Planting!

The time has come to finally start planting!! First things first though. My lovely husband bought me a mini greenhouse for my birthday which has inspired me to plant a whole load of things from seed. This way they are able to keep warm and (hopefully) bug free and safe from the ever changing weather. I've started off by planting some peas, sweet-corn, pumpkins, cucumbers ans my neighbour gave me some tomato plants and I got a rhubarb plant for my birthday also! Think this will give me enough to be going on with...

Beds going in!

 So, it's time to start putting the beds in. I want to have a go at growing some veggies this year, so I'm going to start with two 
raised beds, quite wide along two sides of the garden.

I bought some log roll edging and hammered it in to where I wanted it. After that I simply added some multi purpose compost, and voila! I know from last year that the general garden soil in the back garden is not great, so adding this type of compost will add the vital nutrients needed to grow vegetables and other goodies!
The next thing to go in was the fence on both sides. This was the finishing touch to make the garden start to feel much more private, secure and cosy! It made a huge difference actually, and the enclosed feeling the fence gave actually made it 
feel bigger! I quickly added some hanging baskets to the fence and planted some strawberries as the 
location is great for them to flourish in the sunshine!

My lovely dad....

.... fixed up this for me too. It was here when we moved in, but the wood was rotten and it was falling apart, so dad came over with his drill, hammer and wood, and fixed it up ready for painting!

Aren't dads great?!?!!

Earth, Earth, Earth!

We back on to a graveyard, and yesterday they were doing loads of digging with diggers and all sorts, so I talked my husband into going round and having a word with the digger man to see if we can have some of the soil he was digging up. Of course, he let us, why wouldn't he? Even lent us a shovel and a wheelbarrow which the kids had great fun riding in! So we filled up the flower- planter that my dad made, and topped it off with high nutrient soil from B&Q, and I was able to get some herbs planted. Also managed to fill up the border a bit, but I'm going to put the high nutrient soil in there also, and I've also decided to make another border up the side of the garden that has the sun all day, and am going to attempt to grow some veggies! So some of the graveyard soil went down along there too as a base.

And it begins....

Last year, my dad kindly knocked together a larger flower-box that I could plant herbs in. I never actually got around to planting herbs, but my husband loves to cook, so this year I will try to grow some. The box fits nicely in the corner, and I found some log edging in Tesco, 2 meters for £3, so I grabbed that and dug it in to make a border with the intention of planting something colourful in there along the back wall, to give me something nice to look at whilst I'm doing the washing up!

Starting again.....

So, after this most terrible winter, the spring has FINALLY sprung and I can't wait to get out in the garden again! After a bit of a tidy up at the front, de-weeding, and digging over, I'm happy to say that all the work I put in last year has lasted and survived over the winter, so to start on the back garden! We have basic grass out the back, a bit of decking by the patio doors, and a trampoline for the kids by the fence, but the part that needs attention is photographed (above). In my head, I want to put in a border, or maybe two, and plant a few herbs also. Lets see....

WEEDS!!

So, some weeds have managed to poke their unwanted heads through my lovely new lawn! Mainly the beginnings of blackberries, but they are coming not only in the lawn, but also in the rockery. Not many though, to be honest, so I've bought some weed killer to get rid of them. The ones on the lawn are a pain, because I don't want to kill the grass, just the weeds.

I came up with a way to kill the weeds without killing of (hopefully) loads of grass too. I cut both ends of a plastic bottle to put over and contain the weed, and then spray into the bottle. Although some of the grass will undoubtably die off, it probably won't be too much. Hopefully anyway!