Erica's Garden

Garlic

2012-01-22T11:49:00.001Z

What a lot of stuff grew under the cloche this winter. Maybe a hint for what we could do next year?

In order, left to right.

Iberian Wight

Early Purple Wight

Solent Wight

Albigensian Wight

All from the garlic farm on the Isle of Wight.

Weeding onions, lawn treatment

2011-11-20T16:57:00.001Z

Grass was growing all around the onions. Dealt with by Tamsin whilst I gently mowed and scarified. So gently I bent the mower handle. Nothing a hammer can't sort out.

Not a spud master

2011-10-23T17:43:00.001+01:00

I explored the winter spuds yesterday. Four out of nine have not come up. In the process I found a few shoots under a few cm of soil by breaking them off. Oops. I've covered them in domes. Hopefully some TLC will help. What a fool. Not my first mistake like this. When dutifully weeding a couple of days after planting them I damaged a couple. They might be the missing ones :(

Yesterday I also attacked a rose whilst Tamsin planted tulips. I beat the rose 5-1. You couldn't see the yew hedge when I started.

Finally, a big compost rethink today. Made the near-house pile smaller and the far pile bigger to encourage stirring.

Autumn settling in

2011-10-09T16:33:00.001+01:00

Veggies taken out, onions and Christmas spuds in. Leeks slowly progressing.

Wisteria haircut

2011-08-29T16:57:00.001+01:00

St Monty of Don's henchman says cut to six buds through the summer, then two in January/February.

A squash in a cup

2011-08-24T19:31:00.001+01:00

A friend offered a special support for our squash. We'll need more soon.

White "Blue banana" (squash) flowers

2011-08-14T07:21:00.001+01:00

Disappointing!

It's going to be a squash.

2011-08-04T18:14:00.001+01:00

A butternut one.

Why?

2011-07-27T18:52:00.001+01:00

Too dry?

Thought I'd killed this

2011-07-27T18:14:00.001+01:00

But it seems pretty happy.

Peas!

2011-07-27T17:46:00.001+01:00

Lovely lunch

2011-07-27T13:28:00.001+01:00

Our garlic, potatoes, courgettes and rosemary makes for a delicious fresh lunch.

Laid hedge

2011-07-27T10:48:00.001+01:00

The livestock have asked for the prickly hedge to be trimmed. Work in progress. I also completed trimming the backs of the pleached hedges today.

Forgotten plums

2011-07-27T10:46:00.001+01:00

Found today, some already over ripe. They were on the cordons. I think they are "domino" variety. But that may be made up.

Tidying up

2011-07-26T12:29:00.001+01:00

Feeling grotty so a slow mow followed by tidying the area in front of the veggies. Quiet day required!

First courgette

2011-07-23T09:38:00.001+01:00

Yay. Still no sign of flowers on the butter squash despite regular feeding and fast growth of the vines. Patience is a virtue.

Mid July

2011-07-18T18:08:00.001+01:00

Click the images to see closer up. They are not as blurry as they look!

The herbaceous border still growing.

Vegetables. There is loads of room in the bed so we need to plan more carefully next year.

One of the pots of squashes has been moved to the trellis.

Something for the birds (from Thomas' grandparent's London house).

Abigail's spuds

2011-07-15T17:50:00.001+01:00

Monty Don on Gardener's World and my mum have encouraged us to harvest potatoes. I'd resisted, thinking they should wait, but the lure of new potatoes was too great.

Abigail planted them and she dug them up.

Garlic!

2011-07-09T16:00:00.001+01:00

The mystery thing surviving in the vegetable garden *was* garlic. Lovely smell. :)

Squash

2011-07-08T21:09:00.001+01:00

The butter nut squash are finally becoming vines. Much impatience from me, Tamsin keeping me calm.

Courgettes are on the way...

Photos in June

2011-06-28T13:05:00.000+01:00

Abigail decided to take some pictures of the garden a couple of days ago. Here are the results.

Buff Beauty

Rain and growth: bring out the mower

2011-06-16T21:22:00.001+01:00

Lots of rain and suddenly everything is growing like crazy. I mowed for the first time since March?

Various photos for the record. Need to eat those salad leaves...

The Chelsea Chop

2011-06-05T14:03:00.001+01:00

We knew we should be cutting back the sedum at this time of year but couldn't bear it. But saint Monty of Don did it on the BBC so we copied. We also hope to get a few cuttings from it. Stupidly I had no pots around when I snipped, so casually used a somewhat shallow spare pot tray. This was pointed out to not be a long term solution, so they are now in proper pots.

Raised beds status

2011-06-05T14:00:00.001+01:00

The spuds are doing well, and I've bought more. Compost so they can be piled higher.

Strawberries

2011-06-03T11:25:00.000+01:00

Rain and Sun

2011-05-31T14:57:00.001+01:00

Amazing growing conditions today with showers and Sun combining to make warm wet soil. I took this opportunity to plant out the corn. (This is the second batch with fresh seed, only one of the first batch germinated.)

I'm guessing we'll struggle to get full cobs as we were late planting, but I remain optimistic!

Rain!

2011-05-26T21:30:00.001+01:00

The story of this year is the complete lack of rain. I've been told that before today we've had 10mm in three months, and the parched earth has made the Today programme.

Today, we finally got rain. A big thunderstorm threw about 20mm down. The garden looks wet for the first time in ages.

How long will it last?

More Planting and Potting

2011-05-22T12:51:00.001+01:00

We've not had great success with our seeds, but some are on their way. We have a cunning plan of growing squash on vines where the jasmine used to live. Large pots have been bought and squash transplanted (with a courgette for luck). Once the vines are long enough, we'll pop the pots behind the hedge and hope to get a hanging garden effect. I thought the pots would allow our plastic cloches to sit inside but they are a couple of cm too big. Elephant tape has since been deployed. We've also planted some ancient sweet peas where the jasmine lived in the hope of some one-off Summer colour.

No more jasmine

2011-05-21T16:53:00.001+01:00

The root was pretty easy to get out in the end. 10 minutes of carefully cutting round and through with my pick axe.

Satisfying Shredding

2011-05-21T16:45:00.001+01:00

Jasmine continued

2011-05-21T14:57:00.001+01:00

I love that shredder. Mountains of debris in to just three buckets of mulch.

Next, the root. No rush, since the rose will probably go in at the end of the year.

Jasmine. Today's project...

2011-05-21T10:57:00.001+01:00

It looks lop sided (too much at the top, and we want a red rambling rose instead.

