Travelling On

themadvix

I’m sure he appreciated the change of scene and different ‘work’ to do - it seems that a change of the four walls is as much as people can expect this year!

apple_muncher

Laurel is a big beastie of a bush/tree! Well done him on cutting down/back so much of it. Do you think you can eventually get it in your neighbour's green bin? I am imagining you with a chainsaw. And a checkered shirt. And possibly dungarees...

Cheery_Daff

Glad you had a good visit KC! And exciting plans for garden redesign, wow. Do you have an overall vision? Is there anywhere else you've seen that you like?

Cheery_Daff

Oh, and I'm fortunate enough to have been able to avoid public toilets so far. My bladder is well behaved (not something I take for granted 🙄 ) and so far I've not been that far from home. Driving 45 mins to visit a national trust place tomorrow though so I might not be able to avoid...

Karmacat

apple_muncher said:

Laurel is a big beastie of a bush/tree! Well done him on cutting down/back so much of it. Do you think you can eventually get it in your neighbour's green bin? I am imagining you with a chainsaw. And a checkered shirt. And possibly dungarees...

Thats a great mental pic, apple   I think it *will* go in eventually - neighbour saw me doing my thing, and came across to cut up the first lot, he's filled it I'll just do it bit by bit.  There's a lot of dried out sweetpea stalks too, and I'll just put them in the ordinary rubbish, to be frank.

Cheery_Daff said:

Glad you had a good visit KC! And exciting plans for garden redesign, wow. Do you have an overall vision? Is there anywhere else you've seen that you like?

Thanks Cheery!  I think I want some raised beds, and I want edging around the ... um, edge .... so that intrusive brambles etc can be snipped back straight away.  I have a "proper" border at my patio edge, which won't need much rejigging, and there's a little piece of decking at the far end which has completely collapsed.  Don't want any more decking - there are ant hills underneath the stuff, I've seen them!

The rhodies, the witchhazel and the mahonia can all be pruned pretty hard, apparently, that will open out the left hand side - and I'm giving in and buying hedgetrimmers, not doing the lopping stem by stem - it took my sister 5 minutes to do it with hers, and it takes me hours by hand.  I can't afford that energy loss any more!

That says it, really - I'd like the garden to be as open as possible, to keep as many of the bee plants as possible (and plant more if I have to lose some), and everything should be edible, or complementary, or something I absolutely love (like scabious).  

Karmacat

Cheery_Daff said:

Oh, and I'm fortunate enough to have been able to avoid public toilets so far. My bladder is well behaved (not something I take for granted 🙄 ) and so far I've not been that far from home. Driving 45 mins to visit a national trust place tomorrow though so I might not be able to avoid...

Best of luck!  If I was with friends, I'd have been tempted to go pee in the bushes, but I know a *lot* of people have been doing that, and it might all get a bit mucky!  I would have been fine if I'd taken sanitiser into the cubicle with me, that was my mistake.  I hope I've got away with it, but if I come down with it in the next ten days or so, then thats the infection point, without a doubt.

I've just heard that an old friend in London was confirmed with a symptomless infection, but her partner (minority ethnicity) had 5 weeks in hospital and has a heart arrthymia They're both in their 50s, but the long form of the disease doesn't seem to discriminate age-wise, seems to affect every age group equally (don't know if thats true).

Anyway, have a lovely time tomorrow Cheery!

Suffolk_lass

We had a friend with block and tackle round to drag the laurel hedge out a few years ago. It is just too rampant for a domestic garden with gardeners like us (it was about ten foot deep and had been about twelve foot high). We replaced it with beech (love it) and I bought a middle aisle electric light weight hedge trimmer. What a revelation!. No battery weight to contend with, it was wonderful. I can do it myself now.

Karmacat

I might yet do that, SL, though it would have to be after I can employ somebody to mend the side gate!  I think I've been too kind to the laurel in the past ... no more!  Also, I've been looking for pruning instructions online for witchhazel, rhodedendron and mahonia - the first two will take a good deal of punishment, and even the mahonia can have individual branches cut back - it leans terribly, because of when I let the box hedge from next door grow so far over the boundary, when I was ill.  It's started to straighten up since I cut it back, but of course the branches that are horizontal, within a couple of feet of the ground, will never come upright - and perennial weeds/young trees are lodging underneath.  I have to have access!

Curating the garden is the most important thing today, though the financial paperwork is all over the house once again, cleaning for last week's visit took precedence. 

I've done a couple of YG surveys that were hanging around, still open fortunately, so thats 60 points there.  I do think the return on the time invested is worth it, even though there's very little gained each week.  Same with Pinecone (even better, actually).

Karmacat

Hurray, two little moneysaving achievements to report: I did a big order at Healthy Supplies, £64, and got a free 1kg bag of almonds, and used the mse free water goodies thing to order a plant testing tool for a plantpot and a shower head.  Loving the shower head, thats a big deal!  Off to do 20 minutes in the garden, I'm *starving*, but I don't dare prepare my lunch yet!

Karmacat

I walked into town last night, to check out whether any charity shops are accepting goods.  I've decided to have a little clearout - things that I'm keeping that are more or less useless but not really sentimental, that kind of thing.  Some of them are lovely - there's a dress in plum velour, a bodycon sort of thing, that looked fantastic on me when I was in my 30s, but frankly ... it will never look like that again.  I have a great pic of me wearing it anyway, so I'll have to let it go.  And there's a set of Felix catfood memorabilia that I was going to sell on fb - but, you know what, I just want it gone, its been sitting there uselessly, taking up space, for almost 4 years.  New me