ONE JOB DONE AND ANOTHER STARTED.

So Paul finshed his chellenge on Saturday.

The Winter storeage is complete, the roofing felt as been trimmed and edged with a wooden trim.

all gaps have been covered and some weed suppresant laid. We have put most of our empty pots in here on one side just for now while we deal with sorting out a place to store them.
But apart from maybe laying grave in here, it's finished.

This is the leylandii hedge that belongs to our good neighbour, however he's gardener decided a few years back that he could not reach past the middle but we were not told until a few years later.
Then it's taken us another couple of years to start to do something about it!

This is the other end of it, it probbaly runs a good 70 to 80 foot long.

 I came down the garden to find Paul had decided it was time to start cutting some of it back! He'd started at the compost bins, the branches were overshadowing the tops of the bins, I'd cut o few of the lower ones back a couple of weeks ago but the more stolid higher ines I'd not been able to cut.

 slowly getting there above the bins. Our garden is lower than our neighbours, so his six foot is our seven.

We will trim it back and get rid of the very high branches over the next few months. Then come the autumn we will slowly work on cutting it back to the main centre trunks, taking out all the extra smaller trunks that are on ourside, until we are able to fit a fence against it. which will mean our neighbours gardener can maintain the hedge and we won't have to spend hours working on it every couple of years.

 The roses like this rambler are looking wonderful at the moment, this one's been getting more and more buds opening each day.

This one, Tess of the D'urbervilles, which was cut back, is now flowering well, a lovely deep red.

The standard , Molineux is again in full bloom.

The beautiful pink of  Spirit of Freedom

 A splash of yellow Inula

 a purple geranium

 My scented leaf geraniums taking the sun on the rockery.

So just a little of what needs doing in the gardens started, we still have plants that need a home in the borders and borders than need widening. So Plenty still to do!


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A CHALLENGE COMPLETED ! almost !

So yesterday we'd got up to this point the last piece of clear walling to go up and needing a roof.

Paul was out dog training for the morning so it was midday before he got back to the job in hand.

But it was soon walled and just waiting it's roof.

 He jointed two pieces of wood from the rafters of the old gazebo roof to form the rafters for this roof.

 added to both edges and also the middle.

 He also used up a large exterior sheet of OMG and a piece of another board that we had that had bowed from getting damp at some stage over the last few years.

Here you can see the boards waiting to be screwed down to the joists.

 and here you can see it nicely screwed down.

Then it was time to add the roofing felt, this is the lengths we had left over from when Paul put up the new gazebo by the house.

Finally roofing felt on and tacked down. So it's wind and rain proof. Just a few bits and pieces to do to finish it off and tidy it up and then it's done.
 So it's used lots of different wood that's been about, decking boards, old sleepers, old fence posts, several lenghts of wood, four sections of old joists , three long full lengths of polycarbonate and two shorter lengths, one large 8x4ft omg board and a section of a bent board, three off cuts of roofing felt and an old door... so far ! Which means none of it is laying about and it's now all been put to good use ! He completed his challenge.

I'll add a photo of it when it's completely finished.

I'll finish with this photo of the evening sun crossing the flower garden this evening at 8pm.


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A CHALLENGE

We need a shelter for overwintering the plants. At present, it's a fight to get all the pots into the greenhouse to protect them from winter cold and frost.

One of the reasons for removing the shed at the very end of the garden was not only to make us, evaluate what was inside and whether we still needed it, but to free up that area of the garden for among other things having a space to store plants in pots over winter.

We used to have a gorgeous big lemon tree that was always a nightmare to over winter in the greenhouse due to the pot and plant size plus getting it over the sliding door step.

So I set Paul a challenge ! To build the shelter in part of the new space thats available, now the shed's gone. My challenge was not for Paul to build it ( as he is more than capable ) but it was to make it using things we had around the garden that had been used then taken apart and saved for further use.

It would be easy enough for Paul to have bought in several large shhets of exterior ply and put it all together but that would have been a waste of money and of the resources of wood etc that's laying around the place.

 First he had to clear the space which had been filled with some of those resources I'd been talking about! It was decided to keep it six foot by six foot using the fence panel on the left as one side of the structure.

Next in was two pieces of railway sleeper that was used for the side of the old pond with a five foot fence panel which was waiting to be fitted in place for the last year or more. We need more of these fence panels, so can just order an extra one when we are ready to do the next length of fencing.

 as usual his helpers are sleeping on the job!

 Next a piece of old decking was added to the top to bring height up above trellis height.
The fence panel's been screwed into the post on the left.

 Next another piece of the railway sleepers used for the old pond, is placed as a base to which is attached an old piece of fence post to form the upright.

To that post and the fence post on the left is added a piece of decking to tie the two together.

 Then another piece of decking needs to be added fron the right front to the back.

Next the door is added. This door used to be on our old gazebo which we filled in some years back and used that to over winter some of the places etc. But it was all taken apart when we removed the gazebo, so I could have my studio built in it's place. We kept this door and the panels ofpolycarbonate,
Which we are going to use on two sides of this shelter to allow light in while protecting the plants.

Looking from the corner by the greenhouse, showing two side of the shelter.

Another piece of old decking to fix the polycarbonate panels to. The door as been raised up to give more head height when entering.

One side covered with the polycarbonate and the door.

Just one more piece to cut for the side and then it's just a case of fitting a roof. So far Paul's not had to buy anything. Will he make it to the finish.... More tomorrow.

WORK IN THE GARDEN THIS WEEK

 Just some of the cutting from the box hedging.

 The box hedging had grown too big and was desparately in aid of a cut ! I think we missed last years Chelsea chop!

 It looks so much neater once it's been done and then we could put the summer pots in, having moved the pots of tulips before cutting.

We decided that we wanted to put in some new pots , one in each bay with an obelisk in, in which Paul planted three cup and saucer vines to grow up them.

So they are in place with a pot of Agapanthus either side of them. I'm looking forward to seeing how this works out.

The rock garden was wedded and replanted up last weekend.

so hopefully it will start to fill up again.

 The troughs out the front of the house and doing very well.

 We will have to keep an eye on how big these plants get as if they start to smother their neighbours we'll need to move them to the big rockery.

 They all have some lovely colour in them.


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NATURE FRAMED