Chris's Ebay Urns

A surprise visit from Chris last Sunday meant even more surprises with a delivery of amazing garden goodies in the form of a pair of rather grand looking garden urns and 3 other jardinieres plus 2 shrubs - a lovely Spirea nipponica Snowmound and a Philadelphus Virginal with has double flowers both of which are sizeable, mature plants and both with an RHS Award of Garden Merit.  All very exciting!!  Of course, I couldn't wait to have the pair of urns set up in position so when the other Chris G. arrived, he made plinths for them and cemented each urn to its respective plinth either side of the arbour path.  If it wasn't for the FREEZING weather, I'd have planted them up but, as things stand meteorologically, it would be sheer folly.  Most of the pots and urns were EBay purchases and team negotiations!  Just to smarten things up, Chris P. made a rather splendid job of weeding and forking the border - after this photo was taken!

Home Made Plant Stand

How simple is this?  An old broken gully pot inverted and cut off level (with help!), an old tile and a square pot.  Perfect use for old bits and pieces kicking around!  I'd actually been balancing a pot on it for years before it was cut level. It looks so much better now I'm able to place a tile under the pot.

Hen Party

Poppy getting ready!

Off to the party

Lulu, Black Betty and Poppy with a few party moves!

Wintry Well Work

Don't be fooled by the sunshine - notice the layers!

With the drive all spruced up, it was time to move round to the well.  We removed an old stone trough which used to protrude from underneath the pump spout actually through the circular wall.  I say we but, it was of course Chris G. who singlehandedly manhandled this monstrously heavy trough up to the terrace.  He then bricked up the gap left in the circular wall and, where the pump handle is raised and lowered, Chris reduced the height of the capping bricks by building in a section of half round blue pipe.  This extra bit of cleverness has had the effect of increasing the gap between the bricks and ones knuckles!  Raising water to a height of 50 feet requires very vigorous use of the pump handle.  It was just far too easy to smash ones knuckles on the blue capping pavers!  Wouldn't 'Health & Safety' be proud of us!

Knuckle crushing prevention!

Arctic Easter

The remains of Matt & Sarah's snowman - in April!

A much tidier drive!

Most of the Easter break has been spent grafting in the garden with help from both Chris's and trying to keep warm.  Snow remains in sheltered areas and ferocious night frosts.  Undeterred, Chris P finished off the drive by levelling and raking gravel up to the newly laid retaining bricks and burying light cables.  It's all looking very tidy and a big change from a muddy drive, building materials everywhere and a skip full of rubbish. 

Refurbished Cold Frames

In these glacial temperatures, they should be called freezing cold frames!  Anyway, the old recycled window lights eventually rotted through and the panes of glass began to fall out - so, Al made new ones using Chris's patent design and reinforced safety glass.  Hey presto!  Very smart (freezing!) cold frames which actually allow even more light in!  We decided to retain the original methods of securing the lights open by using the nylon ties threaded through staples in the sleepers.  That way, they can be left open both individually and/or at any angle.

On Good Friday last year...........

.........we were enjoying what turned out to be our short summer!  Hosepipe bans had just announced, potatoes planted and seeds sown. The soil was warm and dry beneath a hot sun and we were being warned about a summer of drought.  Garden centres had sold out of water butts as we were being told in dire tones to conserve water as reservoirs were dangerously low!

Hand dried bricks beneath the blue pavers!

This year on Good Friday, I was sitting outside with an old hair dryer plugged in to extension cable defrosting snow covered bricks and then drying them out to enable building works in the form of Staffordshire blue pavers to be laid as capping bricks around the tops of the retaining walls surrounding the contorted hazel and 'chimney conifer.'  The weather has been consistently cold with daytime temperatures barely above freezing and night time temperatures well below freezing with -8 promised tonight!  Finishing off the brickwork between the gravel and the flagstones was today's main mission with keeping warm the big challenge!  The line of blue retaining bricks holding back the gravel were laid in graceful curves and then tucked up in layers of weighted down newspapers to keep the frosts at bay while the cement dries.  I was glad to use a sledge hammer to break up old bricks for use as rubble and to try (in vain) to keep warm.

Al came back from Costco with a hybrid Magnolia Wada's Memory from Seattle.  It's a lovely specimen covered in white scented flowers.  There is absolutely no hope of planting it in the garden with this very cold spell likely to remain until well into April according to the Met Office.  It's actually sitting in the conservatory until things look up.