Neighbourly acts of kindness

This feels like a productive week – with the dry warm weather and with the help of some of our fabulous neighbours we’ve ticked several things off our to-do list.

In our new back garden John enlisted the help of our lovely neighbour Nick to cut back the bushes along the roadside. He’s a professional hedger and had planned to cut it right back and hedge it – where you cut through most of the trunk and bend it horizontally so the bush regrows along the length of the trunk and ends up much thicker. Unfortunately the bushes have been left for too long and the trunks are too thick to bend, so instead he and John cut everything right back. It’ll still encourage new growth and create more of a barrier between our garden and the road. We now have a beautiful view across the valley and there’s so much more light in the garden too. Philip – one of our farmer neighbours down the road also helped us by taking away most of the green waste. There was so much I honestly don’t know what we would have done with it otherwise! We’re so lucky to have moved somewhere with such great people living nearby who are so willing to help out.

We also had our neighbour Sue’s dad on site this week helping us by rebuilding the garden wall by the kitchen garden. It had been totally taken over by ivy and weeds which harboured slugs and mice feeding off our vegetables and having finally had enough, we cleared it back in December. The wall had partially collapsed at one end, so over the last two months we’ve taken out the super-thick ivy stems and pressure-washed it to get rid of the soil that was supporting the vegetation. Sue’s dad is well known in the area for his stone walling expertise and made short work of rebuilding it. It looks so much better than it did, he’s done a fantastic job!

This enabled us to start another of our ‘2025 major jobs’ which is to brick the area between the wall and the greenhouse, removing the gravel in the process. The kitchen garden is full of gravel paths – our intention is to brick as much of the kitchen garden as we possibly can to minimise weeds and noise when we’re working in there. We prioritised the area behind the greenhouse after a disaster last year when the sloping ground and gravel caused our plastic seedling greenhouse to collapse and we lost most of the plants. We’re building in steps to try and manage the slope, although I’m not sure how we’ll join it up from the other side! Still plenty to do before we get to that stage…

We ticked off our pea frames from the list on Saturday, having left the soil in our new veg bed to settle a bit after filling it up a couple of weeks ago. The frames are up and are now deep enough that hopefully they won’t blow over in the next storm. We’ve installed a fine mesh fence around the whole bed to keep out the mice and rabbits so should have more of a chance of actually eating some of our vegetables this year!

And John also found time to finish off a few odd jobs in the laundry – installing draught excluders on the doors and then mopping it all. We still need to touch up a few patches of paint and sand down the door frames – even though it’s been months since the room was largely finished those jobs have never reached the top of our list!!

We’ve got guests every weekend now (bar one in April) until the end of June, so a good chunk of our time during the week is spent cleaning, washing and ironing. It’s always lovely to chat to our guests and find out more about them and why they’re on holiday. Interestingly the majority of our bookings seem to be multi-generational families who’ve come to spend time together. It helps to know more about our target market so we can ensure we’re catering for their needs – especially when we have such a range of ages to consider. And it’s so rewarding to hear the positive feedback and new ideas too!