Sneak Preview of shiney's Open Day

Thanks very much for the lovely comments :o

Just to try and answer some of your questions:-

We have been here for 36 years. When we moved in the garden had not been touched for 12 - 15 years and the privet and laurel was about 40ft high :eek:. The garden was a complete jungle and as we worked our way through it we found some chicken sheds in the undergrowth. It took years to get it into reasonable shape.

The garden is somewhere between a half and three quarters of an acre. It looks bigger because there are so many different 'rooms' in it.

Mrs shiney and I do most of the gardening and Tracey comes in once a fortnight to help us. If the weather is bad I don't do any gardening but Tracey usually works no matter what the weather.

I have a secret weapon for making the edges of the lawn. It is a pair of long handled edging shears. It is harder work than using a spade or half-moon cutter but gets a much better finish. It is an old pair that I sharpen with a very basic carborundum (keep it in my pocket and use it to give a light sharpening as I work) and cut through the soil and grass. Cutting the edge just as you want it is much easier with the shears but has to be done when the soil is quite damp. That way you get a really sharp edge. The mud doesn't stick to the blades because it comes off as you cut. It is not possible to then use them for trimming the grass edges but I have another pair for that.

There are so many Aquilegias because we allow plants to self seed. If they are not in the way they can stay there. You could see in the photos that the veggie plot is full of them. We plant the veggies amongst them and the other self seeders. Last month we had hundreds of Cowslip, primroses and primulas that have spread themselves around the garden. I'll put up a separate thread of them later.

Here is a photo of part of the veggie plot with Aquilegias and Nigella that have self seeded. You can just see the artichokes in the bottom right-hand corner.



The Aquilegias are always interesting and tend to crossbreed and produce different shapes and tones each year. As there are so many we just dig out whole, mature, plants and give them to friends who want them. Here are a few close-ups that I took. We have all shades of blues, purples, pinks and whites.







And the occasional sport.




This one is a posh one (Adelaide Addison) and never mixes or crosses with the others.

 

Thanks everyone,

Cookie, we have fields across the road in the front and also behind us and can see the next villages in both directions.

See you later, BM :thumb:

 

Thanks for the very kind words Bananaman :o. How did you manage to get such a lovely wife and kids? :D

Thank you for being among the brave few who came out in the morning in the torrential rain to support us. The afternoon was not as wet as the morning and, although we haven't done the final tally, we seem to have made about £400. :thumb:

this sum will increase over the next few months as I sell some of my veggies and Mrs shiney sells more plants. She sold a lot of plants but there seems to be just as many as before. I'm just about to dish up dinner for ourselves and some of our helpers. Then it is 'feet up time'.

Have a good evening and Bank Holiday :D