Trip to Trago Mills

We decided to have a trip to Trago Mills, Newton Abbott at the weekend, to grab some bits and see if there were any bargains. When we got there we went to the newly opened restaurant and had a 'bargain breakfast' for £1.99 which included 1 sausage, 1 egg, 1 rasher of bacon, beans and toast. We also got the view of 'The Garden Park' which is the garden centre and Trago gardens.

New restaurant,Very busy.

View of 'The Garden Park'.

Lucien spotted a newly introduced map and of Trago site, so decided to peruse it.

After eating our breakfast we went to have a look in the general store and found Christmas cards on sale for a bargain price so bought some to prepare ourselves. We also walked past a chiller cabinet that had Westaways sausages that were also at a bargain price.

Xmas cards we bought.

18 Sausages for £3.79

We then went to 'The Garden Park' to get compost and look round at the plants.

We came across a Cordyline karo kiri, we hadn't heard of this Cordyline before but were tempted by it because of it petit growing habit (maximum of 1.2 metres).

Cordyline karo kiri.

We also found two nice sized and healthy looking Butia odorata (labelled capitata). There was also a danish trolley full of different plants, where found some sempervivum and couldn't resist getting one.

Butia odorata £92.99

All 99p each.

Whilst wandering around we found something that Lucien described as "great for Gaz and Marks garden".

We ended up with a stunning hand-made tiki mask, which we were looking at with Gaz and Mark a few weeks ago.

In its place in the garden.

Laura

Lucien's guide to building a raised border against a wall

When we want or need a raised border we never buy them, Lucien buys deck boards and builds them instead. This is a guide on how to build them. We started with an area by our back door.

Before anything happened.

Lucien got some stained deckboards.

He then measured the area of where he wanted the raised border and marked up each of the sides on the board.

Lucien then got out the power saw (Black & Decker Scorpion) then measured the boards against each other to make sure that they were all equal sizes.

Lucien went and tried it in the area where he wanted it to make sure it looked okay, before continuing.

Afterwards, Lucien pre-drilled holes before putting the deck screws through.

Pre-drilling the holes.

Lucien's trick is to put all the screws in part way, before putting all the way through.

Both outer sides are done the same way. This is what they should look like.

Luciens next task was to get a bit of wood for the wall side and pre-drill holes through and mark the wall. Then with a power drill, drill holes and place wall plugs into the wall.

Lucien attached the back part to the part that fits against the  fence.

After the back of the border was attached to the wall, Lucien then got the two outer parts and fitted them together before attaching them to the back.

Attaching outer parts together.

This is how the border looks so far.

Lucien used an old compost bag to line the border to stop damp and rot of the wood. He put a couple of slits in the bottom for drainage and nailed the top of the bag to keep it in place.

The last thing that Lucien did was to fill it with compost, select the plants he wanted and plant them out.

Selecting plants.

Laura

Lucien's guide to potting up 'Hinibas'

We received 4 Ensete ventricosum 'Hiniba' in the post today, 3 of which are ours. Lucien decided to get them potted up as soon as he could and so this is a guide on how to do it..

Very healthy looking 'Hinibas'

Lucien preparing himself and things he needs to pot the 'Hinibas' up.

Lucien first got a good sized pot and filled it a little a mix of compost, perlite and plant food, he then added mycorrhizal fungi on top, so that it touches the roots.

Lucien then took the existing pot away from the 'Hiniba' and teased the roots.

He then placed the 'Hiniba' in the pot and put compost in and around it before pressing the compost down.

Finally, Lucien put the label in and placed the 'Hiniba' outside.

Our 3 'Hiniba' on the deck.

Laura

Wordless Wednesday

Arisaema consanguineum

Open Garden

We recently had our second annual open garden for the charity, ACEF. We did lots of things to fundraise, we had lots of different cakes that were homemade by Carol and me.

Showing off the raffle tickets and cakes.

We also had a plant sale with plants that we had propped ourselves and some plants donated from King's, one of our local garden centres. There was a raffle too, with the raffle prizes of a Cycas circinalis donated by Urban and Rural Plants and a wormery donated by The Worm Firm.

A selection of our plants for sale.

The Wormery and Cycas circinalis raffle prizes.

We had help from Lucien's parents, Carol and Cliff, who were tea ladies for the day, making sure that everyone had tea or coffee and cake. Carol had made an apron each for them to look the part.

Carol sporting her apron.

The day started off with rain and gusts, which wasn't ideal but we still had our first visitors, Libby and Mark from Wiltshire.

The sun soon came out and so did more visitors. We had non-stop raffle ticket sales and the drinks and cake were going down a storm. The plant sale was also well received.

Raffle tickets and plants being sold.

Neighbours joining in.

Cuppa time.

Lucien even managed to get the fish to behave and come up to be fed.

The day was a huge success and we totally annihilated last years fundraising total. We ended the day with £460 for charity. We are now looking forward to next years open garden.

Laura