Herbaceous Border fears and Old Seed woes

2011-05-13T19:50:00.001+01:00

We've had no rain for weeks. If we don't water every day the new plants look very sad.

Our other problem is that the dryness then wetness when watered, together with very old seed has made for very odor germination rates. One corn in eight, almost no carrots. All quite depressing.

Spring Flowers

2011-05-11T19:54:00.000+01:00

We just need rain.

Sweetcorn

2011-05-09T14:24:00.001+01:00

And we're off...

More sowing today

2011-05-08T19:59:00.001+01:00

Runner beans, pseudo spinach and butternut squash.

And relax...

2011-05-06T18:45:00.001+01:00

I've also finally distributed all the compost, so a weekend off is in store.

Sunlight

2011-05-05T22:29:00.001+01:00

...think I should have moved the table earlier.

Watering and Wheelbarrowing

2011-05-05T09:28:00.001+01:00

The weather has been beautiful, but so hot and dry. Much against my instincts I have been forced to water like crazy to keep things alive. There are so many new plantings and re-plantings. My aquaduct is empty (sabotaged whilst we were away) so a hosing I go. Nearly everything has survived. One plant I forgot and it is now a stick.

We have a lot more plants that we bought, but are sitting in pots. I worry about them drying out so plonked them in the new border (in their pots) so they won't be forgotten. I can't remember their colours so need Tamsin's guidance before planting them permanently.

I've been running out of steam on the compost so forcing myself to do five barrows each night. One more set and it should be done. 3 cubes is the perfect volume. A lucky guess.

Sowing

2011-05-02T16:25:00.001+01:00

Leeks, peas, dwarf beans, carrots and salads all sown today.

I also mowed the front and made little beds for some flowers to brighten the front.

Vegetable Garden Transformation

2011-04-30T23:17:00.001+01:00

Finally dug over today and twelve large barrows of mushroom compost mixed in. A big, satisfying transformation. It is so dry though. Lots of watering needed if anything is to grow.

Wisteria

2011-04-25T23:34:00.001+01:00

Glorious. Hacked back as soon as we got home. Now this :)

Herbaceous border progress

2011-04-25T14:09:00.001+01:00

Tamsin has been chipping away at this. We spent £60 on plants and they are slowly going in. Then we will add the compost and try not to bury them.

Terrace lawn progress

2011-04-25T14:06:00.001+01:00

Running out of soil now, having mined my one store out. I've been stealing from the borders but this is not a long term solution.

Terrace and lawn

2011-04-23T21:26:00.001+01:00

I now need to bring the lawn up to the terrace. Initially the plan was to turn the existing turf over and back fill from the various soil quarries around the garden. But. The soil under the tree is terrible. It is mostly flint and so dry that I'm amazed any grass grows.

So, the new plan is dig out the whole area, sieve out the flint and put the soil back with some of the huge pile of mushroom compost covering the drive. Another stupid and big job, but my muscles are getting used to it.

Terrace complete

2011-04-21T17:14:00.001+01:00

Thanks to dad's angle grinder, careful planning and a measure twice cut once attitude the new terrace is complete. Really pleased it is done. Let the wobbly pavier spotting begin.

Terrace

2011-04-20T18:31:00.001+01:00

Brutal day. Making progress but soon out of sand. :(

Terrace

2011-04-20T12:32:00.001+01:00

Starting the terrace I know this might get ugly. My first problem is that the cement from the original laying is sticking to some of the stones. My first method for removing it was not a great success.

Turfing in

2011-04-20T11:50:00.000+01:00

Estimated four rolls, ordered six and would have needed seven if I had not done that work last night.

Plants for the new herbaceuos border

2011-04-19T21:59:00.001+01:00

A list of plants we think we have for the new border

Anemone × hybrida 'Honorine Jobert' AGM 1.0-1.5m

Rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii AGM 0.5-1.0m

Helenium 'Moerheim Beauty' AGM 0.5-1.0m

Verbena bonariensis AGM up to 2.5m but thin

Armeria pseudarmeria 'Ballerina Red' 0.2m

Alchemilla mollis AGM low

Hemerocallis daylily
Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' (black lily)
Sedum telephium (ice plant)
Geranium phaeum
Astrantia major

Ideas
Lychnis coronaria alba white flowers, grey stems

Ideas for by the rocking bench

Adiantum pedatum L. AGM (Maidenhair fern)

Further on with the middle border

2011-04-19T18:03:00.001+01:00

Ready for turfing and with more grass from the enlarged border.

I have worked out top dressing is about £200 for the whole garden. May have to bite the bullet.

As usual, loads to do.

Terrace levelling.

2011-04-19T14:13:00.001+01:00

This is a massive job, but I hate the step in the middle and the way the garden drops off. I should never have let the builders do this.

Vegetable garden renewal

2011-04-15T19:23:00.001+01:00

Before and after. There has always been an annoying slope, and the border remodeling will create a lot of spare soil so it seemed sensible to solve the two problems by levelling the vegetable garden. I had wood left over from making the raised beds and the new shovel made digging holes for the posts much easier.

Another job done. This allows the rejigging of the middle border to proceed.

I also finished staining the monkey bars today. They will be in use tomorrow!

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Monkey bars

2011-04-13T19:00:00.001+01:00

In NZ the girls lived on climbing frames with Monkey Bars. In a weak moment I promised to add Monkey Bars to the climbing frame in Erica's garden. Here is the result (staining still needed).

I'm pretty happy with it, though doing it by buying a ladder was not cheap in money (about four times the cost of the wood alone), it *was* cheap in time, strength and quality of finish.

Digging a 0.8m hole in the top garden was surprisingly easy with the new longer thinner shovel (grouching shovel, trenching shovel?) I added to my collection of man tools.

30 seconds of scarifying

2011-04-13T12:45:00.001+01:00

Aaargh, and loads of broad leaf weeds too.

Know the enemy

2011-04-09T12:10:00.001+01:00

Clear sign of the neglect of the garden. I've never had a daisy his far advanced before!

Erica's new bed

2011-04-03T17:52:00.003+01:00

Slow start to the day, but worked hard once we got going. Decision made about our old rose penelope (dug out but lives on in her offspring and a slit trench cutting), but decision deferred on the mulberry tree. We need to do some more research there.

Erica watched with interest throughout. We were joined by a very vocal robin at one stage.

