe something to go on it, to protect it, like bark chips, that would be better, but you could even put cardboard on it.

Or pick out a small bed area, try to dig and clear it, take it slow and look around in small areas, Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was any garden outside a gardening TV show. The rest will come when it does. Many people take on too much at once, starting small, means you can cope and when you can cope and have time for a bit more, then you can do a bit more.

I can't remember if you have access to manure or something like that, but if you can get hold of some for free, that's a massive help.

Davesnave

I agree with lotus, Poo. If the garden is overwhelming you, then tackle it the same way as those of us with big spaces do, bit by tiny bit.

If you do only 1m2 a week, then it will be under reasonable control by autumn. That's a lot faster than we'll achieve on our garden, which has an 'under control' time of about 5 years. It just isn't realistic for any of us to adopt a make-over approach, though sometimes things like covering up areas to control weeds can buy time and make things look better.

I'm not sure either about your costing for the wall, trellis and brick piers, unless you have a friendly bricklayer who will work for peanuts. By my reckoning, there will be 5 gaps to fill with trellis and that will take more than half the budget mentioned.

I don't want to sound negative; a 30m2 garden is an ideal size for one to manage and to take decent crops of food from. Digging weeds is the cheap bit, so if funds are tight, I'd do that first.

annie123

Poosmate wrote: »

I have some EXTREME EMERGENCY money that I can access through my mortgage account.

Poo, it's not an extreme emergency, new boiler needed is an emergency.

If you're finding it a bit much have you considered gardening sharing http://www.landshare.net/

I know someone who has done this with their garden, they have a great guy who is on the waiting list for an allotment so he is practising his clearing/digging/growing skills
They agreed it was for 1 year only, she got her garden cleared and dug over and he got free food.
What happened was he did his part, shared his grown food with her, she told him what to do and where to do it, and they like it so much they are doing it for a 2nd year and both learning together.

Just a thought
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