What do you do on the hottest day (if you're a boy!)?

It's 32C in the shade as I write and Charlie and Alan decided to have the biggest bonfire possible.  Of course.  It was the remains of the hedge behind the stable block and made a linear bonfire the entire length of the stable block by about 2m wide and 1.5m high. In some feeble nod to healthandsafety, they do each have a hose in hand and were squirting down everything INCLUDING the bonfire to stop it getting totally out of control.  If any of our gliding friends found the one good thermal of the day just east of Salisbury, I think I know why...

We've fitted vine eyes and wire to the top fence, so all the climbers that are there now have somewhere to scramble, and I can start to buy some other chaps to fill the rest of it.



And finally on the right are two views of stuff in flower to prove that there is at least some.  In fact things are coming on nicely, although it's all a bit still things-stuck-in-bare-earth-ish in places.  I think 'lush' is going to have to wait for September, or perhaps even next year.  Although the beans are definitely going for it, so veg plot pics will follow.

Is this the dawning of the Age of Aquarius!?

Yesterday I plumbed the big (1000l) water stillage into the stable roof gutter - although the plan is to reroof the stables and demolish the end two (probably), I thought it was maybe worth putting it in place to collect at least some water.  Today I bought a normal 200l waterbutt and popped it under the greenhouse downpipe. 

Now, you might think that would guarantee a drought for the next few months, but here's as fitted at 7pm last night >



< and here's 4pm this afternoon when we seem to have collected nearly 300l...

High summer indeed...










The gabion wall now has a bed along the top...

(see the proto-lavender-hedge, the trailing geraniums and the alpines, all of whom should love the sunny, dry (hah!) conditions.  Although we may need to replant as the guys put landscape material to retain the earth on top of the gabions, but the stone beneath has settled in places, leaving an air gap which I think we will have to deal with otherwise it will just be too dry)

...and some things which are obviously wallflowers planted in it:

Indoors, Alan has been busy building the workbench.  You will recall how solid we said the staircase is, well, I wouldn't like to bet either way on who would win if it came to a fight! 

Glorious weather!

Erratum - actually, in the last blog, it's 5 months not 6 since the 'before' picture.  So that's ok then...

Anyway, as flaming June continues and the pond has filled itself up in spite of not having a waterproof lining, I thought I'd post the gardeners' equivalent of kitten pictures to cheer us all up.

Oh, and there's one bit of house news as well which is that the Building Guarantee Man came round last week and did his final inspection so we probably now have a comeback if it falls down tomorrow.

From the Alpine bed alongside the patio, here's the delospermum and the alpine pink

While climbing up the temporary poles (I'm about to implement Plan B for getting the obelisks welded up) on the terrace are clematis - here is Ooh La La and below is Niobe.





Of course the great advantage of the current weather is that stuff doesn't need as much watering-in as  might otherwise be the case...

What a difference a day makes...

...well, 6 months anyway!
Our regular reader was kicking me gently as we've not posted for nearly a month.  A couple of days ago I took a pic from the standard viewpoint in the NW corner of the plot, and looking today I see the last time I took a pic from there was exactly 6 months ago.
'Before'...

 'After'...

Well, 'during' actually.  Progress, I think you'll agree!

The lawn is now very good in places but pretty bare still in others, and the planting is gradually getting its toes in.  This is the top bed where the perennials are now looking reasonably well established and are starting to grow away:

Along the patio the alpines are enjoying the sun although as you can see, there's a lot of grass still germinating in what is now a flower bed

And it won't be long before we're eating our own cucumbers and tomatoes.  Less sure about melons though!








 

The main veg plot is coming on nicely - salad is ready, and broad beans won't be long.  My hopes that as it's a new plot there won't be too many pests have proved unsound in the case of slugs, who have got most of the cornichons and are having a go at the courgettes - although the latter may be Alan pretending to be a slug in the hopes of not having to eat up the courgette glut later on...

One Year Out!! - and practically complete...

This post is a couple of days late - I should have posted on 11 May which was one year since the building works started.  As it happens, that's the day that the architect came round to do a final inspection and pronounced 'practical completion'.  This is official recognition that it's fundamentally finished, although there's still a short list of stuff to deal with, not necessarily now.  We also have the building inspector's completion certificate, and now we have to pay the just-about-final bill.  For those who don't know the process, there's a retention of part of the contract cost to cover any works that arise during the following year, so there's a small bucket of fixing-money for anything else that pops up.  Milestone!

Voting for the Greens

Finally it's got hot.  Here is the evidence - the first time we have opened both bifold doors:

And it IS very good.
And talking of very good, here's the greenhouse yesterday - no planties...









...and today, going Green with added cucumber and tomato:
 

Such a relief to have it done - if only because we can now get around the house without being attacked by cucurbits - it was a bit like a benign version of the Triffids.

Meccano for grown-ups

4 boxes of bits, a stack of glass and a set of instructions and it goes like this:

Ta da! 
Next step is to dig the hard-as-iron earth inside and make beds I can plant stuff into, then the poor dears who are living in tiny pots next to the kitchen island at present will get their luxurious new home.