Daydream fund challenge part 4

Fay

I will use Daves method instead. Only 2 pics and the after shot isn't the best. But I've been a little ruthless I think.

Before


After

Davesnave

Too tired to post last night. Had to work late with the brushcutter to spoil Mr Dog's evening after his mutts got on the nerves of people working here for much of the day.:p Wind was east.

I really didn't want to do it, but we need the ground cleared anyway before the apples start to fall.

Yesterday, the main water tank was swapped to a new one, so we now have a pressurised system which holds onto the heat we put into it. That's novel. :cool:

We also received a new front door, beautifully made by our builder to match the internal doors. Not cheap, but probably there for the next 100 years.

Meanwhile. I drove the 28 miles to Jewsons & back, only to discover that what the yard man had given me, wasn't what it said on the ticket........:mad:

Finally, Pete arrived with a 'borrowed' digger and pulled-out the foundation hole for our new oil tank. No excuses now; I'll have to build the slab and maybe do the block work too. I was going to have some of the young lads from the local youth care place to do the blocks, but after some of them ran off with someone's pick-up and wrecked it a few weeks ago, I'm not quite so keen now! :eek:

Davesnave

That looks much better, Fay.:T Lifting the crowns of the trees/shrubs has allowed more light in and given you much extra planting space.

I've never used that 'insert image' button. Might try in a moment and see what happens!

Well done for reaching the summit, choille. We're quite out of practice with walking.....and I'm missing it.

CTC, if the job means you can move faster with the ranch, then it has to be worth it, at least in the short term. I sometimes think I'd like a job of some sort to get me out from under DWs feet, but I can't see it happening, because this place takes so much looking-after.

lostinrates

alfie_1 wrote: »

My mother is off on a jolly for the weekend ! To stay with my brother in kent....
Otherwise she would come (so can I come still )

Of course you can!

choille

Lucielle - Hope DS is okay. It's a big thing & he may just feel a bit strange, but it may not suit him staying cooped up with so many others - after all of that open space. Poor thing. Good on the remark results, was worth having it done.
Hope the opposition stuff isn't too nasty & can be got round.

Well glorious day here & I feel that someone has been hitting me all over my legs with a hammer. But not as sore as I thought I'd feel. Still on a high with being at such height. Amazing to see our house from such an elevated position. So pleased the cloud lifted & we got the stunning vistas.

lostinrates

Fay, garden looks splendid! It can always look a bit scared- bare after an overhaul, but the great thing about plants is they grow back.

Any one any advice on what to do with a philadelphus? Its VERY tall, but just very ungainly, about four twigs going up over three metres. I'm under the impression they do not like pruning? Do I leave it be or try and impose some shape in to it?

Rummer

Fay, that is looking great what are your plans for the space?

Choille, glad to hear you are enjoying some better weather and that you got to see your home from a new perspective.

Dave, you are such a busy person that I am quite sure you would take a part time job in your stride and manage to fit it all in effortlessly.

LIR, no idea what that is or how to help, sorry. Sounds as if you have grand garden plans at the moment.

alfie_1

lostinrates wrote: »

Fay, garden looks splendid! It can always look a bit scared- bare after an overhaul, but the great thing about plants is they grow back.

Any one any advice on what to do with a philadelphus? Its VERY tall, but just very ungainly, about four twigs going up over three metres. I'm under the impression they do not like pruning? Do I leave it be or try and impose some shape in to it?

this a quote !


The secret of correct pruning is not really a secret at all - You just need to know when and how to prune your Mock Orange Tree.
As soon as the shrub had finished flowering, cut out all of the stems which have just flowered. Prune them back to around a third of their length. They will soon start to produce new stems which will provide the flowering stems for next year. Do not just prune little bits off the end. Prune right back into the bush.
Once that bit of pruning has been done, then we (you) go on to the next stage of pruning. Pruning out around one in three of all the old stems - but right back to near ground level. We are talking about a few inches above the ground here.

lostinrates

Great, that's a job for next year then! I wonder where I had got the idea they didn't like pruning?

Davesnave

Rummer wrote: »

Dave, you are such a busy person that I am quite sure you would take a part time job in your stride and manage to fit it all in effortlessly.

I hope you're joking! Yes, busy, but not coping with the extra pressures this year, hence my posts about losing control of the garden and bemoaning the fact that I can't keep pace with the grass cutting. :o

The trouble is, I seem to be out a lot, chasing-up supplies for the house. Today for example:

Another 28 mile trip to Jewsons to swap timber. Grrr! :mad:
Then a 45 mile trip in t'other direction to Mole Valley (chicken & moggy food) Wickes (sledgehammer) Screwfix (ducting) Travis Perkins (special fixings) Topps Tiles ( tiles, grout) B&Q (didn't have what I wanted:() and Brewers (special paints)

Oh, and I nipped into Tesco for a sandwich & saw Johnny Kingdom, pushing a trolley and looking a bit fed up! :rotfl:

Lastly, I came home via the weird slate & wood place near Winkleigh, where I ordered another window sill for the porch to be made out of the offcut from the kitchen one.:D

Anyway, along with chasing the kitchen co and the leccytrician + watering up the polytunnel and wrestling all the old pipework and tank into the barn..... that was almost my day. The last 1/2hour was spent on the phone telling the bank to stop pestering me....and not making contact with Mr Rod!

Not really much gardening or building in there.