Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

Alexelisey

Morning all, hope everyone's well and keeping as cheerful as possible!

Well I have two little bits of news, first one is I'm halfway through my notice period at my job, because I just can't stand it any more. There are too many things wrong which I can't change or tolerate, so it's time I made a stand. I'm not getting any younger, and life is too short to spend it unhappy at work. I do have another job to go to but I'm having three weeks off inbetween to try and de-stress.

Secondly, I have a little herb garden! DH and I went out yesterday to a garden centre - to get him a change of scenery as much as anything else because he doesn't go out. The one nearest to me in Welling had an offer on their herbs of 6 for £9.00 so I spent some time choosing those. I have one of the blue shiny shallow pan/pot type things which now has dill, oregano, lemon balm and thyme in it. My other two herbs, to go into a different pot, are sage and a catmint (but not the one that makes them go nutty, that's Nepeta cataria and this one is N. racemosa). I also got some hormone rooting powder and took a fuchsia cutting. I wanted to get a rosemary but they didn't have any little ones (which would have been part of the offer) and I wouldn't stretch to £4 for a bigger one, even though they were in flower. They weren't that big, about 6-8 inches tall. So I bought a bunch of rosemary in my nearest big supermarket last night and am trying to strike a cutting of that :rotfl:

Also on Friday I bought 3 double fuchsias in the same supermarket for £1 each, lovely looking plants, plenty of cutting material and great value for money. If you like fuchsias and you have a supermarket chain beginning with M near you, you may be in luck! My mum, on the Suffolk coast, says their one (smaller than mine) doesn't have good plants.

Well that's all my news. Long-distance waves and hugs to our missing dreamers, hope they're back soon! Can't wait for boglet news CTC, and quail pics. And Lucielle's puppy updates (any pics please?)

Enjoy your Sunday, everyone! :grouphug:

COOLTRIKERCHICK

morning all,


we stayed home last night..will go up the ranch later...


it was cold yesterday... not a pleasant day.. so got hubby to light the fire, as the house felt very cold...


at the moment it looks as though there is a lovely blue sky out there...


On BBC 2 on Tuesday night 8pm I think there is a new programme on allotment/growing I think its a competition to find the best grower???


Davesnave.. hubby managed to get a roll of that stuff in orange from one of the amenity sites....

Davesnave

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

Davesnave.. hubby managed to get a roll of that stuff in orange from one of the amenity sites....

Yes, I was given one too by BiL, though orange wouldn't be my choice! :rotfl:

There are lots of different nets and barriers that could be used, and for those of us who can't bash in fence posts solidly, a hole back-filled with dry weak concrete mix and watered-in is pretty sound.

There's no free lunch exactly with hedging (well, actually there is, see below!), but forward planning makes it so much cheaper. For anyone taking over a large garden or smallholding, I'd say try to predict what you'll need a few years hence and grow it. Payback is often better than veg. (There's controversial!)

For example, our hornbeam hedging cost 32p a plant, but we were willing to grow on the small slips in a nursery bed. Same with the formal yew hedging, which were cheap when very small. Most of the trees we've planted this winter have been with us for 1 or 2 years.

The laurels I either dug up in a local wood where they are trying (unsuccessfully!) to get rid of them, or I grew them from seeds picked up at the side of the road in Winkleigh.

The 30 cotoneasters we've just used were all seedlings from our old garden. Likewise, the hawthorns were from berries I picked in a Dorset lay-by, where the landscaping bushes looked especially good.

People laugh when they hear I've grown stuff from seeds picked up all over the place, but very little goes to waste. There's always fetes and fund-raising sales for the spares.

Not everything grows, though. I can't get holm oak to germinate, for example, but my berberis from Lidl's car park came up like weeds.

Then there are the surprises.....The 'inulas' that I thought would make great wildlife-friendly plants for a semi wild place have been puzzling me for a while. Now they've almost started flowering, I realise I've grown some perennial wallflowers. :o

Rummer

Dave you are so resourceful!

CTC I think mummy pig is far too comfy now and knows you are going to spoil her so she is keeping those piglets where they are for a bit longer

Alex The herb garden sounds exciting, I love mine

Rumlet is having a wee growth spurt so we are spending a lot of time sitting still watching the fine weather pass by. However I am scheming a better way of managing my day in the hope we can get out more.

