Tools of the trade

We are very excited with our latest arrival at the boutique, these great Sophie Conran tools have arrived & we are so pleased with them, the quality is fantastic & they come beautifully presented too.

Sophie has worked with Burgon & Ball, who still manufacture their products here in the UK, to create the collection of tools.....

"As a gardener I have always dreamed of creating a range of garden tools and accessories. I beleive that tools should be functional and beautiful, and make each job a pleasure.

One of the problems I face as a women when gardening is that my hands are generally too small for standard tools. My designs specifically address this issue and I hope will add to the joy of gardening".

The better the tools, the easier the job."   Sophie Conran

The collection is made up of seven tools, trowel, fork, compost scoop, secateurs, sieve, dibber & weeder & can be found HERE

New landscaping website

Our lovely new landscaping website went live yesterday, we will be adding to it over the coming months, mainly images of Cols work which we need to get caught up on.
www.urbanedenlandscaping.co.uk

He is out & about today doing maintenance work for a customer with 12 acres of garden so he'll be in need of a good hearty meal tonight!! Good job the allotment is producing lots of spinach at the moment!

Light up my life!

Col has just quickly spruced the yard up as we have just moved into this house, and we do love to have the outside space lovely, we do plan to sell this house & buy somewhere with a garden (well, thats the plan) My Mum is baby sitting all of my plants until we get settled in here so the yard is looking a little empty but a lot tidier that it did a couple of days ago.

I love these vintage *roof tile lanterns* so much I have decided to hang a couple of them in the yard, it really finishes it off nicely, they are available at Urban Eden Boutique & made from old French & spanish roof tiles, with a hand made glass storm cover.

The place doesn't feel quite like home yet but once I surround myself with plants again I'll feel at home, only got the olive tree with me so far, which I love all the more for surviving that cold winter!!

But at least for now we have somewhere to sit & enjoy our homemade Elderflower wine, which has worked a treat again, although it is rather lively when you open it!!

The Yellow Book put to good use!

It has been a busy old couple of months for us, moving house among other things, so it was really lovely to have Sunday morning off from the chores & head to one of the open garden days from 'The Yellow book' it was the village of  Cotherstone nestled in the Pennine Hills, a lot of the gardens open & some allotments too. The rain stayed away which was great & the sun even made a couple of appearances.

We stopped off in the 'naturalists garden' for tea with fruit cake & Cotherstone cheese, this was our favourite garden with so much wild life packed into a small space, we saw Robins, Tits, Wrens and many more even Siskins, and what we think could have been a Redpoll! They also have a love for all things vintage, with old riddles & tools dotted around as interesting features, also a great set of chicken legs!!

All of the other gardens were lovely too, a runner up on our favourites list was this lovely terraced garden, which was jam packed with plants & flowers, so lovely,  & again filled with birds.

There is something on every weekend now from The Yellow Book, and it is such a cheap and lovely day out, what a great idea, and a great effort by all of those who open their gardens.

Here are a few of our favourite things!

Definitions & uses for some of our vintage garden accessories;

1.  Trug;  noun;  a basket usually made from wood, which is used in the garden for carrying flowers, veg, plants or tools. Origin of the word is from the late, middle English meaning basin, perhaps a dialect variant of ; trough.











We've managed to source some great looking vintage trugs of European & Japanese origin. One of their original uses was to measure out quantities of grain or rice but we've found they are perfect for carrying tools or plants around in the garden.




2. Riddle;  noun; a sieve used to sift soil or compost. From the Old English word, hriddel, 'to sieve'.





Finding vintage riddles in good condition isn't easy because of the nature of their function (mucky old things)! We recently found a set of 3 which is something of a rarity. After a bit of loving care they came up a treat, (well 2 of them did)! The linseed oil really brings out the colour & texture of the old wood.




3. Mill Bobbin & Twine..  Bobbin:  noun;  a spool or reel on which thread or yarn is wound. From the old french word; bobine: A small instrument used in sewing & tapestry making.







Authentic Mill bobbins come in all different shapes & sizes, reflecting their various uses in the old wool & cotton mills of Northern England. We thought that these particular ones would be just the job for a garden line.

Or this one for a twine holder.



Stay tuned for more vintage ideas....

A little bit of urban eden landscaping

Along side our boutique we also run a landscaping business, it doesn't get chatted about on here too much so I thought I would share some images of our current landscaping project, Col has just finished adding the planting scheme so once the plants are a little more established & the final section of turfing is completed I will post more images. It's been a great job to do, we've put all of our hard & soft landscaping skills to the test.

Before

After

Before

After

We are about to revamp our landscaping website so watch this space....!

A bit of a change around

Well the day before the longest day (2nd longest!!?) & it has been lovely & sunny, I had short sleeves on & everything!!
Our web site has had a little bit of a make over & is back on line today.

Our new vintage mill bobbin & twine can be found *HERE*  & comes in six different colours.

Our recipe/seed gift cards can now be bought in pairs or singularly & can be found *HERE*

Here is hoping tomorrow is a nice sunny day too, because if it's raining it'll be a long day indeed!!!

Happy Solstice.