Over the last couple of days 8 or 9 other van owners, including our lovely neighbours C & J, have arrived, some of them with children or grandchildren, so the park is now bustling with activity again. I expect another few may arrive today. It's fine though, this is as busy as it gets, and when the weather is good (as it is now), lots of them, especially the ones with children, go out for the day.
We went home yesterday morning, I did a bit of washing on the quick programme and dried it in the tumble dryer, husband watered the garden and picked produce - loads of tomatoes, cucumber and runner beans. We brought them back with us and have shared them with some of our van neighbours.
Talking of the garden, I've been thinking about what to put in the vacated (well, they will be) raised veg beds for next year. One of the beds has asparagus in it, we'll be keeping that (of course!). There will be 10 raised beds of different sizes, 2 of which have fruit trees in them but plenty of space underneath the trees. I think I'd like a rockery with succulent plants in one of the smaller beds, a larger bed filled with roses would be very nice, I do love roses. Husband (well, and me) likes dahlias, they remind him of his father who grew prize dahlias, so a bed full of those would be nice too.....although we'd have to dig up the tubers to overwinter in the shed, as our back garden isn't particularly well sheltered and can get quite cold in the winter. I might have a bed of ornamental grasses. I'm doing a lot of googling and making lists of drought tolerant plants, perennials that will cope with cold and windy winters (our back garden gets a lot of wind coming off the Bristol channel), and perennials that need little attention.
Husband was exclaiming over the cost of filling all these beds with shrubs and plants - I have pointed out that we don't need to buy all the plants at once, it's possible to buy plants cheaply at boot sales, and stores often sell them off at greatly reduced prices at the end of the season. There's a large garden centre not far from the park that has a big plant sale at the end of August, I bought some plants there last year for the shady bank at the back of the van, they're still going strong.
I love your garden plans. It will look a picture next year. Will you still grow a few tomatoes, etc? xx
ReplyDeleteGreat plans. And don't forget, you can always take cuttings of any plants you already have or those you buy. If you just do one bed at a time, you'll be able to spread the cost and the work, too. Sometimes you can pick up plants cheaply, at garden centres, that are looking past their best. I once bought a purple hazel for a song. It looked rather unloved, hadn't been watered for ages and covered with greenfly. A few weeks of TLC, spraying daily with soapy water to get rid of the greenfly, and it's now so healthy. xx
ReplyDeleteLove your second home…fun days…I have lived in the north and the south, so I have adjusted to mountains of snow and oceans of heat…it is so hot today that I changed shirts after unloading groceries…taking trash..getting mail…lol…heat index over 100…I have lived here a year and a half and have adjusted…air conditioning is a must in the states…my strokes started in my twenties, and if I didn’t have air whew…I do walk six times a day with my bone diseases…have to…love your blog…love it…
ReplyDeleteI think that caravan has become more like your real home than home, which shows what a great idea it was to get it... enjoy your time away.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to be sat in your happy place making plans to make home even better isn't it. The beds all sounds like they will fill up in no time.
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