Daydream fund challenge part 4

greenbee

Warm and sunny here too, so I've strimmed and mowed (ideally need to do a second cut later today on a lower setting, but at least it's looking tidy now!) and started planting some of the plants that have been hanging around in pots. I always forget when I'm buying them that I'll have to find them homes!

I also need to start doing some weeding, otherwise everything will be full of rosebay willowherb and not much else.

Like Alfie, I have a pile of bits of greenhouse to deal with - I need to order new clips and rubber seal and possibly a couple of bits of glass. I'm beginning to wonder whether it wouldn't be easier to buy a new one! I've got a base - we used plastic grid filled with gravel to make it (I wasn't here when it was done, so I'm hoping there is compacted hardcore underneath it...), so in theory I can either tie it down with cable ties or concrete in fixings by taking gravel out of one of the squares. Hopefully I'll get it done soon as it's in the way at the moment!

DaftyDuck

Greenbee... If you buy some new clips and use some old, ensure you randomly spread both around the greenhouse.

My OCD tendencies made me do a really neat job last year, using all the old ones up first, before opening the new bag. Looked lovely, all shiny clips on the visible side!!!

We then had a storm. The differential tension on the old clip/new clip sides let the whole frame flex, until one pane popped. That freed the next to pop... and the next .... and onwards.

It was spectacular, it was fascinating from an engineering perspective, and it was f¥¢i ng terrifying in the gale.

I'd just use one type, new or old, after that experience.

greenbee

Thanks Dafty - someone else told me the same. It's always good to learn from other people's experience I expect I'll get round to it one day...

Having done a reasonable job of the mowing and planted most of the stuff that needs planting (I'm just rearranging a few shrubs to try to find the best position for them as I want them to provide some privacy where people can see in from the road), the garden is looking tidy and a few bits of garden furniture have been liberated from the overcrowded garage.

I just need to get going on the vast log pile on the patio... I've nearly finished the old logs, so should be able to get the log splitter out and aim to do a barrow-load a day from the new pile. ALthough most of them need chainsawing first as they're too big for the logsplitter.... so I'll have to be nice to my brother.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Evening all.

What a fab day weather wise.. youngest and his girlfriend moving out next week. So should be able to get some sort of routine back .

Spoke to ferretkeeper on fb a few days ago.. she is fine..

The plastic etc for the polytunnel has arrived. So after next week we should be able to get on with that. Can't wait to start filling it up lol..

After putting loads of weight on due to stress etc. I have now lost a stone. And starting to feel a lot better for it. So need to lose a bit more.. .

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Morning all

Trying to get back into posting again lol

Grey skies and rain here. What a diff in two days!!!!

Just about to have a cuppa.. no sugar and no biscuits these days.. before I go out and do some work in the greenhouse..

Bought a lovely bunch of spray carnations from Lidl. And taken a load of side shoot cuttings, so fingers crossed they will root.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Spring is finally, well, not so much springing, more reluctantly unfurling, with a couple of BOIING moments where the rambling rose and pyracantha have both burst into growth.

My small woodland area looks as though it's going to be the entire back garden eventually, as the patch by the shed has produced loads of primroses, cowslips and assorted other things (probably some sort of buttercup, going by the leaves) and the only other things that seem to be doing anything are all woodland type species. So, reasonably enough, I stuck some white foxgloves in there. And a mini wildlife pond/a rice cooker bowl - it's sunk in the ground, I put lots of stones in there for things to climb out or perch on, will get indirect light and hopefully will serve as more than a particularly interesting water bowl for the cats.

Unfortunately, there is no way for frogs or toads to find their way in there, thanks to the big brick walls - and a walk today showed the only wildlife pond (where, in previous years, I could have been naughty and brought a jar of spawn and some invertebrates back from) is both largely devoid of life and fenced off to 'protect' whatever is left/hiding under the two foot deep mud.

