Nearly Wordless Wednesday...

...if only it would stop raining!

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Steep learning curve!

We at Daisy have been thinking about gardening on extreme slopes recently.

A friend of ours has recently moved and needed some advice so we went mad with ideas of cantilevered lookouts, long slides and winding steps etc, etc.

However then we reigned ourselves in and realised just how challenging such a site is. Weeding would be a struggle let alone building anything. And living in Cornwall - an area  covered in ancient mines and mine workings - you have to be suspicious of every steep bank. Is it solid or is it mining waste which can be much less stable. Time for surveyors and engineers to do their bit first.

Then on a weekend walk out to Crantock beach on the north coast...

(pretty horrid huh?)

 I spotted these three gardens clinging to the bank of the river that flows onto the beach...

In the middle of winter and after numerous storms I'm sure they are not looking their best but even so I thought they were very interesting.

I was struck at the varying levels of construction that had been used, from the left - quite noticeable hard landscaping, graduating through a greener centre garden, to the right - which is fairly naturalistic and much softer (although with slightly more Pampas Grass than I approved of).

I think I would strive for somewhere around middle one - with some hard structure to give me levels, hideaways and access, but not so much that it became too overpowering.
And how lovely to have your own steps to the beach.

You can see the gardens on the left here...

An amazing location for views but pretty open to the elements, and could be tricky to plant up.
(Perhaps that's why so much Pampas Grass)

What would you put in a steeply sloping garden?

Here are some of our favourite finds on Pinterest.

Check out our other Pinterest boards here for other inspirational pictures

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New Year, New...

I am not a believer in the whole New Year - new me thing, but it is undoubtedly  a time for re-evaluating and renewing. 

So a spruce up of the blog and a rethink of content is in order. The new look for the blog is simple - you press a button and pow - it looks cleaner and updated. If only my house and garden was the same!! 

Content is a more challenging thing - and I'm not at all sure I've cracked it yet. My posts have become less frequent but I'm not convinced that's made things easier - it has become less part of my routine and so more of an effort.

Anyway here's a start, with something a little different.

My new years resolutions are very limited due to previous depressing lack of any success, however this year I have made one that I am determined to keep to. 

My other half and I came across a post on Facebook about the 'three pieces of plastic' movement. The idea is that every time you visit a beach you pick up three pieces of plastic and dispose of them or even better recycle them.

Living in Cornwall we are surrounded by beaches and at this time of year with the winter storms, they are strewn with the depressing confirmation of David Attenbrough's recent Blue Planet conclusion - the oceans are a sea of plastic!

To be honest it's difficult to stop at three, and indeed beaches! 

We now carry a bag on our walks and do our bit.

Towan Beach

Trelissick Beach

We're also trying to reduce the amount at source too. We've not used plastic shopping bags for a while but there's lots of other things you can easily do too.

I have bought cotton buds with paper sticks - Body Shop have lots.

I haven't bought things with microbeads in for a while, although it was quite difficult to tell whether things contained them or not sometimes. Thankfully they are now banned so that is a no-brainer!

We now have paper straws - available everywhere and prettier than plastic, the children will just have to get used to the non bendy-ness!

I have found bio-degradable cling film at only 20p more than the standard at Sainsbury (I know no cling film would be even better but I'm weaning myself off gradually).

I'm trying to buy drinks - water, squash, mixers, in glass bottles but that has proved more difficult without increasing the shopping bill, but then it maybe a price worth paying.

We reuse plastic water bottles already, but we would be better with permanent ones, and those of us who buy take out hot drinks need refillable cups.

Next I need to review the plastics in the garden - and I don't mean the donations from passers by that come over the front fence. 

😟

I need to start to replace pots and labels so I'll be researching those next and sharing my findings, please let me know if you've found successful alternatives - It's important that we share ideas and create a stir. That way our individual small efforts will be amplified.

Crantock Beach

And if you are on Social Media sharing your efforts, use the hashtags #3piecesofplastic and #plasticfreeoceans to join in with others.

We could also start a #plasticfreegardens and see if we can get that off the ground too.

We are not alone:

Cornwall is trying to become the first county free of plastic straws - check out the The Final Straw

Cornwall based Surfers against Sewage have been campaigning for years for cleaner seas and now organise beach cleans all over the country

Greenpeace are campaigning to get Coca Cola to reduce plastic bottle use amongst other things

All we can do is do what we can. If we all do that then things will change.

Rant over for now and now for something exciting and garden-y.

I have another clump of Snowdrops!

that's two whole clumps now and it's only taken 8 years!

😂😂😂