Pottering with a clumpy boot!

 We have been very brave and uncovered the arid bed. Its always a difficult time to judge as to when we should or should not, but on the whole I find in May if we do get frosts they are a straight down then straight back up again. If its likely to be bad I will throw a fleece over it.

As you can see it is all more or less ok, I forget how big some of the plants where when I covered them up, so when I do uncover them I think wow!!!

As usual the plant to the right of the Aloe has died yet again as you can see from the following pic.

I have no idea whats going on here, but every plant I have put in here had died, be it small or large it just does not get through a winter? I did wonder if it was something under the gravel, but on 2nd thoughts I think not as there is 3 tons of gravel in here, so a long way down before any soil is hit and non of the plants had roots that big???

This is the first year ever I have had bad luck with over wintering my bananas. I usually dry store the larger ones as I find this easier, the smaller ones remain in their pots and I don't actually water them but they seem to do quite well this way.

As you can see the 3 that were potted are slowly coming into life again.

These 2 were dry stored and have been recently put into these posts of soil, I am not convinced they will come through.

This one, also dry stored has I'm fairly certain had it. I have chopped it back and back and the centre is brown which is not good.

My biggest one has already been binned as it was mush. Not happy with this at all, as I have never had this problem before.

Now darling Darcy has gone we decided to join in on #nomowmay2021 two reasons, one to see if there is actually any wildflowers in my lawn and two it saves me having to mow in my clumpy boot!

Here is said clumpy boot!

And the un-mowed lawn

which has grown a lot and actually has a lot of daisy's and dandelions in.

So just a taster of what I have been up too xx

Thrilled with my Garden

I have not blogged for awhile as I have been having a couple of problems, I have tendinitis, which is so painful, I can't get a shoe on and I hobble around like an old woman!!!  Which is making life rather difficult.

The garden is blooming, some parts are fabulous and other parts need a bit more work.

This is the part of the garden I usually love the best, I am not so happy this year, its ok but needs some changes.

This is the same bed but from a different angle. What I have noticed is that plants this year that should only be 20 inches high have grown to over a metre. I have no idea why but it probably why this bed is not my favourite this year.

The banana 'Musa Basjoo' my hardy banana that came through the winter standing it usually collapses back to the root, I thought it would romp away, but it hasn't. It has been very slow even though its been fed and watered regularly. The Canna is far bigger than the banana.

This is the bed opposite, which has gone bonkers. The Cannas are doing so well and the Pink China clumps (big leaves at the front) have also gone mental they are close to 4ft tall which is huge for me, I am going to have to split them at the end of this year.

Same bed but from a different angle.

Now we come to my favourite part, I extended the jungle further down the garden and I really love how this is looking at the moment. On the way down I definitely have a few gaps but I have stuck canes in to mark where I need to move some of the taller Cannas when I split them.

The next pic, same bed but different angle.

These Cleomes are the same height as me? I know I did not buy this height as my garden is not really big enough, but they look so healthy.

These Cannas tower over me now, this one is aiming to take over this bed so some serious digging will be done in the autumn to split this and move round the garden.

On the other side another Canna going for the sky hasn't spread so far, yet.

Everyone is loving the changes I have made, so all the work I put in during 'lockdown' is paying off. It has been suggested I extend the 'jungle' look in the lower part of the garden especially since I redid the bed down by the pond.

This is how it looks down there, its a difficult part of the garden and I spend my life fighting back my neighbours Euphorbia and a huge grass that wants to grow in my garden not hers. So this autumn I will seriously consider digging most of this bed out, possibly using bamboo rhizome barrier along the fence line to stop invasions of unwanted  plants.

Then hopefully it will match this

Till next time x

Easter Weekend 2020

What a mixed weekend of weather we have had. Hot and cold! A typical British Easter weekend.

On the good days we had a bar b que, as you do, Darcy was hoping for a dropped sausage,

I did some jet washing, I find it very satisfying.

The only problem is, I managed to jet wash the growing tip of one of my TRex plants. It was only small anyway so I thought I had murdered it.
But today I noticed this a couple of buds, so rather than being a tree it might be a bush!

I have bought some new solar lights

I love them because they look like bamboo torches, and at night the flicker away and look amazing. I like also that you can detach the pole and just hang it up somewhere.

As we can't go out unless you are going for essential items, I was quite gutted that I had run out of wood treatment for our hopper shed.

I like to treat all our sheds every year and usually make it an Easter weekend job. I keep all paints etc under our stairs, so whilst I was routing about imagine my joy when I found a small tin of dark wood treatment, just look how smart it looks now.

I have left the top plank above the door as we have small bees going in and out under the roofing felt. The come back every year and usually have stopped goin in and out within the month, so I will finish it of then.

We have also had a number of sharp frost which have hit the unfurling leaves of the bananas

The greenhouse is crammed but I will show you that next time.

Till then #staysafe

Advantages to Covid-19 Lockdown!

You get to spend lots of time in the garden with no distractions!

