Hedge Fun

I had a gliding instructing break yesterday, but apart from that it's been gardening all the way.  You can see the emerging kitchen garden here:

I have made all the edging boards but it's darned hard work fitting them due to the high flint content.  The sharper amongst you will work out that this applies to digging the beds over too, but I'm trying quite hard not to think about that.  The top foot or so is imported topsoil and/or home-made compost so we'll leave the spuds and worms to do the hard work below that!  You can see the apple trees and greengage in the bed along the wall (see the stick, imagine the espalier)

The hazels have been planted up on the front bank - two of them, one to grow on as a tree and the other to coppice; between them they should hide the electricity pole as well as satisfying the Planning Condition.  You can see in the picture on the right that we have a brand-new beech hedge along the fence to the stable yard - Alan cleared and dug the right hand side while I was instructing yesterday so it was mostly just a matter of planting today although we had to do a bit of shuffling of the remaining stuff in the parking bed on the left.  Somehow its impact is disproportionate to its size - I don't think this comes across in the photo but it looks very fine. 
You can just see the pile of twigs on the right that is an ex-elder that was on the corner of the stable yard - Alan enlisted Charlie next door and his chainsaw to deal with it.  I stepped out of the door just in time to see the tree come crashing down, missing the house by - literally - 1".  The boys had the decency to look slightly sheepish for a couple of minutes at least.
And finally, the row of radish I sowed last week has germinated, proving beyond all doubt that spring is here.  Hurrah!

Growing panes

Yesterday was huge excitement - the greenhouse was delivered.  Added excitement was whether the lorry would fit onto the driveway - or more precisely could swing so as to fit onto the driveway - but as you can see, it was easy! (well, easy-ish...)

The next excitement was - which of these bits make up my greenhouse?  That's a week's worth of deliveries in there less the three he'd delivered earlier on Monday.

Time will tell whether we have the right bits as we don't have its location ready yet.  So the frames and the panes are currently tidily stacked up in the garage.

The contractors' part of the outside works are basically complete now, and I'm trying to prioritise what next.  Clearly anything bare-root needs to be dealt with ASAP.  BUT - there are things growing in the 'parking bed' which is alongside the stableyard where there is going to be (bare-root) hedge - so they need to be moved first first.  And some of them are going to a bed that until today didn't exist and needed paviours putting in to make the edge first first first.  So, I've done that, now I can move the rest of the stuff out of the parking bed.  Meanwhile many of the rest of the paviours got dumped where the rest of the hedge needs to be and so.... you get the picture. 
Progress so far:
we have the herbs moved into the herb bed, beech whips ordered to make beech columns (left is a bunch of 10 whips as ordered, right is what we see in our mind's eye when we look at them...), the native birch and hazels required by Planning to replace the ash we cut down also ordered, trellis made and fitted to the front wall by the utility room door and trachelospermum planted against it, osteospermums moved out of the parking bed along the front wall, and gravel board bought and cut to make the vegetable plot edges.  Installation thereof will NOT be tomorrow's job, looking at the weather forecast!  Warning to gardening friends and neighbours - at some point soon we will be importuning you for plants...

Giant leap for Sparrowkind

Would have posted this yesterday but as Replacement Window Man was ill and rescheduled the planned replacement works, we sneaked over to Wisley for the day in the sunshine to get inspiration on plants and look at the butterflies in the glasshouse.  To prove it, here is a plant and a butterfly.  Lots of great ideas for the garden, just the one plant purchased, and a thoroughly lovely day out.

Latest - hallelujah, the outside works have now resumed and although the garden is still mud, it's now flat mud with grass seed, we have patios everywhere we should have and we have almost got a finished driveway.  Indoors there is still discussion around roof/gable insulation works.  Upstairs windows now to be replaced Thursday.  We are awaiting a schedule for completion of it all!  Meanwhile in case there was any doubt:

Time flies even when I don't...