I know that places need light in order for more species to proliferate, but in chopping down every single tree, bush and shrub in a fifty foot diameter, fencing off the pond so not even a thirsty fox can get near and hacking down/trampling to death so not even a shoot remains all the plants that surrounded the pond, they have also created what looks more like a shellhole on the Somme, removed all shelter and habitat for existing wildlife, probably killed all but a handful of frogs hibernating (they couldn't have done it recently due to the wet weather - the fencing wouldn't have stayed upright and the people doing it would have sunk up to their knees in the mud, so it was done over the winter) and left the whole area apart from the water itself easily accessible for flytippers, who now won't get tangled up in Holly, brambles or mature, native trees on the way, so can travel further into the woods than they generally did. I don't suppose the Moorhens or single duck that nested there, undisturbed for years because of the shelter it provided, were particularly impressed, either. Every woodpecker tree, hawthorn, a huge oak and an ancient yew has also been felled.

It was sad to see huge swathes that were normally full of celandines (and subsequently bluebells) all just thick, gloopy mud. But I guess that's what happens when the trees and plants that would have thrived on the moisture and helped to keep the area together are gone.


Came back for lunch and now slumped on the sofa with a cat surgically attached to my leg. I'd move him and myself, but he's got lots of pointy bits and isn't afraid to use them to stay attached.

choille

CTC - I think that your pinks may very well give shoots and roots. They are prone to it. Good luck.

Greenbee you sound really busy and productive. I am sloth-like, vegetating in bed. Good for you hiding the road with planted shrubs. I planted trees and shrubs here before we built the house to do the same and I am so glad I did that. You can always trim when they get too monsterous.

Dafty - reminds me of when we lived elsewhere & I lost a greenhouse in a gale - it ended up 1/4 mile away all twisted on the golf course but huge jagged shards of glass were embedded in the grass in the garden and beyound- I wouldn't have liked to have been out there when it happened.

JoJo - that is terrible with the pond and trees. We are lucky in having a fabulous community woodland a few miles away that is teeming with wildlife - frogs and toads abound as does everything else. I have frogs and stuff on the croft - it has very wet areas. Especially this last year.

There was a Ferrari hit a pot hole just down the road and is parked up jiggered. There were four very expensive cars stopped and the passengers all looking at it. I think they were doing the NC500. I wonder if they'll sue the Council. It'd bankrupt them the state of the finances up here I think.

I've done nothing today other than direct OH like a bossy hen - which I am in a way. Gosh - I may delay recovery, but hopefully it will ease as I am in agony - honestly.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Morning all

Choille sorry haven't read that far back to find out what's happened. But hope what ever it is. You will be ok soon..

Sun's out at the moment. So going to hurry up and pack the eBay stuff and get outside and potter along.

I have had a HUGE problem with mice this year in the greenhouse. So I have had to resort to buying a few of those cheap plastic propergatar trays and lids.. And cutting down plastic bottles to cover plant pots..

This was the first year I shut the greenhouse door all winter.so the cats couldn't go in there. Will not be doing that again lol..

alfie_1

hiya ctc.... glad your back in "our land"


try making a cat flap in tunnel for your cats to go to war !
yesterday morning was grim, raining and I thought ...poop.
but by 2pm it was gorgeous ??
today the birds are singing full pelt ,the sun is shining and im still sat in my dressing gown my gardening efforts over the last 3 days have taken their toll and im as stiff as a board... once I get going again , I will be ok.... hopefully


just had a request to go to surrey on Wednesday to help finish clearing a small cottage that belongs to a friend . its part of a bigger cottage and her sister was living in smaller one till she got her own place [which she now has].. friend reckons theres some stuff I could sell .....


my bay sales equalled my months £s at the holiday let and the car boots start next week so that's what im going to do.
I have set my sights ,with a friend, on going to SAO TOME and PRINCIPE this autumn. its a little'ish island off Africa.. wont be cheap but one of the few virtually un touristised places left !
so every penny counts now


just looked out and all the dogs are sunbathing on the lawn ...which needs cutting again :eek:
put tilly and Kingston into the farm yard field on Saturday, long but rough grass as tilly needs to fatten up a bit, don't think she has lifted her head since she went in there...


why is it when there are 3 jobs that NEED doing but cant decide which to do first and in the time it takes to think that ,you could have done 1 of them....:(


hope you all have a brilliant week peeps xx

alfie_1

thought you may like to see what my Canadian cousin drew on my dining room wall for me whilst she was here....