Catlady's Garden - Update 16/01/24

PB- No thanks got more than enough to keep up with here, but thanks for the offer!
Hazel - Yes any help much appreciated and I can give you as much coffee and biscuits as you need!
NIgel - Yes it was a lovely day, hopefully you may see some before the Autumn sets in.

Thanks all .

Hello All, thought I would add some photos with a bit of Spring colour. Was going to add them onto the other thread for plants and bulbs, but kept them all here for me to see the differences from year to year. We have had a cracking spell of lovely sunny weather, so on my non working days (now only one in the surgery and two at home) I am outside. Enjoy

Can't remember the name but they are tiny blue/lilac flowers a bit like blue bells, only grow a few inches high. We got them as a bit of fun to grow for our garden club meeting in March, we had to take the pot along whatever they turned out like, mine were all up and the colour showing but of course with the lockdown we never got to the meeting, so had to share our photos online.

3 tubs of lovely different coloured tulips

Front border all starting to grow, primrose, daffodils, lupins, cornflower, astilbe, and others

Grape Hyacinths

These are lovely white daffodils, don't know their name and I can't remember what I have shoved in at the left of the pot!

Use my iPad all the time mostly, aince Apple have stopped the Puffin browser, I have to use their own browser, which is Safari, it is a pain when adding photos. I can only add one at a time, I get no choice to re size, if I add more than one is adds the same photo again. I have tried numerous browsers but they either are not compatible with my IOS 9 or they do the same. Grrrrr.

Lovely signs of springtime and colour in your garden Catlady with so many different bulbs/flowers; wondering if the blue flowers with the broader stems are Chionodoxa although I'm not sure. The tulips are wonderful grouped together. I'm missing the flowers of our last garden as there are only buxus trees and evergreen non-flowering shrubs in this small courtyard. Thanks for sharing your garden :)

Have been in the garden all day, so thought I would add some photos, not a lot of colour now, but at least it looks tidy. Still got the back to do!

Using my iPad and since the stupid updates I can only add one photo at a time and no option to resize, so hang in there with me!

The front border, one wee pink left and a bit of colour on the Lobelia.

Think these were called Oxalis, nice pink flowers.

This bush was twice the width year before last so it had a huge hair cut, (two trips to the tip, tthe back/boot of my wee car was full) even with steps with long handled shears hubby, who is 6 feet+ could not reach to the window ledge, so had to go inside and try as best I could front the window!

Top end at the front.

Midlele and bottom at front, sun/light changed by time I took this.

The cotoneaster on this wall is full of berries this year, and a pathetic looking Holly tree, that has been there for years and is frowning not a lot, so it is getting moved next year!

This is at the back, the Virginia creeper is so beautiful in the Autumn red, and a few shrubs at the wee wall, potentilla, Christmas rose.

This is at the opostite end from the above photo. It may not look very steep but from ground to the top it is probably a good 5 feet. Pretty hard going with the lawn mower, can't use the ride on as it would not be safe, I may shoot over the gravel and come onto the front!! Hopefully next week or the week after, this is going to be transformed. Turf taken off and kept, top soil kept, the Rogosa rose to the left will have to go, along the back at the top coming down to the right, will be left, then I don't know how many tons of sand to excavate out, which will go as well. The wall runs along the left and as the ground is so sandy it is pushing the lawn up, about a foot above the wall and the sand is now coming out onto the roadside in trickles over the top and through the wall and the stones are moving. Once the sand is away we will get the turf and top soil put back down and I can have a border on the left, which I can then have fun with next year, getting lots of different things in there. My only worry is that when the sand is taken out how on earth are we going to support the back (where it is 5 feet high) as the sand is still going to be there under the roses and next door backs on to it! ! The wall will have to be sorted in places I am sure, so we will have fun!i

I will update you on this project.

Some of you may remember the sad end the fence came to, further back this thread you can read and see about it. Well when the side is finished we will at last have a field fence back up. There has been talk over many decades that there could be houses built in the fields behind, and that is why we had the fence out up 6 feet high but as time goes on and the way things are, I don't think we will see any in our time. It is a year past December since the ranch fence came down, the guy has been so busy he never go back to it last year, the plan was to get going in the spring, but Covid had other ideas. Now that we have been used to the space and seeing the lovely hills beyond, we have decide to put up a filed fence instead. 

I will keep you posted on this as well.

Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed my update.

Goodness me, you worked hard Catlady and even before all your plans to excavate the garden looks such a great size and wonderful area to plant out further. I remember in Australia our large garden had a steep slope so I had to be extra careful going down on the ride-on and keep in a straight line or it would have toppled over ! Always preferred going uphill rather than down lol. The planting you already have is fantastic, love the cotoneaster with berries, the holly and the pretty Oxalis and I remember your spring bulbs - all wonderful with their colour. Good luck with the project and look forward to seeing pics in due course. I also remember the demise of the fence ! sounds nice that you can see the hills in the distance.

Oh wow you have been very busy Catlady and am glad you got some decent weather to do it!....That hill looks like a perfect sledging slope lol...Good luck with your future work on it..sounds like a huge project .!!

When searching for this, could not beleive it was updated in 2020. No flowers today but had to show you my new visitors. My neighbour told me she had a mama pheasant on eggs, 13 hatched. We have had over the years families visiting, her house is 100 yards behind ours, and wondered if we would have these new ones visiting.Yesterday hubby shouted quick, quick come here. Well, there they were, 8 little chicks and mama, not much corn out, threw ouf a scoopful, she I think is mama from last year, as she was used to being fed and would come when the corn went out, squeaking away. Just now they were back, only 6, the rest may have been hiding. Mama decided to come down from the back and went round the side of the house, did not want her going there, as it is only a short way down the drive and onto the main road. The wee ones knew she had moved and one started to come down from the back so I quickly got more corn and when I came back out, she was back, phew. Thank goodness I have a new 20kg bag of mixed grain!!

Omg CL has it been that long!!! Lol...how fabulous to have the pheasants..am sure you will keep them well fed and watered...what a lovely secluded spot they have in your garden ;-)

Really lovely to see photos of your garden again CL and also your new pheasant visitors which are lucky enough to have that beautiful area with seed grain to enjoy. Looking at all those chicks, it's a good thing you have a full bag of grain !

I didn't think I'd seen this post before, so it was a trip back top the beginning to grasp the story. But I had, because I had liked the very first post, though no reply, for reasons I don't know. But hey-ho, there has been a fabulous transformation since the first post back in 2017 and wonderful to see, and the pheasant chicks all lined up.

Now there's a reply, I shouldn't miss the next episode, hopefully not in another two years time! LOL.