We also managed to trim our little hedge and shred everything using the lovely Atco quiet shredder. I still enjoy putting big stuff through it. It must be a man thing.

penelope had to go, but she has a daughter plant that has sprung up from her old root so that went next to the piece in the slit trench. It will be interesting to see which bit survives the best. We planted her in the spot where the children run down the garden and leap off the wall. She may prevent that but may get destroyed. We'll see.

The first refugees (Sedum telephium) from the slowly disappearing island border.

The pukekos picking over where penelope used to live.

Erica Surveying the Curves

2011-03-28T16:02:00.001+01:00

We are pondering executing the uninspiring Mulberry tree. Judith has been lobbying for this for years. We gave it a decade to come good but it hasn't. A new herbaceous border needs a wider bed so the island border probably gets the bullet too.

Oops

2011-03-26T18:12:00.001Z

Working on the new bed and found the lazily placed pipe from a few years ago. Think I will re-route it now there are no plants in the way.

Back in Blighty.

2011-03-25T18:46:00.000Z

The garden was in a sorry state when we got back from NZ, though it was about the worst day of the year to look at it again. The lawn is mostly moss. The roses are gone to seed and the vegetable garden is covered in grass. The raised beds were a cat toilet. We'll post photos when we remember but there are not too many. It was so upsetting!
We didn't get very far with the New Zealand garden. It was a short growing season and it is hard to motivate yourself to invest in a garden you are leaving after a year.

The Return

2011-02-01T18:00:00.000Z

A few pictures of the garden on the 1st of February. It was a miserable grey day, the worst day of the year to see the garden! No idea why the bench was like this, but it was.

Below is the vegetable garden (now vegetable lawn), the choisya has been cut back and the ceanothus pruned somewhat.

This is the bed we are remodelling. Behind is the pleached hedge whose framework has completely collapsed. One more for the list. We may well model the framework on the one outside St Paul's cathedral which has nice inverted V shapes.

Surprised again

2009-11-16T07:41:00.000Z

We are slowly sorting ourselves out and have now started to take action on the vegetable patch. There were some spuds coming up so we have put them in to proper rows and Tamsin has stuck in some lettuce that was also poking its head up. We bought a chili at the Primary School garden opening day and also we have a friend who is in to horticulture who has passed on some tomato plants that can cope with the cold. So, we are up and running!

Boat

2009-11-11T10:21:00.001Z

Boat
Originally uploaded by Thomas W-P

I have given up on the long held thought that I would catch up with blog entries and am going to try to start afresh from here.

The latest news is that my mobile phone has a crack right across the lens cover that is making the photos come out a bit odd and blurry at times. This is evidenced by the attached photo of Tamsin posing with our new boat of which we own half. Whether she gets in it at all I don't know but it is big enough for the whole family, and good for coaching.

We are settling in nicely. It took a while to get to grips with everything and I think that the landlord saw the knee length grass last week and got a bit worried. I got a very nice email about it tonight saying he knew someone who could mow it for us. Little did he know that I have mowed it twice in the intervening few days. I got tired of losing Harriet in it.

School is cool. It is on a rebuilding phase and there is a lot of angst around from what clearly were the bad old days. But the current staff seem strong and making the school move in the right direction. The kids are kids though a little immature compared to those in the UK. I am not sure this is a bad thing since the kids in the UK have forgotten how to be kids I suspect.

The girls are doing really well and are happily settled in school. I just wrote a note to get Elizabeth out of bible class. She finds it all rather dull and has stuck it out nobly for several weeks. She and I delight in discussing the questions she dare not ask and the things she dare not say for fear of offending the god fearing.

I have an erg in the garage now, and am looking forward to getting a regular schedule for rowing on it. How I have missed it. How hard it seems now! It is also getting a bashing from some kids at school who are interested in rowing.

South Island is absolutely stunning. I was driving back from Timaru with the boat this evening and came around a corner to be presented with the most stunning vista of Mackenzie Country. I had no camera other than the dodgy phone but will go back there some time and get a photo to post. For now though, here is the view from the living room. Sigh.

From The Surprised Gardeners

The Whistle-stop Tour

2009-10-09T04:32:00.001+01:00

Exploring the Giants
Originally uploaded by Thomas W-P

Phew. Made it. And what a whistle-stop tour it was.

We had a great walk as we entered Yosemite. 1.5 miles, mostly downhill to a group of large sequoia. Massive to Tamsin and the girls but I had an inkling of what was coming later in the trip! Harriet was a trouper and managed all the way down and up the hill, only being carried for about 200m on the flat. She stayed awake for about 3 seconds in the car. Tamsin's gasp as we came to a view of Half Dome was worth the whole trip. Stunning. And the time we spent by the river in the middle of the gorge was, for me, the best bit of the trip. All that effort from us and the girls getting them swimming confidently summed up by Abigail plunging headlong in to an icy river.

The next day was an unmitigated disaster. The kids were exhausted from their walk and Abigail very grumpy. It took an age to get them up and out and we only got in the car at 11:00. Tamsin and I were looking forward to walking to Sentinel Point - where Kath and I walked about 20 years ago. We made the turn to the road up to the walk and discovered massive roadworks, with at least a 30 minute wait, both ways. That, 40 minutes to drive to the walk, 90 minutes of walking and 4 hours to the hotel just didn't add up so we reluctantly turned around. On the way out of Yosemite we stopped at an historic park and I had a complete mental aberration, letting the pricey digital SLR fall to the concrete floor. It turned on, but auto-focus was destroyed, and manual focus was crunchy. Tamsin in tears, me stunned and furious with myself. Very upset. We felt cursed. We made the most of it by having a wander round and a great ride on a very dusty carriage. The girls, particularly Harriet LOVED it. I rode shotgun with "the only full time coachman/ranger in America". He rode the carriage 8 months a year and had been doing it for 25 years. The same 10 minute track over and over. Interesting character who punctuated each sentence with "Yee-ha!" or "cuuuutch" or "git" explosions without even noticing.

