the daydream fund challenge thread

ukmaggie45

Went to the house yesterday afternoon to meet up with Staircase Man who has now measured up the staircase for glass, stainless steel and oak balustrade. :j He was a little late as hadn't been to our part of Liverpool before. Meant I was able to finally pot on the lavender and lobelia plug plants. A few of them hadn't made it, but I refuse to feel guilty about it - was too sick to even visit the house and garden for 2 weeks, just one of those inconvenient things. We even had to cancel original meeting with Staircase Man.

The apple blossom is just beginning to burst out, the magnolia is now looking a bit tatty. Must try and get a good look at it before all the leaves come out as need to plan on where to prune come autumn. It's been pruned very oddly in the past and has a lot of crossed over branches. It's not a tree I'd have ever planted, have been fancying the stellata one for a few years now, but don't think I'll bother in the garden. If we have any more trees will be going for quince or apple, or possible cherry - DD1 is a real pig for cherries!

Left the potted up plants in cold frame with a layer of fleece over them. Hoping to get my blow aways up this week as it's further for the slugs to slither to get at the plants. Lost a load of stuff in the cold frame to them last year. Grrr! :mad:

Builder asked us when we're moving in! Told him that's up to him. Now the carpet's in we might start carting stuff over, we can always sleep in duvet nests on the floor for the occasional night. It'd be really nice to see what the garden's like in the early morning. We've never made it over earlier than 11am yet, so it'll be really exciting to stop over and wake up there. The birds in the garden are so flipping noisy I'm sure we'll be awake at crack of dawn! :rotfl:

Must try and get telephone and internet sorted out... Not sure whether to go for Virgin or stick with BT and current ISP. Ho hum, can't be staying over at a house without internet so better get onto that soon!

lostinrates

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Builder asked us when we're moving in! Told him that's up to him. Now the carpet's in we might start carting stuff over, we can always sleep in duvet nests on the floor for the occasional night. It'd be really nice to see what the garden's like in the early morning. We've never made it over earlier than 11am yet, so it'll be really exciting to stop over and wake up there. The birds in the garden are so flipping noisy I'm sure we'll be awake at crack of dawn! :rotfl:

OHHH, so exciting!


The rain has FINALLY arrived! Its not v heavy yet but the chickens had forgotten what rain was and so they are all in for the night already looking mightily confused. Hopefully we'll get a good drenching over the night

alfie_1

evening all

well iv gardened evry spare mo this week so far !! got lots of bulbs etc half price at scats. begonias, lilies, equiliga ,dahlias etc. think iv filled every spare space now !! threw various flowering seed everywhere so will see what comes up.....and where it comes up !!

iv done [planted] up my hanging baskets too. got more veg to plant but me thinks the garden is now stuffed !!

got the xray results back re DORA's hooves. she has a problem with one at the front so farrier is coming again tomorow [hes got the xrays] to trim accordingly.... if after a couple of weeks ,no better will have to see how she does with a heel inset so will have to get a boot for her... she's such a lovely gal i hope its sorted....

well done to all that have been enjoying the sunshine and getting jobs done, big or small... we have a misty rain this evening, not exactly ground soaking !!! but as pre said, hope its overnight...tonite ! will do the garden good.

im just going to eat now...cant get used to the extra daylight and keep thinking its earlier than is...so we keep eating later and later ! got a long day tomorow, chook cleaning out...etc theres 5 houses to do plus the aviary. then farrier.

alfie_1

ooooo gonna get me some of those chilli's to grow :T:rotfl::rotfl:
i dont eat them myself but.............:)

soupdragon10

Been wet and miserable here today not a really good downpour, but mizzled all day. Did a quick scurry to the greenhouse and polytunnel to check on plants - all growing away nicely and most didn't need any more watering, so just gave a thirst few a drink.

Gave me time to check over the snakes and change their bedding, now in a black bag ready to go to the compost heap. Wonder is snake smell would keep away mice and rats from compost bins etc???

Do hope the weather is better over the next few days as I have oodles of things to get done.

Know exactly what you mean about dental pain - had to have a root canal filing done last week :eek: was fine after , but awful at the time.

Davesnave

Waited for the rain in the morning, but when it didn't come, I got through two tankfuls of fuel on the brushcutter. Despite the dryness, the grass has grown like mad, so there was no chance of putting the mower over it. Treading grass cuttings everywhere now....
As I noted before, removing the bump autofeed from the brushcutter improves running costs considerably, as it was formerly paying out line to be chopped off by the blade on the line guard. With line at £18 a throw, stopping every ten to fifteen minutes to manually increase the line is a small price to pay.;)

The rain did reach here eventually, but it was mostly that pathetic drifty stuff. I went into the polytunnel and pricked out etc. Planted more courgettes, squashes, and even a few tomatoes, as I expect there'll be some late-comers for plants. My early ones are over a foot high and forming flowers, so we might be on track for a few fruit in June.:)

Fell asleep early tonight. Did my usual trick of laying on the bed and chatting to the cat (:o).... hence I'm awake now and full of the joys of spring. Pity it's pitch dark out there.....

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

Waited for the rain in the morning, but when it didn't come, I got through two tankfuls of fuel on the brushcutter. Despite the dryness, the grass has grown like mad, so there was no chance of putting the mower over it. Treading grass cuttings everywhere now....
As I noted before, removing the bump autofeed from the brushcutter improves running costs considerably, as it was formerly paying out line to be chopped off by the blade on the line guard. With line at £18 a throw, stopping every ten to fifteen minutes to manually increase the line is a small price to pay.;)

The rain did reach here eventually, but it was mostly that pathetic drifty stuff. I went into the polytunnel and pricked out etc. Planted more courgettes, squashes, and even a few tomatoes, as I expect there'll be some late-comers for plants. My early ones are over a foot high and forming flowers, so we might be on track for a few fruit in June.:)

Fell asleep early tonight. Did my usual trick of laying on the bed and chatting to the cat (:o).... hence I'm awake now and full of the joys of spring. Pity it's pitch dark out there.....

May cats sit on me if I wake up too early, forbidding me to leave bed. Becomes a bit of a drama if I want a widdle, they insist on coming with me and sitting bleary eyed and disapproving...

Yeah, it just drizzled here too. Apparently we're getting showers today.

lostinrates

No showers as yet.

Quick question ...anyone know of anywhere its possible to buy cattle fly tags in small numbers? I just need half a dozen or so. Not sure if its even still allowed to use them for non cow purposes.....but we are having problems w/ flies already because of the dairy cows.

RAS

rhiwfield wrote: »

Will post a photo of Winston for RAS, looks like its not a tip bearer.

Please rhiwfield. I really wanted to grow Winston because of its keeping qualities but was put off by the tip-bearing note in Crawford.

The trouble is the absence of tip-bearing notes in other books is no help, because they fail to list other varieties that I know from personal experience are tip-bearers.

Lotus-eater

lostinrates wrote: »

No showers as yet.

Quick question ...anyone know of anywhere its possible to buy cattle fly tags in small numbers? I just need half a dozen or so. Not sure if its even still allowed to use them for non cow purposes.....but we are having problems w/ flies already because of the dairy cows.

Have you seen those giant fly traps you hang up? You bait them with something and they are supposed to be effective.

I haven't got a link, but I think they are aimed at horsey and smallholders, used to see them in mags all the time.


Hangon........ http://www.redtopflycatcher.co.uk/ that one.