Creating our veg/flower plot

We’ve been growing veg for quite some time now but I’d been thinking for a while how lovely it would be to grow my own flowers to cut and bring into the house without ruining the look of the boarders. So as part of my planning I’d decided to have a veg plot with space for cut flowers.

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Making Plans for our new gardens

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……..

Back to the drawing board

Sunday – We’ve picked ourselves up after the last disappointment and have got back onto Rightmove with gusto, the only trouble is I don’t think there is anything there in our price range in the area we want. It doesn’t matter how many times a day I go on to look, no new houses that match our criteria are being added! Are we really that picky or do houses with good size (I really big BIG) gardens not exist?

Monday – Ooh wait, I just spotted a possibility, hmmm I’m rather put off by the artex ceilings and the property seems to be surrounded on all sides by well manicured but clearly hard work to maintain, conifer hedging! That would be two expensive items we’d have to get rid of before we start.
But on the plus side the garden, without the encroaching conifer hedge, is massive and already contains 2 very large greenhouse and a poly tunnel, they get big ticks from me, you can see where my priorities lie!


It would need a big extension and completing remodelling with a new kitchen and bathroom but that’s fine.

Definitely worth a view, just a question of when. The evenings are too dark now for an evening viewing and travelling next Saturday would be a long way from Oxford.

Tuesday – I rang the estate agent to arrange a viewing, the property has already sold within hours of it going on the market apparently! I’m starting to get the distinct impression things are not going our way, oh well good luck with the artex whoever has bought it, not that I’m bitter.

Another super one came on the market today, so as soon as I saw it, I thought I’ll ring the agent and arrange a viewing clearly this area is popular and things are selling fast, only to be told after placing her house on the market for 2 hours the seller has got cold feet over the timings and has withdrawn her property for sale.


This is definitely not my week, but what is it with sellers getting cold feet, this property buying and selling is turning out to be the most impossible job! I would just leave trying to buy all together for a while but we continue to pay ‘dead money’ for rent on the weekday flat which I’d rather not, so I’ll continue looking, let’s see what gets added tomorrow.

It might be winter but………

This has been officially the mildest winter so far and don’t we know it, daffodils are flowering already and it’s still only the 2nd week in January. These delightful daffodils were brought in a flower market over the weekend and are really brightening up my work space at the moment. I remember as a child waiting to see if the daffodils would flower in time for Mothers Day which is in March.

The grass has continued to grow not stop since last summer, ordinarily I would put the lawnmower away in November and not get it back out again until early March. Instead just two weeks ago I was still mowing. It was a little bit too wet for ideal conditions but I always find that if you just leave the grass to grow, it will be so long in February that when you do come to mow it, it becomes a big job and I think causes more moss to grow.

Last Sunday the weather was so lovely with the low spring sunshine I was really itching to get out into the garden and seeing as I needed to lift the last of the leeks I decided it would be good to dig over the whole veg plot whilst I was there.

It is so nice to get out into the fresh air, with some sun on your skin, you suddenly feel human again. I start wearing coat, hat scarf and gloves and after just a little bit of digging I’m casting off layers as you get so warm.

I felt very satisfied with a job well done and retreated indoors to start looking at the plug plants online ready for delivery in early spring.