We had a picnic and resolved to get a new lens in Fresno, 90 minutes down the road. Google on my phone eventually found us a photo shop (despite driving 10 miles past it unknowingly, then going on a navi-inspired wild goose chase that left Tamsin's sense of humour somewhere at a dead end in Northern Fresno.) They had the exact lens for $199 (£130) which was a relief. We toyed with getting the super-duper $600 replacement but given the events two hours before felt this was possibly a bit silly! And that is without forking out such a massive sum after the enormous carefree extravagance of the holiday. We got to our hotel early enough to have a lovely long swim in another great pool whilst Tamsin assiduously researched a decent restaurant in the vicinity. She did well and another good meal that had green bits clearly visible and nothing fried was consumed with relish at an impossibly cheap price. Another late night with all the girls zonking out immediately. Abigail refuses to sleep in the car and after 10 days of late nights is really suffering. She wakes up grumpy, refuses to eat breakfast and then is miserable until she has lunch. She'll be fine when she gets regular sleep. It is so unlike her, and I have been a little worried. Compared to the other two she internalises so much and you never know what she is thinking. If you ask her what she thinks she gets sad and even more insular.

We were well placed for Sequoia NP which I had REALLY been looking forward to. I have wonderful memories of walking with Kath in Redwoods NP and whilst VERY disappointed not to make a return (1000 miles too far), Sequoia sounded like a wonderful replacement with the biggest trees in the World on view. We were in the car by 8:30 and this made such a difference. Sadly, poor little Abigail was umpty the whole time (when she remembered to be), only perking up with food inside once the visit was over at noon and she knew we were heading to Glyn and Linda's. The sequoia forest was SO different to the redwoods. I remember the redwoods as dark, majestic and unbelievably quiet, with very little sunlight. Sequoia was all tarmac paths, lots of sun and loads of people. I do remember that Kath and I avoided the main touristy bits though. The drive in was magical. The trees are surreal and look like they are made of plastic. So exciting to see such leviathans. We walked half a mile to the most massive tree in the World - the General Sherman. Photos do not do justice to its size. The footprint took the girls more than 30 seconds to walk around at normal pace. When you stood next to it it was impossibly big. Photos don't really do it justice but we tried. Elizabeth LOVED EVERYTHING about it, and came up with another quotable line "I learned a fact today: giants do exist".

We piled in the car at noon, Tamsin in the back dishing out snacks, plugged in Glyn and Linda's on navi and it said 18:16 as our eta. Believe it or not, at 18:16, after two reasonable stops for drinks/loos we rolled in to the driveway at 18:16. Spooky. It turned out to be Linda's 65th birthday and Eric and Kimi were here. The kids food was on its way, and we had another delicious meal under the stars. Their house is just amazing, and has a wonderful view over the bay. Tamsin slept on the sofa, I under the stars with Elizabeth. We were both wakeful at 2 am so spent a happy hour looking at the stars trying to identify them with my iPod star map! I then zonked out but she couldn't so read for a bit. I think she had about six hours' sleep in the end but it does not seem to phase her at all! I woke to an upside down Harriet who had wandered up from her bedroom looking for company.

Another lazy morning in front of the laptop with Carew and the kids charging round and Glyn trying to avoid them. Off to the beach in little while so will end here. We have a long imagined and planned visit to the Simpson House to look forward to tonight. Tamsin and I with a night off and a lie in for our last sleep in the USA before setting off for our adventure in New Zealand. Not sure that bit has sunk in yet.

West Coast

2009-09-20T04:20:00.000+01:00

Fun on the quadcycle
Originally uploaded by Thomas W-P

At Glyn and Linda's, the boogie boarding was a bit of a disaster. Linda had bought two for us, and within 5 minutes we'd pulled the safety strap off it. Later I took E out to do some boarding but we got caught out by a violent surprise wave (apparently every 7th wave we were told) that churned E badly and scared both of us. Her goggles were ripped off and lost. Not good.

On Friday we had another lazy morning. The girls were quite obsessed with Linda's dogs (Tutti and Bella) and spent the entire time tormenting them somewhat. Harriet probably said the word "Toodi" about 200 times an hour (minimum). Wearing for the dogs and the parents, but great for the girls. Much of the delay was due to the arrival of little Carew, Linda's darling little grandson who is rising two. He would not register my presence which was pretty sweet. Eventually we got out of the house at around 10 and went to explore the sea front at SB. I did not have high expectations, and this no doubt was one of the reasons why I enjoyed our low key entertainment so much. We started by renting a silly quadcycle that Tamsin and I could pedal whilst the kids enjoyed the ride. It was stupidly silly and fun. We cycled a mile or so to a restaurant recommended to us by Linda and had a simple meal where the kids ate like horses. More chips. The restaurant food is pretty risible here. Only Linda's plain, simple veggie fare was keeping us sane. After returning the quad we wandered on to the wharf (like a pier) in SB. A wooden structure forming half of the harbour, it is dominated by an aquatic centre which is part of the SB Nat. Hist. museum. A relatively small building, we expected to spend half an hour or so in there, but they had some lovely _scientific_ activities for the children and we ended up spending at least two hours in there testing water, looking for invertebrates, picking up sea slugs and crabs and generally having fun. It was excellent, mostly due to the volunteers and their efforts. We then pottered back to Linda's to meet her daughter Kimi and her husband Eric for an evening meal. It was a nice evening with them, though punctuated with Harriet finally falling in one of her heroic and discouraged climbs, leading to a LOT of blood from a puncture wound on her head, and Abigail burning herself on candle wax whilst ignoring advice that it might be a bad idea to pick it up!

The next day was mostly spent in the car. We drove up the West coast, past Hearst castle (couldn't face it with the kids) and on to the coast road, which is supposed to be stunning. Sadly the sea fog obscured all but about 5% of the coast. When we could see it, it was stunning, but it was basically windy roads in the mist. This was pretty disappointing. We stopped to look at Elephant seals, but that was about it. Our target was Carmel, which Linda said was "lovely" but we knew nothing about. It is a very atypical American town! It reminds me of Padstow. Designer shops on the coast. Quite quaint though by US standards. All the restaurants appear to be fine dining at first view, and all were booked out when we arrived. We did find a nice Italian though and had (easily) our best meal out in the USA. I suspect we'd have been disappointed at the fare for the fee in the UK, but standards have been lowered somewhat.

Tinkerbell

2009-09-18T06:32:00.000+01:00

Tinkerbell and her biggest fan
Originally uploaded by Thomas W-P

After Seaworld we headed off to see Peter, a friend of Thomas'. The first day we spent slobbing around his house then hatched a plot to stay with them the following night. This we duly did, and had a lovely time with them on the Pacific beach at Oceanside. All three girls GREATLY enjoyed boogie boarding and so did Thomas. E: "Fun with a capital F". It was thoughtful and sad time on Sunday night knowing our fleeting visit with Peter was almost over.

