This year's garden

This year I decided to keep our garden a bit more simple. It was nice last year but needed a lot of watering and up keeping...this year I have neither the time or the money (or to be honest the inclination) to replant it all.

So I decided to just tidy it up and replant some things and call it done..to be honest anything was better than the before.

Dead plants and empty pots. Stylish.

It felt a little crowded before to be honest so I wanted to keep it at 'less is more' this year. We had a few pots that were here when we moved in, and when they had their garden redone the landlords said that we could give them back any pots that we didn't want as it looked like they were getting in our way (and to be honest some of them were). So some of their pots went up onto their garden, and ours got emptied, we had this many left!

Plus Minty who will not let me take a garden photo without her (evidenced here, here and here). They are now next to the barbecue, I didn't throw them out as they were expensive to buy and when we get a bigger garden might be handy.

I re-potted some of the larger plants into bigger pots, and then moved them all up onto the nieghbours/landlords garden (they were on holiday so I took the opportunity to steal some space) and I cleaned the concrete. I bought the cleaner back with the stuff from this post, but I never got round to using it. You can see in that post and the pics above that the concrete was pretty stained and dark, I wanted to clean it up a bit for this year. I just brushed this solution on (I forgot to take a pic/note of the stuff but it was from the 99p store and called 'Path Brite' or something similar) and left it for a while (the bottle was really not specific on how long!)

Then rinsed it off and brought all the pots back down, it looks a bit better now, the concrete is definitely cleaner. I could do with a pressure washer for some of the marks, but as a quick fix it has worked well!

The large plants are all that I've kept, and I like that they will keep coming back year after year.

I have some mixed lettuce to plant in the long planters as we do miss having salad stuff to hand, we have just not gotten round to it and it’s too late for much else now. Other than that this is it for this year. I like the more minimal feel, with the lighter concrete and fewer but larger plants I think it looks more airy and bright. Last year we had a lot of plants and it got a bit crowded.

The plant on the right was given to us by Tom's Nanna, it had sat in the plastic pot we got it in until now but just in the couple of weeks since being re-planted it has grown well. I have no idea what it is but I'm told it will do well anywhere, so that's good!

It is also a lot less to water, and although my black thumb only seems to apply to indoor plants and I manage to keep outdoor ones reasonably healthy it is still a bonus to only have 6 plants to water rather than 20! I’m still using the watering globes, but some of them now have 2 as I had spares, which means even less watering. This is the one downside to potted gardens that they need more watering than a normal planted garden as they don’t have any groundwater to use…don’t get carried away and plant loads of pots then curse it for the rest of the summer when you have to water them all every night! Upsides are no weeding, no lawn mowing and no digging borders though so on balance I don’t mind a few extra refills of the watering can.

This is the best shot to show just how little room we have to work with, and how much space we have gained by thinning out the plants a little.

Next year I might add in a couple more flowering plants to bring in some colour, and some more edible things, but I like that the plants we have now should last us and they have all come back well this year, again I didn’t get a photo of the clematis flowers but it flowered well again this spring.

We have also decided to get rid of our bikes as we never use them, so that will free up a bit of space. I realised when I was tidying that I’d kind of forgotten they were even there so we obviously don’t have much need for them!

Now we just need to get the gas on the BBQ refilled and we are ready for some summer evenings outside with a BBQ and a cold glass of something!

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If we owned our flat

I hope you all had a good Easter and nice relaxing long weekend, don't forget to enter my Easter giveaway!

This month I have been spending more time outside, and I think if we owned our flat I would spend a bit of money on the garden. It's ok as it is but I would like to add a few more things to maximise the space and make it easier to use.

Nothing too exciting, but I would probably either paint it or lay a patio over the concrete floor and would add in some trellis or hanging baskets to make use of all the vertical space since it is enclosed by 3 walls. Plus some places to attach a washing line would be amazing as we currently just put the clothes airers outside and they fall over if there is anything more that a breeze. I'd also build in some bench seating like these

Then we could get rid of the small patio set and just have built in benches, which we could put plant pots on when not being used as often it is just us 2 in the garden but we do like to have a BBQ every now and then and it would be useful to be able to seat more outside. Something where the seat lifts up for storage inside would also be great to put the hosepipe, gardening tools, gas for the bbq etc inside to make the most of our space. I'd love it to be like an outside room...with seating, pillows, lots of hanging baskets and lights.

