Desdemona's Home For Orphaned & Abandoned Dragons & Other Magical Creatures ~ 9

 When I first got Desdemona's, it came with separate crazy paved Garden that sits in front of the House. Some of the Slate was quite sharp and uneven and I want to have more of a Garden in front, so I decided to take up all the Slate.

Once the Slate was up and the boards cleaned, I painted all the remainder of the Paving to resemble Slate. Its freshened the whole outside up and given it all a uniform look. I have some 1:12th Real Slate paving slabs and based the paint colour on them. As you can see in the tenth picture down, I managed to get the effect of Slate nearly the same as the slab. 

I used paper as a template, so that I could work out where I want to put everything and then decided the original garden was going to be too small.

 My friend Sandra, over at Tower House Dolls, gave me the link to a seller on Ebay, that sells off cuts of MDF, so I ordered a bit. It came as a large square, but I've run it through the table saw, as I wanted a large back to front "L" Shape, that would butt up without a lip to the small garden board, outside the main House.

I then managed to lever the already painted steps, off the original board outside the treatment room. They can now be fixed on the new board.

I may also replace the little lean too, for a bigger version, as there isn't any room left in this one.

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Garden Project Part 3

I thought you might like to see, how my little Cabin Garden Project is coming along.
All the plants have filled out beautifully and I even have two Sunflowers, romping away in there as well. Must be all the Rain we've had and all the home made compost. Well rotted Pony Poo. I was thrilled to see a big bud on the Hardy Poppy and then it opened to reveal, a beautiful pure White Poppy, with purple markings. It actually looks like, someone has used a paintbrush and a water colour, on the inside.  I noticed yesterday, that there is also a bud forming on the other Poppy, that one is supposed to be a pale pink. I'll take some pictures of it, when it appears.
If you click on the pictures, they should pop up bigger.

I do have some plants on the bed in pots, just to fill in the gaps, to try and stop the Cats, doing what Cat's do. It seems to be working, so far.
The Penstemon's, have also started to bloom and the dark pink blooms are opening to reveal a white inner centre, they look lovely peeking through the fence.
I'm also trying to get the little side garden by the House, under control and there is also the flower bed opposite the Cabin, that is calling my name. So much to do, so little time. I've also been given another Dolls House !!!!!...But more about that in another post.
We are having lots of visitors this year as well, my best friend of 45 years, who has been my friend, since we were three years old (I'm 48) and is also Ben's Godmother, has already been up for a few days. Mick's Parents have also been to stay and in August, we have another 2 lots of friends coming separately and also coming in September. So a busy couple of months for us, but can't wait to catch up with all them all and all the news.

Garden Project Part 2

Well its been nearly a month since I last blogged. Time seems to be flying by this year.
Ben's home from University, for the Summer. Harry finishes his last lot of exams next week, then no more School, he's off to College in September.

Hardy Poppy ~ Garden Gnome

Hardy Poppy ~ Garden Gnome

Garden After The Rain

French Lavender

White Astilbe

Plants Filling Out

The little Garden down the side of the Cabin, has settled down beautifully and the plants are filling out nicely. Probably due to all the rain we've had.

First Bloom On The Hardy Poppy ~ Garden Gnome

New Blooms On The Lupin ~ Manhattan Lights

Salvia

I'm really pleased with some hardy Poppy Plants, called Garden Gnome, that I brought from the casualty bay, at a local DIY store. I think they cost about 50p. They looked very forlorn, but since having some TLC, they've bulked up, have lots of buds on them and I've even had the first flower open.

Gate Fitted

The Gate has also been made and hung, which is brilliant as it keeps the Dogs out, but I wish, it had the same effect with the cats!.

The Cabin with View Behind

Its been quite a busy few weeks here. My oldest friend and Ben's Godmother, came to stay for a few days, which was lovely. We've been best friends, since we were three years old. We had a good old reminisce, looking at old photographs and laughed so much my sides hurt.
But I've still not managed to get the rest of the bits and pieces sorted in the Cabin.
We've had so much rain, that there was flash flooding in Wales and some of the Villages and Aberystwyth, were hit hard. To be honest, I really didn't want to be taking stuff out to the Cabin and it and I, getting soaked, before I got it in the dry. Hopefully, we've got a break in the weather, for a couple of days and I'll be able to move some more bits and pieces.

Garden Project ..

 Since I wrote about my little strip of Earth, down the side of the Cabin on the 8th May. I've been working really hard to get it finished. I've been painting all the Fencing white, put up some Trellis, painted the walls white and shifted through bags and bags of our own homemade compost, to remove any stray weed roots and planting Plants. I'm also putting a really big Tub/Pot at the end of the bed in front of the Trellis, which will either have a Climbing Rose in it or some Clematis. Most of the plants I've used in the bed, are highly scented. Which include English and French Lavender, Thyme, Rosemary and Dianthus. When they've filled out a bit, the air should be filled with lovely scent, that will waft in the windows of the Cabin.

Decorating More Boxes..

On a previous post, I showed you the Moppe Boxes from IKEA, that I've been decorating.

I've still got quite a few to do and a bookcase to paint. But I'm getting there.
Nikki & Wendie, have also been decorating theirs, pop over to their blogs for a peek.

Over the Weekend, I've also been working on the strip of soil that runs down the side of the cabin.  Its approximately 16ft long by about 5ft wide. It has got totally over grown and was completely full of weeds and other old Rubbish. It all started great, until I managed to uproot the water pipe that runs down to the Stables and Yard. It was a case of water, water everywhere. Luckily, I hadn't put the fork through the pipe, but as I lifted it, thinking it was a huge root, the pipe came out of the connector. Thankfully, it was just a case of turning off the water, undoing the connector and reinserting the hose. I then dug a channel to see where the rest of the pipe run, so that I didn't puncture it with the fork. There is also an electric cable that runs through this bed, but that's in armoured cable.

Back breaking work, as there is so much slate in the ground, I could hardy move on Monday, but I'm so pleased, that I actually managed to do something constructive again. I've laid some old cardboard on the top, to suppress any weeds, until I can get the wall back up, compost on there to build it up, plant some sweet smelling plants and then mulch with either bark or gravel. There is also a little fence going up, to stop the Dogs getting on there. I couldn't do anything out there yesterday, as we had more drought, falling from the sky..