Non-Gardener builds an Observatory, Garden Railway and even Dabbles with Plants!

29th March 2025 - Solar Eclipse

As mentioned above, I spent Saturday morning in the garden, but it was to image the Solar Eclipse. It was quite overcast, with just a few thin patches in the sky, but I set up in hope anyway. The cloud thinned enough to catch first contact and then broke up a bit more across the first half of the eclipse, allowing some reasonable captures. It thickened up again for the second half, but I still managed to catch the whole event, so I was fairly happy. The following morning was 100% clear sky, with not a cloud to be seen anywhere. Typical for an astronomical event!



31st March 2025

With the weather warming up and the bedroom done, I returned to the lawn edging on the 31st. I continued digging out and washing slates until I was digging through clean soil. Two concrete edging pieces were then brought out and balanced on wood, to work out an approximate height. The concrete slabs are 9 inches tall, but around half of that is going to be buried, leaving an edge to strim against and a reasonable height to keep the slates back off the lawn.

 

1st April 2025

April the 1st was no joke! It was hard work. I moved over to the other side of the path and started digging out slates again. While there's a weed membrane deep down, there's several inches of slates over the top, all buried in decades of soil that had gradually formed and washed down to the edge of the lawn. I also discovered the slates extended under the lawn a few inches, so at some point in the past, the slated area was slightly larger and the lawn has gradually overgrown it.

The slates were dug out, washed and spread out further back to leave a strip where I can dig the foundations for the edging. Once the edges are in, I'll probably add a new strip of weed membrane, possibly glued to the back of the edging and then rake the slates over to back fill.



Along the area I was digging, was a clump of Grape hyacinths. This is another clump on the edge of the wood, that will also need digging out. It only had a couple of flowers, but I wanted to save it. It must have been planted through a small hole in the weed membrane and as a result, once dug out, I found lots more shoots and tiny bulbs, which hadn't yet found a way out. They were all carefully lifted and would be moved to the woodland.

 

It's hard to make out, but with all the varying sized bulbs, I was able to plant out around eight new clumps of hyacinths. At present, they look very much like the Snowdrops and Bluebells. It's only more obvious where they can be seen to have been watered.

Once established, these should give some purple/blue in the wood before the Bluebells flower. Once I'm digging for the woodland edging, I'll move the others, possibly to further down the wood where it starts to open out a bit more.



While in the wood, I checked on the Geraniums, pulled out from the lawn top border. While they looked a bit straggly when planted and not much better now, there's lots of leaves there, so I think they have survived the move.

 

4th April 2025

The postman brought a packet of pond plants yesterday. Three Water forget-me-nots and seven Red stemmed parrot feathers. They all look a little bit small and weedy right now, so I planted them up and made a surrogate pond which is now in one of the cold frames. They can stay there until they develop a bit more, then I'll decide what I want to plant.



The postman also brought a 3.5mm jack extension lead. This was for the solar panel on the trailcam. The batteries in the panel and in the camera have been slowly draining, because the solar panel lead wasn't that long. I think it was about 2 metres and couldn't reach to the edge of the wood, which limited the amount of sunlight it received.

The 1.5 metre extension allowed the panel to reach the edge, above the conifer. There were no suitable branches to fasten it to, so I shaped a long length of wood into a more branch like shape, painted it in dark oak shed paint and screwed it to the trunk lower down. Over time, I can probably wrap some branches around it to help hide it.

 

In the workshop, several seedlings were up-potted from their seed trays. In this picture, there are Foxgloves, Geraniums, Achillea and Hollyhocks. Out of shot, there's also some cornflowers and more daisies, plus some Wintercreeper cuttings.



I also had a clear out of the cold frames. Not all the Thyme survived the winter, so I binned the dead plants to clear some space and free up some plant pots. One cold frame is now empty, with two and a half occupied.

In this cold frame, there's the surrogate pond, some Cornflowers, Daisies and Thyme.



Another little job for yesterday, was to re-pot the Dame Judi Dench Rose. We decided that this should go in the new border at the top of the lawn, once the lawn edging is done. Until the building works are done, I thought I'd give it a little more growing room.

 

5th April 2025

On the 5th, we did some digging over and planting in the veggie planters. The soil in the middle planter was more sandy, but that is where the potatoes are planted. Lettuce, cauliflower and carrots go in the nearest planter, protected by the mesh. However, the carrots didn't do well last year, partly due to the very wet start to the first six months of the year and partly due to the soil being too hard.

So we swapped several buckets of soil around and planted carrots around the edge. The Lettuce and Cauliflower will be planted down the centre, which keeps their leaves further from the mesh and the butterflies



We've still had a few frosts, so our neighbour suggested we hold off on planting the potatoes for another couple of weeks.

Lynne also had a good clear out of the Strawberry planter, getting rid of the dead stuff and the old straw.

 

9th April 2025

On the 9th, I did some general weeding and re-potting, taking seedlings and putting them into 3 inch pots. Some of these were from a Christmas gift of cottage garden plant seeds two years ago. At the time, we didn't have anywhere for them with all the other garden works going on.

This year I planted a selection in seed trays. There's a mix of Foxgloves, Hollyhocks, Achillea, Nigella and Cornflower. These are all likely to go in and around the woodland later this year. There are also some cuttings of Evergreen spindle that I'm trying to grow.



Some of the larger plants and a load of Daisy Pomponettes were moved out to the coldframe. The Daisies are also for the woodland.



