Ta dah!

So, here's the first bit of terracing finished.  This is taken from our bedroom window and actually makes it look a lot smaller than it really is - the wall at the front is about chest high.  We didn't have to add any extra soil because the stuff Bob dug out at the back for the little retaining wall brought the level about right.  We did add a trailer full of horse muck though and the chickens enjoyed helping us mix that in!

Then on Saturday we had to deliver a garden bench that Bob had made to someone just outside Shrewsbury (actually Prince William's helicopter instructor don't you know!) and a couple of miles from there is the yard where we got the untreated railway sleepers for the big retaining wall round the extension.  So much nicer than the ones that ooze creosote whenever the sun shines.  We had three left and thought they'd work for the back of this border and so we got another one while we were close by.  And here's the finished wall.  Bob is drilling all the way through both sleepers (they're quite hard you know) and then we knocked lengths of reinforcing bar through and into the ground below.  We have also planted some plants as you can see, although they look a bit sparse just now.  Unless you've got hundreds of pounds to spend on lots of plants including some bigger mature shrubs it is always going to look a bit bare for the first couple of years I suppose.  We had bought some shrubs a few months ago in readiness - mostly for Winter interest like a Sweet Box and a Japanese Holly (which is the spike of green in the foreground).  There was also a white Buddlejah for the butterflies and another mystery shrub with very little detail on the label except that the leaves turn bright red in Autumn/Winter which will be the reason we bought it.  When I googled it though it turns out to grow 1.5m high and 2m wide . . . . oh . . . . . . and it likes acidic soil . . . . . oh!  Nothing about that on the label and as we live on the edge of a limestone quarry, the soil's hardly likely to be acidic and it would completely dominate this border.  So, quick rethink and we've decided it can eventually replace the blackcurrants which are planted on an awkward slope at the edge of the path.  We'll have to dig a big hole and fork through lots of ericaceaous compost and if it grows as big as it says it will be a really useful way to fill a very awkward spot.  We went to the garden centre yesterday and got a tall grass to go in the back corner which will look quite pretty, some light orange Crocosmia, a white Campanula to trail over the front and some yellow daisy things.  I'm most excited about the Bergamont we bought - it's used to flavour Earl Grey tea, but if you eat the petals they have the most amazing intense, sweet flavour and the flowers are a lovely dark red and bees and butterflies absolutely love it (it is also known a Bee Balm) so tick, tick, tick!  From our existing border we are going to move a Wych Hazel and a Potentilla which really aren't happy and we'll split all sorts of things like Rudbekia, Penstemon and Euphorbia.  I've also got lots of bits of Thyme and Sedum to plant in the wall.  I also sprinkled loads of seeds from our Mexican Daisy into a seed tray and there are loads of little seedlings coming through - trouble is, I haven't a clue if they're weeds or the little daisies.  Those daisies are amazing and bush out and trail with tonnes of tiny daisy flowers that start off pink and then turn white.  Normally they flower from early Spring until the first harsh frosts, but because we had such a mild Winter last year ours has flowered non-stop since March 2013!

Well, we're off to a barbeque on Wednesday evening and I red in the paper today that snow is forecast - admittedly that is in the highlands and unlikely to reach Shropshire, but ground frost is a real possibility.  Must remember to take a jumper!

More weeding!

Yes, more weeding has been done, but this time I imported some help!  Carol and Graham came briefly so that Graham could do a bit more to his rocking chair.  It's really coming on and all the bits are shaped and all the joints are cut and have been tested.  Now, Graham's a precision engineer and Bob has reverted to his old precision ways now he's making furniture (things in an old house can't be done with that much precision) so you won't be surprised to know that one of the joints was so tight that they couldn't pull it apart again and Bob has blisters on his hands from the effort!  Anyway, Graham has gone away with sanding homework and if he has time to do that they can start guleing it together next time they come.

So, while they were doing that Carol and I did some garden jobs.  Bob and I have just about finished the stone wall for our forst bit of terracing and so behind it were all the reject stones that didn't get used so we sorted them and moved them to their appropriate places and then pulled all the weeds out.  Now it's ready to have a dose of well-rotted horse muck and some topsoil from our mountain (the one we had to move to lay the lawn).  Course, since we laid the lawn, the mountain of soil had grown its own forest of lush weeds. 

 At least they stopped the chickens from spreading the soil all over the place and so we do still have some left.  So that was another job to do.  That was actually quite good fun because the weeds were big and thick, but because the soil was quite loose they came up easily and it was quite satisfying.  So, good job done.  That's the finished wall behind Carol, ready to backfill with soil and plant.

Last weekend we had a working party to Mum and Dad's.  To make things more manageable in their garden they have taken out the hedge and wanted to put a fence in, so Carol, Graham, Bob and I launched ourselves at the task.  Mum and Dad had done all the planning and got the timber roughly cut to size and with its first coat of fence treatment and the posts and rails were already in.  So over the two days we nailed the boards on cut the top level and put all the top pieces on and gave it another coat of treatment.  We also re-treated their two little sheds, made a new handle for one and dug over the border that had got well and truly trampled in the process.  It ended up a bit like that old program 'Ground Force' as Mum took the opportunity to do some inside jobs and we ended up racing against the clock to get the border dug, stones picked out, raked and swept up before Mum came out to offer a cup of tea at 3.30 (she didn't know we were doing that bit so we wanted to surprise her with a job finished)!  It was actually quite good fun and everyone worked well together and around each other and we got a satisfying amount done.  There were quite a lot of people walking past when Carol and I were nailing the boards on (Bob, Graham and Dad were doing the more technical 'boy jobs' like cutting joints on the top rail).  I think people were quite surprised to see 'girls' doing that sort of thing.  One elderly lady looked quite horrified as she asked her friend if that was 'ladies doing fencing'!  Oh, if only she knew . . . fencing, roofing, building, underpinning, demolition (and barely a broken nail in the whole time!).

We're off to the proverbial p***-up in a brewery tonight.  Stonehouse brewery where we buy our beer from are having a bit of a do to raise money for charity.  They have a couple of local bands playing (I think some of the lads that work there are in a band), a hog roast and beer - naturally.  Should be good I think - they've sold 160 tickets - just a shame I have to work tomorrow!