I will share an update on the garden soon as a few plants are coming back to life...I think I'll keep a bit more simple this year as I overcrowded the space a little last year but we'll see.

Sponsor me to climb Kilimanjaro! www.justgiving.com/katie-kili 

 

I've not killed the plants yet!

It turns out I actually can plant a garden and not kill all the plants off within a few weeks! I have the opposite problem now that some of the plants are doing better than expected and it's looking a bit crowded. (you can see previous posts on the garden here, here and here)

The clematis was also threatening to start climbing onto the walls, which we don't want to happen

I got this trellis for £10 from Wilko. I actually went into the pound shop after and saw similar ones in there, but the queues in both shops were massive and it was hot and I couldn't be bothered to return this one a buy another, moral of the story - always check the pound shop first!

I've done this before with a clematis in a pot and it worked really well, I jut cut some of the tape connecting it to the pole it came on, not all of them just enough to loosen it a little.

Then just bent the trellis and stuck it into the pot behind the plant, hopefully it'll grow into a nice big plant and we can screen the barbecue a little with it

 I moved it out to give the others a bit more room so it looks a little less crowded now

I'm hoping we can pull some of the larger plants round to in front of the barbecue and bikes once they're a bit bigger, we won't be able to screen it completely but it'll look a bit less gross!

The lavender has gone mad! I'm hoping to try drying some of it out and maybe making some drawer fresheners or linen spray

The forsythia has gone back to green as it flowers in the spring but it's growing well, the label says they can grow up to 4ft and I've seen ones bigger, so hopefully it will get larger.

 The random shrub that was here when we moved in is also doing well and growing

I'm so proud of our tomato plants, they've all grown massive! I've tied them onto the poles again higher up as a few of them were breaking under their own weight

 We're going to have loads of tomatoes!

The herbs are kind of doing well, the mint and parsley have taken over, and we also have another pot of mint on the opposite side of the garden (next to the forsythia) so we really need to use it up, mojitos anyone?

The rose bush that isn't meant to be outside isn't doing great but it hasn't died yet, and the sunflowers are growing about an inch every day! I'll have to get longer poles at this rate!

So I went in town in the morning Saturday, then kind of pootled about in the garden for a bit then spent the rest of the day here...

Bliss!


p.s not my cigarette ends in the pot there on the table, I haven't taken up smoking again I just had some smokers come over recently and haven't emptied my makeshift ashtray yet.

Finished Garden!

The garden is the first part of our flat that I'm going to declare finished! Obviously next spring we will probably have to replace some of the plants that don't make it through winter and we will change things around as we go, but right now I can't fit in any more plants without making it cluttered and can't see anything else that I would want to add or change (other than make it larger haha).

Here are some before and afters...

View from the door before

In progress

After

The rest of the garden with the barbecue and bikes...

Before (pretty bare!)

In progress

After

To the right out of the back door and the path up to the landlords garden

Before

In progress

After

The 'in progress' pictures are all from this post back in March when I last shared photos of the garden, we had just planted a load of pots. Since then what's improved (other than the weather in the after pics!) is that the plants have all grown larger, I've bought a load more small pots and 2 larger ones, we've also gained a few more plants. 

I went on a trip over to Gloucester a while back and raided all the pound/99p/bargain shops for garden stuff. I came home with a pretty good loot, small pots from the pound shop, plastic watering globes were in packs of 2 for £1 and do really work (I also have the pretty glass ones from back here), I also picked up plant food, bug spray and a patio cleaning solution (not got round to using that yet). 

Most of the plants are doing really well but some fell pray to slugs and snails like these smaller pots which did have flower seeds in to add in some colour but the shoots were all eaten

So I got some of this tape on a recent trip to the B&M shop in Gloucester, it stops slugs and snails climbing up the pot apparently

I ran out so haven't done all the pots but if it works will go and get some more. 

