Digging a hole and filling it with money

Once you've spent all the money in the world on pipes you will then need to find more money to pour into big holes.

Pipes

Before you can start choosing paint and tiles and curtains and all that fun stuff you think you care about, you have to spend all the money in the world on pipe work.

 

A soil vent pipe, the placement of which I beleive is at least 2 years of your standard architecture degree. That's what Tim said anayway (or maybe I just made that up, but we have discussed SVPs!)

 

 

New drain. It's apparently a public drain becuase our neighbours stuff also flows into it. I don't really understand but I believe it's a whole world of other pain with Thames Water.

 

Fancy your water coming through lead pipes? No us neither, so we had this fancy blue one fitted instead. Who wants money for shoes when you can spend it on pipes you'll never see instead?

 

I don't even know what this is for. But it's new and is under our florr.

Digger!

Question: How exciting is it to see a digger in your small terrace garden?
Answer: Very!

Garden wish-list

I think I'm going to change the garden a bit. This summer it's been more than I can manage and I'm not going to be getting a whole heap of extra time anytime soon. We also want to make it a bit more future proof. So while John and Jon lofted, the Mothership cleared away all my salad crops that had shot to no good.

With a newly cleared space I thought it was time to have a think about my wish-list for the garden.

• Space to eat and sit outside, at the moment if we have people over it feels very cramped.
• Space for lying in the sunshine on a picnic blanket - I still don't like grass though, so maybe a flowering lawn.
• Veg beds that are easier to maintain and keep weed free, maybe it's time to look at square foot gardening?
• Better use of the back bit of the garden where the shed used to be.
• Throwing out all the old pots I don't need, but keeping the little ones that are vital for seedlings.

With this in mind Mum Guthrie has dedicated part of her garden in the Warwickshire countryside to a clover lawn nursery. 

The cherry harvest

Our neighbour's cherry tree hangs into our garden and she said it would be OK to pick some.

 We got quite a haul. They're pretty sour and need cooking. We might infuse in booze. 

 I'd like to say this one had my name on it, but it just had my initial, and I threw it away because it looked a bit festy.

We also planted out some tomatoes. They weren't looking too happy in the out-house, so this is their final chance.

An admission of inactivity

We haven't updated the blog for a while. That's because we haven't done anything round the house for a while. But that doesn't mean things haven't been happening without us.

The mini greenhouse certainly has done it's job this summer, it's little charges have grown rather well!

Not tons of toms though. I blame the late summer. Fingers crossed these little beauties ripen up soon.

A sunny bank holiday well spent

It was a sunny day so Jon finished off the mini greenhouse! while I planted lots of seeds to fill it up.

We found some bed slats that someone was throwing out the other day, so clever Jon used his workmate and our new super drill/screwdriver to make a shelf structure to fit inside the greenhouse.

Amazing!!

Always listen to your Mum

Some time ago I asked if anyone knew what these surprise plants were. Were they weeds? Or something lovely that was hiding all along, an unexpected present from the former owners?

Well it turns out that Mum Guthrie was right and they are in fact anemones, not the sea creatures but these lovely flowers. They are truly gorgeous and a very nice addition to the Garden of Love, thank you former owners!

Mini greenhouse

Finally spending thousands of pounds on new windows was worth it - we've made my mini greenhouse! Last summer, my Wilko purchase bit the dust but now look what has taken it's place!

Loving our new drill even more as a screwdriver too!

Despite having a workmate Jon is still insistent on sawing in more unusual places

Well, if you can't beat them

ta-da!

Snow sowing

It was snowing this morning, so obviously this is the right time to start growing for the summer. I may be risking it a bit but I just couldn't resist some speculative sowing. Some research on last year, shows that it's this time I can wait no longer.

Stuff is also growing out in the garden, including this. Any ideas what it is? Should I be pulling it out or seeing what happens?

Spring has sprung and don't you dare tell me otherwise

Looking back at our garden this time last year, I am so proud of all we've done in it. And we're able to celebrate our second Spring in the House of Love with some proper first signs of spring.

These were a Christmas present from surrogate Grandma Kay that we got for Christmas 2011 and planted in Jan last year.  Don't they look lovely?! They're nestled under some purple sprouting broccoli that I hope will diversify our kale diet over the next month.

Daffodils! That are in my garden! Can't wait to see this lovely little thing open. (Ok they're actually narcissus but I don't care!)

And we're STILL getting food out of the garden. Admittedly Jon is a little sick of kale and chard but I think our recent trip to Tuscany will have convinced him of the supreme tastiness of cavolo nero* and the numerous possibilities of making yummy food with it. 

* that's Italian for the kale I grow right but it sounds posher, ok?!

Muck spreading and soil glazing

This morning the weather was perfect for a spot of gardening. I'm being very sensible and not rushing to sow any seeds. Luckily, in my super compost bin,  there was some lovely compost all ready to spread about the Garden of Love. 

 

After emptying one compost bin, we transferred the contents of the other bin to give it all a good mix about. Look at the clever red worms breaking up all our food waste.

Meanwhile, Jon started taking apart our old windows and dotting them around the garden to start warming the soil up. It's not quite a coldframe yet, but we're getting there.

Back in the garden

Before the snow hit, Hannah managed to get some much needed clearing up in the garden done.

She's wearing red trousers, but don't judge her; she's an out-of-towner!

This was only last week and we've still got lots of pro-duce.

She's still wearing them! The cheek!

Yes, that's kale, beetroots and cabbages.

Oh yeah, and fartichokes, all scrubbed up.