Be Excellent To Each Other

Thanks! It was 85% Russell, 14% Ma’s husband, 1% me, but I like to think that my 1% was the most important bit.

Your garden efforts are putting us to shame.

Excellent work Codds!

Current state of le jardin.




We have gardeners that supposedly keep it tidy, but since their boss moved to Kirby Lonsdale about a year ago I don't think their hearts are in it. They're willing to do tasks if we ask them, but the whole point of employing them was to do the necessary in their professional opinion. The boss has qualifications in horticulture and shit, and a couple of the people he used to employ were qualified, and did a great job, but they've moved on and the current team are really only labourers. I should really do more work out there myself, but I fall into the labourer category as well.

Look at ol’ Jimmy Two-Sheds here, flaunting his two sheds.

Could you find another gardener/team to work on the garden?

Your garden looks ace Mimi with all that hard work but as for the neighbours telling you what you can and can't keep, nah.. I'm not a fan of that. I'd be telling them what I was keeping if I were you.

Looking great, Mimi. We've always had a corner of our garden that we just never did anything with. Anyway this weekend I cleared and levelled it to lay a shed base. Awful job, first day was okay, but yesterday I was aching all over, get totally fucked off with endlessly moving dirt about trying to get it all level and generally just bitterly regretting ever having started. Happier now it's done, though and it'll be good when we get the shed in I suppose.

What's that you're using for the shed base? I need to prepare one but I don't like the idea of pouring a load of concrete or whatever goes into making a base.

These things:



https://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-gro ... pack/55689

Just google plastic shed base and there's a few options, these were just what they had nearest.

Thanks TheVision and everyone else That back area of the garden really has been down to Russell’s hard work. I think I’ve taken charge in the rest of the garden, but this was Russell’s graft.

The neighbours either side of us are lovely. It’s just the back-facing neighbours. I think they are just extremely entitled and self-important, and used to dictating everything according to to their own ideas. And of course, as their land is so huge they have not only the neighbours either side but also five different houses that back into them, so seven neighbours on the boundary of their garden. They also like to gossip about the neighbours to each other, which I just refuse to have anything to do with, but I know they’ve also spoken to our neighbours about us. Why are people like this?

I wouldn't be telling them anything, I'd just quietly get on with it. As long as you're not planting a row of Lilandias, some of that lovely Japanese Knotweed, or any other anti-social stuff, it shouldn't be of any concern to them and it's also none of their business.

We weren’t telling them anything. They just keep appearing over the boundary bellowing at Russell to explain himself, and saying ‘what are you going to do with that plant? Well, we want you to keep that. And what about this…’

If I’m honest I’ve not been back into the garden since the last round of it on Thursday. I need to get my confidence back up with it. The weather isn’t helping, though.

What a bully.

The weather hasn't been great has it? Our garden has gone crazy, I haven't cut the grass since the bank holiday weekend and tidied up a bit down the side of the house last weekend. The kitchen has been taking priority.

This is currently our mess.

The bees will be enjoying it though.

Oh, most definitely.

This is starting tomorrow though.

The second shed was put in to store some of our son's stuff when he moved back in with us when he split from his wife.

He's now moved out again, but hasn't taken all his stuff. He pops in from time to time to take something that he particularly needs, sometimes taking tools of mine as well.

And yes, we could look for another gardening service, or I could get my act together and do more of it myself. I used to think that employing gardeners was only for the well-off, but it wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be. And it meant that all I needed to do was keep on top of the lawn mowing between their visits.

I'll have to find some of the photos of what it was like when we moved in, in 2000. I was entirely different.

Those poppies(?) are gorgeous Jazzy.

Yeah, I'm hoping to keep them and transplant them to the bottom of the garden where the insect hotel is.

Neighbours are awful. At least those are at the end Mimi and not right next door! What a weird behaviour. Maybe worried about what you might be doing with it and incapable of being reasonable about the finding out?

Not to try and justify or excuse their behaviour of course, they should keep their noses out and leave you to it, just wondering if there might be a reason less obvious than them being bellends

Thunderstorms forecast? Surely the best thing to do is erect a lightweight aluminium structure then!

I honestly don’t know what they could be worried about, is the thing

They’ve asked us before, and we said we just wanted to put compose and topsoil down and plant some flowers (I’m hoping phlox will take nicely there). They just have lawn. Nothing but lawn and an astroturf football pitch and a cricket net (with one of those automatic pitcher/bowler machines). Obviously there needs are very different to ours, but even though, honestly, the cricket net might be ‘ugly’ to me (it’s not, because I don’t look at it and don’t care) I know it’s perfect for them.

How did your greenhouse skeleton fare overnight? We have absolutely torrential rain, strong winds and I’ve just seen some lightning flashes. Garden upright-ness is a whole new anxiety to add to my list of things to worry about this year

I nipped out and hit a few pictures of tomatoes between rainstorms.

Three varieties here (of six that I’m growing). Banana Legs, Amateur, and Costoluto Fiorentino.