We had hummed and hah'd long and hard about the time to spend at the temple of American culture known as Disney. In the end we plumped for three days at £500(!). We'd already booked a hotel near the park at £80. We revealed the fact we were going to the girls at 8am on the Monday to much excitement. I think that they have many friends who have been to the Florida one, and they already had a lot of ideas about what to do.

We got to DW at 10am and entered the fray. It is really two parks - and we'd bought tickets that allowed you to swap between the two. I think Tamsin and I had naively expected the park to be quite empty in the off season. WRONG. It was HEAVING by 10:30 and got worse. But, they do a lot of stuff right. Suffice to say we queued, rode, ate and watched with the best of them. The family favourite was "Thunder Mountain" (aka the runaway train) which Harriet was *just* big enough for.

We had a disaster on the second day in the other park ("Californialand" or something) when we decided to go on the big wheel that had weird rocking and sliding gondolas. Elizabeth worked herself up (quite rightly as it turned out) and ran away and I went to be with her sin ce she did not want to wait on her own. I persuaded her to go in the non-swinging gondola and she then proceeded to wail all way round the wheel. you think you have made it then it goes round again - which upset her once again as she thought she had come to a stop.

This was nothing compared to the genuine terror Tamsin, A and H undergoing in the other gondola. By all accounts is swung wildly and Abigail was absolutely terrified, this rubbing off on to T and H. I think H was OK, but Tamsin and A were in pieces when they finally got down. Apparently the moment they realised they had to go round again was the worst!

A nice gently merry-go-round restored confidence.

The third day was the best, much quieter and we knew our way around. I could rattle on
about DW for some time - the food was OK, the crowds massive, the hatsgenerally silly with two ears. But we did, in fact, have a good time!

Amazing.

The drive to Glyn and Lindas was long and dull. LA traffic has to be seen to be believed. 8 lanes of dense traffic.

Thomas' Thoughts on Disney

2009-09-16T06:40:00.001+01:00

Disney Princesses?
Originally uploaded by Thomas W-P

I cannot imagine how awful it is in the holidays. The park is heaving and you have to wait around 20 minutes for most rides. I suspect that in August you will be lucky to get on a ride within an hour.

We remain stunned by the obesity here. I fear I see the UK's future. I remember being in the USA and being shocked at all the fat people, but that is exactly what we see now in the UK. Disney has fat families in electric carts being hoisted from cart to ride and back again. They are the minority of course but there are a lot of them.

You also see older kids being pushed around in strollers (9-10?). Harriet has done without a push chair for two days now and she's done fine.

We are not too offended by the food or its cost. I suspect that for the average American it is expensive, but for us, fresh from the UK it seems fair enough. For the volumes they produce it is edible enough.

As for the park itself, it is, indeed, quite good fun. The rides have got the kids going apart from Mickey's Big Wheel (or whatever) that scared Abigail so much that she screamed in genuine terror throughout and Tamsin was pretty upset. Harriet was too in her own way! I was baby-sitting Elizabeth on the same wheel, but in a fixed carriage - and she still sobbed thoughout. I am glad we were not near Tamsin's cage, I suspect I would have found it torture to hear them. Harriet had a bad day. The 3D Bug's Life film terrified her.

We all like the runaway train (as we call it - Thunder Mountain??) and will try to make it to that tomorrow. We also liked shooting Zurg and the 3D Toy Story ride. We have failed to see Tinkerbell a few times now - it is a massive wait. At least 30 minutes. The girls are keen to tough it out tomorrow. I hope it is worth it.

I have nothing to say about It's a Small World.

Oceanside

2009-09-14T16:09:00.001+01:00

Oceanside
Originally uploaded by Thomas W-P

A small update on our travels by Thomas:

The arrival was smooth through customs but chaotic afterwards.. uphill through a tunnel with our three huge trolleys. One (Tamsin's) inevitably collapsed, and as I rushed to help my hastily parked trolley (through fog of fatigue) started to roll backwards down the slope to screams of 'look out for the child' from the gallery above. It was all fine though. A porter leaped in to help. E was brilliant and stayed very calm. We filled the Hertz bus with luggage to much amusement from the rest of the occupants; until they found they were packed in! I had to order some dopey passengers to move up the bus to make room for the luggage in the end.

We got a massive car. EASILY fit the luggage in the boot (nothing in with us, and I could see out of the back). We were all ravenous despite it being 2am and got navi to get us en route to San Diego whilst keeping a beady eye out for somewhere to eat. The fact we got an identifiable, quick, tasty, sit down meal at a reasonable price now seems quite miraculous as we have since bailed out from meals at the door stage because various of the above criteria have not been fulfilled, particularly 'identifiable' and 'sit down'.

It was two more hours from when we stopped and I toughed out the driving. I idly wondered what the stats were on post long haul drives as I grappled with an unfamiliar and enormous car travelling at 65mph next to massive trucks on the wrong side of the road at 4am Thomas time.

At first sight the hotel was a little worrying but as we gave settled in we have got used to it and it is pretty good. The best rooms are 'beach' ones, but they are very expensive I suspect. Modern decor, flat panel TVs etc. We were more bargain basement with the dated electrics and weird 80s decor. But we can see the bay and walk to the public (park) beach 50m away. The pool was lovely and *almost* Tamsin temperature. We worked out how to make tea using a microwave and a paper pepsi cup, and this made us happy since the coffee here is universally awful (so far).

The pacific beach is lovely but we hardly spent any time there because the hotel one is less crowded, safer, and has a playground. And we have spent two days in Seaworld.

Seaworld is all you'd expect from the name. Water based animals and rides. They have a massive area aimed at 2-8 year olds which all three enjoyed. Elizabeth is somewhat anti rides after going on a very traditional (creaky wooden) rollercoaster by Mission Beach, so the gentle kiddy rides were right down her street. The killer whale show was fabulous in a showbizzy sort of way. The kids lapped it up of course and we went back the next day. E, A and I had been drenched (my pants were full of water, and not in the US sense of the word) earlier in the day whilst on a wild rapids ride. This meant E and I (A too cold) sat in the front row of the soak zone where the whales splash you. H decided this looked fun so sat with us. I was unconvinced she knew what was coming, but she had it all worked out and complained whe we didn't get wet early on. She was so excited when we did get soaked by icy salty water from a 2 tonne whale 3m away that she started dancing for joy. It was delightful though quite offputting if you were trying to watch the show whilst stop her falling off her seat to the concrete floor. We ate lobster for dinner. They deal with the kids meals so much better here. Cheap and simple fare that comes quickly. I was still damp when we got home. Glad to get a fresh set of clothes on!

