Bye bye July

The major addition for this month was the arrival of of our two 'bespoke' sheds.  We found a maker on our doorstep which meant we could get the 6 x 3 ship-lap with pent roof with two doors that we wanted.  Basically we wanted a (slim) bike shed design but full height and we hadn't managed to find a ready made one that ticked all the boxes and any of the comprises didn't suit us.  I don't think they were a bad price as they are nice quality and came in just over £300 each.  The guys delivered all the sections ready built and they were both erected in something like twenty minutes!

I lived with them a while but decided even though I like the honey colour and the finish they were a bit too bright squatting down there in the corners.  We intended to screen with a large 6 x 6 trellis at this point.  Even so I think they need to be painted into the corner, i.e. made darker.

Cuprinol Shades - Old English Green - seemed to be the nearest to a vegetation colour and even though I thought they looked a bit army Nissan hut I am coming round to them.  We are now forgoing the large screen and will just trellis the side and grow a jasmine on each.

 So here is a compare pair of photos at lunchtime with one shed done and the other waiting.  

 We went away for a few days this month, right in the middle of our brilliant long lasting heatwave which was obviously not going to be great for the pots.  My other half rigged up the timer from our previous incarnation and a hose and the watering pods.  Each of them has five lines and we have four pods - total of twenty lines - everyone was used.  Not bad for a lady who said no more pots when we move.

Our strawberries are starting to crop nicely.  I find a couple of pots like these do us enough not to have to buy them.  In the few days between picking they come up with the next batch in time for when we fancy them again.

Even our sad little pot of battered runner beans gave us five nice ones as a down-payment.  They worked just fine with a few peas added and they certainly have a load more taste than shop bought.  That is maybe the only vegetable I really miss not growing...... or rather eating ....... plus lovely new potatoes.

In this glorious weather our days start nicely with our cup of breakfast tea and coffee and sometimes even breakfast itself taken into the garden.  Then it is a case of a pootle round the homestead, deadheading for me and a bit of pulling up any weeds he can see for my trainee gardener, aka husband.  This is the first garden (out of the many I have done) that he has been interested in and its so nice to be doing it together,

When we were away I had a great time (back in Bury and its environs) buying up the various garden centres I know and love.  Sooooo much cheaper than here in Edinburgh.  I have succumbed to solar lights and have no idea why.......?????   I always thought they were a bit naff and utterly pointless for us.  There will never be a time when we are sitting out in a dark garden to appreciate them.  Right now we make a point of coming into the kitchen and stare out of the windows a couple of times in the evening and say how nice it looks..... as I said a utterly  pointless really but its pleasing me on some level.  I am living in hopes that they manage to charge up in the winter when they can be appreciated by us by four o'clock in the afternoon!

I will have two pairs at the bottom of the garden, this pair over the herb bed and one over a new rose bed in the patio; so basically marking out the boundaries of the garden.

The spinner also lights up

...... and we have some smaller lights on the coffee table in our outside 'sitting room'.  The dragonfly was also a visit-to-Bury purchase.  

..... as were the bird feeders

Needless to say I didn't make it back without plants either.  This is my new rose bed.  Three David Austin roses (at great expense), four salvias (£20) and twelve baby lavenders  (£7.99).  I had been looking for a a salvia up here for a while, it needed to tolerate shade and not cost an arm and a leg.  So these at a fiver a piece 'down South' were a find.  The lavender may very well be a hide into nothing - they really don't like shade and damp so I don't expect them to thrive but at £7.99 for twelve it was worth a shot.  I planted them and the salvias on gravel in hopes of giving them a fair chance of getting through a Scottish winter on solid clay.  If I just manage a grey lavender hedge running down each side of the bed with only sparse flowers it may well do me as I don't want the roses swamped.  The roses will gain a foot (30 cms) or more on the salvias so they should be layered.

Here are a few photos of bits and bobs looking nice right now.

 

As a less happy footnote our gardener discovered a wasp nest in the front lawn when strimming - bet that was a bit of a shock.  Luckily for him it is underground and we are so glad he found it, maybe on a dull day (less active wasps) it would have been missed.  

I am not a believer in killing stuff ad hoc but no choice with this I'm afraid; gardeners and a two year old grandchild may not find it conducive.  Off to B & Q for a spray and seems to have already done the trick.  Will do a follow up to be sure.

So moral the of that story is beware underground nests.  If you have a lot of wasps around you might have one.