Today I am determined to go to the garden centre and choose some things for my borders.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Rummer I think you might be right..... she is now has a liking for jelly babies... I had a pack in my pocket and she was sniffing them, so I gave her one.... bad move, as she now extends her bottom lip ( A bit like a monkey when they eat lol) every time I go near her... its like she is asking for a treat lol...Its clean out day here with the quails, they have all been in together, but today I am now putting them into their little groups, 3 females to one male......

Better_Days

Ah piggy eating jelly babies - about as spoilt as my chickens who do like their grape slices.:D

Dave, you mentioned pea netting. Is that something I will need for my peas when I plant them out? The second lot are now coming through in my mini greenhouse (no mice damage so far).

Alexelisey it's a big move changing jobs, but sounds like it was the right decision - hope you are much happier in your new workplace. And you've beaten me on the herb garden.:cool: I have one planned, but Mr BD still has to make the raised beds for me. To be fair he has run 6 miles this morning, so I have permitted him a rest with a cuppa watching the London Marathon, before cracking on with painting the shed.

I plan to pot on some seedlings today and start off some more, at that 'running out of space' time of year now. Really could do with a greenhouse.

Talking about hedges we are thinking about taking down the leylandi at the bottom of the garden. They are ugly and you can now see bald trunks following the shed move. I like a laurel or holly hedge, but they are both slow growing. Beech is nice too.

Someone was asking about prickly hedges, was it CTC ?- what about pyracanthia - prickly, and fast growing and lovely berries - I had red and orange at the last house, blackbirds scoffed the lot:rotfl:Thinking about it - at the first house we bought I planted pyracanthias all round the edge of the front garden to stop the neighbourhood kids cycling and running across there. Worked pretty well

I_have_spoken

After dodging showers all morning, looks like that's the rain on for the day so have packed in the gardening. Was getting tired anyway and wrist starting to ache from shoveling.

Late lunch of home made spag-bol and a cheeky Bordeaux :T

Got the eastern facing beds tilled. The £90 electric tiller is great. Just have to barrow in the remain 400Kg (ish) of topsoil and can think about planting.

Am trying to resist planting everything close together, leaving space for the dahlias in the south facing beds once any chance of frost has passed. Also leaving space for planned trip to one of Scotland's specialist nurseries for plants which like really damp soil which I'd never see in Dobbies.

Rummer

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Also leaving space for planned trip to one of Scotland's specialist nurseries for plants which like really damp soil which I'd never see in Dobbies.

Which nursery would that be? We are taking a trip to the Highlands over the summer and are going to go via Poyntzfield Herb Nursery to pick up some unusual herbs. As we have a really damp bit in our garden some specialist plants would be great

Well today I finally made it to the garden centre and I bought plants for my sunny border :j:j:j Please do not break my heart by telling me they are unsuitable..... I came home with:

Lavender
Hebe - red rum
Lupins
Ceanothus Puget blue

They will have annuals planted around them too

rozeepozee

I'm away with the children at the in-laws and it's proving very stressful. The house is small and theres no outside space to speak of. Mother in law is wonderful, but FIL is not in the best of health and clearly finds four noisy grandchildren (another cousin is staying too) hard to tolerate. God give me strength!

There's been a flurry of relationship breakdowns in the village. Most of couples with children under five. The demands of caring for small kids is certainly enough to send the most stable half deranged!

lostinrates

I think today we are going to accept we are giving up the dream.


We're not moving, but we are beginning to accept my physical limitations are becoming dramatically less predictable and that the idea of more livestock is stressful and hindering rather than joyful and liberating. So, no new layers for me.

Today I have been rather unwell. Just over a week ago I saw a consultant who though his first instinct he ruled out immediately found some other things in blood tests after a fright ful blood pressure reading ...something a.isn't to me, which might mean I am moving back to a position where we can make head way, where the risk of the sort of supportive wait and see approach of treating symptoms is no longer the route taken in my care. I will be delighted if that's the case.

Today has been a low, I have failed to meet very basic physical demands and despite the sun I am now going to bath and bed. . The weather the dreamers dream of is here.....and I have to leave it.

It seems rather silly to keep pushing things for more right now. .

Who knows, maybe next weekend will seem brighter in a different way.