My Garden Tidy-Up

12 Nov '06 9:02 pm

Wow, Bambi! Those are amazingly beautiful trees you have, such a blessed view! Love those pinky red flowers too! Carnations, I think - I've planted this miniature variety before. Your garden bed is so cool! Wink

13 Nov '06 1:18 am

Dear little Bambi, you've done a great job!! Your vibrant Pinks are really happy! Next Summer they will make your heart sing!

You are so really lucky having such a view! These trees are SO healthy and happy, SO beautiful! How I wish, that my daughter finds sometime a little house with a lovely garden like yours! Her own little garden is nice and common(for all neighbours) for the moment, but her little house is really nice and bright.

15 Nov '06 4:30 am

Gosh, thank you everyone, once again, for your lovely reactions!! I feel so blessed when I read them! Very Happy

Moosey: the daylight hours certainly feel short at the moment – during the week, I get up in darkness and it’s dark again about 2 hours before I even leave work, let alone get home (I’m writing this at 2.40pm and it looks like dusk outside!!). At the weekends it’s not so bad, but I think it may just feel worse because the clocks went back a couple of weeks ago and consequently, it gets dark much earlier now, and I haven’t got used to it yet!! Rolling Eyes

Actually, I’ve felt that this year, Autumn has shown itself better than it did last year. I did notice a slight lack of all the traditional autumn golds and reds then, but this time around, they’re just everywhere! I don’t think it’s only because I’m noticing things in general more now, although that may well be a factor. My acer (yes, I know I’ve been going on and on about it Rolling Eyes

) is getting redder and redder every day; I looked out this morning and it’s almost cerise now!! I’m sure that didn’t happen last year.

So, I’m not seeing very much change in autumn and if anything, for the better; but there’s definitely been a change to our winters – they’re just not really happening any more! Yes, it gets cold (well, ok, nothing compared to what Christopher and Deb experience!) but it’s more sort of “miserable” weather: cold biting winds and fine rain that soaks you to the skin within five minutes! The last proper snow we had was in January ’04 (and that was a bit of a freak snowfall) – about 7-10 inches fell within an hour and consequently the little town I work in was gridlocked because we can’t cope with anything like that here in England! Had to go to the pub with my friend and stay at her house that night Wink

! Hee hee.

Anna: I haven’t heard what we’re going to get this winter, but I hope it will be a “proper” season rather than that we’ve had in recent years – plus it would prove me wrong in what I’ve said above, and I’m sure I can stand to be brought down a peg or two!! Wink

Jaqueline and Liza: I know I am blessed to have this view, particularly in autumn when the reds and golds come out, but my absolute dream would be to have a little archway (probably with a lovely rose climbing around it) in the back wall at the centre, with a little gate opening out onto nothing but fields and woodland! Smile

16 Nov '06 10:55 pm

Bambi dear, may your dreams come true and SOONEST too! Smile

22 Dec '06 1:42 am

Well, there's not a lot happening in my garden at the moment which is why there's not a lot being added to this thread, but there are one or two things going on, so I thought I'd do a bit of an update.

About a month ago, I was looking on our local council's web site for the recycling advice (i.e. what they can collect and what they can't etc.) when I noticed a link saying "free composter", so I quickly had a look and it turned out that the council were giving away composters (you know, the big plastic ones with a little door in the bottom to get the compost out) to the first 5000 respondents and luckily I wasn't too late, so a couple of weeks ago, my one arrived, totally free of charge, giving me a rather smug feeling (in a nice way, of course! Wink

).

That weekend, I dug out my whole compost heap, making a pile on top of lots of bin bags in an attempt a) not to lose too much and b) not to make the path too dirty. I then place the composter on the space where the old heap was and filled it up - tiring work for a little girl like me, I can tell you! Very Happy

The old compost was enclosed by wooden planks, but some had rotted and others had just fallen off, so now I've got a pile of planks, for which I'm sure I'll find some use (maybe I'll have another look at Christopher the Garden Gnome's garden to get some inspiration! Talking of whom, we haven't heard from our Christopher of late - hope you and Deb and Mom are all well and you have a wonderful Christmas).

I also sent off for a "free" New Dawn rose (had to pay postage and packing) from Gardener's World Magazine a while ago and it arrived last Friday - it doesn't look very much right now as it's just some roots and a couple of twigs, but I planted it out on Sunday morning against the back wall and I'm hoping for grand things in time!

Unfortunately that was all I could do in the garden last weekend as I was working on Saturday and on Sunday, my brothers came round for lunch (I'm not going to see them over Christmas so we did a bit of present-swapping and had a lovely afternoon with lots of food, wine and laughs!). I am slowly trying to clear away the dead Clematis bit by bit, but it seems it may have been there for quite a while as it has grown in under the eaves of the garage that abuts my garden and some of the branches are really quite thick! I've now got four huge bags full of dead wood to dispose of in some way - I wish I had a shredder so I could put it all on the compost but I don't think I could justify the expense!

Still no sign of my garlic bulbs, as mentioned in Pumpkin's veggy post, but I'm really hoping they'll arrive very soon, otherwise the ground will be frozen solid and I won't be able to plant them! Sad

You may have noticed that I'm "sending off" for a lot of things, particularly anything cheap or free, and that's because I'm tired of driving past the garden centres (two of which are on my way to and from work!) and feeling depressed because they're not open at the times I go past. Instead I've found some virtual garden centres which I can look at whilst sitting in the warm, plus I'm picking up on quite a few bargains here and there and it's exciting receiving packages at work (it makes everyone else jealous!! Laughing

)

Well, that's about it for now. I've only got this afternoon and tomorrow morning at work and then I'm off until the 2nd January. I'll try to sneak a look at the site over the holidays, but I don't know how much time I'll have or what chances I'll be able to take to fire up the computer at home, but if I don't speak to you again before then, I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and here's hoping for vibrant, blooming gardens the world over in the New Year! Very Happy

Bambi
x

22 Dec '06 4:00 pm

I wish I could say I'm one of those people who 'layer' things properly in their compost bins. I'm sure they compost down just perfectly.
But I'm more a 'bung in any old vege matter in any old order and then wonder why my compost doesn't look much like compost but rather dead rubbish' kind of person. Very Happy

Have a wonderful holiday break. Smile

22 Dec '06 10:55 pm

Hee hee, yes that is a little too systematic for me too - the trouble is, if you've got stuff to compost, you don't want it hanging around until you have sufficient "other layer" stuff to go underneath it (if that makes any sense!!).

You have a great holiday too, Anna Very Happy

My Garden Tidy-Up

Well done!