What is it about bank holidays, particularly Easter, that gets us all out with the garden tools and sweeping brushes? I know it’s not just us because pretty much every person I’ve asked about their Easter weekend has told me that they spent the vast majority of it cleaning, tidying or gardening. And Ben and I did all of those things!
We spent the Friday in the garage – doesn’t that sound fun?! We had it packed to the brim with an old bath, fridge, washing machine, the old flooring from the kitchen and the bathroom, all the packaging for our new bathroom and just lots and lots of random stuff. So we set aside a couple of days of our Easter break to get our stuff sorted. Several hours and 6 trips to the tip later, with full bins and covered in dust, we were finished. We were glad to get it all out of the way in one day as it looked a lot worse than it was!
Last Easter we did the exact same thing. We’d actually moved into our house over the Easter break in 2015, so Easter 2016 seemed to be a good time to tackle the garage (are you sensing a theme?!). Last year took a lot more effort – mostly because we’d stuck a load of moving boxes full of junk into there and those needed sorting. We left a few bits in there last year saying that anything we found in there again in a year’s time (ie. now) that we’d forgotten about and hadn’t needed, would go. And it did. Success!
So garage spring cleaned (I wanted to say “sprung cleaned”?!), we moved onto the garden. Sadly this weekend didn’t turn out to be as nice as last weekend when I managed to burn my arm and thigh on one side by sitting out in the garden for no more than an hour – it was kind of worth it. And don’t worry, I found some sun cream for the next day! We’d hoped this weekend would be just as nice so we could sort out the garden, and while it wasn’t exactly warm, we did manage to get some bits of sun, despite the occasional shower and gale (a good day for washing, you might say!).
We popped out to Beningbrough Hall on Saturday to make use of our trusty National Trust cards and to look at the gardens for inspiration. It was super busy thanks to the Easter Hunt they had on, but the sun came out and the hyper children didn’t bother us! We actually snapped a few pics around the grounds there and I wished I’d put on a prettier outfit than a pair of jeans and a hoodie for standing under the blossoms – ah well!
Inspiration found, we headed down to B&Q, grabbed a few things and went home. We got the lawn sorted (although it still needs properly scarifying next weekend as it’s very mossy), created a few hanging baskets to add some colour and made a few more decisions. We planted some tomato seeds and lettuce seeds a couple of weeks ago as well as some seed potatoes, so those are starting to sprout too.
On Sunday, with my dad’s advice since we headed to their house for Easter lunch with all the grandparents, we ordered a greenhouse/shed. The past couple of years, we’ve grown tomatoes pretty successfully in a temporary flimsy plastic greenhouse and we decided it was time for a proper one finally. We also ordered a couple of these herb growers for the fence since our herbs were in a pretty shady and boggy area of the garden.
Then on Monday, with the herb growers arrived, we headed to the garden centre to grab a couple more plants, transplanting the surviving herbs from their boggy patch and dug up some old roots to plant a new tree. We’re quite impressed with how this little corner of our garden is looking at the moment with our herbs, trimmed back blossoms and new mini-tree (I want to tell you what this is but I’ve completely forgotten the name!). I also spent quite a bit of time digging up weeds, planting some ground shrubs around the borders while Ben mowed the lawn and sorted out other bits.
So we were busy little gardeners this bank holiday! I’m looking forward to seeing how it all grows in future – I’ll try to keep you up to date!
It’s not just you, we also did clearing, sorting, tip trip and gardening. I think I almost start getting excited about the warm sunshine. I think I’m better at farming slugs and snails though as they are eating everything I plant!