"Don't you own a Strimmer?"
This was the question my friend asked as he walked up to my house the other day. It wasn't meant to be nasty, just in a taking the pee sort of way, but he has a point. My place is looking a little messy around the edges.
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| The front yard - but it's full of pallets of bricks anyway |
But then it has done since we moved here really. My priorities have never been about appearance but more on production.
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| Up the side of the house - this will all come out when I dig the footings for the extension |
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| Up the side of the chicken pen - it's only me that walks up here anyway and I don't mind the odd nettle sting! |
Maybe I should spend a few hours going around the place and trimming around the edges, but then I'd rather spend it weeding in the veg garden or working on my porch. Lack of time at this time of year is my biggest problem and I've just taken on a job where I'm working a few evening each week from 7.30 - 10.00 to bring in some extra money so I have even less spare.
Does everyone else struggle for time as much as I seem to? Do you bother to make it look all neat and tidy?
If I lived your life my 'edges' would be rough but I don't so have the time and energy to neaten up things. Even if you used a strimmer you might eventually have to pick it all up. If you are all fine with it that's okay.
ReplyDeleteI'm fine with it really! Life is busy at the moment and it just doesn't seem that important. I overhead my eldest with the youngest today telling her to just "rub a dock leaf on it" because she'd stung herself, they just get on with it now and don't seem to mind!
Deletekev - do not worry about the "aesthetics"! aesthetics come in last place when there are other, more important jobs to be done! we have been here almost 5 years and we are finally getting to the point of making the front yard prettier. have you seen the pics of our place? there's a ton of junk stacks (but those stacks of junk will be useful in the future), there's overturned patio furniture and then a pile of junk that's blown all over that we just haven't gotten to! when i see bloggers who claim to be gardening...if i see beautiful, maintained lawns and perfect edging and no weeds...well, i figure they are simply super-human or not really doing any kind of serious gardening.
ReplyDeletesending much love to you and yours! your friend,
kymber
Thanks Kymber - a great comment to make me feel better! I feel the same when someone tells me what they get up to!
DeleteMind you I haven't shown you my messy patch in the field and the patio! They are works in progress...
We have a petrol strimmer but I find it a bit cumbersome to use, but I like everything neat and tidy,
ReplyDelete1 it stops the weeds re-seeding so cuts down on weeding
2 it gives less places for pests to hide
This time of year Martin could spend his whole week end here just grass cutting and strimming and there is lots of other jobs I want to do, solution I have hired a local lad to come along every Tuesday to do the strimming and other jobs that I cant manage on my own that frees Martin up and keeps me happy with tidy areas :-)
I agree on both your points, I think you are a much better gardener than I, my mum is the same, her garden always looks brilliant. I sometimes think if I could control the edges then I'd stand more of a chance with the weeds.
DeleteThe local lad sound ideal for you and makes Martins time there a bit more interesting - no one looks forward to strimming!
In my last post I said I might take some pics of my "corners of shame" I reckon I will do so to show you that you are NOT alone. There are so many jobs to do on a smallholding and if you are to do them all yourself, with recycled materials you are not going to be able to have garden that looks like those on TV or in books (they have helpers and gardeners and don't have two young children to look after)
ReplyDeleteOur worst, most untidy garden is the front garden, seen by everyone, as the veggie gardens at the back are considered more important use of our valuable time.
It is also important to leave wild areas for wildlife - that's my excuse anyway!
And yes we do have a strimmer!
DeleteI do most of it myself, my wife will pick veg for tea and shut the chickens in if I'm running late but thats as far as it goes. I don't know what I'll do if I have to go back to "work". My front garden is bad at the moment but then we are building the porch. I've got some plans to make it much more low maintenance out there and to make the most of it's south aspect.
DeleteCheer Gill!
I split my garden into sections Kev. One day I will weed the top plot. Another day its mow, another day its weed the middle plot and so on. I strim once a fortnight in summer. You could plant shrubs or even herbs like rosemary in your front garden and shape them with the hedge trimmer or clippers. Why not start a flower garden in the borders?
ReplyDeleteM veg garden is split but the rest is just in two halves. I'm going to plant a large border of herbs in the front garden when I've finished the porch and grow them through matting so tehy'll be minimal weeding.
DeleteNo flower gardens yet - I've got too many mouths to feed!