The next day we headed to spend the day with Peter. Great fun mucking around at his house and swimming in the community pool. We hatched a plan to sleep on their floor last night and checked out of the Bahia a day early. Yesterday was spend almost entirely at the Pacific Ocean at a beach called Oceanside. The kids loved it. Elizabeth enthralled by boogie-boarding ('Fun with a capital F'), Harriet swallowing half the Ocean but coming up with a smile.

Today - off to Disneyland...

The diaries begin...

2009-09-06T21:29:00.001+01:00

The diaries begin...
Originally uploaded by Thomas W-P

Well, we made it to the Ramada, but it was a long, tiring, emotional day. The kids were brilliant on the train and bus despite the drunken passenger asking them if they would prefer him to be their dad before he touched up a nice young woman we had been talking to.

We staggered in to the hotel at 6 and had a snacky dinner after the massive pizza fest at lunch. Thank you to everyone who has wished us luck on our journey by txt and email today. We really appreciate it.

We are both mortified that we forgot to retrieve the registration documents for Holly, but it can be sorted out. Also frustrating was finding the keys to The Old Manse in Tamsin's bag. One more thing to sort out before we take off (in addition to the insurance and getting five people, 16 bags and a kite box to the airport). But if they are the only mistakes we have made/things we have forgotten, it won't be so bad.

I remain someone with nagging doubts that I have forgotten to pack something important and I will start off teaching in Fairlie in my underpants because I forgot to pack trousers...

Reaching for leaves

2009-09-01T11:39:00.001+01:00

Reaching for leaves
Originally uploaded by Thomas W-P

Handed in the keys today and had a grump about the state of the house. This from the letting agents:

"Obviously very shocked to hear about the damage to your fridge and the
other points you have raised. We will deal with these issues
immediately. It is of no consolation to you but I can honestly say that
we have never had any complaints about our cleaner's work before and we will be getting the cost of making good from the cleaner."

Not much consolation but the right response.

I have been trying to get to grips with the new camera in this new free time thingy that I have discovered. The manual is more than 1cm thick and I am having to work hard!

Final departure

2009-08-31T20:31:00.001+01:00

IMG_0119
Originally uploaded by Thomas W-P

A lot of mixed emotions as we visited the house for the last time today. Annoyed that the cleaners had broken the fridge/freezer and not, well, cleaned very well.

Sad to be leaving. Thomas was choked up, the kids oblivious. Tamsin workmanlike.

The Princess and the pea?

2009-08-25T12:24:00.001+01:00

The Princess and the pea?
Originally uploaded by Thomas W-P

We are getting close and closer to lift off. I have managed to get both double beds in to the roof, and suddenly the house seems much emptier. We also had the good news today that the visas are ready, so full steam ahead on our plans for getting away earlier rather than later.

2009-08-15T17:14:00.000+01:00

I guess that this will turn in to the New Zealand blog (we are off in a few weeks). Part of the effort in getting to NZ is packing the house and some of the large abstract canvases we have on loan. We finally got the job done and Elizabeth followed my instructions and took as many photos as she could when we moved them in to storage.

Phew - this has been a big job but it is a huge weight off my mind. The only downer was discovering that I make square boxes, but the artist made parallelograms! The last box had to be partially dismantled before the painting would fit.

Finally some proper produce

2009-08-13T10:23:00.000+01:00

We have not had bumper harvests this year. The potatos were nice, the plums lovely but I forgot to photograph them. Here is a recent bean and courgette selection. I think that Tamsin needs tostart some food posts in here - we had the beans last night using a Jamie Oliver recipe with anchovies as the secret ingredient. Yum.

I have had enough of yew

2009-08-09T17:05:00.000+01:00

Worked very, very hard today. We have been charging around preparing to move to New Zealand and the garden has taken a little bit of a back seat. Today the weather was good, I was up early and I slogged from 9 am to 4:40 pm. A proper days work that ended up with seven large bags of choppings, clippings and prunings going to the garden waste bin at the local dump. Three (THREE) bags of this were shreddings from the shredder. We had to do this or they would not have fitted in the car.

Yesterday was mild by comparison; a toddle up the ladder and a prune back of the twisty trailing climbing fronds on the wisteria. Below is the result. I am quite happy with it but in reality I think it needs more wire to hang on to. I don't think we'll get that done before we go!

From The Surprised Gardeners

Looking through the gates you can see one of today's targets - the overgrown hedges.

First thing this morning was the front hedges, which we have not done for almost a year. Same job, but I am getting better and faster at it so it was all over in an hour or so.

I bagged up all the clippings with the 'help' of Harriet, which mostly involved racing up and down the pavement with brooms, me covertly sweeping when she wasn't looking. She is a trier though and I fear has my perfectionist tendencies since she would not be denied picking up the last pieces of tiny yew to put in the bag...

By now, Tamsin was working hard in the garden and I appeared bearing my hedge trimmer and attacked the four yew hedges, prickly rose (Alberic barbier) and the jasmine in the first level of the garden. I have now got four little branches growing in the corners waiting to be carved in to artistic shapes. I think we'll start with balls but it will be a long process.

Then on to the yew tree and the Ceanothus. This created loads and loads of debris that took a long time to deal with.

There was an interesting view from up on the wall and I took this picture of typical garden status on an average day. You can see the finished extension in the background.

By this time it as 4pm so off to the dump with E. in tow, discussing options for her birthday in a couple of weeks. Typing this at 5pm I am pretty bushed (ha ha). I have seen enough yew for another year, but I am very happy with the results. All I need to do now is mow the lawn with the flymo to suck up all the remaining debris.

THe Hedges again

2009-07-20T05:00:00.000+01:00

(Writing retrospectively)
With all the focus on New Zealand and getting to the end of term, some serious hedge cutting needed doing. We could barely see the climbing frame from the rest of the garden and the neighbours were starting to get to the point where they wouldn't get much morning sunlight. I tackled the job with some relish. The quiet shredder is a real bonus but it was only after this job that I realised that it is better to snip and shred than do one massive swathing slice with the hedge trimmer and pick it all up afterwards. I also think that next time I will lay out a tarpaulin to catch all the trimmings since it is a pain to pick them up from the bark.

This photo is a few days later and it all looks very neat. This is taken with the new camera I have bought for the NZ trip. Canon EOS 500D - I am going to learn how to use a SLR for once.

