On Tuesday while I was at my woodcarving club my friend Jim pointed out that my model garden now needs planters and clothes. We'd been talking about my latest garden acquisitions from Aldi. So of course last night I made a start making the miniatures. I've just given them a lick of paint and when they are dry I'll make the plastic covers
Yesterday I spent pretty much all day working in the garden. (In between cooking a big pan of beef and veg broth). The broth was absolutely delicious and I have left a big portion for Tony's tea tonight as I'm going over to a friend's for lunch. We're a small group of friends that have been meeting up for a meal every six weeks or so for about twenty years. We're all retired now so last year we decided to take turns occasionally hosting an afternoon buffet and it's been great fun. We're planning on making soup through the winter months but Lynn is cooking chilli today. It's an hour's walk to get to Lynn's so I am meeting up with another friend and we'll walk together. I haven't had a decent walk since losing my best friend last year.
My garden is looking very colourful at the moment and the pond is settling in nicely. Last night we bought some watercress and it's hopefully going to root in a couple of glasses of water. I'm reliably told that it makes a great pond plant. I'll chuck a couple of spare bits straight into the pond to see if that's a better way to root it.
The pond edging strip arrived and we've installed it in the pond. Two metres wouldn't have been quite enough so I had to buy an extra metre. Rather than waste it we have simply used it to line the entire pond. We took it back out of the pond and removed the black edge strip as it looked a bit unsightly. I've just discovered that you can grow watercress as an oxygenating plant. The bags from supermarkets are really easy to root and are great as pond filter plants. Newts will lay eggs in the leaves. I'll get some tomorrow night at Sainsbury's and root it in water before I just throw it in the pond.
We don't all need the entire packet of seeds and it's lovely sharing with other gardeners. These are going to my friend Ali. We're online friends and are unlikely to ever meet but have shared seeds with one another for over a year.
And here's a birthday card that I've made for a family friend. I'm not great at male cards but Phil loves travel so it's quite appropriate
The pond is almost finished. All it needs is the pebble edging which will arrive tomorrow. Originally we had thought about using gravel and large cobbles but worried that they'd simply slide into the pond. I recalled that a friend had bought a pebble covered edging strip for her pond and to be honest it wasn't much more expensive than gravel and cobbles. I paid a bit over the top so that it would arrive tomorrow. It'll be perfect for frogs and newts when it gets established. We're going to buy some small pond plants tomorrow and it won't look so bare.
The strong winds through the night have tipped over my mini greenhouse damaging most of the seedlings that I'd been hardening off. I'm so disappointed as they were growing really well. The wind also battered my lovely white nine star broccoli which had just started to produce heads. It's beyond salvaging so I've lost this years harvest.
Today Tony and I have picked up a couple of bargains. We called into Farmfoods and bought ten blocks of butter for £10 and then popped into Aldi to buy a couple of veg planters. I'm making the most of every single inch in the garden and these two planters will be put to very good use.
I'd hoped to be able to get the pond finished today but we've had gail force winds. I bet they've caused a lot of damage.
Yesterday afternoon I set to and dug the hole for new pond. I had to move a few plants and bulbs to other locations and it's given me a decent size area for the pond. I'm planning on creating a mini village all around the pond. It'll be a nice ongoing project to work on and hopefully will provide shelter for frogs and newts. I'll need to make everything waterproof so I'm busy working out what would be the best materials to use. Today it's really windy so probably not the best weather to fit the pond liner. I'll have to wait untilnit settles down a bit
I've no idea what's gotten into me but I'm currently waiting to have my eyelashes and brows tinted. I had it done many years ago and I decided to book myself in for a bit of pampering. Then I'm going home to dig a pond in the garden. 🙂 I've decided that this is the year to treat myself to some pampering.
I've been awake since 6.30 and it's now 8.30. I've wiped around skirting boards and cupboard doors. Scrubbed the freezer and done a wash load. It's just finished tye cycle so I'll pop it into my little spin dryer then get it outdoors on the line to blow for a bit. The sunshine is a welcome surprise as the app on my phone tells me it's going to be cloudy all day. If you are a veg grower and looking to grow some tomatoes then it's almost the time of year to start sowing them. If you don't have a greenhouse then in truth I'd wait another month or you'll end up with tall straggly plants. Later sowings soon catch up.
