Lots of Interesting Things

It always amazes me how much is going on in the garden as the nights draw in and get chilly!
I have a passion as you know for the tropical type plants and lo and behold I have quite a few in flower.
I adore white flowers and would have lots more around if allowed. When a white Brugmansia flowers it is an amazing sight



this one has the most beautiful evening scent



The cup and saucer plant is flowering like there is no tomorrow




I hope I can collect some seed from this as its such an amazing plant!

I also found this sweet little fuschia, how its survived I've no idea as it is so neglected, but up it comes year after year. Quite unfair really as my mum faithfully lifts hers in each winter and pots them out again the next year!!!




This is a bizarre pic. I'm trying to show you my 'Zebra Grass' it has grown so much this year and has the most amazing colourings on the leaves!




Should be quite a clump next year!

Due to the large amounts of rain we have had we have a large amount of these!!



T has been embelishing her jeans





I love what she does when she does these bizarre things, I wish I could photograph her everyday to show you what she wears as she has such an individual look about her. She is blossoming and it is so lovely to watch!

Jake has been feeling the cold




so decided to get into bed! It was a sad day yesterday as Jakes 'Mummy and Daddy' moved out. I shall miss them alot as they have been such wonderful neighbours! Prior to them, on both sides, we have had some horrendous neighbours, so I wait in trepidation of what is to come! But shall greet them with a smile and keep an open mind!

The trap was set for the first time last night



thats Sassy you can see the other side! Baited with scrummy pilchards. Alas nothing caught. I shall reset it tonight as he rarely visits during the day!
The good news is I managed to contact the lady at Cats Protection who has arranged for me to get an RSPCA neutering voucher, so I can get the feral cat neutered, then once he is done I think we will re;ease him somewhere far away and if I have to go through the same process next year I will!

plus


Happy Birthday 'ickle' sister!

Dare to be Different!

The front of my house is north facing! Not the best aspect for the plants I like to grow but you would be amazed at what can grow there! The picture gives you an idea of what it looks like.!

The two palms which you can see at the bottom of the pic I will move to the patio.



I bought and planted my Caster Oil Plant this year it was small and only cost £5 and look at the size of it now!!!



Good investment I think.
The tree ferns also a bargain buy from Wilkinsons at £3.99 each, have come on in leaps and bounds.



To over winter these I just need to stuff a handful of fleece into the crown.

I am exceptionally disappointed with my double white brugmansia's



every bloom went all brown round the edges, I think more because of the poor weather, but not one I will keep.

In the top pic you can see in front of the window some dead plants, well they were Busy Lizzies, not very exotic I know but they love this position and add a bit of 'pink' my favourite colour! I am trying to find something abit different to replace them with. That would add a bit of colour at this sometimes dull time of year.
Current favourites are Choisya ternata 'Sundance



yellow is such a cheerful colour, about three of these, with two Phormium platts black



quite effective, but, and there is always a but, the whole lot would cost me a whopping £25.54 which is rather alot of money on plants that might not make it through the winter. Mind you the garden centre said they would survive and if I bought them from them, I could take them back if they died as I would have a 5yr moneyback guarentee. But that would add about another £50 to the bill!!!

So plenty to keep me thinking!

My lovely cat Tango,



refused to come in last night and suffered because of it. I was woken at 0400 with a big cat fight going on, so shot down the stairs (yes I sleep that lightly) went to the back door and it was occuring in my neighbours garden. So charged down the garden in my (pink) nightie armed with a torch. I couldn't find them or get through the shrubs to try and scare the feral off, it carried on and on I was running up and down the garden trying to make enough noise to scare of the feral but not wake the neighbours. It still carried on, I just couldn't see them then I obviously shined the torch in the right area as the feral ran of and Tango eventually limped in with blood coming from his back leg!
So another visit to the vet, another £33 bill, but he recommend a Cat rescue who would loan me a trap. So I get the trap tomorrow and they expect me to get him neutered and release him again.
What would you do? I know what we plan to do?

Sleep, Cook. Eat, Drive, Visit etc.........................

I have so much that needs doing and not enough time to fit it in! The jobs I need to do are BIG jobs, all day jobs, not an hour here and an hour there type jobs! The weather has been dry enough for me to do them to, which I need as I shall be using electrical tools.
All we seem to do is sleep, get up, cook, eat, drive, visit, drive back, water, maybe eat again, then collapse! Sometimes we do the drive, visit, drive bit twice and thats a 50 mile round trip each time!!



We are still none the wiser, they have still not done the scan, and oh! yes they started him on antibiotics today! What for? Who knows! As they haven't done the scan. So how do you treat something you know nothing about!!!
I am getting mad! If you looked at him and talked to him yesterday and today he looks as fit as you and I, he is taking up precious bed space because they can't sort themselves out.



I want him home, but he can't keep having these attacks!



I picked some of my French Beans yesterday, they where lovely and scrummy.




Bet your bottom dollar as soon as he is discharged it will rain!!!!

Chickens and Peas

This is just part of my neighbours paddock that my chooks are on holiday in



we had just moved them here from the top and next week we will move them to the other side of the workshop. They never use this area, he just sits on his ride on mower to keep the grass down



I really wish I had this as I can now see how much happier my hens are over here, I actually feel guilty already about bringing them back at the end of summer!



We bought the new plastic roosting bars for inside the Eglu, they are fantastic and so easy to keep clean compared to the wooden ones,another plus is theres now nowhere for the 'Red Mites' to hide!! I can't recommend these highly enough.
I have no idea the life span of a chicken, we have had them since May 2006, but when they go we shall either drop down to two big ones or four little bantams! Allotment Lady assures me that Bantams don't scratch, which means I would be able to let them out and about more!

