The Garden/52 Projects

I had such a busy weekend in the back garden, although looking out there one wouldn't really think I'd done much at all!  However, my aching arms, shoulders and legs quite loudly declare otherwise LOL

The reason why my poor muscles are complaining so much is because I did a lot of staining.  I tackled the end wall of the garden shed to start with, giving it a second coat of Cuprinol Garden Shades in Barleywood.  The wood didn't slurp up the stain quite so dramatically as the first coat did last weekend!  I haven't quite finished fiddling around with the wall yet but hopefully will have photos to share next week.

The shed always used to just get a fresh coat of creosote (which of course can't be bought now) but a few years back I decided to give it some colour.  It's a big shed, very close to the house, and just can't be made to blend into the background ~ so I thought why not just make it look pretty instead :-)  Blue is my most favourite colour which is why I chose it for the shed.  I still have the other three walls to tackle but there is a lot of rearranging to do in the garden first before I can even get to them!

I also stained two large pieces of trellis and four lengths of timber battens to hold it away from the shed somewhat (should make it easier to tie-in the climbing plants in due course).  I thought the diamond design would make a nice change from the usual squares but boy oh boy did it take some time to stain!  I still have the front of each piece to stain but hopefully that won't take too long now that I've done the bulk of the fiddly bits.  The battens and trellis are now up on the shed wall, ready for me to finish the staining.

I was pleased to finally get the new fence panels finished, too.  I had got a couple of them stained last year in this lovely deep brown shade (Country Oak, Cuprinol) so only had the remaining two to do, but it still takes some time.  We had concrete posts and gravel-boards put in when the panels were replaced and I have to say that they did rather stick out against the dark wood.  So, I wielded the paint brush and gave them a coat of stain too LOL  I didn't go all the way down the gravel-boards as the soil level with eventually cover the unstained part.  I think that they look like wood now :-)  

I thought I would show you the pretty "thank you" flowers my lovely neighbour brought round on Friday.  They were all in bud when Caroline gave them to me but now they are opening out and just look so pretty.  I love fresh flowers!