@thecuriousglasshouse Lifestyle Blog by Oxford Cottage Gardener
Lifestyle, interiors and gardening – Follow on Instagram @thecuriousglasshouse for daily updates
When we moved into our house we inherited a play house shed which was filled with spiders and leaked quite badly. It was also sited in the most inconvenient place obscuring the view down the garden when you were in the room at the back of the garage which we had wanted to turn into a gym.
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Sorry to have been absent from my blog, I’ve been quite busy in the garden!
A quick update…..We exchanged and moved into the house on the planned date (after all the trials and tribulations of the purchase) and on the weekend we moved in, the heavens opened and it rained non stop for about 4 weeks. So no progress on the garden during the month of April but we did managed to decorate our study and get all our books and craft and hobby bits moved in.
Since I last shared on my blog, things have moved very slowly towards ownership of our new house.
Our offer was accepted back in November, the valuation was done and mortgage was secured then came Christmas and everything ground to a halt. Come the New Year we had a couple of minor setbacks, one was about the additional parcel of land at the bottom of the garden (which is the reason we are buying the house anyway!)
It seems although the seller owned the land it hadn’t been fully transferred into his name with Land Registry so our mortgage company needs further checks. Also our buy to let mortgage, secured on on current house to release funds for the new house, had expired in early February. Due to a miscommunication between the solicitor and bank, but actually due to the banks error our application has been put on the cancelled pile! However as it was the banks error they have agreed to re-instate the application.
All that means we still haven’t exchanged, although hope to by the end of next week! Maybe!
We do however have a completion date arranged of the 23rd March so all being well we still hope to meet that. It is pretty essential as our temporary Monday to Friday rental finished at the beginning of March although the owner has agreed we can stay until 23rd, so there is quite a lot riding on this! Not least the prospect of being homeless in the week, or travelling nearly 1 1/2 hr each way every day!
Nevertheless we have made a start on planning that lovely garden and I’ve been buying all the bargain summer bulbs I can find ready for one of the big plans we have……
More news next time……..
Still trawling Rightmove…… I think I genuinely am OCD over searching on the website, I look probably 3 times a day just in case something new gets added and I miss it ?
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ne.
It's got nearly 1/2 acre✅
It's already had an extension to make a large kitchen ✅
The old garage has been demolished and a modern one built ✅
The garden is a blank canvas ready to go ✅
Ok the kitchen needs remodelling, and an en-suite needs adding but otherwise it's got all the basics.
Unfortunately it's a bit out of our price range whilst we still own our Oxford house but..... I need to be resourceful!
I've booked a viewing for Saturday, in case someone comes along to buy it under our noses (again) Let's see how that goes.
We viewed the house and loved it, trouble is 2 other people have viewed it and one person has had a 2nd viewing already! Hmmm I find the whole thing so stressful, now we’ve got to see if we can raise the extra finance and get an offer in ASAP if we want it.
To be honest if someone does put in a full asking price offer, I’m not going to get into a bidding war with them, the asking price is really what it’s worth so I wouldn’t be prepared to go any higher anyway.
So we’ve had our offer accepted ??? now to pay for a valuation to finalise our mortgage offer. That’s the nerve wracking bit …..what if another seller pulls out!
It’s that time of year again, if we are going to have lots of colour in the garden this summer we need to make plans.
In my garden, I have shrubs which provide structure and greenery all your round. Some of them also flower at different times in the season. I also have perennials which come up every year without too much maintenance, they provide lots of lovely colour and some of those have a long flowering season, all throughout the summer.
But I also have some areas of the garden which just need an injection of colour. This I provide with bedding plants (annuals) Bedding plants are very tender and do not survive frost so are grown and replaced each year. Bedding plants have the big advantage they provide lots of colour and can be placed wherever there is a gap.
I tend to fill pots with bedding which I can move around the garden to the gaps as well as planting others within the border.
At this time of year we need to make a decision how we are going to get our bedding plants, there are 3 options.
From seed – a pack of seeds costs around £1 and can be sewn in a propagator at this time of year on a windowsill in the house. They will germinate producing lots of seedlings which will need to be pricked out into trays as soon as they get big enough.
From plug plants – you order them now and they will be grown by the merchants until they get big enough to be sent out, normally the end of March
They still need potting on but the growth success rate is much greater. Each plug plant cost between about 20p to 50p although if you buy in bulk it does bring the price down. This year I would like to grow some Cosmos,
I can get 60 large plugs for £16.99 delivered w/c 14th March
Or ready grown plants which are available in packs of 6 or so available in the garden centres ready to plant out after May. Typically a pack of 6 bedding plants costs £4.99
Of course although they may be pricey all the hard work is done for you and all that is left is to plant these exactly where you would like them to grow anytime after the last risk of frost, normally around middle of the May.
My personal choice is plug plants and I have just placed my order. I look forward to lots of colour in my garden all through the summer….
