We Love Freecycle!

So the 2011 season ended with a few additions to the garden including a lovely cherry espalier we purchased from  and planted next to the chicken fence.

Soon 2012 was upon us and so was the very happy arrival of lovely Minion 6 aka Milly May. Whilst on paternity leave Charlie built a beautiful raised bed on the patio area out of green oak sleepers which he treated with tung oil. Here is a picture of the finished product and Charlie and Minion 5 planting it up for the first time.

After all the torrential rain we had during April (hose-pipe ban...pah!!) which flooded the garden three times...we decided that raised beds were probably the way to go. Having spent all the garden budget on the oak sleepers, they aren't cheap!!, we found ourselves without the funds to buy anymore wood. It was around this time that Charlie discovered the joys of freecycle.

If you are unfamiliar with freecycle it is this fantastic website where you can get rid of all your old unwanted tat and pick up other peoples tat that you actually need. There are lots of weird and wonderful things on there, it's really worth a look. Someone had old scaffolding boards in their garden and Charlie swooped in and picked them up and another 2 raised beds appeared.  Our neighbours Sharon and Neil very kindly donated some top soil too. By jubilee weekend the garden was looking like this:

The lovely bunting was made by Emma McGill of 'Hooray'.

While he was in the DIY mood I asked Charlie to build me an Auricula Theatre. I've always liked Primula Auriculas and used to grow them. They are quite a specialist flower and were very popular in Victorian times, sometimes exchanging hands for a week's wages! It's traditional to display them on posh covered shelves (they're not keen on rain). Charlie got an old bunk bed off freecycle which he took apart for wood, a bit of slate from our neighbour Terry who is a roofer, and a pot of green paint and this was the result:

Isn't he clever!!

We are nearly up to date now. Just a few changes have taken place since jubilee weekend. The most important were the fortifications to the chicken enclosure. Sadly, in May, our poor chickens fell foul (pardon the pun) of a nasty fox :-(. Determined not to lose the next lot we had to come up with a cunning plan!.....