WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2017

Yesterday I tried to get a lot done but didn't do as much as I intended. I cut all the front lawns and the main back lawn, edged all of them and raked the clippings (it was a lot after the heavy rain) on to the lawns so I could just mow them. Then I spent an hour and a half picking beans followed by edging the veg plots but still have to rake the clippings out and mow them up. I also pulled out three bucket loads of bindweed that had grown up through some of the shrubs.

Mrs Shiney, as usual, did a lot more work than me . She filled three wheelie bins with weeds and cutting back of plants that had finished flowering (seems a bit early this year )
She finished working out there at 9 p.m.

Today the young lad (he's 27 ) who helps us should be coming to cut the hedges which seem to have gone mad. I need to trim back a lot of the willow so that it still looks natural but doesn't get in people's way. Mrs Shiney will carry on with cutting back but we don't have a lot of time to do things.

We have six people coming for lunch, tea and dinner so I shall need to start prepping the food. Tomorrow we have a group coming for afternoon tea and for a tour of the garden (doesn't look too good at this time of year ).

 

Why do you keep the cat in a cage? Is it dangerous?

 

Thanks @alana We belong to, or run, a lot of different clubs etc. but there are 24 hours in a day A little of that time is spent resting. We're finding, more and more, that the spirit is willing but the body is getting weaker

Yesterday was a typical day. I started at 5.30 a.m. with trimming some lawn edges and raking the trimmings. By then my back was giving me trouble (it doesn't like me raking) so stopped for an hour and had breakfast and a sit down with a good book. I then spent an hour fighting the shrubbery and pulling bindweed (lots more further back ). We can't get to it until it shows above the shrubs. Some of it was 10ft long. Mrs Shiney half filled a one ton bag with cutting back perennials and pulling annuals that had finished. Especially Nigella where she collected a bowl of seed from the first (packets them and gives them away to visitors and members of her gardening clubs and flower arranging clubs).

I then spent an hour and a half picking beans (I pick about 20lb per day and sell them for charity).

Then I started prepping the lunch, tea and dinner for our guest that were coming. They went at midnight and at 5.30 this morning I was back out there trimming some more edges (I quite often rest my bad back by sitting in my lovely comfy chair here at the computer and posting on GC ). Later I shall do some more necessary mowing and make sure I run the mower along the side of the hedges (grass already cut there) to pick up any of the hedge clipping that Michael (comes in and does the heavy work) didn't clear up yesterday.

Then it's a matter of getting things ready for the U3A group that are coming round for afternoon tea and a tour of the garden. The garden doesn't look too good at this time of year, as we have very little colour, but with smartly cut hedges, cut lawns with very neat edges and a lot of crops visible it leaves a good impression. Then they'll want to come back when we open our garden at the end of May. As they are a flower arranging group they'll all end up going home with lots of different greenery (also variegated, gold and different types of leafy stuff - I know all the technical terms ) as we have an excess of that.

It's just a matter of pacing yourself and making sure that you take a few rests inbetween (I'm not always successful at the second part).