A very cold Jasper after a very wet walk. It’s the first weekend of August and it feels like Autumn.
Our older sister Lucy has come to stay for the first time this year! The last time she saw the house was back in October when she came to help oil the elm floorboards before the plasterers started. That seems a very long time ago now…
We are searching for a very large planter for the front of the house for the replacement vine. It needs to be big and deep for the vine to be happy there.
We took another day off house stuff and had a trip out to Winchcombe Reclamation on the way towards Cheltenham (felt like a mini holiday for me as I have barely left the shire in AGES). Cat had been looking at a large old stone trough they were advertising on their website.
The stone trough isn’t quite big enough sadly, but we had a very good look around the yard. They have a wealth of good quality reclaimed building materials, including a tonne of elm and oak joists, beams and floorboards! We wish we had known about this place last year!
On our way back (trough some torrential downpours!) we stopped off at Batsford Arboretum & Garden Centre to buy some plants and found a brand new version of the stone trough, made of reconstituted stone. It’s larger than the old one, so it may work and it would look smart outside the house.
Back at Pear Tree, Lucy and Cat are planting up the plants that we bought at Batsford.
We are adding a peat free compost to condition the soil and a fine grit to improve drainage.
We bought a selection of ornamental grasses, agapanthus, rosemary and oregano to go in between the lavender in this bed.
One of the fabulous grasses called Cylindrica ‘Red Baron’.
We mixed 6 bags of grit into the soil, lavender likes a well drained soil.
Positioning the plants so that there is space for all the lavenders (which we don’t have yet).
Jasper has taken to snatching all post out of the letterbox, directly from the hands of the delivery people. Everything that gets delivered comes with added teeth marks…
On one of my dog walks in the woods I met an identical dog to Jasper! They have met once before, last summer, and the owner thought they were seeing double.
Which one is Jasper? He is the wally at the back with his willy out.
They are both Labrador/Springer Spaniel cross breeds, also known as ‘Springadors’ (mongrels to you and I) and we have never met another one identical to Jasper! It’s uncanny!
The following weekend and we take another day off and go Futon shopping in Oxford as the store has a big sale on. Cat buys a lovely oak Futon with pale blue/grey covers for her attic bedroom.
The next weekend we have all the lavender plants ready to plant.
We ordered most of the varieties online from Lavender World: Imperial Gem, Hidcote, Rosea and Silver Sands.
We found Twickle Purple at our local garden centre.
All planted up and ready for great things next summer!