Summer is Here

Before and after the trampoline being put into place

As summer is here and it’s such a beautiful sunny day, I have decided to write this week’s article in the garden. As I sit on the chair, all I can see on the laptop screen is dust and a rather unnerving reflection of me squinting in the glorious sunshine. I don’t like wearing sunglasses so I only have myself to blame. I also don’t like wearing headphones but I do occasionally if I want to be ignored on public transport. They are never plugged in but who’s to know that.

We have a perfect place to sit in the new garden. It’s actually the base of a removed greenhouse with an old 18” block wall surrounding it that most probably supported the glass frame before it was removed. The dividing fence put up to the rear of the greenhouse was a bit shabby so I have splashed wood stain all over it. I bought a big gallon container from one of those budget shops and only paid 2 euro for it so I wasn’t expecting it to be much good. It was though and it went on like treacle and covered well in just one coat. You can sometimes, very occasionally get more that you pay for in these shops, as it was the same quality as a named product costing 10 times more. It was worth the gamble.

Early summer
We have managed to clear the shrubs at the top of the garden this week. The cut wood was good and dry so I combined lopping, chopping , burning and shredding to avoid having to hire a skip to take everything away. Not only have we saved 120 euro on a skip and got lots of chippings to mulch the poor soil, we also have enough wood kindling to get the water hot in the back boiler for a few weeks so we will save on energy bills too. The really fiddly bits were burned when the neighbours were out at work so they probably wondered why their washing smelled of charcoal as they took it indoors in the evening.

The space made from removing the shrubs is going to be mainly for vegetables, I say eventually as half of it has just been covered up by the trampoline only moments after clearing the space. The bouncy plaything fitted well in our old acre garden, but finding somewhere out of the way it a small town garden is proving to be a bit of a challenge. It has been taking up most of the lawn up until now, so at least it is out of the way. I’ll have to find vegetables that’ll grow well underneath the black mesh for at least another two years until it drops to bits.

Moving the compost bin
We have moved the compost bin closer to the house. It’s not something you think about in good weather much but in winter the last thing you want to do is traipse through the mud to empty the peelings. I have also reclaimed some old paving slabs and made a bit of a path to it too. The bin was never very far away but it looked a bit lost in the corner of the lawn area when we moved the trampoline. Our lawn measures 8 metres by 8 metres so a quick strim in summer will keep it tidy. The same can’t be said for the few people who contacted me regarding the robot mowers that are on the market.

Robot mower review
Here are two comments from people who don’t have one of the tekky machines:
“If it rains a lot the mower doesn’t come out of its charging kennel. That means if it rains for a long time the grass will be uncuttable.”
“The robot mower could be stolen from the garden. After saying that it would be useless without the docking station but young kids who just want to mess with it wouldn’t care about that.”

And from someone who has one:
“I have had one of these mowers for two years now and think it’s fantastic. It works effortlessly and silently cutting and mulching the grass in the summer and it is really reliable. I pondered long and hard about buying either one of these or a ride on mower. The costs were about the same but this method frees up my time when I want to relax. You just don’t notice it at all.”

If ever I get a large garden I might consider one, in the mean time I can cut our grass with a pair of scissors. Not just now though, I’m far too hot sitting in the sunshine. I’m off indoors.