Daydream fund challenge part 4

Fay

Thanks so much for all the advice guys, I'm going to leave the badly effected bleeding heart in its pot and give it and the other plants lots of seaweed tonic and tlc. Hopefully it is weedkiller damage and can be undone. It's strange if it is that and spread by green thumbs because the rest of the garden is, luckily, unaffected.
The garden on the whole is looking good and is my little day dream coming good now. But there are so many Chinese or Japanese forget me nots (ironically I forget which one it is) and they drive me crazy. That, the ground elder and bind weed drive me crazy!

ferretkeeper

choille wrote: »

The plumber has been told to come back as that is what will make us be able to move into the house. OH won't get his operation until we are in the house. OH has gotten he really can only shuffle now & is in constant pain. He has taken to sleeping on a settee in the house as he wakes me every few minutes
The plumber & the plasterer are not great friends. The giant who is helping with the build has chased down the plumber for us & said - look you really need to get back & finish off. The plumber is doing this to everyone. He is totally tolllying us around. It's preventing so much finishing off of everywhere.

FK - kitchens are remarkably easy to assemble with a re-chargable drill. A very satisfying job.

Plumber is supposed to be here Monday. OH & I off out for the day as it's so depressing at the mo. Lambs are rudely healthy - touch wood.

What a whinger I am. Feels like we are so near yet so far..............

You are Not a whinger at all! What the trades types don't seem to realise is the impact they have on your life. It's always disruptive to have any work done but in your case it's affecting your ability to get on and basically live; add on health issues and you've every right to be p***ed off!

We have put in our own kitchen before but for one thing Mr FK won't be here to help and for another the previous kitchen was a rustic looking one in out old cotrager, quite forgiving! this time it's a lot more slick, nowhere to hide, definitely best left to the pro!

I will be putting the units together to save time, done plenty of flat pack over the years and I agree it will be satisfying to contribute. I'm not one for handing everything over for someone else to do if I can do it myself, so I'll be decorating too!

Just catching up on some Chelsea recordings tonight, feels like it's not firing my imagination as much this year, last year I painted a garden wall bright pink like one of the show gardens!

Do hope your plants recover Fay, considering some weed killers don't completely kill the weeds treated on purpose, you may be lucky if there was an accidental spill.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Morning all,

How are you feeling this morning choille?? Did you go anywhere nice yesterday?

Didn't sleep much last night.. Head whirling with ideas, and thoughts etc...

As we have been solo stressed the last couple of weeks treated ourselves to some lovely steaks and my noted lamb chops.. Bought 4 steaks, but forgot the boys are out and about, and away this weekend. so will just have to have steak AGAIN tonight .. Will make a minted lamb dinner Sunday or Monday depending when the boys are back...

Been living of beans on toast the last week or two, with things added. Like bacon or corned beef on toast lol.. So trying to get back to eating some better meals...

Fingers crossed the weather forecast is right today, so we can get on with stuff outside

Davesnave

Oh dear, I seem to have touched a raw nerve when uttering my building woes.

Really, I have little to complain about. Mr Rod, when he gets here, works very hard and does a good job, and the leccy guy has had severe personal problems to cope with, like a cancelled marriage and a house to now finance all on his ownsome.

Our builder is really a highly skilled carpenter and joiner, not a brickie or a plumber, but he can turn his hands to many things and do a very passable job. Unfortunately, like another highly skilled person I know, he just isn't great at the design aspect, or doesn't know the regs etc, so I realise now that, in those respects, I need to give him more direction.

I used to teach design & technology to kids, so the 'form follows funtion' thing comes second nature, as it's built into the design process....or should be. It doesn't come easily to everyone and it's not always directly linked to intelligence.

I well remember making wind-powered vehicles with a class containing some extremely able children - Oxbridge material, some of them. The most able of all made the worst vehicle because they spent far too long on the aesthetics, including a guttering system to cope with rain! :rotfl:Others considered more relevant environmental factors, like friction, little wind, or even too much wind, and designed accordingly.

As I said to them "Do you really think we are going to stand in the playground in the pouring rain, testing these things, because if you do, I can tell you now you'll be doing it on your own. "

It did look good, though, even if it didn't move, and I bet they're both doing rather well now.