In the kitchen border, the Crane's-bill geraniums have started to grow and spread, but there's still a few bald patches. I've trimmed them back around the Curly Red and will continue to do so, until that has grown more above the height of the geraniums.

 

10th April 2025

On the 10th, the weather was nice, so I got back to the lawn edging. Due to the fall of the lawn to the left, I decided to set the stone to the left of the path first. That would then set the height of the stones to the right of the path.

I need to order some bulk sand and gravel, but found one third of a bag of ready mix concrete in the shed. That was used to concrete the first stone in. By the time I'd dug its foundations, propped it up straight and level, then concreted it in place, it was lunchtime!



I left the concrete to firm up a bit over lunch, then started working on the stones to the right. They needed to be lower than I'd previously positioned them. Using a plank across the top, I got the first right side stone at the same height. That was below paving level, while the left side was about an inch or so above the paving!

Okay, so the sloping paving stones weren't level, but as the smaller, right side slab was already loose, I decided they could both be pulled up and re-laid. I would leave that until the lawn edging was concreted in and firm.

Both the right side edging stones had their foundations dug out, deeper at each end for the small concrete footings that would hold them until I got the bulk materials delivered. It got too hot by mid afternoon, so I packed up for the day. I had to collect my daughter from school around 5:30, as they'd been to the theatre, so popped in to B&Q for a couple more bags of ready mix concrete.



Our 25th wedding anniversary is coming up next month and in anticipation that we'd make it that far, the in-laws bought us a 25th anniversary rose the other day. It was meant to be fine in a moderately sized pot, so I cleaned a spare one out and planted the rose in the pot on the top patio. It had already been outdoors when purchased, so I didn't think it would need any hardening off.

 

11th April 2025

With the left edging stone now firm, I was able to do some final measuring, levelling and supporting of the two right side edging stones. I need to cut one for the end up to the Laurel, but I'll do that after these have set. The concrete was mixed by hand and poured into the footings at each end of the slabs. This is enough to hold them in place for now, but I'll add more when I have the sand and gravel delivered.



Prior to pouring the concrete, I'd spent a long time with the level, checking for horizontal, vertical and in line with the left side. From this angle, the leaning path can be seen. I think the whole of the lower patio has a lean to the left, but I'll just re-lay the two slabs that slope to the lawn.

 

After the stones had been concreted, I moved back to the left side. With the left stone now firm, I rigged up a builder's line from the top left end to the Laurel hedge. This then gave me a height to dig down to for the bottom of the stones. Due to the slope in the lawn, these stones will be set level, but will have to be stepped down slightly. It was hard digging, still finding many buried slates in the soil and under the grass. It would appear that over the years, the lawn has expanded at least six inches into the border. I finished the line by 3pm and stopped then, as it got too hot.



Elsewhere in the garden, lots of plants are now flowering or have buds that will flower soon. Everything is jumping into life, even just compared to one month ago.

 

The railway embankment has also sprung into life and colour. There are still a few areas of bare soil where nothing was planted or nothing has spread yet. Something appeared to have been dug out by an animal a few weeks ago, so there are areas that may receive something new.

The Purple rock cress along the front edge has filled out really well and the whole area looks quite established. The rock cress was transplanted from elsewhere in the garden on the 7th of April 2024, so it's been in just a few days over a year. The rest of the railway plants were added on the 13th.



I ran into a small problem at the pond. The magpies and blackbird have been ripping up the moss. They aren't taking it for nests, just throwing it around, into the water and the surrounding area. I think they could be looking for bugs in and under the moss.

I need something a bit more sturdy, so I think I'm going to put some of the Daisy pomponettes around the outside edge. They like water and are more sturdy to being pecked at, as they root deep, unlike the moss.

 

12th April 2025

I wanted a break from concrete mixing, so on Saturday, I had an easy day. All I did was to dig out some of the daisies in the back of the wood and re-plant them around the mini pond. In a video I shot yesterday, the small birds are happy to come and drink and wash.

Magpies came, dug up and ate several chunks of moss. At first, I thought they were grabbing it to take away and nest build, but they just swallowed it and carried on eating. There's a blackbird, who came and after having a drink, started pulling out the moss and then just throwing it around; onto the path and into the pond. No looking for insects under it, just being a vandal!



During March and early April, I shot a garden walkaround video for a modelling forum, where I also had a thread about the railway build. I thought I'd share it here too, so you can see the real me and get a better feel of the areas I've been working on for the last four years.

The colours are still a bit muted, being shot in very early Spring, so I'll probably do another in Summer, once everything is in full bloom. I shot a few low level videos through the plants, to give a slightly different look to all the static images I've posted so far.

 

Wow! You've achieved such a lot in four years. I seem to remember you saying when you moved to your home you didn't see yourself as a gardener. For obvious reasons that has changed and seeing all the young plants that you are currently growing in pots, as well as the development of the garden suggests that you think differently now.

 

The move forced it upon me, but I've always been very creative and love making things. Plants, soil and stone is just a new medium to work in!

 

I’m loving seeing your progress, especially your branching put into water gardening! It was wanting to help the birds and hedgehog that got me started, over 30 years ago, and I’ve never stopped!

Blackbirds seem to get a nervous twitch when they see the dense tump moss (sorry, don’t know the proper names). Do you have any sphagnum type moss in your lawn or the wood area? I used mats of that to go over the edge of the pond liner, and it doesn’t seem to trigger the “toss it!” reflex….