Your garden really is doing extraordinarily well; our tomatoes - in growbags in a greenhouse! - are only just starting to flower.

The new greenhouse was unaffected as thankfully the thunderstorms turned out to be nothing more than "quite a lot of rain" which keeps coming back in fits and starts so no more progress today.

I think I sowed my tomato seeds quite early, on the advice of a super-eager friend who seemingly wanted me to live with a tomato jungle in my house for a while.

Do you have any interesting varieties growing? I’ve got some Thai Pink Eggs and Golden Sunrise as well. The pink eggs are the first ones showing colour, but I’m hoping they’ll grow a little more before they ripen.

Harvested some more peas today.

Upturned our first bag of Charlotte potatoes today. Really happy with this first crop!

They look fantastic!

Thanks! I blanched and froze most of the peas yesterday. I’m going to make veggie sausages and wine braised lentils today with some of the potatoes boiled up. I weighed them and they came to 2.4kg (5½lb) from this first bag. Hopefully the following two bags will have something similar in them.

Super carrot today! It’s great being able to just pull up and use carrots as and when they’re needed.

There was also a little side carrot

Are you sure it's not the same carrot?

/Perspective

I've made a bit of a start today.

Cut back some of the long grass, saved a couple of the poppies, collected the seeds and found a couple of acorns that seem to have taken root.

We have a couple of self-seeded baby oaks in our garden, too

Are you going to sprinkle the seeds from those poppy heads?

Unfortunately they are in funny places, so I'm going to have to take them up.

I am, I'm going make a space at the bottom of the garden and move the daisies there too.

I'm now convinced that Mimi lives 3 months in the future, it's the only explanation for this constant stream of food being ready so early in such quantity!

Progress on the greenhouse was slowed today by two of the roof panes exploding in my hands. It's a weirdly uneventful experience. Almost fun. Cleaning up is a pain in the arse.

Ouch. Any idea what made them break? It looks like they shattered, so hopefully there’s no injuries resulting.

Could it be where I’m based that makes a difference? I’m in the West Midlands, but it’s rained every day for two months (and I mean every day: today was the first line-drying day since May). I’d love to have some sunshine!

Ouch, hope you're okay, how frustrating though.

I've just found this at the bottom of the garden, any ideas? I've never seen anything in a pod grow like this before.

Leafsnap suggests rapeseed.

Yeah, that’s rapeseed. The plants have bright yellow flowers. If you have ever seen those fields that are bright, bright yellow in the countryside, that’s fields of rapeseed (for oil) and they look just like that. I think it’s also often grown as a green manure crop. There are thousands of fields of it in Kent. I’m pretty sure it’s one of the things that used to send my hayfever beserk.

Edit: assuming you don’t want it, get rid of it before those pods dry, and don’t compost them. Russell is weeding right now. I’m having a late breakfast in the rare bit of sunshine we have.

Your patio looks fab. Did you lay it all yourselves?

Loving the photos everyone.

Back in March I built planter. I'm really pleased with how the flowers I planted have come up. They've added a giant burst of colour right in the centre of my garden, especially the reds.

I've kept some space to plant things in the Autumn for spring flowering, and I'll probably be using the photos I've taken over the past few months to decide what to cut back, but for now I'm calling this a personal gardening win.

Yeah, I recognise it in fields, but I haven't seen any flowers on this, so it never clicked. I'll get it out today, thanks meems.

My garden bin is overflowing, I might have to start bagging things up - but I'm on to thistles and nettles now.

We've paid someone to do the patio. This is the first weekend Joan's has felt up to doing anything after being I'll for fives weeks, and we still need to finish off the kitchen yet.

@Kern that looks absolutely lovely, well done. I'm hoping we can start to achieve that level next year.

That’s absolutely beautiful, Kern. I bet that pop of colour just makes you happy. I love that planter, too. It’s so smart.

I think that rapeseed usually flowers in the spring some time, GJ, but I might be fleeing. My memory is fuzzy. I just have the impression it used to kick off my hayfever for the year

You’ll be able to put something you love more in that space, at least.

Yesterday I only really did an hour in bits and bobs, but I've been able to do 2-3 hours today, and it's already started to make a difference. I'll try and do a bit each evening after work now, but the clump of long grass in the middle at the back is all mixed up in chainlink fence. The stuff off to the right is all nettles and thistles, so it's going to be long sleeves and long gloves.

Really pleased I've made a start though, it's been lovely being outside today and seeing it change (appear).

Thanks for the concern. No injuries!

We're in the West Midlands too, albeit in a valley with its own little ecosystem and climate. Lots of things are failing - peas, rhubarb, strawberries... We are getting fruit on the trees but low yields... Raspberries, blackberries and hybrids looking ok for now... Tomatoes and cucumbers slow in the greenhouse... Gooseberries and grapes are coming in super strong though, as is the oregano.

My spuds and a Courgette

Your spuds are magnificent!

I am quite chuffed.

Are you going to put some more in for Christmas?

I hope that was an intentional “Title….”