Digging for Victory

These are strange times, we are in the midst of a global coronavirus pandemic.  There have been food shortages in the shops, not from problem in the food supply chain, but from people panic buying after restrictions were brought in.  This has now settled down and the supermarket shelves are fully stocked once more, but nonetheless we decided now would be a good time to expand the veg patch and dig for victory!

My Green Bug

This is my new happy place.  The greenhouse is now finished, all that remains is for me to fill it with seedlings and plants.  And maybe a nice chair to sit in and drink tea and eat scones!

Goodbye number 2 shed

Earlier this week the asbestos removal team took away the roof or our old 'number 2' shed.  Pyromania is never far from Sunnyside (we do love a good old blaze!), and today we had one of our biggest fires yet.  The poor trees behind suffered more than a bit of singeing, but fortunately Mark managed to put them out with the hose before it became necessary to call in the fire brigade!  Now all that remains is a pile of scrap metal and ash.  A rather exciting day in the garden!

The long awaited greenhouse

It has seemed like such a long time coming, but that's because it has been a long time.  Greenhouse envy was recorded here seven years ago in 2012, and after much saving, Robin McGregor has arrived to begin its construction.  I have never seen anyone work so hard and so meticulously.  He arrived mid afternoon to discover the builders' merchant had delivered the wrong bricks, spent much of the afternoon sorting that out, and then worked until late into the evening barrowing bricks up the garden the designated spot and digging the foundations.  He has spent three days camped out on our drive, working from dawn until dark to get the base ready.  He is now back in Wales constructing the frame and will be back soon to finish the job.  We are very pleased with the results so far, and excited that our greenhouse dream will soon be a reality.

The height of summer

The foxgloves are now coming to an end and I left it too late to photograph them in all their glory, but the roses are still flowering their socks off, especially New Dawn, which is surely the best rose of all time.

Early May 2018

Mark is mending the fence, and I'm weeding the borders to free the plants!

Tulips

Spring has arrived, and the tulips I bought last autumn are now in full bloom and putting on quite a display.  You can't have too many tulips.

This bed is still patchy but much fuller than last year after having split clumps of pulmonaria, hellebore, snowdrops etc and distributed them all along here last year.  It also needs a jolly good weeding

Summer 2017

Sitting in my bedroom recovering from flu, listening to the birds twittering away, I am reminded of the coming season in the garden.  Having failed to blog much last year, I am belatedly posting some pictures of the garden as it was last June.

The Taming of the Bank

It's taken a few years, but this weekend we have finally tamed the bank.  We applied some of the unmentionable a few weeks back, which made the job a whole lot easier, and have now cleared and reshaped the bank ready for sowing with phacelia to ward off the weeds until we can smother in foxglove seeds and other delights.  I have definite leanings towards woodland gardens, and I'm thinking this might be the way we go for the bank.  I can just see it smothered in primroses, foxgloves, helebores and other woodland beauties.  And there are not enough trees in the world, so who needs an excuse to plant a few more?  The top photo was taken just a month ago on 12th March, and the other two today.  I do so love to see a bit of progress!

August 2016

I have been a very lazy gardener and an even lazier blogger in the last year.  I have realised I did not write any posts last summer, so to set the record straight, this is where we were last August.  The garden is full of colour, very little of which I can take the credit for.  The poppies, hollyhocks and borage have all just appeared, nothing to do with me, just Mother Nature doing her thing.