Sunday 10 January 2010

Home - How To Start Anew

Hello everyone,

I do hope you had fantastic Christmas and new year. 2010 is truly upon us now!

I have had no time to write really as we are still settling in, and with no furniture and no gas heating, the cold and needing household items have taken priority. However, we are not going to rush.

The rule for our new home is - unless we love it, it won't be brought into the house. So we'd rather wait and take time to buy than rush on grabbing things this month. It means we will have to do without for a while but also means we will be more careful. No more buying something that 'will do for now', as we'll have a home full of things that are just 'OK' and we will end up giving away.

The garden will need some attention soon, and it will be an amazing feeling when I have time to actually look out there and learn what needs to be done.

Any tips from folk on here as to what I can do in January/February garden wise would be awesome, and of course any other tips for a new home.

So my next post will no doubt be on some of our new experiences as we start to furnish the place, get bargains and start to hopefully cook more and utilise the space better (as currently it's a mess!).

Have a great end of weekend and hopefully I can do some blog reading and drop by your blogs soon, now the whole move is over!

6 comments:

madpiano said...

main thing to do for the garden this time of year ? Leave snow well alone and don't walk on lawn-areas while snow is there. It protects the plants underneath from the frost. Look out for snowdrops and put a small marker where they are coming out, so you don't accidentially dig them up later in the year. From about the 3rd week of January start seeds indoors for a lovley summer display. If you start your seeds early they will be growing well, by spring and you won't be tempted to go to the garden centre to get their plants which look so much better/bigger/brighter than any seedlings started as per packet instructions.
Not much else to do this time of year, other than making plans of what to plant where and if it is warm enough get started on sorting out the garden shed.

Sophie Gist said...

Hello madpiano and thanks for those great tips. I will leave the garden well alone, particularly as it has started to snow again today causing more havoc overall...
In a few weeks then i will look out for seedlings in Homebase maybe, as would love to start something growing now to have a feeling that I'm already contributing something new to the garden. We have some small pots left over from our gardening last year which is great. My husband will solely be in charge of the shed, it's his domain and he likes being able to pop things in there etc. Seems to have a couple of leaks though! Thanka again for your helpful post, much appreciated!

Unknown said...

This time of year, I start saving pots for seeds - I don't do it all year or I'de be up to my pants in plastic yoghurt pots - I also check my seeds. I've had a couple of glimpses at my compost but mainly I sweep and tidy in this weather. I've taken a bucket of soapy water to the steps and scrubbed the 'green gunge' off them and been up a ladder to the gutters - that'll be enough to keep you going

Sophie Gist said...

Thanks so much for the great tips - I definately want things like jasmin and honeysuckle but will take a peek in Homebase soon for what is needed. Some colour would be nice too, maybe tulips for example. At the front it gets lots of sun so maybe some sunflowers...

Anonymous said...

Look for a freecycle list near you.
You will find furniture and appliances listed if it is anything like ours. The best approach is to say out loud to nobody in particular, I would love a big blue settee for that room at some point and one will be listed..We have done this several times and things have miraculously been offered on freecycle almost as though in answer. I never physically request on the list.

Jo said...

Hope you are settling in well and that your new house will soon start to feel like home.

If you have a Lidl near you, they seem to get their seeds in from February and they are usually 29p for the standard size packets of flowers and fruit. We've had good germination rates from them.