Daydream fund challenge part 4

Fay

Thanks for the ideas guys...some oaths (he he) seem in order.
Choille the roof was done in the early 1980s when the regulations were different according to the new roofer and it was done by the previous owner to the one we bought from, when he did the extension as he was a builder. His work leaves a lot to be desired full stop. Sadly the woman we bought from who renovated ignored the advice of her roofer and then put sky lights in that need the proper pitch, hence the leaks. All very annoying and expensive. That feels like the story of my life lately, annoying and expensive!
I'm going to try and play with pics now, so let's see if I can get them working.

choille

Yes, roof lights do need a certain pitch - we had one in a house above a bed that would leak. The bed had to be moved & we didn't fix the roof as it was all a bit shambolic & a long sad story..............

Recognise the expensive & annoying bit too - hopefully you get some better run of luck soon - as we all do.

Fay

Well lets give this a go then...I have lost faith in photobucket, it seems to give me a lot of problems.







So these hedges were in when we moved in. They gave us good privacy but they were all dying and despite having them professionally trimmed each year they had still grown a lot. So we took a deep breath and had them taken out. Then the fence fell down. Doh, but repaired now. It will all be painted the grey colour that is behind the bench (if you can see that-last photo of bench and no hedges I've just taken and its quite grey and miserable here). Bench will be done in muted clay all over and the arbour-thats the colour of the bench seat now. Then I am going to feed the beds and improve the soil this year and aim for planting in autumn. I want a couple of eating apples in these long beds and then underplanting, but with what yet I'm not sure lol.

alfie_1

my gardens a mess ! BUT my sister who is a cleanerholic [indoors] and her OH a gardener means when they look after this place for 2 weeks + in august [Canada] it will all get sorted


dull damp day here today


gonna stack wood for the fire and shut myself away for the weekend .....

choille

Brave ripping the hedges out but it will give you more light & space.

You have quite a good expanse of garden there Fay - nice with the different sections.

Good luck with the plans.

Alfie - you do right getting snuggled down by the fire. It's grey & foul out side.

Just painted two windows but down at the bottom of the tin & getting all bits everywhere. Off to make a coffee.

Fay

Yeah it's a bit of an odd shaped garden as that's only one part of it, we have other areas too. But it isn't massive but definitely big enough for me. Hubby isn't into gardening at all.

Alfie I think you have the right idea today.

Choille what about some progress pics from you? Sounds like you are getting there, toilet, bath, Rayburn etc?

ukmaggie45

I finally managed to listen to an interesting podcast about perennial vegetables on the grauniad website. If any of you have half an hour to spare I think you'd enjoy it. I've ordered some Mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum) for lottie and garden and a friend already. And now I@m wondering about some of the other stuff, and also which carrots and other stuff to buy from Real Seeds too! :rotfl:

Not really been out of the house other than doc or dentist or hospital since Xmas mostly. Though did get to have look at DD2's new home justabout on her birthday when she did a family get together.

OH is going to lottie every few days to get kale and carrots. I think soil is prob too wet to do much with anyway. Have onions and broad beans need planting if we get a dry patch.

Front garden is a disgrace, but when it just rains all the time I think most of the others in the road are similar... Though not as bad as ours! :eek:

Back garden has some self seeded Sutherland Kale in it. :j That's about the only positive thing I can say about it. Everything needs pruning.

Tea just arrived so gotta go!

Davesnave

I agree with alfie about using carpet, or any other strong material you might find for pathways. We have a path behind some of the herbaceous beds that started life as the very thick bitumen stuff used on flat roofs. It's almost indestructible.

Fay, that fence will look less overbearing in grey. Makes me wonder if my oil tank hiding fence might be better in a colour.....but I'll clothe it with plants anyway.

It was supposed to rain here, but we decided to bet on the forecasters being wrong and took the day off to do a little light walking. We won the bet too... Even saw some sun and blue sky! We went here:

http://www.swlakestrust.org.uk/lakes-and-facilities/the-lakes/wimbleball-lake

I reasoned that there wouldn't be too many steep paths and we'd not need our wellies....which was almost right. Anyway, DW managed a couple of miles and a walk around Dulverton afterwards, so it was all good.:D

Rained as soon as we arrived home! :rotfl:

Davesnave

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

I've ordered some Mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum) for lottie and garden and a friend already.

From Wikipedia:

"Popularization of mashua may be limited by its strong flavor, and its reputation as an anaphrodisiac." :eek:

There's an extra two letters in there somewhere! :cool:

That's an interesting list on the Grauniad's site. To it, I'd like to add my essential perennial salad/sandwich green, sorrel.

I'd better not comment on Oca. I started with a decent number of tubers on around 2011. What I have left now fits into a litre pot! I haven't done very well with it.

ukmaggie45

Davesnave wrote: »

From Wikipedia:

"Popularization of mashua may be limited by its strong flavor, and its reputation as an anaphrodisiac." :eek:

It has nice flowers though, and if it's perennial it means we have something that will come back and fill part of our plot. I'm a bit neurotic about not keeping the plot totally full of stuff all the time... The Committee seem to have got a bit weird over the last couple of years, so the more perennials I can get going the happier I'll be!