Path to the field, a new wall, a new tap and so much more (kind of)

The field at the back of our house is co-owned by us & 11 other households and its purpose is to not be built on.  This is looking increasingly important now that plans are afoot to build on other lovely green fields along our road!  Visitors may remember rather arduous access to it though that involved nettles & brambles.  I've now worked out how to mow a path - which involves flinging our longest extension cable over the hedge and following a few exciting mowings & trims, it is now possible to access the field uninjured.

Probably shouldn't have been wearing shorts though as my legs are still tingling from the nettle stings.

This winter, part of our garden slipped closer to the field as a combination of endless rain & timber rot caused a mini landslip.  This has now been rectified by a bricklayer who's built us a rather smart looking wall.  Phil & fabulous father-in-law reseeded & the new lawn looks remarkably verdant now.  I have ideas about adding a plum tree in the autumn.
When (if?!) funds allow, we'll get all of the remaining (and fast rotting) retaining timbers replaced in the same way.  

Phil loved our greenhouse at our old house, but I think that the garage is performing the function of man-space that most blokes use sheds for.  We use the conservatory for over-wintering plants now so there's less need for the normal plant protection functions of a full greenhouse - but we wanted a bit more growing space.  I got a wooden growhouse in a sample sale at work for ridiculously little cash.  Getting it home was a nightmare that involved strapping it to Phil's car's roof bars and driving very very carefully.  It then sat in the garage for a year, acting as a bike stand and potato store.


But Phil has now stained it & installed it - no mean feat as it wasn't exactly well made!
And he now has tomatoes, leeks and other seedlings in there.

And finally, Phil has replaced our leaking outside tap with one that so far, it is drip free.  I just need to fix some pipe insulation around it now....

But all of this is distraction as I really should be focusing on removing the wallpaper - I find it so hard to motivate myself to do inside work when the sun is shining!

Driveway

We've made 3 small changes to our front garden this year.

The only real floral brilliance we've had is this fabulously huge sunflower - grown up from a runt of a little plant I got in a giveaway at work!
It took forever to flower - but grew enormously during midsummer.  It's now got around to starting to open its flowers.
Sunflowers are a bit of a superfood as far as garden wildlife goes.  Pollinating insects enjoy the flowers and 
I'm planning to keep it where it is into the autumn so that birds will be able to enjoy the seeds.

A downside of a long drive is distance from the streetlights.  In our old house, I never had a problem finding the front door, but it's a different case here.

This fitting is solar with 2 LED lights with a PIR sensor.  It gains enough charge for the short amount of time we need it to work for.  Not having to mess about with connecting to the mains was a plus for Phil - but he spent some time getting the solar panel rigged up.

Mains LED light by the front door - again with a motion sensor.  It gives more than enough light for me to find the front door - and my keys in the depths of my handbag!

We've tweaked the PIR settings for both lights - but still needs some more refinement as the sunflower sets off the front door light in the wind!

Neither lights are security light washing in performance, but that's never been their role for us.

A bit of gardening

 We're not tackling the garden this year - it's a case of restricting our efforts to holding the wilderness back!  And that alone is a pretty big task.  For example, it takes me 2.5 hours to mow the lawn and I had to downgrade the mower to a lightweight flymo to cope with the slopes (and Phil is exempt due to hayfever).  In our old garden, we were forever pulling up sycamore seedlings whereas here, bindweed is encroaching everywhere as is a pretty but thuggish white geranium.  At least the sandy soil means that digging and pulling stuff up is easier than it was on Edward Ave's brick quality clay soil.

I've covered some of the veg patch with weed stopping fabric for this year - and did sneak in some spuds!  The aparagus bed gave us just 2 meals worth - very tasty.  I'm not as impressed with the tastiness of the raspberries though and may be replacing at some point.

Phil's made the birdbath watertight and has been attempting to make the patio a bit less uneven.  We've painted the fence - but we still need to repoint its brick base.

The clothes line is back in operation so I can start weaning myself off my recently acquired tumble dryer addiction.

And we've entertained in our conservatory - it made a good spot for lunch in the rain.