Davesnave

If it's only a small pond Better Days, don't fill it with too many plants, because pond stuff always grows at a prodigious rate and soon you'll be having to pull pieces out.

I suppose elodea pond weed, being an good oxgenator, is a staple, but after that, a few lilies and a couple of marginals are all you really need. I never found anything that flowered for a long time in the water, except perhaps arum lilies.

Edit: My arum lilies in the stream are returning now for a third season. They are amazingly adaptable, also managing fine in the dry borders. A really hard winter would kill them outdoors, perhaps, but mine survived 2009/10 with only plastic protection.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

It just goes to show, whatever part of the country you are.. We all get similar problems especially with people/ tradesman within the building trade...

Lidl has an offer on 3 plants for £5 or £1.99 each.. Very tempted with their peonies.. Haven't got a clue about them, how big do they grow? Are they a plant and forget plant, or do they need pruning do they grow big??

Davesnave

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

It just goes to show, whatever part of the country you are.. We all get similar problems especially with people/ tradesman within the building trade...

Lidl has an offer on 3 plants for £5 or £1.99 each.. Very tempted with their peonies.. Haven't got a clue about them, how big do they grow? Are they a plant and forget plant, or do they need pruning do they grow big??

The ordinary peonies they'll be offering are pretty much plant and forget.

There are rarer kinds that go for serious money, like about £30 upwards per plant!
http://www.kelways.co.uk/product/intersectional-peonies/4/scarlet-heaven-intersectional-peony-paeony/89/

I_have_spoken

Shaping up to be a sunny day with me - at last!

First time the agaves and aloes have been put outside from conservatory this year, probably still too cold at night to leave them out 24/7. Will give them some fertilizer to fully wake them from dormancy.

Re-seeded parts of the lawn, although it was new turf last Easter I was a bit wayward with watering in the summer and the 'tram lines' didn't quite knit-together in a few places.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Davesnave wrote: »

The ordinary peonies they'll be offering are pretty much plant and forget.

There are rarer kinds that go for serious money, like about £30 upwards per plant!
http://www.kelways.co.uk/product/intersectional-peonies/4/scarlet-heaven-intersectional-peony-paeony/89/

Bloody hell!!!! Eye watering price, but on saying that if I was a plant nerd and was totally into peonies and wanted diff ones in my collection etc then I suppose I would have to pay it.. And especially if it rare

phoebe1989seb

ferretkeeper wrote: »

We have put in our own kitchen before but for one thing Mr FK won't be here to help and for another the previous kitchen was a rustic looking one in out old cotrager, quite forgiving! this time it's a lot more slick, nowhere to hide, definitely best left to the pro!

I will be putting the units together to save time, done plenty of flat pack over the years and I agree it will be satisfying to contribute. I'm not one for handing everything over for someone else to do if I can do it myself, so I'll be decorating too!

We've fitted around six kitchens ourselves now and apart from the very first, none have been flat packs.....it's bad enough assembling ikea bookshelves for the office, I couldn't be a$$ed to do a whole kitchen, lol :rotfl:

In our experience buying rigid is a far better deal anyway - no struggling to put together with the guarantee of bits missing and far more sturdy. They last for years too - our solid wood handpainted (by us) kitchen fitted on a past house some fifteen years ago is still going strong, three house sales later

The last four been bought unpainted - current one wasn't even primed - but solid tulip wood with mdf drawer fronts. Far less expensive than the likes of Howdens etc.

In the last house we opted for iroko worktops - not everyone's taste, but we're not splashy types - and DH fitted these as well. He's also built three large granite-topped islands, the last of which was a very complex design. I'm blessed to have such a handy DH

Health must always come first though - I know all about burning yourself out from bitter experience - and despite all these cautionary tales of unreliable builders, sometimes there's no option but to let the *pros* get on with it......just need to find good ones and often that's the hardest part

I do hope choille finds time to take a step back and treat herself if possible.....

Slightly dull here today but we've work to be done inside anyway.....ceiling to finish plastering, curtains to make, dump runs to do.....so no gardening today.

Have a good day all