jobs for the weekend week 1 of February

Jobs for the weekend, are starting to slowly ramp up in the garden, it really hasn't been cold at all this winter and we still have a tun of logs we didn't burn as its been that mild, and the mild weather is making things pop all over the garden, I had 5000 bulbs last autumn and I have felt like a squirrel constantly out digging and hiding them, and I was so glad to see so many lift their heads from the soil to greet spring.

 2 jobs that got underway was the cutting of a new boarder to mirror the boarder on the other side of the fence, I don't know if you can see the cut line but once Ali had cut it he remarked on its rather unfortunate shape.  That will have to be an in garden snigger between you and I.

While Ali was working on the boarder, I was lifting the strawberry plants we planted last year we had 6 but we didn't get any fruit as the mice got to them before the girls did, but over the year they have been very productive and I now have loads of plants, so they have now been transported to my hot bead where one of the local cats likes to snooze, so with such a guardian I am now in hopes of a bit of soft fruit.

Cutting our first bed

So we have a rather large green space with little in it which is great for us to make it as we want.  At the bottom of the garden is a willow from the neighbour that bows over and Sophie hides here as a little monster to jump out at us.

We decided to cut our first bed here, and to keep Sophie's hide out we have used some large slabs for her to hop about across the bed.

 Once the bed was cut we started the planting which took ages as we planted a huge amount of bulbs plus 100 bare root wallflowers, plus hostas and a bird bath with alpines.  I can not wait to see if all the hard comes together in Spring

Were we live has great vintage shops and i could help picking up these old tools, i find that buying the new ones from teh garden centers only seem to last a year or 2 before the fork spikes bend or the handles fall off, they sure did make tools built to last in the old days, which is why i got these and they have been hard at work since we got them.

Whilst we were working on the bed our neighbour came home from work ...by helicopter!!! 

 Finally with all the plants in i'm now scratching my head as to how to water it all, as it is so far away from anything.  So we started another project after this one where we have bought 130 meters of hose and are pumping water from rain buts to give this lot a good soaking.

Pots for winter and spring

 We are full on bulb planting round the garden at the moment and have bought around 1000 bulbs and it is now way near enough for the garden but a good start to build on over the years, Next year i will bulk buy sacks of bulbs as it is much cheaper per bulb.  We have bought loads of varieties of bulbs but the basic types are tulips, daffodils, bluebells, snowdrops,crocus and muscari armeniacum, hoping for a good splash of colour come spring time.

We have a large front walk way and have made a start at trying to pretty it up with some pots.  We are trying to have pots that give blooms for a good 6 months through winter and spring and we have planned the layered pot approach.

Starting with the lower layer we placed tulips bulbs then soil then daffodil bulbs more soil followed by the muscari armeniacum, we topped the pot off with a selection of winter pansies and cyclamen.  Here is madam hitching a ride in the trolley as we took the pots from the potting area to the front door for display.

 My other little helper was on bed duty using the best tool i bought for planting the many bulb, my bulldog garden spear, making planting quicker.  Looking forward to Spring now and seeing all new flowers after our hard work.