Saturday & A Garden Update

I wasn't at all sleepy last night so ended up downstairs watching a film in the early hours of the morning, eventually getting back to bed at about 5 o'clock. The knock on to that was sleeping in until 10 o'clock this morning and waking with that sort of thick head that you get with lack of sleep, but breakfast outside in a sheltered spot on the patio soon sorted that out. 

It's much warmer today with a bright blue sky and fluffy white clouds and despite a later start, it's turning out to be a lovely gentle day just pottering about as I fancy. It's the Bank Holiday weekend so I had no plans to go out anyway and so far it's actually a more productive day than I'd expected. The bed sheets are in the washing machine as I write this, there is a chilli bubbling away in the slow cooker and a bolognese sauce cooked earlier has cooled enough to be portioned out and frozen.  

I've moved a few of the patio pots again. It looked good from the house but not so good from the bench where I like to sit outside, so I've moved some of the smaller pots that contain the annuals and I like how it looks now from both ends of the garden. The pots of fruit and veggies are against the back wall of the house where it's warmer and is in sunshine for the longer part of the day. The mangetout and the chilli pepper look very happy but the beans and the tomatoes aren't doing as well. One tomato has gone completely - I actually saw it happen; there is one feral cat that occasionally ventures into the garden and it tried to climb up on the pot, presumably to scratch in the soil, but the pot overbalanced and emptied out most of it's content - this was a curved sided pot (imagine the bottom half of a sphere but wider than taller so very unstable) and as soon as the cat put its weight on the side of the pot it upset the balance and it tipped right over, snapping the stem. The cat shot off so hopefully it unnerved him enough to keep him away for a while!

I surveyed my estate and took some more photos 😀. Does anyone recognise the plant in the first photo please? I don't recognise it at all and it's the only one, so far, that I can't remember planting.

Edited to say it's Scilla siberica Alba and I did buy it when I bought all the alliums.

The allium (below) is nectaroscordum siculum and these will put in the middle level of colour in the centre bed. Before it started to open I thought the first two plants to grow were the other two pretty white and pink ones but it looks like only one out of the three of those planted has grown. It's disappointing if that's the case but I will just buy extra for next year!

M brought me some sedum from her own garden and that has taken well. It's been planted in two places and both are doing their job, spreading to give some ground cover.

Both clematis have been in bud for a while but there's no sign of them flowering yet. 

The white rose is in bud, but nothing happening on the rambler as yet.

And both of the dianthus 'memories' are in flower and looking good!

I had a lovely long chat with my neighbour, S, just catching up with our news and putting the world to rights as you do. Out of our conversation I have his brilliant suggestion for a cheap and practical solution for the racking I want in the garage. It's going to be a bespoke slatted wooden construction using the timber seconds sold in Wickes to keep the cost down. I'll end up with racking that is more than strong enough for my needs and it's something I can ask my friendly handyman to make for me. First thing is to ask my nephew to draw up the design and work out how much wood I need and then I have to buy the timber - it's the sort of thing you need to buy when you see it in store so it may take a while to get enough but doing it this way means that it will be a third of the cost of the full price. The timber is the planed pine that's used to construct internal stud walls but is classed as seconds because it isn't completely straight so can't be sold as perfect. S said I'll have to be selective and pick out the better lengths but it'll be ideal for my needs. 

I'll have a look next week to see what's available but am in no hurry to get it all done as this will give me time to dispose of the rest of the stuff in the garage. There's two big items to go to the recycling yard so I will ask one of my nephews to help out with that and once we agree a date I can book a slot for that. There's also the stuff I'm hoping to sell to the reclamation yard so I need to chase them up, and then there is quite a bit of other stuff to sort through. I think that can all be my June/July project. 

Later this afternoon I'm going to catch up on a few of the TV programmes I've missed and this evening I've been invited to a Zoom meet with friends so it won't be the early night I'd like, but you only live once!