Whole Story

Hi,
Have been doing a fair bit of gardening of late. The garden is 99% weeds and 1% dead soil and its been really demoralising working away for what seems to be a few less weeds that inadvertiably return. Having recently gone through some pictures of when we firsted moved in, I think I have been a bit hard on my efforts and actually, its not brilliant, but its getting there. I pride myself on being a cheapskate gardener - espacially as this is a communal garden. I buy up cheap bulbs at the end of season, send off for free seeds in the newspaper promotions, buy half dead plants in the shops and take loads of cuttings. I bought a lot of 'dead' plants and out of date bulbs late last year and hoped for the best - they are all thriving and the bulbs, from Kew gardens are either coming through or already flowering. I also bought 40 half dead lavenders from Garsons on our first trip and really pleased to say with a bit of fresh soil and feed, I have only lost two, and the surviving 38 are growing away with lots of new shoots. To be fair to the garden, it has its major benifits - south facing, walled and with about 10 very established plants including 2 orange blossoms and a massive yukka. Because of the walls, which on our flat are white and very dull or bricked and lovely but bear I have been introducing as many climbers as I can - another half deader - a passionflower is working nicely across the fence on the left. I am growing the habitual toms and peppers again this year, but in pots, and I have some self seeded rocket already verging on their way to salad size. The lawn is another matter - weed and moss free and luscious are not words I would use. However, frequent moving, some feed and new seeds seem to be taking effect. The challange now with the garden is to make so it looks as impressive as we can when we come to sale - in the short term on a limited budget, its mainly going to consist of weeding and mowing - although I am glad about the spring flowering - giving it much needed colour. On the exterior of our bedroom wall I put in a wicker like fence up againts and forced my honey suckle to grow along it. It cost under £7 and made the area visually more pleasing I think.

I have downloaded Picasa - see the links. I uploaded some pictured I took around the garden yesterday fairly successfully, although the other folders allowed me to upload 1 and 3 pictures - I must have slipped off the control button! I will upload as many pictures as I can - the best of the bunch of various get togethers, holidays and days out - I will update the link bill to reflect this so you don't have to keep on clicking on it for the same old.

In other projects - we have recently got Flash 8 and I will be trying some animations - it comes recommended by Pip, Helen's cousin for ease of use and is the weapon of choice of David Firth. Any success will be posted on YouTube and I will put a note in the links. I am also working on my own Whole Story part 2 - or greatest hits of Kate Bush. Yes, I am that sad! I will list the track listing when that's done and visitors will no doubt be privy to a listening.

I hope everyone is well,
Lots of love

Kat

:) Happy Birthday Michelle :)