Tag: garden

Phase I: Mould Begone (part i)

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It’s been more than four years since any updates from us, but to be fair , that was 2019, and some rather big things happened after then, which put the breaks on a lot of people plans! But we’ve also been bad and not kept you all up-to-date with the things that have been going on. So here is a catch up!

During this time, we’ve had three new jobs between us, increased our Lego collection way too much, and been trying to get fit and lose some weight. All in between Zoom calls, episodes of Tiger King, and trying to dodge coronavirus. So to sum it up, we’ve not been very busy with any DIY for the last three years!

But it’s not been a complete waste, because in 2021 we decided to finally move ahead in some of our plans for the extension.

Whilst our funds were pretty close the the amounts we’d been quoted in the past, we’d seen enough epidoses of Grand Designs (and Homes under the Hammer), to know that in almost every case the costs and timescales always end up way more than originally expected. So we didn’t want to try and do it all and run out of money before the end.

But during one of the visits from a builder, it was mentioned about having the utility room stripped out, insulated and redecorated as part of the extension plans in order to get rid of the black mould, and make it all good. The builder gave us 2 quotes for both the new part of the extension, and the improvements to the utility room, and it was this that gave us the idea about splitting the works needed into the 2 parts that needed doing.

Over the previous six years of living in the house, the black mould in the utility room had crept further and further up the walls and bloomed in previously untouched areas. And when it rained heavily, the water would seep in around the door frame and though the holes in the roof, despite having had the roof professionally repaired a few years ago.

So we really wanted to try and sort this out once and for all, and we spoke with the architect to see if it could be done. Fortunately it could be, without having to change things very much.

The drains in the garden would need to be moved, which is something that we would need to do as part of the extension foundations anyway, so we decided to include the foundations as part of the work in this phase. And since we were doing the utility at a different time to the bathroom, we decided to add a shower into the utility as well. It’s something that we previously thought about doing, and we thought it would come in handy when the bathroom works will take place, and we won’t have a bath/shower.

This had the added benefit of being enough work for the council to accept the plan as being officially started, which meant that our planning permission wouldn’t expire, as well as having a new (mould free) utility room without having to pay the huge cost of both phases at once (which would have required a few more years of saving)!

There was another issue that splitting the work into phases also helped with, and that was inflation! This was in mid-2021, and so the world was beginning to open up again, and building supplies were struggling to keep up with demand, so the price of a lot of materials were increasing month after month. That meant that a quote given to us at this point might be considerably out of line with the final price we’d end up paying. So at least by only doing a part of all of the works, we’d be able to stop the possibility of inflation becoming a bigger problem for us (which as it turned out, was a very good thing).

We went through the normal (long) processes, with getting quotes from a few different builders and eventually works started in November 2021, and were due to finish around Christmas (although actually ended up finishing in April 2022, but we knew it would always take longer).

First jobs first – Out with the old

Before any works could begin, we had to try and clear out as much of the stuff in the utility as we could move, which was a lot more than we’d realised.

It’s amazing to see how much things have changed, now that we’re looking back.

Second Job – Foundations

Obviously starting in November meant that the builders were already going to have to face into a lovely English winter and its weather, but it was relatively mild, although I am still glad it wasn’t us out there every day in the mud.

One thing that the builders did request of us, was the need to knock down part of the back wall, to give access to some machinery to dig up the ground. By sheer luck, the wall in the back garden backs on to a road, that would allow the access, and we discovered that the wall acutally belonged to us too! And we think we happen to be the only house along our neighbours who happen to have our back garden back on to another road, so for the first time, it actually felt like we had a bit of good luck!

The machinery defineitly helped with the groundworks, and made quick work of it, even if it did effectively turned out garden into somehting that looked like it could be used in a WWI film set!

And becaue we now both work from home, we were actually around for almost all of the works, which meant that we were able to have a little play around with some time-lapse videos.

And eventually things started to come together, with soak-aways being added, and foundations being laid.

Even the new drains came together well, although I know it took many days of being sat in the rain to finish it off.

