A Productive Bank Holiday Monday

This weekend was a bit of a lost one for various reasons, some of which I've already posted about. Bank Holiday Monday, however was a much more productive day and we managed to get a few important things done.

Job number one, was to buy some timber to build covers for the raised beds.  Well, in actual fact the timber was to put on the sides of the raised beds to rest the covers on and keep the foxes out.  The actual covers themselves were made from some trellis panels I found outside someone's house, who didn't want them anymore. I was on my way home from a dog walk at the time of finding them, so I just carried them home with me.  They were perfect for the covers and most important of all, they were completely free. (The timber wasn't and OH kindly paid for that, which has helped my budget a little)

One bed we covered fully and raised the cover to allow for slightly higher growing plants and the other we half covered and left lower for lettuce mainly.  This was also done as we only had 3 trellis panels to work with, but also so that I can grow taller plants in the other half,  such as beans or kale which aren't so easy to cover.

The panels have chicken wire stapled to the back of them to prevent the foxes getting in through the holes, so I'm hoping that they will make life and growing in these beds a lot easier, as the seedlings should now not be disturbed.  They look a bit  more attractive than the arrangement we had before too, which wasn't working as the plastic was getting torn and was also preventing any rain watering the plants, plus the foxes were still getting in and digging holes.




The new covers lift off pretty easily too, allow much easier access and store flat in the winter. I'm really pleased with the results. I also transplanted the lettuce seedlings to spread them out in the beds, as they were clustered together and unable to grow properly.

Job number two was making a flower basket out of this old colander. I used this previously to house some succulents, but they all died off, so it's getting a new life as a flower basket.  I used an old wool blanket I was throwing out due to it being moth infested, to line it and planted it up with English marigold seedlings and sowed nasturtium seeds into it. 



It might be a while before it looks anything like, but hopefully the nasturtium plants should tumble out eventually. I did the same thing with a proper hanging basket and hung it up outside the back door.  It may need moving later in the summer when the builders start, but for now it'll be okay here.

Job number three was to replant a pot at the front of the house.  Previously I had this pot there, that was planted up with red geraniums, but they are definitely past their best now and getting a bit leggy, as you can see from the photograph, so I relegated them to the back garden and bought some new geranimum plants in shocking pink this time. I picked a different pot to plant them into.  Here's what the new pot looks like. A lot fresher and they should soon grow to fill the pot better.

As a consequence of the above, I felt a lot better and can start the week feeling like we at least achieved something, well OH did anyway.  I might just be able to enjoy my raised beds now.  We'll see.