Look who has moved in!

We decided the lillies around the front of the pond were too tall this year, so as they are just finishing their flowering we cut them back and started to dig the bulbs so we can move them to a better place for next summer.

As we were doing so we spotted this little guy who has moved into our pond! As he clearly likes it, we decided we’ve left it long enough since we put in plants and the filter, so we’re going to get some fish soon.

Inspiration from Major Lawrence Johnston

After going to the beautiful Yorkshire wedding of my little cousin Lucy to Gordon Stewart last weekend, we decided to break up a long journey home with a stop at the National Trust’s Hidcote gardens.

There is nothing like a large productive kitchen garden to really boost your enthusiasm. We we got home it was gone eight on Sunday evening, but I still got out and did a good hour of work on our little plot!

 

Welcome to our wilderness!

While we want a wayward and natural cottage garden, we also want our guests to make it to our front door without being eaten by plants or falling into a pile of nettles!

We spent the past weekend clearing the front garden with a plan to start from scratch. We’ve laid one side to lawn and added a bench as this is the perfect spot to watch the sunset from and to chat to our neighbours as they pass by. The other side has been planted with new young lavendar plants, a lovely yellow climbing rose and a clematis. We plan to eventually put in plenty more, including digitalis, agapanthus, delphiniums, michaelmas daisies, phlox, sweet williams and alliums.

Do you have any other ideas on nice plants to try in this space?

Courgettes, zucchinis and marrows

We recently started looking at the sub-Reddit for gardening, and came across the American for courgette – the zucchini. When we posted about courgettes, or marrows, we seemed to confuse a lot of people.

So here you go – a courgette is the same as a zucchini. A marrow is a bigger version from the same plant, just left to grow for longer. How hard is that?

As you can see, one of our courgettes has gone a bit mad! It is throwing off two courgettes a day or marrows every other day if we leave it. Safe to say, we’re eating a lot of courgette – and Katrina has been giving them out in work too!

corg

Building the woodshed

Since we moved in, I’ve been dying to tear down the old (and very leaky!) woodshed and build myself a new shiny (…as shiny as wood can be…) one. After a bit of research on the inter-web I decided a few key things:

  1. I wanted the shed to have a raised and slatted floor to let any water through and for air to circulate freely
  2. That slatted sides (if spacing is done carefully) are superior to solid sides as they allow airflow which helps prevent damp / mould build up.
  3. I wanted a wooden roof!

After some initial pencil sketches I ordered some wood from Wickes (total bill was ~£200) and roped in my very good friend Lee (who happens to be both skilled with woodwork and an architect) to help me with the build.

Before we began, I cleared and leveled a patch of ground ready for the shed. We covered this with weed suppressant fabric and then added a layer of stone chippings to make it less attractive to unwanted animals.

ground

The woodshed build started with the building of the base, which measures 2.4m in length (picked due to available wood size) and 1.1m in depth (my preference).

Luckily, Lee brought his Mitre saw with him. I highly recommend borrowing / renting / buying one if you’re going to undertake a similar project.

Saw

We then added the uprights. The front two are about about 30cm higher than the back two, to allow for a sloped roof to be added later on.

base

Once the base was complete we added the slatted floor, carefully cutting notches in a few boards for the uprights.

floor

Next we attached a sheet of marine ply to form a solid back. I specifically wanted a solid back to stop the hedge (against which the shed was to be placed) from growing through. The marine ply should withstand the weather and we’d expect it to be solid for a long time.

back

Finally, slats were added up the side at 2.5cm intervals and we moved the shed into place. We also cut two slots in the ply for the roof. If I were doing this again, I’d cut the slots before adding the back. Lee however maintains that it was intended from the outset to ensure we got the slots in the right place…

slot

The roof frame was almost identical to the base, only slightly deeper to account for the diagonal angle.

inplace

The final step was to add the featherboard roof that I’d fancied. I’m pretty happy with the end result, and am now planning a smaller sibling nearer our house for a smaller stack of wood.

shedroof