I'm enjoying the garden much more that working inside.
Wildlife: we've spotted a green woodpecker (on the lawn - very weird), goldfinches, wrens, sparrows, blue tits, great tits, robins, starlings & very tame blackbirds.  One pigeon fell victim to a female sparrowhawk who decapitated it & removed the liver on the driveway before flapping off!  She has been back and Phil's hoping she may keep the pigeon numbers down.

Tree Felling Day

I am a big fan of trees - we both are - but the large cedar in the back garden was guilty of a number of crimes.  

1. The surveyor had expressed concern about proximity to the house - and its roots were already pushing up the patio.
2. It blocked light from both the house and the garden as it was on our southern boundary. 
3. It was big.  Very big.

So, having checked out that it wasn't under a TPO and wasn't loved by the neighbours, its execution was arranged, timed so that birds wouldn't have started nesting.
3 tree surgeons arrived at half 9ish & completed the job by half 3, leaving us with a big pile of logs to persuade friends with log burners to deal with, a brand new view and loads more light.
I have counted the cedar's rings to set its age at about 25-26 years old.
So, just the turf to repair, nest boxes to put back up and a big decision to make - what tree to add to the garden to compensate?  It will be placed quite a bit further away from the house & current favourites are a silver birch or a hawthorn.....

Pyracantha

I spent quite a bit of today in conversation with a pyracantha, accompanied by a tree lopper & a pair of secateurs.  It was labouring under the illusion that it was a tree & was to occupy some of next door's garden as well as ours.  I've explained that it is a clambouring wall shrub & that it is welcome to stay providing it behaves as such on our fence.
I did leave as many of the yellow berries as possible for the birds (although they would prefer it if it were the red berried variety) - and have attempted to keep it looking like a prime nesting spot.
We've also discovered a rambling rector on the same fence.
I'm a bit stumped about a live willow arbour - need to research how to get it behaving.

Nearly a ha ha...sort of

The landscape gardening team have finished replacing the depressingly overgrown herbaceous borders with a lawn.  I'm so chuffed with the result!


My sole contribution was to paint the retaining sleepers (and my shoes and arms) forest green.

Husband's challenge has been to keep the moles from destroying it before the roots penetrate the soil!  They are forming mole hills under the turf - which give a very telly tubby/tumulus appearance.   


Tempting to keep - but not sure I'll be able to mow a micro-undulating lawn very well....

We both feel much more positive about getting the rest of the garden sorted out now.  Our neighbour claimed that the new lawn made it look very stately home - but I'm not sure that it's in Capability Brown territory!

Gardener has begun

If I didn't work full time, I'd love to have spent 3 months lovingly restoring the bindweed overgrown herbaceous borders that dominate the back garden - but sadly, we really don't have the time.  


Given our rat issue, we decided that living with the overgrown beds until we could find the time was not a great idea - so we've called in a landscape gardener who started today.


The guys have done lots today - all the plants are out although I think there is some work to do still on getting the roots out.

Boulders have appeared that were buried in the undergrowth - not entirely sure what to do with them, but I'm hoping that the gardener has some ideas...


We entertained our second visitor on Sunday - and this time, we managed to feed our guest!  James came over for lunch in between fishing and cycling - loved his ideas about using glass bricks, but I don't think that they are Husband's taste!

Reorganised Box City

Box City still occupies the conservatory - but is a bit better organised.  We went to North Devon last weekend without any cycling routes as we couldn't find the right box - and I wanted to track down some key kitchen items - shoe polish for example.
It took a morning to examine each box, relabel and sort into 3 areas: Books/CDs/DVDs, Kitchen, Other.  I wasn't aiming to empty boxes, but did manage to release 4 by sorting stuff out.
Found my most beautiful shoes!
Husband applied his latest purchase to the front garden - an electric hedge trimmer - and it's looking much smarter.
I've also cleaned out the food recycling bin that appears to have been used as a compost holder so we can start to get our landfill contribution down.

Rat Staircase Removed

The prickly shrubby climbing thing, acting as a potential rat/mouse staircase all the way up our front wall is no more. 
I got back from work earlier than expected to find Husband had managed to remove it - a big job for one person! 
We then removed the hedging that's right up against the house for the same reason, bagged it up to take to the tip.  The latter was hampered by being unable to find the secateurs - had to use a tree lopper instead!  3 car loads.....
I was curious how the front of the house would look without it - and it has definitely smartened it up.