Its not weeds, its useful habitat :) I have a lot of it round here - along with birds, butterflies, moths etc.
ReplyDeleteviv
I like your attitude! Matches mine!
DeleteOur courtyard (which is the equivalent to your front yard) is full of things unrelated to the garden I would like to be.....eg, chickens, geese, piles of wood, tractor (big one and small one), cement mixer and all the mess that happens around a cement mixer, etc..... In my head I 'see' a lovely Victorian type garden, but the reality is the exact opposite! Not to worry, Kev, we can only do what we can, so you and I must ignore what we can't do, but pat ourselves on the back for what we have done!
ReplyDeleteI have 6 pallets of bricks in mine at the moment as well as the weeds! the mixer and things is over by the workshop - another messy area!
DeleteThanks for the words of encouragement! I think we all do pretty well in our little blogging community!
So agree with Gill and Vera. Well done Kev for doing what you set out to do! Coiffured smallholding? Pah!
ReplyDeleteI agree! This is more your rustic smallholding! Shabby chic maybe...
DeleteWe do have a strimmer and it comes out once all the other more important jobs are done. Then we sit back and admire for a while and then leave everything to get on with it's own devices again until more 'free time' appears.
ReplyDeletei have a strimmer but it no longer works. I do like my scythe but it's not so good up to the edges. I'd like some animals I could tell to eat a certain patch and that's all they'd do!
DeleteA strimmer? I presume that is some sort of PC name for what we in the US of A call a Weed-Whacker? ;-) LOL jeez can't you Europeans leave well enough alone? do you have to take the manliness even out of yard work? LOL..... I don't own a strimmer, I own a Weed-Whacker. I am looking at changing the nylon string set up for a length of bicycle chain to make it even more un-PC... perhaps even a circular saw blade.... though that would probably be illegal and grounds for imprisonment in the UK...LOL.. and no the day is never long enough, the cobblers kids have no shoes and the carpenter's house is never done.
ReplyDeleteI assume you are being ironic M Silvius?!
Deleteabsolutley......
DeleteYou guys try to beef everything up to make yourselves sound more manly. I mean you have ranges of clothes that start with the smallest size being large!
DeleteDad sells these buzz bars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMOog4toJt8
might be more to your liking!
And that phrase gets said far too many times in our house for me to be comfortable with it! If I was a cobbler I don;t think I'd have any shoes!
Now you are talking my style.. I'd love to have a machine like that if nothing else to make my neighbors run away in terror. ;-)
Deletei am a bit of a neat freak and can't stand things not being extremely tidy.
ReplyDeleteI doubt you'd feel comfortable as you pulled up in our drive then! lol!
DeleteTry "tying" a sheep there - best strimmer ever :)
ReplyDeleteIm with Dani, get a goat in there. and Some ducks in with the chickens. There will be nothing but dust in a week! lol
DeleteI've got to catch one first! Maybe if the girls have a few pet lambs next year!
DeleteHey Kev you leave your wild garden alone, I love my neat garden, but you have yours how it suits you and tell him to b*gger off.
ReplyDeleteCheers Marlene! He only said it in a joking way though, he meant no offence!
DeleteYou have seen my over grown garden. I am waiting for the Parish Council to complain about it. I just havent got round to it and am hoping the skip truck will run over it all and that will be that. lol plus you cant see a lot of it as it is under half a tonne of rubble and plastic corrugated roofing. I see it as an experiment of how long can it all be left...
ReplyDeleteLuckily I think I'm far enough away for the village so that it doesn't bother anyone. I have piles of rubble as well! But my plan is to use them for hardcore in the extension.
Deletethere is good rubble and then there is rubbish rubble here. some is just like sand and dust. you touch it it falls apart.
Deletethen there is good stuff like all of the stone I have saved from inside the house that will be the patio. Womble style.
Pressed for time is my middle name right now! Whew... Glad for the work I am getting but with so much drapery work, and the garden, canning, etc., etc. I am struggling hard to just be able to say I am behind, no way to stay caught up.
ReplyDeleteOh Kev, thank you for this! Our place always looks like a mess in most peoples' eyes, but there just isn't enough time to do the needful things and make the place look pretty too. :)
ReplyDeleteWe only tidy up so the snakes have nowhere to hide. Otherwise our place would look like that too!
ReplyDeleteWe only tidy up so the snakes have nowhere to hide. Otherwise our place would look like that too!
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