"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it."

greenbee

Have sorted out lots of books now all the bedroom bookcases are in, and need more books 😈

handyman is here putting up blinds as it was tipping down this morning, so gardening clients cancelled - one blind has the wrong fittings so I need to call them again about replacements. This should have been done on Friday, but we discovered that there’s a lot of plasterboard round the reveal and weren’t sure the fittings would line up with the lintel - so batten has been put up to fix the blinds to. 

Cats are fighting on my bedroom floor. I need to swap out some blinds and then shower and change and clear up the kitchen so I can make lunch! Garden obelisks are being delivered today as well!

Jessy103

We went to donate some bits to the village thrift shop and they were selling 3 books for £1, DH had to drag me out 🤣

greenbee

Thankfully I have a friend who is clearing out books, so the gaps in the shelves are disappearing rapidly 🤣

House is clean (nothing to do with me and everything to do with my lovely cleaner). Smells marginally less of dog as I've now got laundry bags for pet bedding and as the WM doesn't clog up with hair I'm washing it a LOT more frequently (also there's loads of solar generation so I can wash and dry it without worrying about bills).

Thanks to a very generous friend I now a. have more plants b. more construction to do in the garden and c. the runner bean frame up (made of home-grown and coppiced hazel) and beans planted. Also some of the billions of cosmos have been planted, and three bags (out of 40!) of mulch have been applied. Lots of weeds pulled up in the veg plot (plenty more to do) and lots of ideas. Since they left I have put the supports in for the broad beans, so just need to add the strings to those tomorrow. 

It's going to be nice in a few years' time when the garden is more established and hopefully not quite so much hard work if I can fill it with perennials and self-seeding things. 

Lots of veg and tofu in the oven roasting, so hopefully that's food sorted for a few days (and waste avoided). 

Called about some incorrect parts for a blind, and they should be on their way so the blind can go up next week sometime. 

greenbee

Gardener here today doing edges and weeding, so not much garden time for me, but that's OK as someone has tree surgeons in and it's a bit noisy out there! I'm also a bit headachy as it was hot last night (I should have switched to the summer duvet, or maybe reduce the number of cats on the bed). 

Called Octopus and asked for another refund as I generate WAY more than I use so have racked up a huge amount of credit in the two months since the last one. They can't credit me without calling, but have changed my DD to variable, so I'll only be charged if I owe them. Checking my bank account, I've been with them for 11 months and have now had £90 more back from them than I've paid. So not only is the SC covered, but all the electricity I used before I had solar, and during the winter when I still only had the first lot of panels. So payback is looking pretty good - I've also used less oil as I'm using solar to heat the water (or preheat it in winter), and to run the electric towel rails and radiators for additional heat/when I don't need all the heating on. I need to do some saving before I can replace the boiler with a heatpump (and finish some other work) but it looks like it will be cost effective. 

I've sown lettuce and radishes in the empty planter by the kitchen door - it's been on my list for weeks, but then the others have only just started germinating due to the heat!

I've also dumped some compost in pots and am starting to fill the bed that I want to plant the squash in. 

Also on today's list is going to the picture framer. They are just over the other side of the main road, so not a major trek. 

greenbee

Picture framer was very helpful, and will call me when the samples he has ordered are in. It may be a few weeks, but the process has been started, and given how expensive the last couple of months have been, it won't be any hardship to put off additional costs!

Brackets for the last blind have arrived - hopefully this Friday is my week for the gardener and he can put them up (rather unhelpfully he wasn't sure when I asked him, as he does 3 weeks here, one week somewhere else, but he's had lots of medical appointments recently - now resolved - and is out of routine). If not, I might ask my mum if I can have the hours he usually does with her on Thursday.

Lots of old/unused tech unearthed from cupboards and checked for resale opportunities, and a pile of stuff is ready to be boxed up to go. I actually had the original box for one item, so that's earning me a whole £4 extra. I'm not sure why I kept that one (and it took my ages to find as I was using it as a monitor stand), as I usually only keep them for the first year as they take up too much space and annoy me. However, I do - theoretically - have the storage space now. 

Paddling pool filled up for the dog, who has a new game involving zoomies and running through/jumping over the pool. Along with trying to catch sunbeams in it. He's worked out (finally) how to cool off in it by lying down.

One more veg bed filled, irrigation added, and planted (squash - I need to add some marigold seeds and some kind of support framework), one filled and in need of irrigation adding.

Pots on patio all planted up (not sure all the tiny plugs from T&M will make it - their roots had done nothing in the week since they were moved into larger modules but some were flowering despite being tiny). Sweetpeas are in (well, 11 pots of them are in, there are lots more to put somewhere else) and three teepees made for them with 8ft bamboos and string.