Whilst we where moving the chickens, tango had found a lovely comfy spot on their bonfire pile!!




Everytime I go down to do my neighbours chickens at the same time as checking mine, he is there! He makes me chuckle!

I picked loads of peas yesterday, we have already eaten some



so we sat in the sunshine podding them. They make a very satisfying pop when you open them



and there are still more to come. Wonder if you can do anything with the pods? I'm sure you will tell me if there is!



all vacum packed and ready to freeze for that taste of summer in the winter! If they last that long!!!!!

Now for something beautiful



one of my Brugmansias has gone nuts flowering!!!

Holiday Happenings!

Well life sort of takes over when all children and hubby are home. I'm (currently) enjoying the chaos!

We where supposed to have been on holiday, this wet and windy week, having upgraded hoping to have something decent to sit on and sleep the caravan and site was lovely




but nothing decent to sit on or sleep in. The day we arrived was glorious



After the first night I was up at 0430, eldest 0500 and youngest who can sleep for england 0750!! We took a vote and came home. I was crippled.

then

on Friday whilst out for a walk hubby was rushed (blue lights and sirens) to hospital! It was quite traumatic as we had walked about 1.5 miles and he said he had to sit down, I said do you want me to go get the car, yes he did. So eldest and I power walked our way home leaving youngest with him. 400yds from home we heard sirens I flipped but K said T would have phoned, neither of us had recieved calls. So got to the car, drove back round and they where gone, a gentleman was waiting to say they had gone to Great Western. K phoned T and said we had got the message when she got off the phone she said they had the sirens going, so we knew it wasn't good. I broke every speed limit by double and arrived minutes after the ambulance, as they where from Bristol and had taken a MAJOR detour as they didn't know the direct route to hosp
Anyway when we arrived he was in major pain and they looked after him very well. T collapsed in my arms sobbing her heart out (she has learning difficulties and considering what she had been through coped remarkably well)/.
Anyway after the morphine everything calmed down, they kept him in overnight and he was discharge yesterday, they don't know whats wrong with him but has to go back for all sorts of scans etc, etc
Since his 50 birthday, he has been to hospital every year without fail for something, once he gets the morphine he's fine is this telling me something??

The advantage to being at home apart, from the above, was I got to see this






The chooks are on there holidays, in a neighbours huge garden, and he's happy for them to be there for a couple of weeks which rests my plot!
I will post more this week and hopefully get back up to speed again!!

RE-Designing

I am so fed up with these suckers that are basically destroying what could be a lovely flower bed that I am considering some re-designing!!!
I have taken a group of pics of basically the same area to give you a rough idea of the plan!!!
I think the plan is to extend the chicken run out towards the bits of fence and trellis and wood you can see.

Move the plant that is growing up the obelisk!



and make a path around to the left of the fence using stepping stones and grass. That way I can mow off the suckers, (hysterical laughter!!)

The 'Down' side to this is you get to walk next to a grotty and very old fence! I lose part of a flower bed.
The 'UP' side is the chickens get a bigger run and I hopefully should beat the suckers by cutting them off every week!!!
Still to be decided!
I thought I would show you some of my baby Brugs that are currently thriving!

and a little friend who watches over the pond!

Exotic or Cottage????

We, and I do me 'we' have been extremely busy in the garden the last few days. We being K and I. She doing most of the digging and lifting and me poking my nose in and getting into trouble! I consider myself very lucky to have a daughter who enjoys gardening as much as I do.
Here she is jetwashing the patio.............



The weather has been glorious and at times a little too hot



This is my weather station, great little gadget. and of course being a 'Brit' we have this thing about 'weather'!!!!
The sensor is on the painted strip to the left of the gate near the top of the wall and as you can see in shade! But I do think with the patio being south facing it will get some reflective heat from the slabs but it still creates a great talking point! Sad or what!!!!



This was my bargain buy from Lidl and cost me £9.99. Best £9.99 I've spent in a long time. I hope they get them back again as I want to get one for my mum!

Now look at this little chap



never seen anything like him before, so had to get my insect book out and if I am correct in my identification he is a Black & Red Froghopper, apparently seen in early summer clinging to lush grass (not so sure its lush) and low vegetation, especially in Southern England (thats here!)

Now for a troll round looking across the now jet washed patio,



all the bags at the end are for the tip, I've still to set up the compost bins since the re-arrangement at the bottom of the garden!



This rose and honeysuckle are in my neighbours garden, but as you can see overhang and their scent is magnificent. This is what I really miss, from an exotic garden, honeysuckle and roses, it makes me yearn for a good old cottage garden. Although theres alot of work in keeping a cottage garden up to scratch, theres not so much lugging around of plants as there is in an Exotic Garden.



K has been working down here for me, planting and digging out, and we have been repotting together, its quite a pleasant area to work until about 12 o'clock.



These are Silver Birch Trees and are supposed to have a 'light canopy', don't you believe it, when they are planted so close together it is very dense hence being able to work in a South facing garden till mid-day!

My first Brug flower,



some of the plants are looking ok but I still have them split up as a precaution.

Tomato plants, coming along



they seem alot happier in this greenhouse, I have noticed with it being bigger the temps are more constant and theres not so many extremes of hot and cold!

My Brug cuttings



really ready for Ebay, but I want to be sure there is no virus first!

Some flowers on the way back up the garden at 7am this morning.





when I see these I often wonder what made me like tropical? I love the flowers, the amazing natural colours, why would I swop these for tropicals?

Looking back across the patio!



Right off for brekkie now!