So there has been lots of seed planting, pricking out going on in the greenhouse. I have jet washed the patio and path. I have oiled all the tables and chairs, they are jobs I usually do at Easter. So I am well ahead of the game. The only problem is I have run out of the wood protector I use for hubbies office and the sheds, this is also and Easter job and of course I can't get hold of any as its not considered 'essential'. I disagree its essential to my mental well being!!!!!!
I have been very daring and unwrapped my plants. Its really a bit early but because I 'have' to stay at home I am on hand to cover them quickly if needs be.

My Cycas, first time overwintered outside, it got planted out because it was getting so big and heavy to heave in and out of the greenhouse. I wrapped it in scaffolding net, looked odd but hey!

Unwrapped today and its not too bad. Probably because we have had such a mild winter.

As you can see a bit fried round the edges, other than that its ok.

The Arid bed had it first uncovering today to. 16.5C in the shade, not bad for the 4th April. It always amazes me when I see it in the spring for the first time, it all seems so much bigger than when it was covered in the autumn.

The Dasylirion Serratifolium at the end is growing well if a bit wonky.

Just look at the size of the Montana!! I never ever expected it to get this big when I planted it back in 2015.

Just 5 years ago! It was so diddy. I do very little to it, I throw some chicken pellets on in the spring, water it in the summer and that's it!

The Rostrata has also gone mental. I think had I realised how much hardier than the rest, this is I would have planted it at an end.

A couple of losses, I need to check what they were, but I always have losses in this area. I' beginning to think its where the wind whistles through and I think just hits them. Its impossible for rain to get here so thats the only reason I can think of.

I never protect my banana's (Ensete), I get fed up of all the straw blowing around, plus it has to come through my house. As you can see they are still upright. Normally they would be mush. They are root hardy so always come back. It will be interesting to see how they grow this year, I have never had any come through like this before!

Just looking back up the garden on this beautiful day.

Just to top the day off, we had our first bar b que. Well you have to do things that make you happy when your in lockedown!!!

I Love my Greenhouse

I can spend ages in it, I only wish it was bigger. That is what all greenhouse owners say no matter what size of greenhouse they have. I love the earthy damp smell in there.
I have surprised myself this year by only having a minimum temp of  5C, the thermostat was set at 7C which has given a very steady 5C continuously and so far everything has come through fine.

My Hiniba pups after a bad month, they all looked like they were going to die, but hopefully seem to be improving. It has been difficult trying to second guess what they needed, as too much water would just rot away the roots so a light liquid seaweed feed, seems to have helped.

 and there is rather a lot of them.

I have potted all my dahlia tubers up into damp soil, quite scary just how many I have.

There are also some Elephants ears (Colocasia) in amongst them.

This year I overwintered my Ensetes in two different ways, after listening to some 'tropical' friends. Usually I dry store mine, digging them up, trimming and washing the roots then storing them upside down so no water gathers inside and rots them. This has been successful for me over the past 10+ years, but latterly (The past two winters) when I have planted them in the spring to restart them they have either failed to get going or have rotted at the base.
This year bearing in mind I had some very newly grown Hiniba which only had a small trunk, (they say if you get your finger a thumb from both hands to form a circle around the trunk, then it is too small to over winter dry). So whether I wanted to or not I had to store some in their pots.

As you can see they have not done too badly. It has been relatively mild so they have had a small amount of water but not a lot.

I have just potted up the dry stored Ensete the two on the right

the one in the middle was stored in its pot and as you can see with just a small amount of water is already romping away. The one on the left of this is a dry stored one.

It will be interesting to log the difference in them getting going but already it looks like the pot stored ones will be the easiest. I have found in past years when I start the dry store ones off, in very slightly damp compost, they seem to have to think about getting going and it can take quite a few weeks. The problem here is you feel you 'have' to water them and this can be when they start to rot.

When I was digging out in the autumn my Fuschia arborescens was still flowering and it was such a pretty shrub, but sadly not hardy for me. This was the first year I have tried it, so as I had some room in my greenhouse, I cut it back severely  took cuttings and hoped.

Here it is today and the cuttings have done well too.

I also over winter Lobelia Tupa and took cuttings and you can just see them to the right in the photo above looking good.

I bought a beautiful Salvia Amistad from Sarah Raven, I really love her plants, always very healthy and although I am sure she does mass produce them they are of a far better quality than any of the other companies I have bought from, but they do come at a price. So thinking ahead (very rare) and trying to save a few pennies, (also rare) now hubby has retired, I took a load of cuttings, which have been doing really well until this month!

They are watered and I have given a very small liquid seaweed feed, mmmmm?? We can but hope.

Just to show just how mild the winter has been.... my Musa Basjoo are still upright! I never wrap them, I could and maybe should but bringing a bale of hay through my house (I have no rear access) does not inspire me to do so. If they die back they are root hardy and will soon romp away again.

The first frogspawn, a bit late, but we have some!

I am off to look at plant catalogues as I need to find something that will out do the bush sunflowers I had in the front last year,they were magnificent, continual flowering, the bees, loved them...

but they required more support than I had allowed for and so collapsed quite early (Sept), But they where spectacular and lots of people stopped and asked me about them. So we will see.........