I see our last post was at the end of January.  Since then we've progressed a bit with the roof remedial works but it's still not finished - latest is that the gable edges are awaiting architect sign-off before they replace the floors and finish it off, plus there's one more corner to do.  There is now a plan as to what needs doing up in the main roofspace - after we gained a loft hatch last week so that inspection became possible.  Outside, the paving slabs have now arrived and external works restart on Monday.  Which is good, because I've started with the garden plans already...
All the spring stuff has moved from the 'parking bed' to the bed under the walnut tree - primroses, snowdrops and cyclamen.  The greenhouse is on order and the initial tranche of fruit trees arrived last week from the nice people at Deacons on the Isle of Wight.  We were away at the weekend* and I was amused to find an answerphone message telling me that the trees were on their way - message left a day after they actually arrived... I've got apples, D'Arcy Spice, Cox's Orange Pippin, King's Russet and Suntan, plus a Cambridge Gage - 1st year whips which will be trained into some appropriate form.  All currently residing in a nice bucket of earth pending their bed being laid out against the garage wall.

And the cumulus are forming in the sunshine over Cumulus...

*at the Lond Mynd.  Howling easterlies - sadly a westerly ridge...

Up Andover

We finally have a garage door.  And it's very splendid.  Here it is shut...

and here opening up and over (Local garage door company is called 'Up Andover Garage Doors'):

 






So the front view now looks pretty finished as below.  More good news is that we have today tracked down the hooting - it's the drain holes in the lower channel of the bifolds.
We have had the banister glass refitted after work to straighten up the edges of the stair treads - still not perfect but is it good enough? They adjusted all the banister glass which is now square and vertical. Oh, and we now have an outside tap.
Less good is that we had condensation appear during the very cold weather last week; our architect has proposed a solution and work starts next week but there's further investigation to do to be sure it's fixed.

I can see clearly now...

... well perhaps not this morning

There's been a bit of a pause since the last blog entry as there's been a bit of a pause in works.  Which is not to say nothing's happened, so here's the latest which is mostly about how we live in the house rather than house-build itself:
The garage door and remaining patio slabs are due either next week or the week after.
Thanks to the cold weather we suspect that the system doesn't quite achieve the heat performance it's supposed to - it is supposed to maintain 22C when it's -6C outside.  The cold snap last week generously exhibited the -6C for us and the heating was struggling a bit.  Not a problem when you light the log-burner, mind you - which Alan has now learnt the foibles of and which soon overheats the house.
We've fitted the racking and moved the workshop into the garage and everything is tidy and visible; once we've got rid of the spare table, desk and fridge the gliders will fit nicely up the east wall.
Alan has reorganised the pantry which is proving a most excellent storage solution.
The snug is getting snugger as we hang pictures and also bought it a new rug yesterday. Sparkly shagpile, obvs... Still needs a glowy light in the corner to enhance the ambience.  Pic next time.
Upstairs we've rearranged most of the wardrobe / cupboard contents two or three times already and I think we now know what we want where - now we just need a chest of drawers for the spare room.
And importantly, the garden ideas are starting to come together - I now have a plan for the veggie patch and a space laid out on the ground outside the rear patio for a pond.

New Year New View

Up till now, I don't think we've got far enough across the mudflats to give you a picture of the rear of the house now it's finished.  Today I put my wellies firmly on and waded out there and it looks like this:
The plastic sheet is simulating a pond, or perhaps two pond options which are currently the subject of some debate - oriented long axis towards the back of the garden or parallel to the back of the house.  L-shaped may prove to be the compromise solution...

The new sofa for the snug arrived on Wednesday and yesterday we set everything up (ok, pics not yet on walls, but hey!) and sat with our feet up in front of the telly (out of picture, left).  Alan's bought a new amp and when he put a CD on and turned the sound up, the roof lifted slightly.  The village may yet come to enjoy his power chords...

And on the left is the toaster nook now with shelving and cute LED strip lighting.  No, William, NOT colour change lighting...