Day of reckoning.

Big gulp. Today I am going to pluck up courage to go through my gardening receipts since we've been at this house and see just how much I've spent to create our garden to date. We moved in February, after a very cold winter and it's now August 18th. That's seven short months. Since February I have made the black and white border, the pastel border and now the colour border. Luke has created a small vegetable patch but he had most of the seeds already so I'm not including that (plus he pays for all the compost, sand and such like that he has bought to improve the soil and which I've often used. So this is what I've spent on plants alone. Whilst it might not be "good taste" to discuss money, I think it's interesting to see how much the garden has cost and to work out if I think it's been worth that amount. It's a bit like owning a car; you don't want to work out how much it's costing you to run because the amount is probably too high to contemplate and yet you don't want to be without it. If you add up the costs there is the risk that you will feel compelled to live without it when you really know how much better life is with it.

So it is with my garden. So here goes, crunch time!
(twentyfive minutes of adding up later)

My pastel border should be called my friendship garden as I had lots of garden vouchers from my dearest friends for my birthday. Added to that, Luke bought me a weeping pear, 'Pyrus Salicifolia Pendula' from Crocus. So that's about £120 already spent, though not by me. However, all told my plant expenditure is a whopping £557.31 & that's missing off a few casual purchases from places where I didn't get receipts.

Is this where I start justifying it to you and myself? Not really. You see, I should get years of pleasure out of this initial spend, it makes me happy, it's not harmful and it'll add some appeal and value to the house. And now we have the greenhouse we can grow from seed. It's not been cheap but it's been worth it.

Next door's cat visits us on blue tit duty

(note the birds feeding about five feet away from her)

Gifts from the garden

Fruit, veg and flowers have all come our way in just a few short months. Here are just a few....

Tea time in our house.

Here I am, bringing out a cup of tea and slice of cake with our own sweetpeas to brighten up the tray.



However, Shakira is attracted by the cake, Luke thinks she has come to say hello but she had other ideas.....,





Never trust a chicken with an eye for cake!

Chicken and the egg

Here are our girls, doing what they do best - wandering around the garden.










These are their eggs, one from each of them and one bought egg to show the size difference.

Somewhere over the rainbow.

After a speedy sun shower I snapped a poor photograph of the rainbow's end - seems our neighbours have gold in their shed! Who'd have thought it?


Later on, red sky at night....,

Purse strings.

What is a point of working full time? To get over the busy weekend, I think.
Having spent the entire day in the garden yesterday I have succumbed to few battle scars, a bit more sun damage to the old body, something flying into my ear (which I'm sure is still there!) and another hit to the purse strings. Actually I feel rather guilty at my extravagance. Granted, I do try to find the bargains and do hold on and on thinking I'm going to be sensible but every so often I have a splurge and go plant shopping; I think I've spent around £100 in the past week on them. I don't do it that often but I dread to think what I've spent this year alone on this garden. I could give you all the excuses about it being a brand new garden and needing some basics in to get it started but what's the point? Basically I love to see a beautiful garden and I enjoy getting out there and getting my hands dirty. What's so wrong with that?
Nothing really but a month or so ago our address was randomly picked to take part in a government research programme on poverty. One of the questions asked was, "Do you have more than one pair of all weather shoes?" I was shocked by this. That some families can only afford one pair of shoes each was something I never considered; having numerous unworn shoes myself (I thought all girls were the same) in my wardrobe. And there I was yesterday, nipping out just before the garden centre closed, to get a few fillers for my latest border planting. I'm ashamed to say I have no idea what it cost to get those last few plants. Somewhere in the region of twenty pounds but I am just guessing. It's a bit of a wake up call as to how some people live and how lucky I am that, despite economic pressures, I can still go out and buy plants. I'm a lucky girl.