End of Month View – April

This will probably be my last ever post from this garden, I have today got a YES to my application for a house swap, only per email but I have been told I can sign contract on Wednesday and that means I will be moving on Monday the 11th May. It has been a very frustrating process all this waiting around not knowing if I was going to move or not, not sure if I should start packing or not - and more so because I have just come out of hospital after dislocating my hip replacement again and all I should really do is to rest and take it easy. I have spent the last 6 days taking phone calls and writing emails chasing people just to get answers and decisions. It seems like the trend in offices now is that no one answers their phones. All I get is an answer phone and no one seems that bothered about ringing back when I leave a message. Sending emails isn’t much better, I have tried for a month to find out if the rent at the new property is charged in advance or in arrears, kind of vital as I would have to come up with one month’s rent money I don’t have if it was charged in advance as my current rent is charged in arrears. After a whole month’s chase I finally have the answer, I don’t have to find the money for the rent – housing benefit is paid directly. Phew.

Today I have booked a removal company and they will transport my plants the day before, and come back the actual moving day for the house content - that was the simplest solution for me even though it cost a lot of money. But I have to have my plants with me, can’t leave them behind!

Here is my garden today, on a distance it actually looks just as usual. But I can assure you it isn’t. I have been lifting plants for what feels like ages, only interrupted by my unfortunate accident on the 15th April. I spent a week in hospital worrying about all my potted plants, which now need a lot more water than usual being in pots and containers.

My kind neighbours watered my plants for me when I was in hospital and most of the plants seem to have survived fine. Everything is in crates, ready to go apart from ONE plant I didn’t have time to lift. Not sure if I will manage to do anything with it, the Clematis armandii 'Apple Blossom', I wanted to dig it up and try to take it with me – or at least dig it up and throw it away so the next tenant wouldn’t inherit such a monster plant (read: headache!).

There are crates everywhere.

Even the bench is full. 80 crates are filled with plants, 20 crates are still empty, ready to be filled with gardening stuff.

It is amazing how my garden has burst into flower while I was away in hospital and recovering afterwards. At this time of year I can see changes in my garden every day.

These amazing calla lilies started to flower last week, first time I have them as I bought one plant last year and got one in a swap but neither flowered last year. I will find a space in the ground for them in my new garden and I think they will be happy to come out of the container they are now growing in.

These lovely late daffodils are blooming their heart out, the last of the spring flowers.

And I have fuchsias again! Mrs Popple has got buds ready to open very soon. I have missed having fuchsias after I had to cut them down in the winter. No sign of any Fuchsia Gall Mite yet but I will spray them all in May just as a precaution.

This Dicentra is happily flowering after having been dug up and squeezed into a pot, I hope it will be happy in the pot for a while as I think it will take some time before it gets a permanent home.

Here are most of my huchera collected, in one crate. A nice collection for my new garden.

And the amazing Camellia japonica 'Takanini' is still flowering, for the 6th month! This little twig of a camellia will get a permanent home eventually, just imagine in a few years’ time when it gets much bigger – camellia flowers for over 6 months a year every year!

All the hellebores are in pots, with fat seedpods despite being dug up. It’s great to see how resilient the plants are :-)

This beauty of an acer is still in the ground, one of two plants I will come back for later in the year when I have planned my new garden and know where it will be going. I don’t want to lift it yet as the clump will be way too big for a pot and the roots will just dry out if not planted straight away.

And here is my new house, a bungalow in a quiet close off a quiet street – perfect. Five houses on the left side and three houses at the bottom, the one to the bottom right is my new house.

My new house is not exactly a building of aesthetic beauty, more a functional abode. 

This is the back of the house and the windows are the kitchen door and the living room window. I have missed having a living room overlooking the garden, in my current house I can’t see the garden from any window downstairs, in the new house that will be very nice for days when I can’t get outside.

The garden is just over 100m2, compared to the 62m2 I have now it feels larger and it has a nicer layout.

And it’s got some nice features – not one but TWO sheds! The biggest shed has light and electricity and is more than tall enough for me to stand in so this will be my potting shed for rainy days. Yay! Another great feature with this garden is the back access, no more hauling plants and compost through the house. And I am sure I will find space for a greenhouse somewhere here - I have wanted a greehouse for ages :-)

All I need to do now is to pack up my house and get out of here. I have had to call in a lot of favours from a lot of nice people to get help with the packing, and as this is a house swap, everything needs to be packed up and moved out on Monday the 11th as nothing from the house can be moved into the new house until that day – the tenant coming here has to move out first, and he can’t move out until I have emptied my house. A logistical nightmare, we literarily are going to meet down the road with a lorry each with all our belongings and swap house that day. Fingers crossed for no accidents or lorry breakdown or anything else, hopefully it won’t be bucketing down with rain.

I am sorry there is no video today, I managed to take some photos but that was it, video was just too difficult with my sore hip and two crutches. There will hopefully be a video next month from my new garden :-)

I am linking this post to Helen at The Patient Gardener’s Weblog. Please visit her blog for many more March gardens.

Until next time, take care.