Ah – this wonderful time of year has arrived, the heady smell of blooming flowers as industrious gardeners work their way around their gardens is only overtaken by the odour of burning food as they sit and eat al fresco whilst viewing their neat lawns and beds.
When I moved here some 6 years ago I liked the idea of the small slabbed area at the rear of the property, my idea was to grow the things that I liked in pots and make a magnificent display with no lawn mowing involved.
This has worked to a certain degree but the row of conifer trees at the end of the property have always been a problem.
When I moved in their leafy branches reached the ground and it seemed that the whole view from my kitchen window was….. conifer!!
I started by cutting off the lower branches to a height of six feet so that the earth they were planted in was visible – then I planted spring bulbs there. But the tops of the trees were obviously still growing and very much out of control.
Last Saturday a friend was coming over to decapitate the trees, the effect would be that they would look almost like conifer lollipops, tall trunks and not much foliage. It worked beautifully and the garden gets so much more natural daylight.
But, the bulbs under the trees had finished and no bedding plant will grow there so i was left with the dilemma of how to make it look good.
On a shopping trip to Tesco I discovered they were selling solar lighting at half the original price – in fairness I have tried solar garden lights before but have not found them to be very good, mostly because the solar panel was on top of the lamp and quite small. But the colour changing globe sticks that I bought had a solar panel that could be placed in the sunshine and a long wire so that the globes could be placed under the trees.
That night they looked amazing and by day they are still attractive as garden ornaments with their chrystal globes.
Fired with enthusiasm I went back to the store and bought two sets of blue LED string lights which now wind through the bottom branches of the trees and around the trunks.
The effect is stunning!!! Initial outlay £40 altogether and no running costs.
Okay – lets get the barbeque going and burn some food!!!!!
Our old solar lights that we used to have at the bottom of the garden have probably died a death, actually it’s probably just the batteries in them – as they’re just naff rechargeables I got them out and charged them in a proper charger once and they seemed to come back to life!!
Think we need to disable/move/rewire the security light for the back garden before we can put anything up!