Six-on-Saturday 22-02-2020

Before I go any further, those of you who were getting excited about seeing the other half of the fruit cage today I am afraid will be disappointed. 😪 I have had a heavy cold this week 🤧 and we have had our lovely daughter and granddaughter from Dubai staying for a few days while they visited her twin sons at their universities in Durham and in Bristol. (I think those excuses will do, won’t they?)

Yesterday, I noticed the first of my daffodils showing colour, so here we go with this week’s Six-on-Saturday.

1)

Small but very pretty. The forget-me-nots and perennial geranium plants are looking healthy too.

2)

The daffodil/lavender hedge is promising. These are the ones where I only get about 50% of them opening. I will watch what happens this year.

3)

The clematis Montana (first photo) is showing plenty of leaves and several flower buds now. The clematis Jackmanii is showing many leaf buds now. I may have mentioned that I was concerned that I had cut it back too far and removed too many buds. The same thing has happened every year for the last 15 years or so, I should be more optimistic.

4)

Little, yellow crocuses looking good. The forget-me-nots and the perennial geranium plants are also very healthy. 🤭

5)

The pulmonaria is always a welcome, different colour at this time of year.

6)

Mystery object.

This has been in amongst other bits and pieces in my greenhouse for years. It is 6 or 7cm long. It was my mother’s but I don’t know whether it is for the greenhouse (where it was found) or for the sewing/knitting box. It isn’t for French knitting – you know, where 4 little nails are hammered into the top of a wooden cotton reel and you form a long, thin, knitted, woolen tube by manoeuvring the yarn under the stitches of the previous row…….mind you, I can’t remember ANY uses at all for a long, thin, knitted, woolen tube!

Any ideas?

That’s it again. Have a good weekend and let’s hope we can enjoy the garden for a little while anyway.

Six-on-Saturday 15-02-2020

Granny's garden

I decided to mow the lawn yesterday before the storms because I didn’t want to look at scruffy grass for at least another week. I’m glad I did. I have been quite busy tidying the greenhouse, completing half the fruit cage and weeding the vegetable garden so not many “floral” tasks.

Well, on to this week’s Six-on-Saturday. I will stay in to enjoy all your posts while the wind blows outside.

1)

A nice bit of colour from the primulas, at least those that haven’t been nibbled at too much!

2)

As you can see, I have left the front open so that the other half of the construction (which will be a slightly smaller mirror image of this one, if that makes sense) can slot into this when it isn’t needed at the other end of the raised bed. Before anyone comments, I know it is a case of…

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Six-on-Saturday 15-02-2020

I decided to mow the lawn yesterday before the storms because I didn’t want to look at scruffy grass for at least another week. I’m glad I did. I have been quite busy tidying the greenhouse, completing half the fruit cage and weeding the vegetable garden so not many “floral” tasks.

Well, on to this week’s Six-on-Saturday. I will stay in to enjoy all your posts while the wind blows outside.

1)

A nice bit of colour from the primulas, at least those that haven’t been nibbled at too much!

2)

As you can see, I have left the front open so that the other half of the construction (which will be a slightly smaller mirror image of this one, if that makes sense) can slot into this when it isn’t needed at the other end of the raised bed. Before anyone comments, I know it is a case of “Shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted” but I have just sown this year’s broccoli and Brussels seeds in the greenhouse ready, so they should benefit. Usually, the caterpillars have a few weeks feasting on the plants then give up or move away, but this year they have been guzzling all winter, too. There is some evidence of broccoli florets but I’m not that confident we will be feasting on them in a couple of months time.

(I am going to stain the frame soon although the wood is already treated.)

3)

I was wondering how to fill these toilet rolls ready for the sweet pea seeds without spilling compost everywhere, the old dishwasher-salt funnel proved very useful!

4)

Does anyone else like Mini-Magnums? These are ideal as plant labels, especially when I don’t have much space above the seed trays on my shelves.

5)

The greenhouse before and after a minor tidy up,plus a view of the tomato bed with a sack of well rotted compost forked into it. At the back of the third picture, that greenery is an ornamental mint gone mad! I will have to have a go at removing as much as I can. Meanwhile, the hanging basket has a good bit of colour still.

6)

These pale coloured crocuses take me by surprise each year. I think I pull many out by mistake thinking they’re just clumps of grass. (I know, I should abandon the fruit cages for a couple of weeks while I catch up with the weeding!)

Yes, it does look better after its first mowing.

Friends of mine who have horses asked whether I wanted some manure……..silly question! I said I would have as much as they could spare……silly answer, because their manure heap is, apparently, the size of our house! I will let you know what happens with that.

Have a good weekend, in the garden, if possible.

Six-on-Saturday 08-02-2020

I don’t like this Sunday’s forecast, let’s hope it isn’t as bad as predicted. There’s still not a lot happening in the garden, although I haven’t been doing much since we were away for a few days in supposedly wet, windy and wild West Wales. We had a lovely time with no proper rain and plenty of sunshine.

Mostly buds this week.

1)

Yet again that orchid is about to flower. I ignore it when it stops flowering, then bring it out when the buds appear. (Notice the coaster underneath made by one of my daughters a LONG time ago, from several clothes pegs.)

