100 day project

So 10 days ago I finally I got out into the garden and did something constructive rather than just walking around huffing and puffing about how much there is to do until it started raining and then going back indoors and drinking tea whilst huffing and puffing about the dismal weather!

My first job (of many - very many!) was to clear the Osteospermum plants from the raised bed at the back which had succumbed to the snow and frost. They have served well over the last 4 years, were in flower when the snow came and have been in flower pretty much constantly for the whole time. But the weather defeated them and so it was clearing time.

So in about an hour we went from this...

to this...

and you can see what that means - SPACE! and what does space mean - SHOPPING!

 Hurrah!

It was a very rewarding hour and a nice contained job that could be started and finished easily without too much pain, I wish everything was like that. I can always motivate myself when it comes to someone else's garden but my own is further down the list of 'to do's behind work and family and I sometimes lose the will. It's so hard to even start!

Which got me to thinking - what if the garden could be divided into nice contained jobs, just 20-30 mins long and I did one every day. I can't claim this is my idea, I was inspired by a blog that I read called Welsh Hills Again. You can read about Elizabeths 100 day project to reconnect with her garden here. For her it is about changing her garden from being a weight and a chore to being a pleasure again and I feel I could use some of that too.

I thought I would give it a go so here is where I have got to.

Day 1 - Take off green house cover and sort contents. Get rid of dead things and water survivors.

Time spent - 20 mins 

 Day 2 - Prune Phlomis - radically (gulp! fingers crossed)

Time spent - 15 mins 

Day 3 - Cut back dead wood on the rockery and re-level(ish) the birdbath.

Time spent - 20 mins 

Day 4 - Prune Clotted Cream Jasmine

Time spent - This was a longer job and required ladders and things so about 2hrs 

 

Day 5 - Prune white Jasmine

Time spent - a very much smaller job due to last years radical prune so just 15 mins 

I'm really hoping this is a Solitary Bee - I think it may be nesting in the wall behind the Jasmine. Obviously it's ignoring my specially purchased and very beautiful Bee Bricks!

Day 6 - A drizzly day so sorting the 'pond' seemed apt

Time spent - 15 mins 

 Day 7 - Even wetter so an indoor job was required. I scrubbed out my seed tray and made my seed pots from collected loo rolls.
This is also part of my Plastic Free Gardening push - more of which soon.
Ready for seeds now. (I know it's massively late but mine always are!)

Time spent - 40 mins 

Day 8 - A beautiful day but was spent mostly in the car and a lecture theatre due to the requirements of teens - family trumped garden this day.

Day 9 (today) - Another lovely day so sorting and testing the hammock seemed sensible

Time spent - 10 mins + 45 mins testing! (Enjoying the garden is part of the project remember)

And I have to say it has made a real difference - things are getting done, I am rediscovering some of the lovely plants and flowers I have and I have enjoyed being out there. Some days it has been a struggle to fit it in and some days it has been hard to keep to just one job and not get snowed under again. Whether I can keep it going for 100 days I don't know but I'm going to try. Although the jobs completed are small and inconsequential in the grand scheme of things what's left to do somehow does now seems more achievable.

I won't show you every day and every job, that would bore me to death let alone you, but I will let you know how I get on.

I'm unlikely to run out of things to do...

and those are just the small projects!!!

😳

Motivational Monday

Happy Easter!

I'm a little belated and very much overfed but Happy Easter to you all. I hope you are having a joyous time with people you love, doing lots of lovely stuff or nothing at all - whichever you prefer.

We've been doing both (not at the same time obviously). I've had hectic moments of organising and cooking and peaceful moments of nothing much spent with my husband and teens (they've been very accommodating of Mum's Easter fuss - hardly any eye rolling at all!)

One of my busy moments was decorating the house with flowers - they make such a difference. So here's what I found in my garden:

Berberis

Hellebores and Clematis Armandii in my new Mother's Day vase.

Narcissi, Hellebores, Daffodils, Forget-me-nots, Muscari, Euonymus, Primroses and Clematis Armandii, all set off with sparkly carrots, fluffy, wobbly chicks and yummy mini eggs (not from my garden, more from my cupboard!)

Just lovely - they set me in the Easter mood.

Which continued in the kitchen...

My first attempt at Hot Cross Buns - not entirely successful as they weren't cooked through to the centre. I used a tin the size the recipe required but they were very squished together and came out as 1 enormous bun with a soggy centre.

The addition of chocolate chips was a bonus though - I'll try again but just spread them out more. Oh and I forgot to glaze them - too eager to start eating!

Then Easter Saturday evening saw us driving west to Geevor Mine to see the Man Engine Resurrection Tour afterdarker (an apt title for Easter I thought). A 12 metre tall mechanical puppet, the Man Engine tells the story of Cornish mining and miners, with music, pyrotechnics, pasties and Cornish beer! The tour started at Geevor but will travel nationally - to Devon, Somerset, Wales, Shropshire and Yorkshire and places in-between. 

If it comes near you I would highly recommend it - it's a great show and a marvellous thing.

Find out more here

What fun!

Enjoy the rest of whatever Easter break you have planned.

I'm off to attack the EU chocolate mountain that seems to have appeared in my sitting room!

-xxx-