First strawberry

We've finally picked the first strawberry from the garden this year, and it was deeelicious! Unfortunately only one was ready, so split into three it didn't go far (Little One was in bed, so we only had to share between three of us!). 

I originally bought one of these big planters, which holds loads of strawberry plants. It has some netting to cover over the fruit when it is ripening. I've learnt from last year not to put it on too early though, as if you do the strawberries just grow through the netting, then you can't take it off! It's great but I didn't really think when I placed it, as the plants around the back don't get much sun so are a lot smaller and don't produce much fruit. Maybe we should have put it on a spinning jenny so I could turn it around ;-)

This year I decided to use a three tier basket to put some of the runners in from the plants above. This is where our first strawberry of the season came from. I've planted some lobelia in there as well. The plan is to trick the birds so they only see flowers and not my yummy fruit. I'll let you know if my plan works!

Speak soon

XxXx

Building onwards, upwards & outwards!

This is what our garden looked like a year ago. Nothing special, a work in progress, but at least there was greenery, and a few flowers growing. 

This is what it looked like the same time (May) this year. Quite literally like a building site...

Nick the tiler came, and hey presto, we now have a smart roof and a velux in the kitchen extension...

Little Boy is enjoying having lots of different things to climb on and jump off but also doesn't mind helping out. Give him a box to fill and he's quite happy collecting together all the timber off cuts or bits of rubble...

Inside was rather an upheaval, as we needed to have steel uprights fitted to hold the big steel spanning the width of the lounge. That meant digging two big holes in our lounge floor...

The dust and noise was horrendous, and we had to section off a part of the lounge with heavy duty plastic backed dust sheets so we could carry on living there. 

We also needed to take down units in the kitchen so they could knock through to get the steel in there too. So all the stuff had to come out of the units and be boxed away...

And more mess and dust 😩...

Big Girl wasn't too impressed as they had to knock three holes in her bedroom wall, to put in the acros to hold up the wall. 

Then out came the old concrete lintel...

And in with the new. We had to have extra help that day, as it was really heavy and took four of them to lift it all in place. It was a nervous time, as if anyone had measured wrong and it didn't fit we were in trouble. It was alright in the end, a bit too big but nothing a bit of bashing didn't fix!

Once the steel was in the front wall was soon up, roof tiled, new windows in and a smart new green door...

I'm really pleased with the front door. I didn't just want boring old white PVC, and was tempted by the oak effect. In the end I chose the green, and I think it looks smart with the chrome accessories. Finishing touches will be an outside light and a new door number I think. 

Now all it needs out the front is the window baskets re fitted and planted up, a fence put up, all the rubbish tidied away and some plants planted....

XxXx