What would you do if you know you'll only have one day of the weekend with good weather and you have lots to do, or at least raring to do some gardening? Seize the day of course!
That's exactly what happened this weekend. We were planning to have a day out to Brighton on Saturday but decided to cancel and stayed at home to do a few more things in the garden. The weather prediction here was sunny and dry on Saturday, then near constant rain on Sunday, quite a contrast! Having had a rather busy working week for the both of us, we had a bit of catching up to do and it looked like Saturday was our only chance for the weekend.
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| This flushing Cycad revoluta is enjoying the rain! |
It turned out to be a very good decision indeed, as whilst sat inside writing this blog on a Sunday afternoon it's raining heavily outside and it's been pretty much drizzly at least since the morning. And there's no sign of it stopping soon.
And so it was an activity packed Saturday, starting with getting some of the weekend garden routines done like sweeping the patio and cleaning out the filters of the pond. Then off to four different shops to buy some fish food, paint, garden bench, and stone slabs. Even squeezed in popping round car showrooms en route to these four shops.
Some of the shopping could have been done on a rainy day like today but I had run out of fish food so I can't delay that, plus in the same shop we met up with a fellow member of the Koi club to show us some of the filters we're considering (hitting two birds with one stone). Also at the moment the summer sales are on and a reduction on the costs of the paint we need will be much appreciated. Oh yes, and a garden bench too which we needed at the jungle area. As for the stone slabs, there's a rockery centre near us and we needed a few bits to complete the project Gaz has started on our new garden last weekend. We'll be back to purchase a whole lot more from that rockery centre in the next few days, I love that place, so much to choose from and definitely worth it's own blog entry.
And so as soon as we got back, Gaz got stuck with angle grinding the slabs and cementing them in place whilst I got stuck in doing some more tidying up in the garden, including sorting out a massive pile of Clematis armandii on the bottom patio which we chopped off a few days ago. We still left a bit of it to grow back but I'm starting to consider removing it altogether and replacing with Actinidia chinensis, or just let the Vitis vinifera 'Chardonnay' on the other side of the pergola to take over totally. Anyway, one to decide later on.
One fine day and it was well spent I think! It's too wet and drizzly outside this Sunday so not much we can do. Not complaining though, forced rest indoors now and again is a good thing! :)
Mark
This gardening blog follows our journey as we create our Tropical and Exotic themed garden. We hope you'll enjoy the journey as much as we do. We started our Exotic Garden in 2005 and this site will show its development, as well as our travels, both abroad and within the UK to gardens, nurseries and friends.
Your cycad looks happy. I love the fact that they are so prehistoric!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your rainy day!
ciao
Any day involving a new bench and rocks sounds great to me! I look forward to seeing your completed projects.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you had a busy but productive weekend. That's a very nice-looking Cycas revoluta. Ours doesn't flush until later in the summer. I wonder what triggers it?
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing the next phase of your garden.
Gerhard
:: Bamboo and More ::
Thank you Fabiana! I do like Cycads and the fact that they are/look prehistoric. I wouldn't mind having more but they are slow to size up and other types are pricey. Cycad revoluta is the most reliable of the lot in our location :)
ReplyDeleteThat made me laugh Debs! :D The bench and the rock is unrelated but it did sound good on reflection.
Ahh Gerhard, that is the question, trying to coax Cycad revoluta into flushing. There is a regime that I do in the spring and usually both start flushing by mid May but this year only one did. I'll probably have to wait till next year for the other one. I'll have to blog about what I do very soon, if I don't just give me a nudge :)
Take a well deserved break today, after working and running around yesterday. I like to do that - get lots of gardening stuff done, then rest. Besides, the rain is watering your garden - one less chore to do!
ReplyDeleteHow true is that Holley! Easy enough to forget that we've just had a period where we didn't get any rainfall for weeks on end. The garden does need a good old drenching :)
ReplyDeleteSounding productive guys! Come to our place? :) Will you eat any of your ferns?
ReplyDeleteWe would if we could Mrs. Bok, but we'll do lots of relaxing instead :) Eating edible tender fern fronds isn't widely practised here for some reason. I have done so in the past, love it blanched with a bit of seasoning, yumm!
ReplyDeleteI am hanging out to see how the koi pond and garden is coming along...put me out of my misery and give us an update, please.
ReplyDeletePatience is a virtue Hazel :-) There's still plenty left to do with the Koi Pond and that area, we're quite a long way off still but we'll get there. As for the rest of the garden I'll post some recent photos in a little while :)
ReplyDelete