It felt pretty strange to actually see the foundations going in, when we’d spent so long talking about it.

https://youtu.be/KbnvHqMDMos

And although we tried our very best, the nice smooth concrete surface did end up with a few cat paw prints in it!

The garden was left in ruins, but you can’t have everything!

See part 2 for the details on the Utility room!

It’s been a while…

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After nearly a year without an update (the reason for which we will come on to), I thought now would be a good time. It’s approaching summer and we have been working in the garden, and although not much has changed in the house, our application for planning permission has been submitted to the council.

We have gone with our original idea of having a ‘one and two story’ extension, this expands the upstairs bathroom, the kitchen and the dining room.  We now just have our fingers crossed that permission is granted.

So with that in mind, we are trying to save as much money as possible, and we have mainly been making a few improvements to our front garden.

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Pictured above: Our established ‘Loddon Blue’ Lavender and ‘Totally Tangerine’ Geums

On the last May bank holiday weekend, Paul and I went and bought nine different types of lavender to plant in the front garden. These now line the wall that runs parallel to our house. We’ve left space for them to grow so they do look a bit meek at the moment, but we’re looking forward to having a long row of fragrant shrubbery in years to come.

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We have quite solid clay soil which makes digging more than a couple of inches very difficult. Coupled with the buried bricks, making space for the lavender was not as easy as we’d hoped.

Above: The variety of lavender now planted in the garden. 

The two french lavenders ‘Tiara’ and ‘Regal Splendour’ didn’t come with tags, as we had to go to an entirely different garden centre to find these. I intend to document the order in which they have been planted in a garden book so we don’t forget.

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Earlier on in the year, in March we re-planted our hanging basket with a variety of succulents and an alpine lavender plant. The reason we went for those is because last year the plants tended to dry out very quickly and didn’t do well. It’s all doing much better and needs a lot less watering than last year’s arrangement.

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We also replaced a the couple of plants that didn’t make it through the winter in our strawberry planter, it’s now bursting at the seams. Again, alpines and succulents seem to be the way forward for some easy gardening.

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Above: The bees have been loving the abundance of chive flowers this year.

Our kitchen garden is doing well. We’ve removed most of the mint and had to re-plant it in spots where we don’t mind it taking over (on the ground below the raised bed). It’s now happily mingled with escaped strawberries, sweet woodruff and chamomile (and a few determined weeds). And we replaced a few of the things we lost over the years like sage and lemon verbena (which didn’t survive the Beast from the East last year).

We have also pulled out and replaced some of the plants near the top of the front garden.  I have tried to introduce some more colour as it was previously just a bland blanket of green.

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From left: Hart’s Tongue Fern, Carex ‘Bronze Form’, Berberis ‘Thunbergii Orange Rocket’, a hosta (whose tag we lost), Heuchera ‘Marmalade’ & Tiarella ‘Spring Symphony’

We’re hoping it will all fill out a little bit and look even better next year, providing the slugs don’t eat them.

The plan is to begin work on our extension in 2020. The application was submitted to the local council by our architect in April and the decision was meant to be made on 6 June. We have yet to hear anything, but are hoping for some good news soon so we can start making some more concrete plans!

In Bloom

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Following the snow, the garden was really looking pretty rough and there was a time when it looked like it wasn’t going to ever grow back. Even when it wasn’t snowing, we had a lot of rain over the winter and most of the ground had been saturated for months. Fortunately we had quite a good spring and some really hot sunny weather so things did start to improve. So we finally decided to get the tools out and start improving the garden. Although we had to pop to the garden centre first and see what we could put in the gaps that had been left.

This also meant that we finally got around to trying some of the compost we had made, for the first time. This was easier said than done as the flap at the bottom had never been opened and it turns out that a couple of years of grass and weed growth (and maybe some wonky craftmanship) made it almsot impossible to open the damn thing.

No beehive

Once we did get it open, there wasn’t much to go with, as the cardboard we used hadn’t really mulched down. But what we could get was good. It stank quite a bit, but I think that means it’s good.