This last picture was taken a few weeks later (13th August). It still looks pretty good but odd little bits are sneaking out of the rigid formation! Got to dig out one of those rhubarb or they will take over. NOT a job I am looking forward to. I may well just drill it and put in root out if I lose the will to live...

Extension Progress & more pot planting

2009-05-09T19:36:00.000+01:00

The extension has windows we can look through in the bedroom and I managed to snap one before it got boarded up.

The triangular window is still missing. The joiner made it wrong once and is delaying the replacement. Our builder was incandescent on Friday about it when he went there after being fobbed off for a week and found it not in progress.

Also the bathtub is back in action - this time as herb garden after the old one was torn up for the extension (one of the duller photos in the World this one, but hey...) This includes Abigail's latest plant purchase and potting effort ;)

The Girls in action + a tap!

2009-05-05T05:22:00.000+01:00

We are Victorian parents and the kids have little they can spend their pocket money on after banning tat (though even they have worked out that spending money on a bouncy ball that gets lost in 5 minutes is probably a bad idea) and sweets. Then last week they hit on the idea of buying flowers. This was not to be discouraged (brain washing starts here). They got in to it! Abigail planting pansies all over the garden then photographing them.

Actually I took this one. I love these tulips (parrot tulips?). Just one bulb migrated here from mum's garden with some daffodils and we now have about 8. They go really well with the blue thingy (forget-me-nots?)

Of course the really important thing was the completion of the new garden tap. This powers the cat scarer that power squirts half the garden on detection of a cat (or child!). I don't have a photo of that to hand but will add one later.

Pruning, washing, moving earth...

2009-03-29T18:01:00.000+01:00

A nice sharp, bright day today. I intended to keep filling up the middle raised bed by digging earth from the back of the garden, but also chopping 5cm from all the lawn edges. MBH worked at pruning the beds either side of the steps. I did OK, but was distracted by keeping the children clear of MBH, minor jobs and remembering to squeeze the gates so that you couldn't see straight through them! I was still glum all day after putting my foot through the ceiling of the kitchen when doing the plumbing for the extension...

This is just annoying really, since we need to get plasterers in anyway, but still. What a muppet.

The beds before and after:

And the jasmine, which is just about giving over at the moment:

You can see the garlic coming up in the background, and the frame I put in today - this had sunflowers growing up it last year.

A shame we don't have htm-smell, because this is really fragrant at the moment.

I also put the kids to work - and they did a great job!

The Extension preparation

2009-03-01T17:38:00.000Z

After probably two years of humming, harring, planning and preparing, we finally expect the builders at 8:00 tomorrow morning, with a JCB. We had to prepare the ground for them, saving and destroying various plants.

E. photographed me struggling with the frame with H. "helping".

Then we yanked out the pyracantha (nowhere for this one to go, so it gets the chop) and various herbs, that are now distributed around the garden.

Then I noticed the cable supplying the garden shed and thought that was best dug out rather than chopped by a JCB. And here we are, ready for the off.

Autumn Leaves

2008-10-19T10:15:00.000+01:00

Some fine colours and patterns in the garden at the moment.

Can't remember what this is called! NOT Boston Ivy though.

Zebra Grass

You'd never know about the grass in front of the bench now. The area is much more level than it was and can be counted a success!

Bark

2008-10-19T09:32:00.001+01:00

The bark was delivered on Wednesday. I estimated three bags and calculated five, so ordered four.

From The Surprised Gardeners

I had help carrying it up the garden...

But it took a long time!

And we missed a bit. Today we are going to see if we can spread it out a bit, rather than buy a new bag.

The finished section. It looks good this deep, not sure if it will still look as good after having shifted some around.

Another tree goes...

2008-10-11T19:21:00.001+01:00

One of the apple trees has been scheduled for the chop, and today we took action. It has always grown too fast and this year produced three apples, that all went bad.

Harriet guarding the tree?

From The Surprised Gardeners

1 minute later

From The Surprised Gardeners

The last step

From The Surprised Gardeners

Later after all the bark moved around...

Finally back in the garden!

2008-09-14T21:14:00.000+01:00

Last weekend was a complete write off. Tamsin horizontal, feeling awful and me under the weather and juggling three kids. It also lashed down all Sunday. Not good, especially with me back at school.

But in the last couple of days of the long holiday I did manage to finish the steps and get the raised beds in situ.

I made it level using the soil dug out from behind the steps, and the bargain basement laser level from screwfix ;)

We have also eaten some of Tamsin's multi-coloured carrots. Poor crop this year though. I think there were only two, so they had to go a long way.

This weekend we got a fair bit done too around managing the kids and catching up with sleep. It is not often you get "before and after" in the same shot, but I managed it in this one. Finally I got round to clipping the front hedge.

And the finished article:

The best things in the vegetable garden are the carrots and the squash. Elizabeth was practising her photography skills with these today.

Carrots and back to the steps...

2008-08-21T22:20:00.000+01:00

We got some carrots today, not that many, but enough for a photo. I fear that we need to pay much more attention to the soil in the veg patch and not trust to luck.

I also went back to the steps today, after two weeks of damp holidays and a few days of recovering and feeling lethargic. Tomorrow we head off again, and I wanted to get something done.

I had decided after an idea from Dad, that the top step would have to be the bottom step. This left a problem of what to make the bottom step and to solve that I decided on "stone" there is already "stone" at the top of a pair of steps feeding in to the lawn and the new chair will be on a "stone" plinth. I am just going to be adding to the "stone". Getting the bottom step out was not too hard, but pleasingly did require some force. Hopefully I have not affected the second step too much though it definitely shifted a little.

Fortunately I had two bits of stone lying around and only needed to buy one more. One is slightly chipped, but not enough to notice and one has a very fortuitous break that follows the line of the garden...

From The Surprised...

I was not the only one working on steps...

Absolutely cream-crackered...

2008-07-22T15:32:00.000+01:00

So, five steps back in, two to go, but I am out of cement and sand. Even if I did have them I am devoid of any energy to do much let alone stagger inside for a drink and a calming blog.

Current developments:

The huge volumes of cement...

Four in!

Five in!

Now to have a nice cup of tea and ponder when to pick up my daughters who are desperate to be home early.

The mystery of the growing railway sleepers...

