Greenfingers...

Cor blimey! And thrice alive!  I have been on me sick bed this week!  I picked up a gastric bug last weekend and spent the first few days of this week either asleep or... well, I won't go into detail... oh no, suffice to say, I felt as weak as a kitten... thankfully I am over the worst (I hope!) and feeling a bit better now.  I dunno, I used to have the constitution of an ox, not so now-a-days!  Anyways, as promised... finally... a few pics from the garden.  This is my first year proper with the garden, we have totally landscaped it, removing all the trees when we first moved in, getting a big patio laid, letting a bit of a lawn grow, building sheds (well, Grim did that bit, I just stood around holding a hammer just in case he needed my expert woodworking skills) and finally, The Greenhouse that Grim Built!   I have always loved gardening with pots and tubs... I can't really dig over a garden and pots and tubs are so much more manageable... save for the watering which takes about 20 mins every evening but SO worth it.   In April, armed with a few packets of seeds and a bag of compost, I snuck off to the greenhouse and bunged some seeds into compost - well, how hard can that be right?  Actually... really easy!  Just remember to talk to them... everyday... worked a treat!

Aged P suggested I tried a variety of cucumber called Burpless.. he said that they are ugly as sin but really lovely... and they don't repeat on you (yeah, clue in the name lol)  So I did.... and yesterday I took this ickle pic... a right pair of whoppers!!!!  Today is harvesting day for the bigger of the two... they are a bit spiky and a bit wonky but hey, they are recognisable as cucumbers :O)  I also tried to grow another variety of cucumber but...erm... managed to kill most of the plants because I overwatered them!  Lesson learnt there!

I sewed my bodyweight in seeds... ran out of room in the greenhouse... it was worth it tho... but before I go all daft about flowers, here's a little idea I had... grow some ornamental gourds... and then in Autumn I will have a little pile of gourds to make a pretty garden display with... Here's the first one growing... I called him Gourdon *yes, rather original*

And here he is now, with his brother... erm... Gourdon II... there are several Gourdon's in the family now!

As mentioned, bodyweight and seeds... well, I had this vision that I would make the "sitting bit" of the patio into a little cottage stylee garden with wildflowers and stuff and what-not.  I was out the front of the house, supervising Grim removing the ivy from the front of the house - I had a very important job - expert ladder-holder-er no less!  Anyways, our neighour Ben comes out from the back of his house with a lovely garden chair and proceeds to put it in the boot of his car.  So I calls out "whatcha doing Ben?"  Being of nosey persuasion and all that.   He says he is taking said chair to the tip as it is broken.  "ooh, can I have it please?"  says I.... he looked at me like I was ever so slightly deranged and said I could indeedily have said chair... and there was another one I could have too...  Oh no, I only needs one... and then I told him why.   You see, in my vision there was this battered old chair with pots and stuff on it... well, I think it fits in perfectly!

Here's more of the "vision"

Those pics were taken on May 31st... and these were yesterday...

 

The chair has had an old enamel sign added to it... 

 Dwarf Sunflowers in a tub

When we moved here, we had a new downstairs loo and basin put in - the old pink one was revolting!  Instead of taking measurements and stuff like that, we went to B&Q and bought a handwash basin and gave it to the plumber to fit it the week before we moved in.  A phone call later that day to tell me that the ...erm... handwash basin... was a bit ... erm... large and that whilst it fitted, he now couldn't close the door of the downstairs loo!  Grrr!  Anyways, Grim got around that but cutting out a snip of wood so the door shut and eventually we got a new diddy basin which Grim duly fitted.  So, what to do with the old basin huh?  It was on the floor in the garage and I spied it, filled it up with compost and bunged some fuchsia's and petunia's in it and voila... here it is just planted in June

...and here it is now!  Recycling at its best right?

I shall away now - I have a busy day catching up on all the stuff I didn't do whilst on me death bed this week... Hope you all keeping cool and dry!  TTFN

Hels x