Also from there I got 2 plastic pots (£1.99 each) one to re-pot some sunflowers into which I'd planted from seeds and were ready to go out, and one for the lavender which is growing like crazy, then I used the pot from that to plant the rose bush I got for my birthday (After planting it I noticed the label actually said that it's an indoor plant, hopefully it'll be ok until winter)

These pillows (£1.99 each) were from the same shop on a previous trip, although they aren't actually outside cushions I bought them with the garden in mind, when the weather's not good they can go on the armchair in the hallway

Some close ups, these guys are all doing really well

Left to right - Lavender, Forsythia, Mint and Parsley, Clematis (It did flower and looked really pretty but I didn't get a photo!) and a random shrub left by the landlords.

The random shrub is actually doing really well and did have a few small flowers, and it's a nice shade of light green and has pretty shaped leaves (anyone have any clue what it is?) 

The edible side is also doing well, the tomato plants (right) are getting big although no fruit yet, the herbs are actually too large for the pot we really need to start using them more! Unfortunately no basil yet but a few shoots are appearing. The pot to the left is spring onions and rocket which is starting to grow up now.

We also now have some sunflowers which are growing fast and a rosebush which may or may not make it as it is not meant to be outside...Those are the pound shop watering globes, not as pretty as the glass ones but £1 for 2 so a lot cheaper, and hopefully once the plants grow in a bit they won't be so visible

As far as budget goes it's a bit of an estimate as a lot of the pots we already owned and some things were gifts but I'd say we spent no more than £100 on the garden this year and no more than £200 in total. 

That breaks down as (per shopping trip):

Blooms Garden Centre - Plants, 2 oblong planters and compost - £60

Pound Shop - small pots, watering globes, plant food, patio cleaner - £15

B&M Gloucester - 2 larger pots, slug and snail tape, compost and pillows - £13

B&Q - Barbecue and bike covers (rough estimate) - £10

Already owned pots, mostly from B&Q and Homebase - About £90 spent if I remember (It was a long time ago but I remember being shocked that a few terracotta pots could cost almost £100)

Gardening in containers is really my kind of gardening, no digging borders or mowing lawns just plant and enjoy! As long as you water them regularly and use a plant feed I find you can't go wrong with plants in pots, we had the same at a previous house and loved it.

The weather was so beautiful over the weekend I couldn't not be out in the garden, although I did get the office finished and it is looking good so a post on the coming up soon!

What I Wore

This outfit is actually from a few weeks back on May Day bank holiday, it was lovely and sunny so Tom and I went to the Jazz Festival but only caught the end of it (literally) so went for a few drinks over in Montpellier.

Forgive the weird face I never did know how to fake smile!

The dress is vintage from eBay for under £5 I think (I love an eBay bargain my wardrobe is full of them), it's an odd midi length but perfect for early summer/spring when my legs are still too pale to show to the world.

The belt was a gift, the shoes are from Brantanos and were a bargain £3 in the sale!

My shades are part of my growing collection of glasses from here they're so cheap that I can afford to have 2 pairs of prescription sunglasses (I have some darker aviators) and about 10 pairs of glasses.

The earrings are also vintage from etsy years ago.

So there's another outfit post, I really only do these when I put on something and think it's worth showing to you which isn't very often haha!

As you can see from the compost on the floor and the few new small pots behind me I had been doing some gardening that day and will share a garden update once the seeds have grown a bit more, at the moment it's just a load of empty looking pots so not really worth taking photos of.

Progress

We've been living in our flat 6 months now, so I thought it's a good time to look back and see what progress we've made (and what we still have left to do...which is plenty!)

Let's start with the kitchen, probably the room that's least changed

We've decluttered and added in some storage jars and storage solutions, also we've added in some finishing touches like the 'keep calm' sign. Still left to do in here are new mugs (thinking those DIY sharpie decorated ones that are all over Pinterest), new bread bin and mug tree, new canisters for tea coffee and sugar (thinking silver metallic) new recycling bin, maybe a rug or at least a doormat, new fruit bowl and possibly a window treatment. Also we still need to declutter some problem area like the top of the microwave.