2)

The lavender hedge in the front garden has dozens of daffodils in amongst the plants. Every year there are masses of buds but only about 50% actually open.

3)

The miniature kiwi tree has many healthy buds……promising, but last year they didn’t come to much although there was lots of blossom. I will try to protect it this year.

4)

There are plenty of buds on the clematis montana but although it appears that there is a lot of dead wood, most of the healthy growth stems from it.

5)

The Cerinthe Major is already showing a bit of colour – I hope it survives any more frosts…….so far so good.

6)

Buds AND leaves on the rhubarb, plus the rampant forget-me-nots.

Most of the photos show how much needs to be done in the garden, just tidying.

Time we finished with a look at the wonderful, compost container.

Notice the newly re-handled fork. I spent some time wondering how to put the new handle on and remove the broken bits of the old one, so I asked #1 son how to do it and Hey-Presto, there it was….done! It’s a nice, light fork so ideal for rotating the heap.

That’s it. Have a good weekend, I think I will spend Sunday reading the other Sixes-on-Saturday.

Six-on-Saturday 01-02-2020

Gosh, February already! I’ve got rather a hectic day today so rather a brief, not very colourful Six-on-Saturday this week.

1)

Well this is quite colourful. Several of you asked about/commented on the Potato and Spinach curry so, for those interested, this is the recipe. Sorry about the quality but I hope you can read it. I have adapted it slightly…..I don’t peel the potatoes, no fresh chillies and no tomatoes. I make sure I remove the dried chillies (which I don’t break up) and I actually prefer the broccoli leaves to the proper spinach.

2)

Remember the little drip from the conservatory roof? One week later, we have a completely new roof….front and back! There was nothing wrong with the conservatory but the leading where it met the house, plus the felt were split or rotten, it was amazing that we weren’t getting water coming into the house itself! Oh well, enough said.

Back to the garden now.

3)

The raspberry bed. I cut back many rudbeckia, penstemons and sedums as well, but they didn’t shred as effectively as the raspberry canes. Those plants will produce several kilos of raspberries in the summer/autumn.

4)

The left hand side after the pruning of rudbeckia and sedums. Plenty of weeding now.

5)

Quite a few flower buds on the magnolia stellata. I hope the lichen isn’t going to be a problem. The berberis down the garden has much more lichen this year.

6)

I bought more wood from a local firm for the fruit cages, as I mentioned before, but, unfortunately, the roofers gathered the two 3.6 metre pieces up with the rotten roof wood and took them away by mistake! To replace them, they brought me a couple of 4.8 metre pieces AND cut them to my required lengths with their circular saw instead of me taking ages with my hand saw. All in all, a successful result. 😃👍

Have a good weekend in your garden.

Six-on-Saturday 25-01-2020

Granny's garden

Is anyone out there enjoying their garden just now? I know I should just don my coat and wellies and get out there, but a warm house and comfy chair is more appealing.

Anyway, here are my Six-on-Saturday for this week.

1)

On a frosty morning earlier this week, I thought the Robin sculpture looked rather pretty, then when the sun came out, our resident cat decided to have a nicely chilled morning drink.

2)

I thought I should protect the bay trees that flank Grandpa’s bench. These bags are ideal. (The right hand tree has been moved to support some of the scaffolding mesh which was nearly blown away in the gales at the start of the week. Nothing exciting being done, just a drip from the roof into the conservatory needs to be fixed.)

3)

If you look carefully, you should be able to see, in amongst the…

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Six-on-Saturday 25-01-2020

Is anyone out there enjoying their garden just now? I know I should just don my coat and wellies and get out there, but a warm house and comfy chair is more appealing.

Anyway, here are my Six-on-Saturday for this week.

1)

On a frosty morning earlier this week, I thought the Robin sculpture looked rather pretty, then when the sun came out, our resident cat decided to have a nicely chilled morning drink.

2)

I thought I should protect the bay trees that flank Grandpa’s bench. These bags are ideal. (The right hand tree has been moved to support some of the scaffolding mesh which was nearly blown away in the gales at the start of the week. Nothing exciting being done, just a drip from the roof into the conservatory needs to be fixed.)

3)

If you look carefully, you should be able to see, in amongst the twigs, some new shoots of the variegated foliage plant that Mr Propagator gave me last year.

4)

This rose bush was cut back quite severely a few weeks ago because there were several dead branches which needed removing. It has responded well with many healthy shoots. I’m watching the foxgloves at the back hoping there will be some spires of flowers this year.

5)

I do think the new shoots of my sedum look like tiny green rosebuds at this stage.

6)

The broccoli leaves may look rather scruffy but they make an acceptable alternative to spinach in the Potato and Spinach curry which is one of Grannysgardenhimindoors’s favourite side dishes. I don’t hold out much hope for a bumper crop of purple sprouting broccoli since the caterpillars attacked them, so we might as well make use of the leaves! (The chopping board underneath the leaves was made by my #1 son about 40 years ago and is still going strong.)

That’s it again. As always, have a good weekend in the garden.👨‍🌾👩‍🌾🐛🐌