Stank

We only had a little bit of bought compost so tried to fill it out with ours to make it go as far as possible. We just about did it.

First up was the rhubarb. This is one that had actually started to grow before the snow hit, so got completely covered. It seemed to be pretty hardy though, which we were thankful for. Although, as you can see from all of the slug pellets in the background, we have other problems at the moment.

Eaten but not gone

One things we decided to do (mostly because nature had decided to start doing it for us) was plant some stuff in the small boarder around the path beside the house. Previously, we tried to keep it tidy and clean, but weeds love it. I think originally the previous owner had put bark chips over it all, but they soon broke down and left nothing but mud. And after the mint we planted last year went crazy, we thought we’d just stick a load of it down there and see how it does.

Although one of the problems with that bit, is the fact that it soil is very clay-y, so digging there involves big chunks of orange mud coming out, whcih have now baked in the sun, leaving big chucks of orange rock.

Shitty soil

Whilst at the garden centre we did see some nice hanging baskets, and there is a bracket right next to the front door that we’ve never used, so we thought we’d give it a try. We even bought special moss and something called ‘biscuits’ that are both supposed to help retain moisture. It’s only simple but we thought we’d see how it goes.

We’re old people now

And we also saw a load of nice alpine plants, which we’ve always liked, but never had anywhere to really put them. Fortunately we do have an old strawberry pot that never really worked for strawberrys and we saw the garden center have used them for alpines instead, so thought we’d try that too.

Dwarf plants

It looks quite good, and cerainly makes good  use of an empty pot that’s been sitting around for years.

No strawberries allowed

One funny things we kept noticing was the number of bees flying into the front room window over and over again, and in the same place. And whilst we were doing in the garden we realised why. It was right next to the the bee and insect house we bought years ago, that apparently was becoming popular. So popualr that some are even fighting over the spaces.

If you build it, they will come.

After just a few weeks of yet more glorious sunshine, the garden really started to kick into action (and I got a new camera lens so spent some time taking lot more photos).

Straw-brary

I can’t even remember what all of these flowers actually are

Not orange

Last year’s strawberries are even doing pretty well.

Also eaten

And the blackberries are even doing good too. Last year they didn’t do much, but the bees have been loving it this year, and I can see a few fruits coming through. This variety seems to be a climber more than a bush, like our last one, so we’ve probably planted it in the wrong place, but we will see what we can do.

At least the bees find it pretty

The lupins are trying

Although these lupics are way ahead.doing really well.

Even the hanging basket was doing really well (although we do have to water it quite a lot, even when it rains cos it’s undercover)

Not hanging around

Too many flowers ruin the pot

Last year’s new flowers have come back this year too, and most of them fuller than before, especially the thistles. We always try to plant bee and butterfly friendly plants, and the thistles seem to be doing the job.

Rub pollen on me

The lavender is back

And the kitchen garden is doing really well again. We really had no reason to worry about the rhubarb at all. A few bits didn’t really survive, like the rosemary (because of the freezing rain) and some of the smaller plants were being overgrown by the mint. We replaced the dead bits and pruned the mint as much as we could.

No stopping

In fact, the kitchen garden was going so well that we were able to take quite a few bits out and pot them up for other people. Not that we have many people to give them to, but we’re still getting more strawberries off them and the chamomile is going good enough for me to plant somewhere. Maybe it will grow in a terrarium.

Cuttings

I must admit that it’s not just the glorious Devon weather that has helped the garden grow. We have still been making the plant feed from our bokashi bins over the winter and using that on our plants. Weirdly, we stored the feed in an old fizzy drinks bottle cos that’s what we had lying around, and after sitting on the side for a few months, we realised the bottle was completely solid, and after opening it, it actaully fizz-ed up. Some how it had started to ferment in the bottle and became carbonated. Thankfully there are no kids around to confuse it with bottle of cola, so we’re good.

It stopped doing that after a while (thankfully), and we put it in an old washing up liquid bottle that had a pump on it, for a perfect way to deliver a tiny bit of feed in the water. As you can see, we’ve barely used any of it and probably won’t need to use much more.

Special Sauce