2008-07-22T12:59:00.000+01:00

Ten years ago I buried some rubbish soil behind the sleeper steps towards the back of the garden. I remember flippantly saying "in ten years I will have to deal with that". Actually it was eight years. Ah well. I am certainly paying the penalty. It is brutal hard work, and I am missing the pint of blood I donated yesterday!

I have had to dig out beneath and behind each step and then mix cement to pour in. I am rubbish at cement mixing, and am also probably digging out too much so it is taking a long long time. I am not helped by the roots stretching across that make spadework very difficult, or the large stones I hid there so long ago.

You can see the progress I have made in the photos. It has been very very slow work, and as you can see from the last one, pretty exhausting.

3 down, four to go. This one had grown overnight. When I came to put it back the hole was 10cm too small!

And now for a smoothie!

Starting on the steps...

2008-07-21T22:05:00.001+01:00

Glorious day today. I returned from clearing out my lab at school and found I had 30 minutes to spare before lunch and going to give blood.

So I had a play with the sleeper steps to see how big the job was. Initially the builders put the steps in, but I gave them the wrong instructions so had to redo it myself. I remember the sleepers being enormously heavy.

I found that they are not so heavy now! Partly due to me being stronger no doubt and partly due to their somewhat rotten state. Here the steps are with no sleepers. Lots of digging and cement mixing tomorrow I fear.

Mowing and a new mower

2008-07-19T21:14:00.001+01:00

Today I bought a new hover mower, the cheapest flymo I could find (£62 from homebase). It is mostly to mow the verge in front of the house but I used it to cut the whole garden from top to bottom today. The blasting Sun had all but scorched the grass and there had been negligible growth for weeks. Then when the rains finally came last week up shot the seed heads. My cylinder mower doesn't touch them and I pay the girls 1p per one to keep them down, but the flymo is a bit more efficient, albeit more expensive.

Mowing the front of the house is less of a chore than I expected. It is not ours, but the contractors who maintain it hardly ever come. My neighbours have shamed me for years now by keeping their half very trim. I finally caved in when it was looking particularly tatty and strimmed it. I continued with the strimmer but it is not a long term solution. The verge looks a lot better for being mowed. Our neighbours have planted flowers too, but I am trying to avoid battle. But maybe some flowers around the street light would make it easier to mow? Aargh, stop me.

From Surprised Gar...

The raised beds are dismantled and waiting for a whole series of events before being put in to use, namely:

1) Relaying the sleeper steps on to cement beds - they are getting a bit wobbly.
2) Moving the wavy wooden stake line (90 degree clockwise rotation, but needs to key off the top of the steps).
3) Levelling the top garden where the beds are going to go.
4) Buying and laying black weed suppressant sheeting over the levelled garden
5) Buying and wheelbarrowing the tonnes (and loads of money's worth) of soil and bark that will be needed in the finished area.

I got the bill for the wood for the beds - a little over £350. There is a LOT of wood there and the beds are huge and unique so I think it is a reasonable deal especially when compared to pre-fab ones that are less robust and nasty. Without the mistakes and if I had ordered exactly the right volume of wood it would have been around £320 I imagine. C'est la vie.

The grass I top-dressed looks OK now, though unfortunately the soil was mixed with builders sand and there are some pretty large (5mm) stones in it that got through the sieve. I guess they will disappear over time.

The finished beds :)

2008-07-06T20:45:00.000+01:00

In and out during the welcome rain today, I managed to finish the raised beds. One silly mistake cost me 30 minutes and meant I was glad for the extra wood. I also changed the design as I went along to make things easier. Pretty happy with the end result.

From Surprised Gar...

Now I just need to find the tonnes of soil to fill it, but this can wait. I have to level the final place for it and move a low wooden stake fence that I put in to keep the girls play bark in place. Moving the stakes is not too bad but the levelling is going to be nightmarish.

We were very pleased to have some relatively decent rain today, enough to slightly reload our aqueduct-fed water butts. I think it takes about 10 hours for them to fill though, so we need some serious rain!

Raised beds and sunflowers

2008-07-06T00:05:00.000+01:00

Mum asked me why I was building raised beds today. Good question. I think it is because they are aesthetically pleasing and that I enjoy the process of building them. Anyway, here is the design and the progress so far. I have got faster and faster at sawing and chiselling but have also been conducting experiments on how much more comfortable it is to hit a chisel vs your knuckle. Ouch.

The vision:

Progress:

More progress (the only downer is that I seem to have ordered too much wood. I got a bit confused whilst juggling the maths and a 2 year old...):

I am embarrassingly pleased with them so far. I hope they fit! Still lots of work to do on the top garden before they can be put in their final resting place.

We also put in the family sunflowers. We each have one and the tallest wins.

Grass and a sad medlar

2008-06-30T07:22:00.000+01:00

Normally Sunday is our best work day but I did not give much time to the garden today - glorious weather and the garden should be enjoyed too. I did find time to yank out our very sad medlar tree. This used to be on the top level but we moved it last Spring to make room for the kids' climbing frame. The weather for the move was perfect, though it was a little late. The tree thrived for two weeks and then we had five weeks of blistering March/April weather. I watered it every night but it was not enough. The tree produced leaves this Spring but it was half hearted and nothing much else happened. The fact I could pull a 10 year old tree straight out of the ground tells the story of how sad it was. We'll get a new one. Medlar jelly is delicious (though the cooking process produces the most hideous muck imaginable).

I also found time to top dress an area of the lawn that has been low for ages. I dug up the turf a month or so ago but did a rubbish job. The top dressing was dug out of the lawn borders (French drain?) when I replaced the "mower killing" stones with soft bark. The white fleece is to give some shade to that area. The lawn gets blasted by the Sun and a little shade makes a massive difference.

From Surprised Gar...

Background...

2008-06-28T20:49:00.000+01:00

We bought the house from a church in April 1999, and we live in Uttlesford (NW Essex, UK). The garden had been ignored for probably 40 years (we found self sown trees and counted 40 rings). The garden slopes up from the house by about 4m over about 45m and is 15m wide. Uphill is West, the left hand side is South.

We both grew up a distrust of "gardening". Thomas liked mowing but nothing else. But the overgrown garden needed serious attention. We spent 6 months hacking away and spraying with Roundup, finding the contours of the garden and sketching up a basic plan. There was so much ivy and other rubbish that when we got in a digger to turn the garden in to our plan of three terraces we lost an awful lot of topsoil. As we have learned, we have found that this fact, the clay/flint soil we have make for continual challenges that we are generally too lazy to attack.

The garden:

From Surprised Gar...