Autumn has arrived

I haven't posted for ages, I have been so busy doing my Millionsteps, which I achieved raising £404 for DiabetesUK feeling very proud of myself.

So whats been going on..........

well the small treefern has decided to grow, a bit late, but its alive, I just have to keep it that way during the winter.

I have a new Canna, it is stunning, not only does it have stripy flowers it has stripy leaves and stem too. Canna Cleopatra.

The Amaranthus excelled itself this year and is a definate for next year too.

My Hiniba propagation continues, how I will get these through winter I have no idea as they are far

too small to dry store, but I have a plan....

which involves a very well insulated greenhouse

our old neighbours have now moved out and our new neighbours are now in. The lady of the house runs her own gardening business, how exciting is that, there have been quite significant changes already...

The bay tree that has got quite enormous

has gone, well not totally but it has been chopped back to below the height of the wall.

I am sure you will remember the hedge that was the other side of the new fence and for the 10 years our neighbours lived there it looked like this, sticking up a good 2 -3ft above the fence line.

J the new neighbour asked to come and look round my garden, she must have noticed because it has also now disappeared behind the fence. It is still there but has been reduced severely, and the 

difference it has made is amazing, there is so much light coming in. It will be interesting to see if it is maintained at this height, fingers crossed.  She has bonfires going all day everyday, which is a pain but to be honest I shall keep quiet for now.
Well thats it for the mo, back later in the month, hopefully.

A Beautiful Day in Shirt Sleeves!

Glorious day today, so I spent it in the garden sorting things out and generally tidying up! It was so warm I was able to work in just my shirt sleeves, so lovely.

First of all I set up my propagater, gave it a good clean, set it up on my new staging.

My new grow lite

LED, excited to get going.

I am waiting whilst the soil/compost warms up. I have moved it in from the shed, so will take a few days.

The bananas, always look awful at this time of year, you can never tell if they have made it through the winter or not until I start them off in April.

Everything else is looking good and healthy,

 I scrubbed all the moss off the decking, it still needs jet washing and its still like an ice rink but I am working on that!
I also went round trimming back bushes, hedges etc. Trying to decide what needs to be dug out to make way for some shrubs I am planning on moving.

I have found out why Darcy goes mental some mornings charging round the garden, we have rats again!! We used to get them a lot when we bred guinea pigs and had chickens but haven't had any for quite a few years, bit difficult to deal with when they are out in the garden, I would put poison down but with the dog around probably not a good idea.

The big surprise was the Gunnera, I have never had it sprouting so early. I protected it differently this year, covered it with its leaves then propped a wheel barrow over the top, but in such a way there is air circulation. This is its first year here, if you remember I moved it last year away from the pond. Maybe it prefers this position. Only time will tell.

The view of my garden and everyone elses and the countryside from my bedroom.

Keeping Busy!

Trying to keep myself busy so I don't think! Spent it on the bottom patio cutting back the neighbours over hanging hedge. Their neighbour the other side has kept his hedge down below fence height, such a shame they don't follow suit. That 18 inches make a big difference to light levels.

They said they would be replacing the fence at the beginning of the year, the panel on the right in the picture above is just propped up, it is so rotten it won't stay in. Anyway we are still waiting!!

The climbing hydrangea that grew up the panel closest to hubbies office decided to die, so I have taken it off the fence and chopped it right back. It may very well grow back, but we will see.

In the meantime I may paint the fence again, as I still have some paint left, shame to waste it!!

My eldest daughter bought me some 'prostrate Rosemary' which I have planted in amongst the lavender, hope it does well here!

Not sure I have shown you the pond from this angle. It really needs a good clean out, should have been done last year, but I ended up having to go 'oop north' to look after my mum after she had a fall and broke her hip.

It is true what they say, if you dig a pond, no matter what, double the size. I wish we had!

My bromliards seem happy and have grown, they where quite small at the beginning of the season.

some flowers..... hiding!

I started growing Cleomes about 2 years ago, I am so glad I did, they are such a beautiful and delicate flower. The added bonus are the seeds. Which grow the same colour as the flower they are taken from!

Finally these leaves are the reason I grow tropical plants, I just love the huge leaves!

Last Day of June

I cannot believe it is over 2 weeks since I last posted. What a lot has grown since then. The weather has been wet and humid, ideal for my jungle, I think you will notice a big difference between now and my last post!

Excuse the old chair in this pic, its due to be broken up and put on the Chimnea.

See what I mean! How things have grown. I am being really good and feeding everything like crazy this year, I hope it pays off.

There is a BIG difference here! My left had neighbour has cut her hedge back to fence height!!! You could knock me down with a feather. I could not believe it when I went out earlier this week. She is usually very reluctant to chop 'anything' back. All I can say is WOW! It brings sooooo much light into my jungle now. Wonder what she wants me to chop back?

Can't believe how big the Hiniba is already, especially after such a slow start!

I had been wondering if my Butia palm had been growing, so I marked it the other week and as you can see it is growing. Looking a bit yellow so it obviously needs some type of feed at the moment! Will look into that and see what is needed.

My lovely, lovely Arid bed! I do love this, I have put some masks on the fence for fun!!

I think I may have worked out why my Agave is not doing well......... ants!!! It has been a big problem in the Arid bed. Anyway I dug it out and boy did the little blighters bite!! Never had that before. So gave it a good soak, a feed, haircut and new pot! Will give it a while and see how it goes.

 

Looks better already!

 
I just love the colour of this... yep, I have no idea what its name is, as it came minus a label. Sadly its flowering, but I have removed some of the leaves , so fingers crossed they may take.

My very first Agave, is magnificant, just love the markings on it, looks so healthy.

I went out the other day to collect a cactus I 'won' on Ebay for £3.50. Came back with £25 of cactus and succulents!! As you can see my collection is growing lol!!

I Love My Garden!

So much so, I spent 6 hours in it today!!!

Currently this is my favourite part,

the plants seem to be enjoying it as well as quite a few are really going for it!

I think this is a Dalek, if it dares to flower when I'm not around there will be trouble!!!

So after getting my brand new knee brace I went via a garden centre to pic up some more 'Slug Gone'
I had bought a small bag a couple of weeks ago to try on a couple of my hosta's  and boy it works. I have tried everything from copper tape to vaseline and I saw these wool pellets and thought well I'll give them a go.
This was very slug eaten, so I have chopped off the awful leaves and I will show you again in a few weeks!

I then planted my tomatoes into individual gro-bags. Also today I decided to sort this area out

Ta da!

Still have to sought out the solar pump for the ball pool though!

Slowly getting the bottom patio back, just need to trim the neighbours damn hedge!! I believe if people want to grow a hedge they should maintain both sides!!!