My Garden Tidy-Up

28 Sep '06 9:21 am

Dear Bambi,
You have set a dangerous (but delightful!) precedent by showing individual photographs of your new cacti. Do you realise exactly how many of these furry creatures Eggy the webmaster actually has? And what will happen to this relatively cactus-free forum if he decides to take up the challenge! Aargh! hee hee....
Love reading your posts, hope you're enjoying the end of the gardening summer!

28 Sep '06 9:26 pm

Hee hee! Moosey I apologise for opening this can of worms Wink

If you knew my Dad, though, you'd understand - I am most definitely my father's daughter and his collection of cacti is stupendous too! Next time I go to Devon I'll take some piccies of them and show you all!! Oops, that's probably going to make it worse though, isn't it?!?!? Twisted Evil

On another note, remember all those bulbs I ordered? Well, they arrived the other day and guess what? They added 20 extra bulbs free, probably because I bought three lots! So now I have 80 bulbs to use!! Rolling Eyes

Oh well, looks like part of Mum's birthday present in October will be in the form of irises, crocuses and anemones!! Smile

19 Oct '06 1:01 am

Unfortunately progress has been halted somewhat as I've been feeling a bit under the weather the past week (horrible fluey thing that's doing the rounds!) so I haven't felt up to going outside for a little while. Consequently the weeds are having a lovely time of it – I can't believe there's still so much growth left in them at this time of year, but I suppose it is still rather warm at the moment - we're getting temperatures of around 18/19 degrees C still!

I’ve taken next week off work as it's half term holidays for hubby and I’m popping down to Devon to see the parents for a few days – must remember to take some piccies of my Dad’s cactus collection!! Wink

I’m coming back home on Tuesday evening so I’ll have a few days which, weather permitting, I can spend concentrating on the garden.

Really looking forward to a few days away but I’ll miss you all – I may try to steal a few moments on my Dad’s computer if I can Wink

I'll have to make sure I fill up on my 'fix' of Moosey's by the end of Friday!! Very Happy

22 Oct '06 4:57 am

Dear Bambi, hope you're already feeling better now and wish you a good rest and a great time with your parents. Looking forward to see your Dad's cactus collection and happy gardening on your return! Smile

22 Oct '06 5:13 am

...and no news yet?? And the computer at dad's house? And how about the ...animal family back home??( I am all questions....) But enjoy your stay with your parents, dearest!! I know how you' ve missed each other...I'm going myself to meet my sweet Alexandra and little Philippe next week in Oxford, and I'm SO happy!!I'll stay with them for 5 days... My Autumnal gardening work it seems it won't finish before the end of November...

31 Oct '06 2:17 am

Hello all my dear friends! I'm now back at work (boo!) after a lovely week off (yay!) and have lots (well, some Wink

) to tell. It's all rather hectic at the moment, and there's about a gazillion new posts that I have to read so, if it's alright with everyone, I will post my holiday report tomorrow! Very Happy

Unfortunately the idea of using my father's computer didn't quite work out I'm afraid, dear Liza, for various frustrating reasons, and I missed you all so much (in fact, being able to go online finally was my greatest motivation for coming into work today! Yikes - that sounds like I'm not enjoying my job, doesn't it? Hmm...) Wink

I hope you have a wonderful time with Alexandra and Phillipe, and that your beautiful garden will wait patiently for your return.

Lots of love,
Bambi
x

1 Nov '06 7:08 pm

Welcome back, dear Bambi and keep us posted of your hols when you find time! We miss you too! Smile

11 Nov '06 4:18 am

My garden tidy-up has now settled into a bit of a winter lull, with regular but short outings due to the lack of daylight hours (I know, any old excuse not to have to brave the cold!! Wink

).

Last weekend I did some more clearing up – I discovered that, back in the summer when hubby and I blitzed the whole place, I think we must have got a bit overenthusiastic and dug up my clematis! Shocked

Consequently, I’ve now got loads of dead, brown twiggy bits clinging to the trellis and next door’s garage (which abuts my back wall), so I’m slowly but surely clearing all that away a section at a time. It may sound mercenary, but I’m not overly sad about the clematis, as it was slightly overtaking the whole wall, plus I think I only saw about five flowers on it all last season so it obviously wasn’t doing too well. Anyway, I did get some pictures of those flowers so I’ll have those to remember it by.

I also finally dared myself to get stuck into the compost heap. It was put there by the people who owned the house before us and we’ve barely touched it in our three years here! I was afraid it’d be all horrible as I had no idea what the other people might have put into it, but once I got started I discovered that it was lovely!! A great consistency and perfect to use. There were the odd bits of unsuitable things here and there but they were easy to pick out. So on Sunday, I went to town spreading it all over the flower beds.

Whilst filling my third or fourth bag-full to transport over to a border (I don’t own a wheelbarrow – no really much point in my garden!), I saw something green and slimy move slightly which freaked me out a bit!! I touched it gently with a finger (gardening gloves on, I might add – I’m not that brave!) and discovered it was a toad or frog!! He was so cute and I rushed upstairs to get the camera, but unfortunately he’d hopped off by the time I’d come back down.

When I came back from Devon, you may recall that I sowed my sweet pea seeds (I also planted my Pinks out into a small bed just outside the sitting room window – pictures below), and last night I went into the utility room to fetch something from the freezer and I saw the first tiny tiny shoots showing through the compost. This filled me with such excitement!! Probably a bit silly, as they’re not the first seeds I’ve ever sown, but they’re my first in this garden so it’s still special!

My acer is now looking gorgeous aswell, as the leaves have all turned a glorious red, so I just had to take some pictures of it to show you all!

11 Nov '06 7:20 am

I love those trees that you can see from your window! Are the daylight hours really short? Like, when is it too dark to garden without a head-torch? I have visions of you in night camouflage with infra-red night vision goggles....

Seriously, there has been some fuss about the English autumn, and how it has been 'upset' by possible global warming. Is this just a rumour, or has autumn looked different? I got a mail inviting me to some amazing British autumn-has-gone-wrong conference. Sadly, I didn't go!

Somtimes I wonder if the more one gardens the more one actually takes notice of the weather - then the differences between years seem much bigger than they are, statistically speaking - not sure. Ask me about the changing weather patterns after a nasty winter snow storm like we had earlier this year. The worst in 50 years.....or whatever!

Bambi, thanks so much for all your chirpy (?) contributions to the forum! Lots of love to you, your garden and animals.

11 Nov '06 8:06 am

I love the look of your acer. And the surrounding plants compliment it beautifully. Really set it off. Smile

On one of the boards I go to where most of the members are from the UK, someone was mentioning they're in for a doozy of a winter. Brrr...

My Garden Tidy-Up

Friday has passed....

I'm Back!!

Whether the weather.....