Less Energetic today!

I ran out of green paint :o( but never mind, I found a few less energetic jobs to do round and about the garden.



so I did some pinching out. You can see my first lot of flowers, tomatoes soon.



This year I put them in pots. The green thingymejigs on top aren't cheap (3 for £19.99 I think) but they are brilliant, because it gives the tomatoes a bit more 'root' room and the water gets directly to the roots. I always put a layer of gravel on any exposed eart as it helps stop them drying out so quickly!



I only have three in the green house this year, I also have about five planted out in the veg patch and also three in my mini greenhouse in a special tomato growbag!

My cucumbers really slowed up during the cold weather but we have fruit again



The peppers are quite slow also, this is just one of them....



I recieved a parcel this morning which I am very excited about, do you remember my brugmansia from last year. I have been after some new ones. It has taken me ages to find ones that aren't white. As you know I love white in the garden but hubby says we need colour! Well he's going to get it because I have got one of these



which as you can see I have forgotten to put gravel on!!! But it will soon (hopefully) look like this



they are also very difficult to come by! Because the lady I bought it from is retiring she also sent me a cutting of one of these



how lucky am I!
Right got to get ready to go to an art exhibition, a chance to see my daughters art work, I hope to have some pics for tomorrow!!

All 'Green' Crackered!!!!

I dug out both the fennel and angelica, boy was it hard.



One of the roots



Then I decided to paint the fence on the patio, not a job I enjoy, but the end result encourages me to carry on!!!




but then carried on




and on




now my back hurts, but don't tell hubby.

Please remind me when my neighbour replaces the fence, not to paint it!!!!

Turned out to be a Lazy Day!

Saturday was indeed a lazy day, apart from washing that is! It was so hot I couldn't face doing any work in the garden, so cleaned out the chickens and that was about it!

Babs the broody hen is now back to normal, after I sorted her out. I tried everything from chucking her off the nest, to dunking her in cold water. It got to the stage where none of them where laying, and I thought to myself drastic action is needed. So went to the omlet forum to read up on what I should do. So I made an enclosure, with the chicken netting at the end of the run, used an old plastic table to give her shelter, gave her food and water and turned a plastic box on its side for bedtime shelter and put her in there for 2 days! This cooled her down and she is fine now! Funnily enough, the Omlet forum seems to think this is the cruel way to deal with broodiness. To be honest I think its far better than dunking them in water and forever chucking them out of the nesting box!

We have a pair of thrushes, we haven't had any for years you can just see the back end of Mrs Thrush in this pic behind the terracota pot



I sadly must admit to using slug pellets, but they are now in the bin, fortunately I haven't used any since all of the rain so Mr & Mrs Thrush should be fine, I must find something to save my lettuce and beans though! I also found a toad in the compost heap, how the heck he got in there I don't know but I left the lid off and hope he got out. We haven't had toads either for years and years, so I must be doing something right! Or was it all the rain we had this winter??

There is a rare plant sale at Lackham College today, so guess where we will be going??

The veg plot is struggling this year, I can't believe how long things are taking to come through or even grow. The amount of compost and stuff that have been put on three of the beds, should have things romping away, but sadly not!

The onions are all top and no bulb!




The victorian peas are pathetic



The trail of tears beans are............. well take a look


and these where the ones the escaping chicken didn't get!!!

The sweetcorn and gem squash are being eaten



On gardening programs they say you can plant and eat things within 6 weeks, well not in this garden!! All hedges are trimmed right back, there is nothing that is overhanging and since we have had the apple tree in the neighbours garden trimmed back I thought things would be on the up!!

Maybe I'm just too impatient, I mean it is only just June!

Back to Normal! (I hope!)

Gosh such alot has happened since my last post! Mum has returned home and I am exhausted, she is not the easiest woman to have in your home. Don't get me wrong I do love her, just find it hard to live with her. Unfortunately being a seafarers wife she has spent a considerable time alone, Dad died in 1982 so she has been living on her own since then, and has become exceptionally selfish, expects everything to be worked around her, we drop everything to do what she wants, when she wants to do it!! I used to have to battle against it when the girls where younger, but now I grit my teeth and go with the flow! When she and B got together(if you remember he was my godfather, so we have known him all our lives, this is the girls adopted 'Gramps')she improved slightly, but my goodness she can be very critical and cutting with her remarks!!! Hence no blogging!!!!

We moved Kathryn out of halls yesterday and she took mum home as she is doing work experience with her adopted 'Gramps', he's has his own estate agency, something Kathryn has always fancied doing! So her room is returning to normal!!!!




Tori went to the hairdressers for her practice 'put up'! She wanted a period look and I think the hairdresser did a great job




that is the necklace she will be wearing, (well there had to be black somewhere!)plus she has some opera length black gloves as well! Even after she brushed her hair it still was all wavy, she loved it, because she/we have never been able to get a curl to stay in her hair!!

So now I play catch up on the washing. We where supposed to be going to dismantle the 'bargain greenhouse' today but hubby has had to go into work. Fortunately the couple who own it are in no rush to have it taken away!! So hopefully next weekend! I have been buying off Ebay again, one or two or maybe even seven plants!!!!! But all at bargain prices of course!

Right I'm off out to play catch up in the garden, it may take a while to play catch up on your blogs but I will!

See you later!

Just a Quickie!!!

I am here!! Mum is here to!! The weather does nothing but rain and we had a frost 2 nights ago!!!!

We have been out to quite a few garden centres and a couple of open gardens in the rain!

I have made quite a few presents, because I have to do something otherwise I would go stir crazy!

Today we are off to another open garden then a very nice coffee place and plant place after!

My husband has found an 8ft by 10ft greenhouse for just £50 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! which comes with staging, so guess what, this weekend after moving K out of Uni and returning mum to Cheshire we are going to dismantle it and bring it home. Then that bit of redesigning down the bottom of the garden will have to be dug up and re-designed again!!! Which I'm quite disappointed about because it was all just beginning to take off!
To be honest the greenhouse is probably a bit big, but they always say go for the biggest you can afford, well we won't look a gift horse in the mouth and no doubt we will fit it in somehow, somewhere! We where down the garden last night at about 9pm with the tape measure and at the moment we will be keeping the small one as well, as it has the electrics fitted. So I will have a heated one and a cool one! But thinking about it, the way my tropical plant collection is growing we may have to get electrics fitted into the big one!!!

May not be able to post now till the weekend, take care everyone! xxx