Springtime, and the garden moves on.

It’s now almost two months since I updated the blog, numerous things have transpired to stop me spending time writing.  The garden has moved on but still has a long way to go.

Two of the planned projects have been completed:

1. The polytunnel  is now up and becoming productive.

2. Steps from the lower part of the garden up to the centre lawn have been built.

Following the erection of the polytunnel frame came the job of covering with the polythene sheet. This should be done on a warm and windless day. Now bearing in mind we live in the North of Scotland and we were erecting this in April, that was not going to happen. We settled for a cold day with not too much wind.

All went reasonably well, the polythene went on and was fairly taut, the problem came when I built and positioned the sliding doors at each end. I found the that the doors were rubbing against the polythene as they slid open, the life expectancy of the polythene was now down to a few days. The only way to combat this was to make a wooden frame on the outside of the tunnel, which effectively moved the doors away from the polythene - simple but it worked.

We were now the proud owners of a fairly large polytunnel. What we hadn’t taken into account was that the tunnel was in fact a large area of almost white plastic, which stood out from the rest of the garden like a saw thumb. We decided that the only solution was to build a wooden fence around the lower part of the construction to screen it from the house and access road. This was done and proved very effective in screening it from view, but also giving some protection from cold winds. I could now start the long process of planting seeds and cuttings ready for next year.

Close to the house the garden is flat, but once you move away from the house into the garden you are on very steep slopes. As we wanted reasonably easy access to the upper areas of the garden we needed to build steps of some kind. To blend in with the other constructions in the plan we opted for wood. Not ever having built steps before we turned to the same people who did the rabit fence and decking. Big mistake! Having explained what I wanted, they gave me a list of wood that would be needed. I went ahead and purchased all the wood on the list, not cheap by any means. That was the last I heard from them. They didn’t answer my calls or get in touch in any way.

I was now left with a pile of wood and not the faintest idea where to start. So I had the choice of searching for someone else to do the work or try to do it myself. The latter appealed to me as this would save money and the experience would come in handy if I wished to build more steps. I sat down with sheets of paper and eventually came up with a plan.

It took me just over a week to build them, although longer if I take into account the time spent staring at my work so far wondering what to do next. They are now complete and they turned out much better than ever expected.

 As far as I’m concerned it’s better than would have been built using the original team. They used nails for all the work whereas I used screws and the spindles were not fitted as they should have been. I have since been told that decking should be built using screws, which is common sense really if anything needs replacing in the future. Just goes to show Professionals are not always the best, something some photographers should keep in mind :-)

The rabbits are being kept out by the fence and plants are starting to grow, including the grass.

Grass cutting has become a major job, bit like painting the Forth Bridge really, mowing one day, then strimming for the next couple of days. I then get a couple of days on other work before it starts all over again :-(

The pheasant, who visited during the winter months and we named Rupert, has disappeared. Maybe he’s raising a family somewhere, but in his place we now have a pair of partridges, which seems like a pretty fair exchange :-)