Whats going on in the garden?

After a week away in the sun I was a little bit apprehensive about what may have been going on in my garden.

We have invested in some new planting for this year moving the focus away from vegetables and moving towards a cottage garden style.  As we have already invested a lot of cash into the summer house I have been trying to pick up plants without paying too much for them.

I lost 4 Lupin plants to the slugs, I was in a dilemma as to weather of not I should buy some little blue pellets to kill the little blighters off but I know they are harmful to the eco system as they are taking food away from birds and hedgehogs so I decided to sacrifice the Lupins on this occasion but I will give it another go next year and I try to grow them in a pot and see if I get better results.

I have tried to select plants that will either come back again or will shed seeds.  There are some bedding plants that have added colour in the short term and they can be replenished next year or replaced with something different.

  I think that it will be at least 3 years before the garden will start to look something like my long term vision and as it is a garden it will continue to evolve.

I am a self confessed haphazard gardener and like Mother Nature to have a hand in my garden so I am looking forward to seeing what survives and what perishes along the way.

What have you been up to in your garden this Summer? and do you have any tips on dealing with the slugs?

Summer house

We have had a major change in our garden this year, we have filled in our garden pond. With baby Esme on the scene it seemed like a good idea, also the lining had been split for a while and it would have needed time and money to sort it.  Out of the blue we decided that a small summerhouse would be perfect to fill the space so savings were counted, a base was laid and a giant "airfix" kit was delivered. We used a company called Garden Sheds they were significantly cheaper than anyone else for the same product, this is their photo of the style of summerhouse we have brought.  I can't get a decent pic at the moment as we are still working on that area of the garden.







I painted the outside in Cuprinol Garden Shades, Dusky Gem, I thought it was grey but it sometimes looks blue and other times takes on a purple haze!  The interior was painted using Cuprinol Garden Shades in White daisy, it is designed so that the grain of the wood shows through, however the light colour also showed all the mish mash of brush strokes that I had made, so three coats later they are less visible but so is the wood grain.  I do like it even if it is not exactly what I had in my head.

It was tempting to go for a beach hut theme but I felt that this lends its self more to the apex roof type summerhouses.  I wanted it to be more of an extension to the garden so I opted for the white interior with green and pink bunting, there will be cushions to follow once we sort out a couple of cane armchairs.  The colour scheme was inspired by the apple blossom on our old Bramley apple tree and I might sort out a sign for it saying apple blossom or apple bough.

We have added some insulation to the roof in the hope that we can extend the amount of use we can get from it and I fully intend to make it into a Christmas grotto and go down and drink mulled apple juice or wine in there or maybe even a "winter Pimms"

I got a cracking bargain with this metal light fitting from dotcomgiftshop,, it was only £12.95 in the sale and comes compete with a vintage style brown covered flex.  It strikes the perfect balance between utility and style and the soft sage green is just what I wanted.  I finished it off with an old fashioned style bulb from Wilko for three quid so less at 20 pounds all in I was very happy.

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I am trying not to fill it with too many nik naks and treasures and there is a huge temptation to just go on ebay and Amazon and buy loads of cute stuff that would look great in there, but it is far more fun to potter round charity shops and such like so I am holding back....for now

I did downloaded these free botanical prints from The Grapics Fairy  there are loads on there and I intend to print new ones off and change them to reflect what is happening in the garden.


All we need now is for the sun to come back out so we can fully test it out or should we just resign ourselves that this is the English summer and so we will be squelching down there to go and sit and look at the rain drops dripping down the window panes