Having spent the past week after our holiday with my daughter here on a visit from Canada, I haven’t spent much time either blogging or doing things to my garden. We have both been scouring the properties for sale in Cornwall to see if I could move there permanently.
Ideally I would like to lift my house and garden and move it lock, stock and barrel to a location as near to Porthcothan as possible. However, with the properties that are currently available, it seems that I will have to make certain compromises if I don’t want to borrow money from my savings. There are certain things that I cannot be without, like a kitchen or an adjacent utility room that has access to the back garden, which needs to be enclosed and preferably not overlooked. I also need parking, a garage and at least two good sized bedrooms, with preferably a bathroom and separate shower room. Is that too much to ask? I have shortlisted about 20 properties I could afford and which meet most of the criteria, none of which are near the sea. I guess I will just have to be patient and wait for a bargain to turn up, or a win on the lottery.
Meanwhile my dog has returned from her holiday with us in a very chilled out state. I am not sure whether this is because she has been sulking, or if she has been under the weather, or if it is because there are two of us around. Whatever the reason, I have been able to give her more freedom in my garden. Normally she would go charging around my garden, trampling all the plants. Therefore she is usually contained in her dog run and only allowed out in my garden on a lead with me. This week however I have given her the freedom of the garden whenever we are out there. Bees are no longer safe. Pigeons are no longer safe. Next door’s cat can stop laughing at my dog from the safety of my fence the other side of the garden.
I originally thought that there was not a lot of damage my dog could do as my plants are now very densely packed. However, she has taken a shine to pruning my Clematis and Jasmine plants, along with charging around the garden with a pea stick, knocking everything sideways in her wake. Ah well! Maybe she will calm down soon, that is if the garden survives.
In my garden now there are too many plants out in flower to list, and the perfume that pervades the air is awesome, with Sweet Peas competing with Summer Jasmine and Honeysuckle. I have given up expecting my seedlings to grow any more, but I don’t really know where I would put them if they did as all the log roll beds are full up.
Although I haven’t done much in the garden over the past week, I have somehow managed to half fill the garden wheelie bin that was emptied last Thursday with plants I have been chopping back and dead-heading each day, plus the prunings that my dog has added of course.
It is a shame that my daughter has gone back to Canada, having had a fortnight of typical British weather but it has been perfect for my garden and for me, as I don’t like hot weather. I haven’t had to water the garden at all during her fortnight here. Looking at the forecast for the next ten days it looks like we will be getting more of the same.
My Garden Transformation 