OUTDOORS 16

Above you can spy one project I hope to tackle sometime in the next few years. I may need assistance or I may be able to DIY. The alleyway/bike shed is gradually falling to bits. A hole in the roof isn't much of a problem, as it isn't near my sons bike, the garden tools, or the wooden ladder.

Bits of the door-frame falling off allowing cats inside and wind damage are a problem - as is the winds pushing the side fencing away fro the roofing bar. Hopefully, I can rebuild the door frames and replace the ceiling and doors to save the fence.

My kitchen windowsill overwintered chili looks like it is sprouting new green growth to replace the dying leaves and has survived winter!

February came to a close and my camellia was flowering in abundance beside the front door. Although Liz said to do a major prune it would mean no flowers the following year, I discovered on UKHEREWEGROW that to cut it back mid-season might be an option to allow flowers to appear next year also - so this was the plan.

It was dropping flowers, which I had been enjoying for a few weeks already, and I decided to lop off the top third. I have no idea when dad last pruned it properly, but I have only snipped a few shoots back since returning to England and then inheriting the house, so I would say it has been at least a decade since its last major cut back.

The job was done, and I began to pop potential cuttings around the gardens, in case I could add them to preferable places. I planted 4 large cut-offs along the back fence, where I am growing a mixed hedgerow - predominantly of rose and yew, but with other plants as well.