This Time I'm Really Going To Do It

Watty1

@Suffolk_lass what a wonderful gesture.  I've been thinking about donating a lot to a womens refuge as some of what I have I will probably not use.       The cheap pump bottles work really well as hand wash so that was a money saving move but it will probably take me the year to get through them so I can cheerfully donate some stuff.

I walked up the steps to the horses last night in the dark. I did not take a torch and the working lights bought me so much please.  I was over the moon.  They just made me so happy.    Sometimes it is the small things.  I'm so glad I spent the money repairing them.  Interesting about the metal spikes but I'm going to live with it for the sheer joy of seeing my garden lit up and not having to find a torch!

Watty1

Facebook Memories have been popping up.  The Palace Garden Party yesterday and Trooping of the Colour today.  Both were wonderful days with the ex (not same year).    Different times.   It makes me wonder what was real and what was not.

Found myself getting maudlin so popped into village to collect books for book club from library and nice little haul from charity shop of 12 DVDs for friend in Refuge.    A couple I really want to watch so am going to see if ex left the DVD player in loft. If he did I can watch them and then gift them as none are free on the streaming services. Also bought a stunning bowl, which was totally unnecessary as I already own 2 fruit bowls!     Best of all I found two disposable BBQ at a £1 each.   I am planning to spend the weekend in the garden and the ex took the BBQ so I think these will be a nice fun thing to do.  I've already cleared two borders ready for planting up.

This really is "make a garden with what I have" project as so far I've moved a couple of plants, made a  rose garden area with plants I had for my birthday last year and realised I have an area under a tree where nothing will grow.  I need to restore the gravel paths (thank you google)  so I have bought enough membrane to redo them and I'm going to use part of this under the huge tree, weighing it down with some old rocks that are laying about and need a purpose and then in filling with a cheerful coloured gravel (yet to be purchased but I've seen some jolly stuff at Wickes online)    The charity shop bowl might be set in that as a quirky feature.       I'm hoping I can replant some catnip from elsewhere to fill in the spaces in that very narrow border which runs past the steps.      If I get that done this weekend i will be pleased.  That will just leave one border to restore but the very woody overgrown lavender is flowering so I'm going to leave that in place until the end of the season and just clear the rest.   It wasn't pruned for the last 4 years and I think it is too far gone to really restore so I will just enjoy this year and think about what to do with the space later in the year.

making the plans took my mind off the memories from the past.

ajmoney

Watty try pruning part of the lavender and leaving the other half. If the section you have pruned thrives, you know you can do the rest. I have done that with a lot of my shrubs including a forest flame that didn't grow on one side. It is growing really well there now! 

Starlight_at_Sea

Well done for shifting the energy when you began to dwell on times past Watty I find getting outside, or in water (bath, shower or ideally an outside swim) really helps. I used to apply the same thing when DD was little and out of sorts! 

Suffolk_lass

You could try the naturalised cyclamen under your tree, along with wood anemones and snowdrops, which like deep shade and will spread over time (also Japanese anemones for late summer, early autumn, instead of membrane and gravel. You don't say what sort of tree - they will normally grow and thrive under deciduous trees; less so under conifers

Watty1

oh lovely planting ideas.  Thank you.  I'm going to use those further along and see if they take.

The area I've infilled with rocks is about 20 inches wide and under conifers and laurel hedging. The laurels are about 18 feet and belong to next door and she loves them!.  Nothing has ever grown there, even ferns which survive dense shade according to the nice chaps on Gardens World did not thrive.  I've moved the one sickly looking one that did somewhere else.  Some ivy has set its sight on the fence and is climbing  the conifer.  It belongs to my neighbour, she asked if I would be interested in taking it down and then realised it was on her side LOL.  I'd be happy to go halves on it coming down but for now the area is good.

Am not sure about restoring the gravel paths that separate the borders. The design is a lovely one and I'm keen to keep it but it was just too much hard work. I've tried a lot of different ways. Basically the paths are full of weeds and soil.   My idea was to lift, wash the gravel, put down a new membrane and replace the gravel.  That turned out to be a lot of hard work and so far I have only done one wheelbarrow and that took 4 hours!  Today is a new day and I'll come up with a new plan.

Watty1

In other news I bought 39 candles for £5 in the charity shop. I love a candle.  The ex used to frown when I used them and say the animals would knock them over.    Since leaving I've enjoyed them.  A while ago I bought 2 wonderful pewter candlesticks for £2.50 in charity shop that need taper candles. Now I have enough taper candles to use them for the rest of the year and beyond.  Bargain!    

Watty1

Turned a £25 wheel barrow from market place into a giant sieve.  The VNM provided the drill.    Am really touched by this.  The drill was lent with no quibble and he kindly made sure I understood how to change the battery, how to charge it, how to make use it fully.   

This is such a contrast to the ex who would "take over" imply I could not do things and make me feel that doing something was beyond me.   The VNM man seemed to think lending was normal but I was touched.

Using the wheelbarrow sieve one path has been cleared and some blocks  found by the barn are being repurposed as a dividing line between the path and the border.   That should get done today and then, once that is done the border can be raked, given a final weed and I will finish up the planting.  I've found some plants I can dig up and divide and use as plants so all good.  I had fond ideas of going shopping for new plants but I'm telling myself it will be more fun to see what I can save and re-use first.

Have also weeded patio and swept.  Interviewed google. It is a sand and block paving patio. I think it needs a pressure wash and re-sand. That does not look to hard and should cost about £6 as the ex left me the pressure washer (which may or may not work, he left it, it may not!).

Suffolk_lass

We have taken to using the plumber's blowtorch attached to an aerosol can of butane to kill the weeds in our path. Just don't linger too long on each patch as some bits of the gravel can explode

Watty1

(Excited) a blowtorch.   Oh my goodness I've never thought about using such a thing. Off to google!