Weeding done in veg plot. Lots of bags of compost relocated (still more to do) and last of the cosmos planted (I must remember not to sow as many next year - they have a high germination rate and the self-seeded ones are WAY ahead of the pampered indoor ones). 

Garden lanterns excavated from garage and put on the hooks/fencing pins being used to mark out where the new beds will be. I want to hang some on the summerhouse too, rather than fairy lights (which apparently aren't good for the glow worms - not that I'm aware we have glow worms). 

Today needs to involve getting the irrigation up and running in the bed I did yesterday, and weeding/filling the last bed; filling 3 huge plastic pots by the veg plot arches and planting climbing veg/flowers in them; putting up some more vine eyes/wire for three additional climbers that have been planted (I think I have enough); moving the rest of the compost; mulching the borders and moving any leftover mulch to the compost area; building at least one of the new obelisks and working out how to install it; mowing; ordering a new baby present for my goddaughter; packing up the electronics and arranging collection. 

Thankfully we went out for a very early walk, so that's done, everyone is fed, and the first load of laundry is on. 

greenbee

One more bed filled and weeding done. Lots of odds and ends tidied away. First obelisk built. It took longer to take the packaging off than to build it. However, I now need to mark where the legs are going and make holes 30cm deep. I'm going to hunt in the shed for some a metal spike which I should have (if not, I'll have to go and retrieve it from my mum's) which I hope can make a suitable hole. Long term it may be best to dig proper holes and use postcrete. I should probably decide before planting anything really. 

greenbee

I'm part of the way through the mulching (hoping to get it all done by Friday), although the weeds are already starting to show their little heads in the bits that were weeded last week! I've done lots of watering (so it's now raining), and I've finished the veg beds (apart from planting in the last couple of small ones. Climbers are now pin place around the arches too.

It's now raining, so hopefully that will help all the marigolds I decided to move yesterday. 

Garden waste bins have been emptied (they weren't quite full, but were VERY heavy as they were full of weeds) along with recycling.

Replacement insect screen for the door is here, so those need sorting out today. And more plants are apparently on their way. 

Work is busy - unfortunately I need a siesta just as meetings are about to start!

rtandon27

Haha rain has a way of doing that! - I gave my potted plants a good soak when I got home from the city yesterday - and of course this morning we woke up to a grey dismal rainy day!

greenbee

I need to make a @Cheery_Daff-style overly-ambitious list for today, as my mum and cousin are coming over later today and staying overnight to help me finish preparing for open gardens. 

• Pay gardener
• Call blind company (replacement for blind that was 5mm too small is EXACTLY THE SAME SIZE as the one that didn't fit)
• Check spare bedrooms and bathrooms are fit for visitors (refill bath cleaner in main bathroom) and that they have towels
• Clear dining table and work out what needs doing with stuff on it
• Take down fly screen on garden room doors and put up longer replacement screen
• Put up garden room fly screen on kitchen doors, and put up thermal curtains that were taken down for the summer
• Check whether pressure-mounted curtain pole no longer used for kitchen doors will fit one of the kitchen windows and if so find something to hang on it (old muslin curtains/dust sheet/sheet/spare fabric)
• Build final obelisk
• Cut long grass in veg plot
• Trim and stack coppiced hazel
• Mow veg plot if it dried out enough
• Move incinerator and tidy compost area
• Tidy odds and ends in greenhouse and put anything portable into small shed
• Tidy small shed so nothing interesting is visible through the window
• Clean windows on big shed
• Move mower into garage
• Tidy big shed (mostly full of cardboard)
• Clear sticks and bits of bone from grass (and check for dog poo)
• Mulch left-hand border
• Water small stuff in greenhouse
• Top up greenhouse pots with decent compost
• Ericaceous feed
• Shrub feeding
• Tomato feeding
• Swap round some fencing pins and lantern holders (currently marking planned new borders, but swapping them so they match will look nicer)
• Weed worst bits of drive
• Move succulent pot from outside front door to back door
• Move bits of granite from outside porch to behind shed with the rest
• prune dead bit of front hedge
• Remove any marigolds that didn't like being moved
• Pick cavolo nero, spinach, strawberries
• Sow spinach (? check for space in cavolo nero bed)
• Sow more peas (in new raised bed - put hazel supports in)

I'm sure I'll think of more things... 

Baileys_Babe

As you say a list worthy of Cheery Daff 😁

To save time can you throw a sheet or tarp over the things in the shed so they aren't visible?

Try not to exhaust yourself or your visitors. Have you worked out the priorities and what is the most logical order to do the jobs?