The Saga of the Stinging Nettles -part three

 

Well after the beautiful sunrise earlier , I got everything watered in the greenhouse and went and did a lot of boring housework that I wouldn't bore you with  here .

But I did try and sort out our  front porch . I took out all the plants and put them on the front lawn . I gave them all a good watering  and then felt too tired to bring them all in again .

But getting back to the Runnerbeans  . 

At first I am delighted to see lots of flowers coming all along the frame now .

Then I notice this !

At first I thought to myself that it must have been damaged by the torrential showers we have been having overnight . I thought ...it's o.k ..it's just damaged the top ..it will just sprout out from lower down the stem and  it'll be fine ...but no ....

Here is the stem , completely cut off about four inches from the bottom of the stalk  .

Not only the Runner-beans but my beautiful French Beans too ! 

I am so upset ! This is the second year that this has happened to my beans . 

I took some pics of this and checked in with Sean of "Sean's Allotment Garden" ....he's on Youtube and Facebook and has a blog and Instagram too I think .

Anyway he knows his stuff and advised me to wrap some fleece around the bottom of the frame .

I'm still not sure what did it though . Anyway "Thankyou Sean " What on earth does that  ?!!! It hasn't eaten the bean seed below the ground and it hasn't climbed up and eaten the leaves ...there are no snail trails ...the stem has just been cut as if with scissors . I will put the fleece up Sean . Thankyou !

Still feeling fed up , when who should drive in but our friendly Chimney Sweep .

He always does a great job and is so nice and easy to talk to , with the same daft, 8year old , sense of humour as me . He makes me laugh . My husband down in the study later asked me what we found so funny to laugh so much about ...anyway glad to have got that important job done .

 All clean ,safe and ready for whatever next Winter is going to throw at us .

Feeling a little bit better , I pulled on my wellies . Grabbed the loppers and shears and climbed back up into the Nettle Lands again .

Crawled over the wall .

Got my hair caught up in prickly Brambles and spikey Sloe Bush branches .

I cut and I pulled and I lopped for as long as my arms could keep going .

I finally could see the drive down below and decided to stop there as I was now quite near the edge of the wall . Which is about 7-8ft high and I'd forgotten my abseiling ropes . Only kidding !  Actually I'm not afraid of heights but didn't fancy falling off this wall . Maybe I could now rake those bits along the front down and pull them from the drive .

You still reading this ?  Lol ! 

So I then crawled backwards , slid over the wall , down the bank and stood back to admire my work .

I was up there for about an hour and a half .

It doesn't look any different . 

So that's it for today . I,ve just about had it ! 

Feeling very tired and tearful again .

 That's all for now ...bye .

The Saga of the Stinging Nettles -part two

 

So , with a change of plan and another slightly less challenging route in , I made a good start .

 

Armed with garden shears and two pairs of loppers , I climbed up there and painfully slowly made my way in to find the brick wall .

I had to wear clothes that covered as much of me as possible , to prevent myself from getting stung or scratched or bitten . There are lots of mosquitos about after all the rain we've had and I have already been bitten on my arm and my leg . So with my hood up too , I was absolutely boiling while I was doing this ! 

I found the brick wall and what will be the way into the Nettle-Lands .....tomorrow ! 

The Saga of the Stinging Nettles

 Up early , got my scruffy gardening clothes on. The plan was to climb up here  ...

.....carefully avoiding the Song Thrush's nest (I'm sure that they have fledged and gone now ) , climb in and along behind the red Acer ....

... find the wall .....there is an old and crumbling brick wall in there somewhere ....

.....climb over the wall ,  which should bring me out just in front of that telegraph pole ....

......and clear all the Stinging Nettles and Brambles that are now over-hanging our front gate .

I had planned to just throw them as far as I could and gather them up later ...but he wants me to throw them nice and accurately into a wheelbarrow  , which he is going to place by the gate . 

Well , I'll try , but I know my method is best .

It's about 7- 8ft high and I can't reach the Nettles from the front . Not safe to put a ladder here .

So I'm all ready to start and he says " Right , get in the car ,we're taking rubbish to the tip and then after that , off to the Garden Centre for a coffee . "

I didn't really need anything , but enjoyed looking around anyway .

Lots of fabulous tropical plants . 

I'd love to repair our old water pump , but to do that we would need to buy another one of these old barrels ....... which are a bit out of our price range !

We have one of these half barrels waiting in the wings to be planted up , but we have to wait for the old workshop shed to be pulled down and the new workshop shed to be built first as it is going to be placed at one end  to look nice and if we were to plant it up now , it would then be way too heavy to move.

I can hardly move this thing empty let alone full of earth and plants !

I had a look around in the Aquatics zone , with a view to making a pond with the grandchildren . 

I'd like to make a slightly better one than the one we made last time , although even that was fun .

I looked at these , but there is no way I can afford one of them ! So I might consider digging out the hole and lining it with pond liner . 

Then I got side-tracked when this beautiful Coy Carp appeared in the Nursery's  pond . 

It is nice to see them , but I wouldn't want to keep fish . I am quite happy for our little pond to just be full of frogspawn , newts , water boatman beetles , water snails etc .

We had our cuppa tea for me and coffee for him  , drove home , had lunch .

Went for a walk down the lane and as we left , so it began to rain .

Well , the rain doesn't really bother me and I love to see the wild flowers now in the hedgerow sparkling with raindrops .

...and the ancient Oak tree ....

with sage and gold Lichens .

They come alive in the rain !

I really enjoyed our walk .

                                       Runner-beans .

When we got back home I checked on the vegetable garden and I think everything is looking refreshed and happy after such a good drink .

                                          Courgettes and Sweetcorn .

I peeled off my cagoule dripping wet and hung it up to dry in the shower .

I don't mind getting wet in the rain , but there was absolutely no way that I was going to be able to put it back on again , all cold and  dripping wet , to go and pull Stinging Nettles .

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it !

The Nettles get to live another day .

Tomorrow..... they've had it ! I'm coming after them !