A weekends work is never done

This weekend was a very productive thanks to the beautiful weather and the football that was on TV which meant Stu was kept well out of the way!

Saturday started early for me having a bit of retail therapy set off for town at 9am and spent too much money (shh don't tell Stu) on gardening stuff, got a blueberry for £4 in Wilkos, loads of seeds on 2 for 1 in Wollies and pots and seed trays all for a £1 in poundland. Got home with my bounty at 10.30 and then the hard work started! after potting up the blueberry and giving it a good drink, I set to work tearing down the Ivy off the corner and the roof of the outhouses as it was eating into the wood and drainpipe. Decided to leave it on the side as it gave good wall coverage plus with a bit of heavy pruning every few months hopefully it'll stay under control and head next door to the horrible neighbours! I then set about pricking out my toms but this had to be aborted as my mum arrived with the last of my boxes from home, I've finally cleared out the loft after 5 years of not living with her! also gained a sofa and some coffee tables for the conservatory so we now have a livable room, rather than the cats playroom! so after a few hours of hard graft there I finished pottering in the garden, sewing grass seed and the like to be whisked off to the supermarket.

Sunday wasn't quite an early start as was exhausted from Saturday and not looking forward to emptying all the mouldy boxes. made a start on the aborted tom seeds and chilli seeds so now all pricked out, also started transplanting some of the larger sweet peas as need the space in my propagator. Put them outside into my plastic greenhouse. Some of the toms already look like there not going to make it but that's OK as i prob don't have enough room for them all anyway! Chilli's all seem fine, think them need less papering than the tomatoes. Bit concerned the onions aren't doing anything so have moved them into the plastic green house in case it was a bit to cold for them. Planted up some other seeds, nasturtiums though will be lucky if they sprout as the seem a bit mouldy, petunias, some other flower i forget! basil and chives since the first lot went head over heels in the winds last week (greenhouse has now been tied to the guttering). all the mini plants in the greenhouse are being moved inside at night and outside during the day at least for this week as next weeks its supposed to get cold again so we'll see how we do! Spent a rest full afternoon going through gardening mags getting all the info i wanted and dumping the ones i don't, had a bit of an energy spurt and painted some more of my shed its looking very blue and Mediterranean can't wait to go and see what colour I'm going to do the top think it should be either a creamy yellow or Pink, haven't quite decided at the moment its very calm and cooling! Was planning to use the old pallet as raised bed edges but after spending 2 hours trying to break it up into something useful decided to was too rotten and was worth burning with all my weeds and holly bush cuttings, made a good fire though (in the fire bucket) it got rather hot and i spent ages make sure it didn't set the patio funiture alight or break it! Also had a bit of a brainwave whilst i had the jigsaw out (a girl and her toys) that horrible old wishing well that I've been wondering what to do with, well i've cut the tacky bit off the top and its now a very workable and nice looking planter, thought i might keep going with the blue theme and paint it blue too! its full of stones at the moment making it a pain to lift but once I've got them emptied and made sure its got some good drainage holes I'm sure it'll be perfect for something!

So all in all a productive weekend was had and lots more jobs now to do and add to the list.

Chillis

Woo hoo after moaning yesterday about my Chillis not germinating, I went home and surprise surprise they have decided to poke there little heads up! have given them a drink and left them in the sun so hopefully it'll get even better very soon.

Now a bit dissapointed with my onion sets as they sprouted fantastically in the bags now put them in soil they don't seem to be doing anything. Think I'm going to put them in my mini green house and see if that helps it maybe just a wee bit chillie still!

Also spent a good half hour today stipping more ivy off my outhouses and looks heaps better already! just soo much to get rid of and waiting for the neighbours to tell me off!! Tomorrow I may start on the conifer as need the fence space for my strawberries as It's a really sunny spot.

yey more gardening!

After the Winds

After all the winds of the last few days I've been out in the garden and cleaning up the damage, luckily nothing major just a few pots blown over and some rubbish i lavily left in the middle of the garden blown to the otherside. Only major upset was my new plastic green house blew over taking my petunias and herb seeds with it, so have brushed the soil into the cracks in the paving you never know something may grow!

After being very disallusioned with my seeds that a sowed 2 weeks ago after they weren't doing anything started surfing the internet for some advice and someone mentioned putting them in the airing cupboard to give them a head start then transfering them to the windowsill and low and behold 2 days later they gave a quick spurt and not have some slightly leggy seedlings that are ready for pricking out, hopefully this weekend if stu will let me, may need to get up early on Saturday and give them a head start. The chilli seeds don't seem to have done anything, so once I've taken out the toms i may put the tray back into the airing cupboard to see if anything happens.

After this boost with my toms i thought i might put my sweet peas in and within a day i started getting little green shoots popping there heads up, so again moved onto the bedroom windowsill, just have to keep on reminding Stuart that the cats can't go in there. so very happy at the moment.

Had a nice parcel in the post this morning of strawberry plants witch are to go into my half hanging basket though need to get a liner for it, so sat morning maybe a quick run up to Homebase or B&Q and get myself all sorted. I'm sure Stuart would be happy since he likes strawberries, to take me or my trusty little scooter!

Also had a wee look in my shed at the onioins and shallots i had ready for planting and noticed some of the onions sprouting so quickly put them in pots all ready for some earlies and them picked out the rotten ones so not to infect any more.

Been going into the garden most mornings (when its not raining) to tidy up some of the plants as the climbers and roses are starting again. Been slowly getting rid of the ivy that grows on out outhouses as its rotting the wood so thought it would be better to get rid of it, plus as I've said before i have ivy! The climbing winter jasmine has finished flowering so starting to tidy that up taking away all the frost bitten shoots and tucking in the stronger shoots to make way for new plants next winter. Also been tidying up the clamatus and taking all the dead wood out and training some of the new shoots, though need to get the step ladders out to get to the ones on the top, don't want it going on the roof of our outhouse so more training needed i fear. Got a few structural problems with the outhouse that I'm going to ask Simon (my mums partner) about when he's here on Saturday as hes clever like that. Think I need new doors and the guttering sorted also need to get more water butts!

I've got lots of Animals in the garden at the moment and hopefully more to come. The tadpoles now have little tails and are wiggling in there jelly balls looking forward to see how them progress as haven't been this close to tadpoles before! Got a new bird house this morning in the post, made from old estate agents signs, its really good, very excited and takes recycling to a whole new level! another job for Saturday morning to put it up in its temp position, though i may have to wait till after my tools arrive on the trailer from mums. The Cats have been in and out the garden lots and are learning not to go to the toillet in our garden but in our neighbours that we don't like, so thats a bonus! My wormery is going well, after constinly catching escapee worms! got a rain cap for it this morning so here's hoping that it'll stop them trying to escape, they've got lots of food and even worm treat so fingers crossed it'll all be ok and I'll be able to put a new layer on soon.

all looking good at the moment and looking forward to a productive weekend.