Home and Garden

As work progresses on the rebuilding of the jungle hut our thoughts are turning to the completion of this and also the house itself. One question from the builders last week was where to route the drain pipes and gutters. We previously had connected one side to a water butt, however with the extended deck area this may not work the way it had before. The current plan is to use the water to irrigate...

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The Return of the Jungle Hut (Part I)

Having professional carpenters in the garden is something of a novelty, until now we have done everything ourselves, calling in assistance from my Dad on occasion. The rebuilding of the jungle hut, however, is being paid for by our insurance company and so we don't need to resort to DIY. First they dismantled the old one, which they commented had been very well built. I guess we knew that already...

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Take a Bow Jungle Hut!

The Jungle Hut is being taken down today to make way for a new one but before it exits I gave it a final once over last night, just before I finalized tidying up what was still left there to be salvaged. The sun has set for the old jungle hut Gaz was feeling a bit nostalgic about it, not sad but sort of reminiscing as he did build the veranda bit with his dad a few years ago. The rest of...

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The Mad Dash

We're at the polishing stage now with the house renovation so meaning lots of redecorating to do, yay! Very exciting phase for us as it's a very visual and aesthetically pleasing phase, it feels like we're finally regaining our house back from the builders, and everything seems to 'fall into place' after a summer of upheaval. A long phase on its own and sorting out finer details can take as much...

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Greenhouse Update

It's that time of the year again when we have to start thinking about where to put plants away for the cold months ahead. The greenhouse at the bottom of our new garden (past the koi pond) will be the main home for those that will need some extra protection for it will be gently heated to keep it above freezing for the entire duration of winter.  Nearly all have gained size and done well...

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A Few Bites of the Big Apple

'New York, New York, So good they named it twice' goes the words of the famous song. For us perhaps this needs to be 'So good you need to visit it twice'! We had a full week in the Big Apple, but this really was only enough time to just start to scratch the surface, there was so much more we wanted to do. We did however manage to cram in some of the main sights - both botanically and the more...

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Four Seasons in One Day

Whilst we were in New York Botanical Garden a few weeks ago we managed to see and experience all four seasons in one day... Four Seasons is NYBG's current special installation of four gigantic garden sculptures, each being 15 feet tall, to be found in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory Courtyard and will run until the 30th of March next year. The sculptures are the creation of artist Philip Haas...

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