Helen's Garden Renovation Project

I have finished the staining of the wooden shelving in the greenhouse and have screwed the shelves back in place. It was very difficult to get them back in. I had taken the precaution of photographing the shelves in their original positions so I knew which shelf went where (by comparing the positions of the knots in the wood), but it still required considerable brute force to push them into place. I tried to put the screws back into their original holes but this was difficult too. This is what the end result looks like, and I think it was probably worth it.

The greenhouse staging, stained in Sadolin teak woodstain

It is definitely autumn now, and that means loads of mushrooms. The following specimen is growing in abundance in one of our communal landscaped areas.

Fungus growing in communal area under lime tree

I am hoping that it is not honey fungus. I looked up honey fungus on the Internet and it is supposed to be apparent under the bark of the tree, which it isn’t. So maybe it is just some pretty brown stuff.

My tomatoes are still going happily and not suffering from blight, thanks to my copper fungicide. I am also pleased to report that my blackberry, which flowered wrongly last month, is now wrongly sporting a cluster of green fruits.

Unblighted tomato plant

Now that I have finished staining the staging, I can do some fun stuff, like demolishing the raspberry frame. This edifice was put up in June 1996 by a working party led by my dad. Since he had to mix the concrete by hand, we were economical with it, and dug nice neat holes with plenty of rubble in them. As a result, I found that after digging to a depth of about six inches around one of the posts, I could easily push it over. Indeed, a six-foot man could probably push the posts over without needing to dig any of the soil out first. However, this is not a disparaging comment on its construction (my parents never read this blog, but someone else might read it and tell them), since the frame has stood firm in many bouts of strong winds for more than thirteen years. I am just glad that this is going to be an easy job.

The remains of the raspberry frame after the start of demolition

The weather for September has been very dry, and I have taken advantage of it as much as the demands of work have allowed me. The main job has been to stain the greenhouse staging. It has had two coats of wood preserver and three coats of Sadolin Classic on each side, and it will get two coats of Sadolin extra to finish. This may seem a bit over the top, but I wanted a good deep colour and I know that it will be a good many years before I unscrew the staging and stain it again. Two of the shelves have to be stained in the greenhouse because they have power points attached to them, and when it rains, everything inside the greenhouse gets wet. I have not yet worked out why this is – if I stand in the greenhouse when it’s raining, I don’t get any drips landing on my head. It is a good thing I have invested in special outdoor versions of the power points and light switch. It is also a good thing that September has been mainly dry.

Here are two pictures of the garden as it is today:

Right hand corner of the garden taken from an upstairs window

Left hand corner of the garden taken from an upstairs window

You can see that I have moved the compost bins out of the way to the right hand side of the garden, which will not have any work done on it just yet. I have also taken up the surface of the path next to the raspberry frame. I need to remove the side of the raspberry frame furthest from the fence (the other side can stay for now) and take up the path foundations. I also need to start measuring up and put some markers down to show where the pond and new lawn are going to go. I have just over two months before I intend to get quotes for the work.

The cats are learning. Unfortunately they are not only learning to run like blazes as soon as they see me, but to scrape back the plastic coverings to reveal new toilet opportunities. I think I will have to abandon my makeshift attempts to cover the ground with assorted bits and pieces, and just buy some enormous great sheets of polythene from B&Q or Wickes.