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On Gardening and Outings.
May. 29th, 2013 10:33 amI return to work after a long weekend – Friday and Monday off. My mum was visiting from Cornwall. When she comes to visit she likes to take on some jobs around the house or garden. This is jolly useful. She’s good at DIY and gardening and it’s nice to have her accumulated skills on hand. She sets a stern pace, which means that things get done. I like to compress jobs into a small period of time and then have time goofing off. Also, since the Captain was born there are a lot of jobs where having two people on hand is tricky or rather, they become three person jobs. For example, going up a ladder to put things on top of the wardrobes – two person job without the Captain, three person with the Captain.
So mum and I and at times MLW and the Captain tackled weeding and pruning for shape and boundary on Friday morning. On Saturday we dismantled the two compost heaps and moved three roses and a Japanese maple. On Sunday we went to the local garden centre and bought some plants. This week I’ll dig them in. Planting plants is not a two person job and it can also be done in the long Scottish summer evenings.
The garden looks much better with fewer weeds (including a few two year old sapplings – for shame.) Having the compost heaps moved makes the garden look much tidier, less industrial. They were not really working. Not large enough, not getting enough sun, I was too optimistic about what they’d break down. The worms have done the work of Trojans but ultimately the compost heaps were a disaster and I’ve fired them. What compost they have produced in three years is really good and will be riddled with worm eggs so we’ve spread the compost all over the garden in little heaps ready to spread out.
The roses weren’t working well. One, a climbing rose in the raised bed, next to the fence in the front left corner, had never really prospered where it was. Perhaps wind, perhaps the wrong aspect. Perhaps I got the initial pruning wrong. I’ve moved it along the fence and down with an eye to running it along the side wall of the flat in the next three years. If it survives and thrives in its new home great. If not, it was actively distracting from the feel of the place where it was. No loss.
Two other roses were patio roses in tubs by the door. They were doing very well, particularly the one on the side of the door between the door and the compost bins. They were doing too well. Very sharp thorns meant that the Captain couldn’t really move around his garden. So they have both been moved to a currently empty space to make way for some herbs (now planted). They should appear over and around some clematis along the front left near the gate.
The maple was being eaten by a cottoneaster so I’ve moved it to the space formerly occupied by the climbing rose. It seems to like it there.
So all is rosy in the garden.
In between gardening tasks we went on a number of outings.
On Friday evening we went to Portobello beach. The Captain loves the beach and mum seemed surprised that we had such a nice beach in Edinburgh. Ice cream was eaten. We had a Thai takeaway. Very nice.
On Saturday we had a lazy afternoon watching films and drinking beer. Mum drinks a lot of beer.
On Sunday MLW and the Captain went to a birthday party whilst mum and I went to the garden centre. Mum and I had a bit of a tiff. She was struggling a bit with MLW’s car. She’s usually a very good driver but seemed not to find the SEAT Altea easy to drive on first acquaitance. This seemed to throw her a bit and we had a bit of a random drive. I think we might have run a red light at some point, we got beeped at twice and went the wrong way down a one way road into the car park. After the second beeping incident I refused to talk to mum so she would concentrate on driving. I was, to be honest, a bit scared we’d end up in a crash.
We got home safely.
MLW was out on Sunday so mum and I watched Hero with Jet Li. It’s an interesting film with fantastically unreliable narrators and beautiful cinematography.
On Monday we went to Jupiter Artland in the grounds of Bonnington House just to the west of Edinburgh. This is a privately owned sculpture park. The Captain ran round the path MLW, mum and I looked at sculpture. The Captain seemed to like the sculpture too. He worked out that a series of statues of small girls were sad and he was very taken with a sculpture by Anthony Gormley that he (the Captain) could climb on.
The Captain fell asleep in the car on the way home so we stopped at Crammond so mum, MLW and I could take turns taking the sea air.
Lunch at Jimmy Chungs followed.
Mum went home on Tuesday.
So mum and I and at times MLW and the Captain tackled weeding and pruning for shape and boundary on Friday morning. On Saturday we dismantled the two compost heaps and moved three roses and a Japanese maple. On Sunday we went to the local garden centre and bought some plants. This week I’ll dig them in. Planting plants is not a two person job and it can also be done in the long Scottish summer evenings.
The garden looks much better with fewer weeds (including a few two year old sapplings – for shame.) Having the compost heaps moved makes the garden look much tidier, less industrial. They were not really working. Not large enough, not getting enough sun, I was too optimistic about what they’d break down. The worms have done the work of Trojans but ultimately the compost heaps were a disaster and I’ve fired them. What compost they have produced in three years is really good and will be riddled with worm eggs so we’ve spread the compost all over the garden in little heaps ready to spread out.
The roses weren’t working well. One, a climbing rose in the raised bed, next to the fence in the front left corner, had never really prospered where it was. Perhaps wind, perhaps the wrong aspect. Perhaps I got the initial pruning wrong. I’ve moved it along the fence and down with an eye to running it along the side wall of the flat in the next three years. If it survives and thrives in its new home great. If not, it was actively distracting from the feel of the place where it was. No loss.
Two other roses were patio roses in tubs by the door. They were doing very well, particularly the one on the side of the door between the door and the compost bins. They were doing too well. Very sharp thorns meant that the Captain couldn’t really move around his garden. So they have both been moved to a currently empty space to make way for some herbs (now planted). They should appear over and around some clematis along the front left near the gate.
The maple was being eaten by a cottoneaster so I’ve moved it to the space formerly occupied by the climbing rose. It seems to like it there.
So all is rosy in the garden.
In between gardening tasks we went on a number of outings.
On Friday evening we went to Portobello beach. The Captain loves the beach and mum seemed surprised that we had such a nice beach in Edinburgh. Ice cream was eaten. We had a Thai takeaway. Very nice.
On Saturday we had a lazy afternoon watching films and drinking beer. Mum drinks a lot of beer.
On Sunday MLW and the Captain went to a birthday party whilst mum and I went to the garden centre. Mum and I had a bit of a tiff. She was struggling a bit with MLW’s car. She’s usually a very good driver but seemed not to find the SEAT Altea easy to drive on first acquaitance. This seemed to throw her a bit and we had a bit of a random drive. I think we might have run a red light at some point, we got beeped at twice and went the wrong way down a one way road into the car park. After the second beeping incident I refused to talk to mum so she would concentrate on driving. I was, to be honest, a bit scared we’d end up in a crash.
We got home safely.
MLW was out on Sunday so mum and I watched Hero with Jet Li. It’s an interesting film with fantastically unreliable narrators and beautiful cinematography.
On Monday we went to Jupiter Artland in the grounds of Bonnington House just to the west of Edinburgh. This is a privately owned sculpture park. The Captain ran round the path MLW, mum and I looked at sculpture. The Captain seemed to like the sculpture too. He worked out that a series of statues of small girls were sad and he was very taken with a sculpture by Anthony Gormley that he (the Captain) could climb on.
The Captain fell asleep in the car on the way home so we stopped at Crammond so mum, MLW and I could take turns taking the sea air.
Lunch at Jimmy Chungs followed.
Mum went home on Tuesday.
