We’ve made big progress in the garden this week! Last Thursday, four 2.4m softwood sleepers arrived. If you’ve been following my garden posts you’ll know I have been desperate to start building our raised beds. After finally finding the right sleepers and a company who would deliver to our village, we were all set. For me, these arriving was on the same excitement level as shopping for our Christmas tree!!
After 6 hours, one round of cheese on toast and one packet of Cadburys Fabulous Fingers we had 2 raised beds in the back garden. I’m going to do a separate blog post about making these at some point because they were alot of work.
Now all we need to do is buy more compost and top soil and we are ready to go. Squeeee!
We ended the day by using our Kadai for the first time – partly for some warmth.
I bought some pink cyclamen for our shady patio area and I’m going to keep an eye out for some red ones too.
The hydrangea thinks Spring has arrived because its buds are starting to open. There are quite a few on the stems so we should have lots of flowers next year. I’ve left the dead flower heads on for now to protect the buds if we get a hard frost.
The garlic plants are growing like triffids! If they carry on at this rate they’ll all be 6ft tall by the time Summer arrives. I planted the cloves 3 months ago and it took approx 4 weeks for shoots to start peeping out of the ground but some of the plants already have shoots 8 inches tall. I’m hoping this is a good sign.
The daffodil bulbs seem a bit late compared to everyone elses but they are starting to emerge. I’m looking forward to seeing these come up and provide some colour. On a side note, the soil is looking horrendous at the moment because of all the stones. I removed lots when we moved in but months of continuous rain has washed every last grain of soil downwards leaving a carpet of stones on top.
I’m still finding broken pottery in the garden every time I do some digging. I found this nice piece at the weekend.
And lastly, I’ve seen the house sparrows out alot lately. The young one below is very vocal and I’m seeing more of him now because I recognise his call. He usually stands on the guttering and chirps continuously. He’s also a bit of a poser and doesn’t mind me opening the window and taking photos of him.
It won’t be long before we can get the pop-up greenhouse out and start sowing seeds!
Ooh, those raised beds look good. I can imagine how much work they involved too-my step dad made ours! Our tulip and daffodil bulbs look to be about in line with yours-I just hope they don’t drown in all this rain. Lovely inages.
Same here. The fact that they are slowly growing taller means they haven’t been drowned yet 🙂
fantastic! we’re really after some raised beds too, and were planning to make them the same way. lovely photos of your garden progress, how exciting to see so much growth x
Brilliant beds, well done, and on munching on some Fabulous Fingers in amongst the handiwork, too! Lovely photos and I see that house-sparrow’s poser-like personality there 😉
I always make time for snacks 😉
ooo ooo raised bed envy! I’ll keep my peepers out for a post about those as that’s something I’d love to do too!
Such pretty photos – I love the cyclamen and the sparrow especially. Oh I want to come and play in your garden!
And now I am hankering after cheese on toast… you have a lot to answer for Gemma.
Thanks for joining in again and sharing *runs off to cut cheese*
Thanks Annie! It would be wrong to deny yourself of cheese on toast…go forth and grill!
hoe exciting!! they came out great! you should consider getting a compost bin and start making your own. we do it here. you will be surprised how easy and how worth it it is!
Yes, a compost bin would be really handy as I can see us getting through alot of it in the next few months.
Ooh the raised beds are lovely! what are you planning on growing? A lovely pretty piece of pottery in your garden, we dig up all kinds of bits in ours but nothing as pretty. I love how the cyclamen flowers are all curled up in a spiral before they open, just beautiful.
That’s one of the reasons I like cyclamen too. What we grow will depend on how much sun we get over the Summer but lettuce, spinach and kale are definitely on the list so far.
Looks like a wonderfully productive day x #HDYGG
The beds look fantastic, and the fire makes it look like a cozy chore to build them. I can’t believe you’ve already got hydrangea flowering – I am jealous as I sit here in weather that is colder than it should be for the southern US.
Your garden looks so tidy and lovely and I adore raised beds. I always wonder about pottery found in gardens, funny isn’t it! Here’s to spring being on its way….I hope.
It does at the moment but I’m looking forward to when it starts to look a little more wild and lived in!
The raised beds look awesome, where did you get your wood from in the end? I’m thinking about making some more in our garden as they seem much easier to tend to. Love that pretty pottery but clearing rubble and stones is a nightmare!
Thanks Jenni! We bought the sleepers from sleeper-supplies.co.uk in the end. Delivery was very reasonable and quick.
Oh those pink cyclamen are divine
Oh wow Gemma loving the raised beds, sounds like they were such hard work. You must be so pleased to have them in though. Fabulous photos and I love the little Sparrows. We have some vocal Robbins in the garden at the moment 🙂
I am! And having the one dry day of that week fall on a Saturday was very lucky.
It’s such fun to get excited about prospective garden plants! I’m sure they will turn out well for you. The little sparrow is so cute!
The beds look great, bet you can’t wait to start growing things in them 🙂
I cant 🙂 Roll on Spring!!