Light the fire...

woodfired

I have tackled the border of doom in the garden. Our terrible, sandy topsoil that we brought in a few years ago continues to throw up awful large weeds including loads of ragwort and then a huge clump of sedge that I had mistaken for a plant. Dug through it all and removed loads of foxglove babies too, I'm overrun with foxgloves this year, I saw a lady on instagram who potted loads up and had a beautiful display round her front door so I'm going to try that this year. I can move the pots in and out as they flower which will be helpful as the foliage and dead flower heads aren't that attractive.

I was hunting around the garden for cuttings, I've taken some dianthus cuttings from a few plants I have overwintered in the greenhouse, hopefully they will take and can pad out my pots and baskets without any cost. My perrenial wallflower babies from the autumn are huge now and throwing up flower buds, I saw similar sized plants at the garden centre last week for £8.99 so that is a huge saving as I have 10 of them that I plan to plant down the long border in a repeating pattern. Sadly, my hydrangea cuttings didn't work, they rooted and started to bud but then seemed to rot for some reason. I will try again this year as hydrangeas really are expensive and I would like some more plants.

I fed and mulched my roses with bonemeal and homemade compost and used my compost in the bottom of some other pots, topped off with bought stuff (hopefully less likely to have weed seeds growing in the pots that way) so some very MSE gardening going on ☺️

woodfired

I've got a bit wet this morning out gardening in the rain but I was on a roll. I pre sprouted some mallow seed that I had saved from a couple of years ago, happily most of them germinated which I wasn't expecting. This morning I have made my first ever seed snail to grow them on in. Its basically a length of craft paper filled with compost and rolled up to form a 'snail'. the seeds are then sown in the top but they have about 6 inches of compost below to grow strong roots. Mallow apparently have deep tap roots so should do well with this method. I have planted a few spares in a regular shallow tray so I will be able to compare the quality of the plants in a few weeks.

I have cleared one of my small flower beds that has been used as an accidental nursery bed for lots of foxglove seedlings since Autumn. I'm planning a few blocks of foxgloves throughout the borders as I try to make my garden a bit less haphazard and a bit more cohesive this year! Its been very random up until now but that isnt how it should be planted according to the experts 🤣. So I've planted a couple of blocks into the big border and saved the best plants to pot into 4 pots that I hope to use as containers around the front door when they come into flower. Potted into homemade compost and old tomato pots so no spend on those. I tipped a couple of buckets of homemade compost onto the empty bed once I'd finished to feed the earthworms and apologise for the disturbance. Mr Robin was hopping about at that point, no doubt hoping to have a quiet word with a couple of said worms! Finally I planted out a primrose that I admired at Mum's, so she dug a clump up and gave it to me, and tidied the greenhouse as it was really starting to rain by then. A happy, productive and money saving couple of hours of gardening.

woodfired

We are back to rain this morning after a lovely week of sunshine. Many jobs have been ticked off, all indoor seeds are sown and most have sprouted. All borders tidied and cleared, ready for planting. Finished pruning all of my shrubs and generally got the garden all straight, it looks so much better. I just need to keep an eye on the greenhouse this week as, although it's going to be cloudy and wet everyday, the overnight temps look really low and I'm a bit worried about my tomatoes & cucmbers out there. I do have an electric heater I could use but it will be expensive so I'm trying to get away with putting them inside clear plastic storage boxes with lids as a second layer of protection. I hope it works, the frost isnt forecast to be hard, its just going to be cool for them and I want to keep them growing well.

Not much to report on the finances front, savings are up to £1200 and cash savings are at £600. No council tax again this month so should be able to add a little more to the pot next week.

Paid another £1000 off the family loan, that is now down to £19000, and also sent a £1500 payment to HMRC against my July tax bill as I realised that they pay more interest on advance payments than my tax savings account was paying. I also can't easily 'borrow' any out of the pot once it's safely tucked away with HMRC! I've left £100-ish owing so any interest earned can be knocked off before I settle the final amount in the summer. I'm going to make a start on DH's tax next as the same applies.

peb

Not being a gardener I'm intrigued by mallow seed. I take it you don't grow marshmallows?

woodfired

Hi Peb.

They are similar to the marsh mallow plant but have no relation to marshmallow sweeties that I know of! They are bushy plants with pale pink trumpet flowers, really pretty and seem easy to grow.

peb

How lovely

woodfired

Just back from a lovely Sunday lunch at a posh local hotel that DH still had a voucher for. Half the voucher used and an excellent lunch was had.

I've been busy these past couple of weeks, helping with sheep and out in the garden when the weather has allowed. It's been fairly miserable most days so not much garden progress - aside from weed growth. I've lost a couple of pounds of weight with the extra work which is nice, I'm not sure it's entirely due to the physical work aspect or if it's because I'm out of reach of the kitchen and snack cupboard for a good few hours every afternoon!

Had to bring my tomato babies back inside, they are not exactly suffering with the cold temps but definately aren't thriving either. I could rig an electric heater up for the greenhouse but its cheaper to bring them back in to share our warmth and hopefully a spot by the big patio doors, under the roof lantern, might suffice for a week or two without them getting leggy from too little light. We'll see. Everything else, including the cucumbers, seems to be ok out there so if I can revive the toms I'll be happy.

We've just topped the car up to a full tank, was on about 1/4 of a tank and cost £102 which is a scary amount! 178.9p per l paid at morrisons. Yikes. I feel for those who use lots of fuel for work, we are lucky that our car hardly moves as we work only a couple of hundred yards from home but my sister commutes 25+ miles each way, 4 days a week. The fuel prices must really be a worry for some.

DH sent some spare money back to the joint account so our cash savings are now at £1960 and physical cash is £750. We've had a low spend week, using up food from the freezers and eating out on a gift voucher. I haven't been out at all aside from lunch, had a couple of glasses of wine Friday & Saturday at home and kept the spends low. We are starting to see the impact as our savings have grown really well this past month, the emergency fund is rebuilding nicely. I will need a food shop early this week though, the fridge is looking rather bare now and the children are staring to bemoan the lack of interesting food and snacks!

greent

Thankfully, DH, DS1 and I all work within 2.5-3 miles from home, so our fuel costs are hugely impacted right now. DD does a combination of WFH and in the office - which is a 12 min walk from her house. However, both DH and I used to work 30+ miles away each way, so I dread to think how much that would cost now 😱 Whilst I'm looking forward to getting away more in the motorhome this summer, fuel is going to add a decent amount to the cost of trips - it's a 2.3 litre diesel, and I don't think the MPG is particularly brilliant! 😲

The fuel costs are certainly another factor for people - I can see it affecting people trying to save a deposit for a house and also impacting on families and days out ☹️