Trowel and Error

[Cosmopolitan]

My tulips seem to come in waves. All the yellowy ones first and now I have purple and red ones coming out. This one was a month ago.

[Bat Macdui]

I love your tulip, Disco.

My red tulips have been out a while, and the yellow are just following. Everything has been hammered by the COMPLETELY FUCKING CEASELESS rain recently, though.

[Mountain Goat]

My baby sedums got a few stalks blown right off. They'd only been outside a week after being cossetted indoors for about a month. I hope they can recover.

My current tulips are very similar to those, Cos. So pretty.

[Disco]

I love those orange-y tulips. My broken one was one like that.

Another pretty one about to unfurl.

[Mountain Goat]

That's so beautiful! Where did you get it from? Farmer Gracy?

[Mountain Goat]

These are mine that are the same/similar to Cos's (plus bonus white tulips going over).

tulips.jpg

[Disco]

Ooh they’re lovely and I like the yellowy leaves shrub thing behind.

Yes Farmer Gravy. I went nuts last year ordering g ice cream tulips, eyelash ones and other I can’t remember. 50 of them. Plus 25 different kinds of alliums.

[Mountain Goat]

OMG. It was clearly worth the labour of what must have been a planting frenzy, they are gorgeous. I also went a bit overboard on alliums, I can't wait for them to open up, one sort (christophii) are so close (the others haven't formed buds yet).

I don't even know what that shrub is, it was developer planted, I have about five and moved them all about this time last year so it's the first time I've seen them do well. I'm glad I kept them.

[Disco]

It was a back breaking day and before you ever mentioned Hori hori knives or whatever they’re called.

I’m looking forward to seeing your alliums. The christophi ones are quite big are they?

I can’t remember which types I got and I had also decided to plants out garlic cloves randomly as flowers.

[Mountain Goat]

I think they have big balls but are not that tall (I thought they were tall when I planted them). What a phrase.

I've also got some white ones and some droopy ones and some small nubby very dark purple ones.

Everything (almost) in that bed is a mystery I will see for the first time this year so god only knows what sort of show it will be.

[Disco]

They sound really lovely. I’m going to check my order history later to remind myself of what I planted though I dont think they’re as interesting as yours.

[Mountain Goat]

Well I am for one am thrilled that I planted out my sweet peas and now it's blowing a gale and hailing.

In better news, we finished the gravel! I love it. It has no plants yet of course and we need to organise the bin storage and other detritus littering that area but I much prefer it to the odd bit of lawn that was there before.

It was a weird section of lawn that existed mainly because the developers were too cheap to give us anything more than the statutory amount of patio. I didn't like its angularity and also I walked across it at least twice a day going over to the garage for bird food/cat food/chest freezer so it was never going to be very healthy. I didn't want to pave it as it would feel too harsh for my liking. This is when I had just started to dig it out:

before.jpg

And this is immediately after putting the gravel down (so very messy around the general area, it's a little better now but I'm not going outside in this to take another picture )

after.jpg

I'm annoyed at myself for not getting the bigger version of the central planter, I thought the big one would be too much but it would have been better. But, it's there now. I have ordered a rose for it (Desdemona, David Austin). I much prefer how it brings the barbecue/dining areas together more without being a mass of pavement. Not that you can tell what's the barbecue and what's the dining table as covers are still on for a couple more weeks. And the planter has seats around the edge so I can sit out with a cup of tea in a furniture-covered season without it being a palaver. There will be big, big pots, possibly a small potted tree where the bin is so it won't be so sparse (eventually).

[Bat Macdui]

Bloody hell, Goat, you're putting some work in. You must be knackered and slightly smug.

The beautiful tulips are making me think I might make more effort with bulbs next year. My yellow tulips are coming out now, and they look lovely. No photos, due to the fact it's wild outside. And the marsh marigold that's been slugging out a sad existence in a plastic trug between houses is so appreciative of its new (square, not quite right) pond situation it's thrown out five flowers.

[Mountain Goat]

I was smug on Saturday after finishing the gravel, then miserable on Sunday after another day of working on the tiny mini greenhouse and failing to finish it (this because of a four hour gap because it needed a drill, and someone had not charged the drill up, despite knowing for a week that it would be needed at the weekend). I started it at Easter! I am now on stage 11 of 16. Each stage has taken me roughly an hour. I had to stop because the last five stages involve putting the glass in, and I did not want to start that if I wasn't going to finish it before dark, not with this weather due. It now has a full frame screwed into the paving, shelves and a motherfucking irrigation system that nearly killed me and I probably won't use.

I would like to see your tulips when the weather is more co-operative. And your happy marsh marigold. I've just gone to deadhead my tulips that have been finished off by hail.

[Demelza]

That looks so much better! I really like your central planter (and that might be just what I need to break up an expanse of patio when we redo that).

I was sure that I'd planted tulips last year but only one has come up – lots of grape hyacinths though. We spent all of yesterday in the garden – cut the grass (so long that the dog was in danger of disappearing) and dug up the lavender lining the front path which had become too large and woody. Have some replacements to plant out but ran out of time. I've got more to plant out, including sweet peas, but I'd like a wicker trellis-y thing for them to climb up and I haven't found one yet. Maybe at the next garden sale (I completely missed the last one but my friend is donating lots of veg seedlings to the next one, and will let me have first pick before she takes them up).

[H1ppychick]

I spent a good 4 hours blitzing the front garden yesterday but it just looks a bit less weed-ridden and with slightly shorter grass. A bit like the difference when I put make up on.

[Disco]

That looks great, Goat.

[Mountain Goat]

Thank you! It has a way to go still but I'm pleased (not so much with the bloody greenhouse). And my cheap solar lights from Dunelm actually work! I was dubious.

Demelza I've read quite a lot of gardens reporting bad tulip fire this year so it might be that? I'm not sure how you tell. I think you were blessed to not find the trellis for your sweet peas and to have spared them today's weather. Even my newly opened tulips have been pretty much finished off.

My planter was this one: https://www.layzeeliving.co.uk/collecti ... er-planter

It's not the most professional website but it was all fine and it was an absolute joy to put together, the wood slabs just slot into place, you just have to nail down the seats. Took about 15 minutes.

[Derek Nimmo]

I think that looks amazing! Kudos for all your hard work. I think that once the planter is in full flower you'll be fine with it being the size it is - any bigger and I reckon it would be annoying to swerve round.

[absley]

That looks fabulous, Goat. And hopefully the greenhouse just needs a final blitz.

I spent a good 4 hours blitzing the front garden yesterday but it just looks a bit less weed-ridden and with slightly shorter grass. A bit like the difference when I put make up on.

Oh yes, so much of this. The number of times I'm out all day and D can't see what I've done. Ho hum.