Daydream fund challenge part 4

Davesnave

I think the whole country had a cracking day of weather, just for once.:j

For me, it meant starting up the mower again, although it made a brief appearance in January. Just as well, because the parts missed then are ve r r ry long now! Put it like this, we've had pheasants using the grass areas for cover.

So, I still haven't planted a single sapling from the box that arrived two days ago. Hopefully tomorrow.

Whizzing from one job to another, I've lost a pot of seedlings somewhere. They are 'only' marigolds, but they're a special strain that grow about 1m tall and I wanted them to grow among the tomatoes to discourage whitefly. Only 3 germinated!

My Morrisons only had polyanthus, pansies and similar stuff when I looked on Friday. I got a Lavatera 'Baby Barnsley' for £2 in the autumn, and now there's half a dozen of them. :cool:

I must also confess to a 'car park' aquisition - another comfrey:

http://www.bethchatto.co.uk/s-z/symphytum/symphytum-hidcote-blue.htm

I already have the pink/white and a yellow one, but I've been after a blue for ages. Bomb-proof ground cover, which is really needed here in the few shady places. My little 5cm piece will be many pieces by next spring.

Hi Fay, good to see you here, albeit briefly. :wave: 'Nil carborundum' and all that.;)

alfie_1

another gorgeous day here again BUT sharp wind round some corners still... where I am close to the beaulieu river mouth, it whips in from the solent !!


brother coming down from kent today ,so we can visit mum for mothers day. hes fetching me a set of harness I bought , he was close to where it was sold from [bay] its either carp or a bargain... we will see !


looking out on my now mown lawn lifts the spirits to crack on in the garden now. grass seems to like to grow in my borders rather than weeds and a lot harder to eradicate.. peering for up coming plants amongst it is time consuming !!
all the seeds I acquired "dave like" ae all pinging up... no idea what they are ,I just mix em up and chuck them around ....


hope you all have a day of sunshine wether in the garden or putting your feet up and chilling ...

Davesnave

alfie_1 wrote: »

grass seems to like to grow in my borders rather than weeds and a lot harder to eradicate.. peering for up coming plants amongst it is time consuming !!...

Like me, you may have annual meadow grass. People go on about couch, but AMG doesn't spread by runners; its seeds just fly on the wind.

....And it seems to have a 30minute life cycle! :eek:

Attempting to plant some hedging trees this afternoon.

Found the marigolds; they were posing as tomatoes, as everything's 4 to a pot at present.

DaftyDuck

Like you 'orrible lot, we too have been busy planting hedging (as well as looking after 20kg tiddly lambs and slightly faster & larger horses), and we are both identically injured as a result... of replacing a lightbulb!

Admittedly it was a car headlight - and the instructions merely say to remove the rubber cap, undo the clip, twist anticlockwise to release the bulb, and reverse to replace... Easy, five minutes! Except there's no rubber cap, the clip is welded in, and the bulb is up a tunnel behind the battery under the a/c and beside all the sharpest bits they could ram in. Ask the internet? Some say it's a dealership job, apparently Halfords won't do these, as they're on a blacklist of difficult cars, some say it took them two hours (and that was a mechanic!).

We refused to be defeated and, with a selection of mirrors, lying on the engine block and wriggling wrists into impossible positions, between me and my left-pawed vet-wife, we did it. TRIUMPH!!! We'd changed a bulb!

:T:T:T

... Only to find out an hour later after coffee that both of us had ricked the rotation in our right and left wrist respectively. So, we've been one-handed each for a weekend that was meant to be a planting frenzy. We are now behind. Well, further still behind. Been in this place for a year and four months, and I reckon we are a year and eleven weeks behind where we want to be.

Oh, and the heating controller went BaNg. I'm busy soldering patch wires onto the board, trying to get it up again. Why, when a cheapo replacement controller is only£34:99 at screwfix? Dunno, makes no sense to me either, I just like fixing things. But, I suspect defeat is in the air and, after this coffee break, I shall go and buy a new one, only to watch that blow up too, if there's a deeper fault.

Oh, for a new heating system... which is only five weeks away! Now, I could just wire a lightswitch in instead. Heating on... Heating off... Mrs Duck out doing the shopping, I could get away with it for a few weeks, without her even knowing it's not the timer switching it on, but me.

Tempting....

greenbee

Hope you're recovering Dafty. I'd have gone with the lightswitch myself - quick and manageable as the heating is being replaced so soon. You've got plenty of other stuff to be getting on with.

Despite the fact that I'm supposed to be recovering from a back issue caused by recent surgery (i.e. my back didn't like being in hospital) I've managed to get my trees planted and do the first cut on the lawn. Hopefully it'll be dry enough to lower the blades and get another cut done this week (I need to make the most of my sick leave... and mowing is good exercise).

I've had some trellis panels and a couple of fence posts delivered, so now need to work out how to get one trellis panel in between two concrete posts (they're 6ft high, so I'm not sure I can lift it up and slot it in...), then cut a 2nd one to fit before taking out a rotten fence post and replacing it to get the last panel in. This is the ONLY fence boundary that I'm responsible for and it's proving to be a lot of hassle - mostly because I'm trying to fix it single handed.

I've used quite a bit of old compost that's been cluttering up the place for 3 years (when I emptied the previous owners' compost bin as it was in the wrong place), but have pretty much filled up the compost bins (which are rather small) with turf from tree planting and grass cuttings. Clearly I need a bigger compost factory...

lucielle

Managed to get our grass cut at the weekend, love that smell. OH also managed to get his bonfire going that's only taken a million attempts to light.
L

Davesnave

I managed to get 75 hawthorn and hazels planted in the road hedge, which leaves another 25, but I don't think threy'll be needed, so I'll line them out for next year. Famous last words; some of of my earlier lined-out trees are too large to dig out now!

I also got more grass cut and all the trimmings from the elm hedge cleared before the rain came on at around 5pm.

Went to a viewing of the Panto DVD last night, which was fun. I'll post a few more pictures, as I've not had to wait a year this time to receive them.

In this one, customers in the Saloon are enjoying my 'tuneful (Not!) rendition of 'Stand By Your Man:'

Davesnave

And this is the beginning of the Can-Can.....In a few moments, when I really get into it, everyone rushes out of the bar:

( It's OK, I had clean underwear. )

alfie_1

Davesnave wrote: »

And this is the beginning of the Can-Can.....In a few moments, when I really get into it, everyone rushes out of the bar:

( It's OK, I had clean underwear. )

and you expect sympathy when you tell us your back hurts !!! :rotfl:

choille

Weather broken here again - cold wind and rain - you feel it worse after the warm spell somehow.

Thinking of getting a dog - hairy cat won't like, but he'll adapt?

Thought we'd go looking at the rescue place tomorrow, but don't want a pyscho - Hairy Cat the biter is bad enough.