You can see larger photos and more detail on the changes in the kitchen here, here and here.

Onto the living room

We got the new bookshelves and I changed the basket under the table for a larger one with a lid (It came with the ottomans from the bedroom), we also added in my DIY runner. Other than that the changes have been minor rearrangements of frames and CDs etc, I want to eventually get an ottoman or trunk to use as a coffee table, change the TV unit, add some art/photo frames on the fireplace (where we have been told we can put picture hooks, yay!), add more pillows to the sofa, maybe make a faux roman blind for the window (to go over the existing boring one) and generally add in a bit of colour as the room is a bit bland! Possibly thinking yellow to go with the Fender...

You can see more on the living room here and more on the DIY runner here.

The into the Office

We have some art on the tank and a mat under the cat litter tray, but the desk is now even more of a mess as we have 2 PC screens at the moment (anyone want to buy one?!). We are looking at the whole computer situation, as I have my new netbook (which came with one of those screens) so very rarely use the desktop, Tom uses it sometimes but if we had a laptop that did iTunes and Tom could play games on we could get rid the desktop, freeing up some space. This all costs money though so will be something we sort out gradually. We also want to get a new desk and new desk chair, and possibly a rug under the desk. The turtle tank will also need replacing at some point (see this post on the leak we had the other week!) but that's also something quite expensive that we will need to save up for.

You can see more on the office here and here

Then into the bathroom

This room, like the kitchen, hasn't really changed a great deal it has mostly just been decluttered and I'm trying to not buy more than one bottle of something at a time (you know when your shampoo is on offer so you buy 5 bottles...yeah I'm trying not to do that). I want to get some more art or something in here as it's a bit bland, I'm thinking on the back of the toilet as I like the lilies there in this post. Also I think we need a new bath mat as our has goe a bit off white, new towels probably soonish as well as I bought really cheap ones and they're starting to go a bit off colour (they also looked great in our last bathroom but I'd prefer black or white ones here).

You can read more on the bathroom here and here

The bedroom, it was gross before!

We've gotten rid of the 2 armchairs that were in there, reorganised my shoes, moved the trunk in from the hallway, got new wardrobes, got ottomans for storage on top of the wardrobes, rationalised the stuff under the bed and moved a lot of it out to the wardrobe in the hallway, brought the canvas in from the office, got new paperwork storage and generally tidied up! To be honest it still has a long way to go, I want to get a new bed, get bedside tables, rearrange the furniture so the chest of drawers isn't in front of the window (makes it hard to open the window), add some art or photos to the chimney breast (again this is where we've been told we can put picture hooks) get new bedding and a mirror, get some bedside lamps and bring a bit of a cohesive colour scheme in (so far we have about 10 different wood tones and 5 different textiles in here and it looks a bit crazy). It all seems to hinge on the new bed I so once we have that we can do the rest.

You can see more on the bedroom here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Then onto the entrance hall way, probably the most transformed room so far!

I reorganised in here a few times before getting our lovely big wardrobe to put all our junk in, it's a room that isn't really used by us except to walk through when we come in and out of the flat and for storage, so really I want to give this space a use other than drying clothes. As we don't spend any time in here more often than not it's full of clothes airers with washing drying on them, so you come in the door and it looks like this

Not exactly a warm welcome. So our aim in here is to maximise space so we could actually spend time in here, I'm thinking a reading nook as all the bookshelves are in here.

You can see more on the entrance hall and how we got to this point here, here and here

Onto the outside space, really we have just planted some things and are waiting to see how they do but it looks better already in the back garden

We're just waiting for seeds to grow and plants to fill in, then we might get a few more pots and some pretty garden things but we will build it up over time. There's not been any change in the front of the flat, not a lot we can change really!

You can see more on the garden here, and here.

There's the last 6 months of projects and changes, it's nice to look back and what you've achieved sometimes and see how much progress you've made even though there is plenty left to do!