Frantic February !

 Oh ! My goodness ! It is March tomorrow !  We are frantically planting , cutting back bushes , coppicing Willow and Hazel to make for a nice thick native species hedge for the wildlife . Also for a good windbreak between our meadow and our  neighbours field .  They have horses over there and I am so grateful to them for putting up that white tape to stop the horses eating our young saplings while the hedge establishes .

 The Willow and Hazel I am coppicing right down and these nice straight branches will make great bean poles and hopefully there will be enough to make a new low fence around our vegetable garden .

There will be lots of branches to run through our old shredder , if it still works that is , not used it for quite a few years .

I have been planting young Copper Beech , Oak , Hawthorn and others along the rickety old fence . Buying a couple more as and when I can afford them . Also growing some from nuts and seeds that I,ve found on our walks .

I planted in a couple of Hawthorn/ May Trees , not to cut into the hedge but to enjoy their pretty blossom and for the bees to enjoy ...but last year I noticed that one of the branches had grown through the wire fence .....I tried to pull it back through and the branch snapped .   I stamped my foot and cried .....pulled myself together.....

 ...... found some parcel tape to bandage it together with and if you look at the last picture again , you can see how well the tape lasted and the branch has new leaves coming !   It is still growing through the wire fence , but now I am going to cut through the wire to release it ....... phew !

                                 More bush cutting in our vegetable garden .
         I have another Monkey Puzzle tree  ( which I grew from seed )to plant into this space which I think will look quite spectacular in the future .

 Goodness me  my arms are aching , but we really need to get the hedgerow in here back into shape ....the hedge on this side shelters the vegetable garden from the North and cruel East winds .

So the garden looks very untidy at the moment...oh..here's the compost heap ...someone is going to get a good telling off for putting that broken sheet of corrugated plastic there !  grrr !

After I,ve trimmed the branches into bean poles , fence posts and fire wood/kindling ,the next job is to cut back and re-establish the pathway through from here the vegetable garden , down into the ornamental garden ...and it is important to get all this done now before the birds begin nesting .

I  had a lovely surprise the other morning when I opened my kitchen door and found the Cornish Piskies had been and left me a gift of two beautiful crystals !
 I am so delighted and cant stop smiling all day !
Oh ! What lovely warm and sunny weather we are having ! Thankful ! I hope you are enjoying nice weather too . xxx
     

Lettuces - first to germinate .

                               A few clouds at sunrise this morning .........

          ....... but soon turned into another glorious sunny day here in Mullion .
                                                   

 Spring blossoms delight us in  the beautiful Coronation Park Boating Lake in Helston ,  although I am horrified ........and deeply saddened that they have pollarded the beautiful Liquid amber trees  .
                                         Moving swiftly on .....

As I walk up to the greenhouse I notice things happening in the solar shed window ..... I only sowed the lettuce seeds 8 days ago  .

A better picture from inside shows that all the Lobjoits Cos Lettuces and the unknown red variety in the middle are up....but no sign of the Little Gems .
 I think it almost certainly is because they are too far back from the window . I have sown a few more and turn the tray round..Lettuces need light to germinate and this demonstrates it very well .

 I am starting my onion sets off in modules this year , just in case that " Beast from the East " should come prowling around again . They are getting their roots down and one or two little shoots showing .

    The Swift Potatoes are looking happy beginning to sprout in their crate .

We rarely get snow here , but this was picture was taken on around the 28th February last year .
   This was the "Beast from the East "  .  It snowed very heavily here and over quite a few days..We're not used to weather like this here !

 I had begun to sow my seeds and was very worried about them....but they all came through just fine . I put the seed trays raised up on thick polystyrene sheets and one of those car window sun screens to reflect the light ..... now....I,m just thinking ..I need to dig that out and rig it up behind the seed trays again !
       I,m off to that right now and light the 8hour candles in the greenhouse to take the chill off tonight .
                                                  Cheerio  ......

                                               Berberis Darwinii

Another Glorious Day - Sun shining ,blue sky in Mullion !

Blessed with a second glorious warm and sunny day . Feeling happy and refreshed after our day away in Charmouth .

Up in the greenhouse and the Solar shed my lettuce seeds are beginning to germinate . I give everything a good misting early in the morning .

                    The wild Primroses are appearing in the hedgerow .

 Vinca Major always has a few flowers here and there to delight us .

                   My pretty miniature Daffodils sparkling with dew .

                                The Robin is following me around ....

     ...... watching and waiting for a worm or two , as I dig that big Rose Dorothy Perkins clump out .
 I have covered the Rhubarb with a compost bin to force some nice big stems .
  The Under Gardener did his bit on his ride on mower and we used the grass to mulch it over with ....maybe a bit late now but I can always pull it back to sow and plant if need be .
    Another good day !

Did you enjoy St Valentine's Day ?

 I hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day , this is how our day went .

                              Wednesday the day before Valentine's Day .
 We had been working hard out in the vegetable garden. Trying to prepare this one last bed for the next season . The bean frame had to come down....this always makes me  feel a little sad ....and as I took it apart my under gardener  took great delight in cutting it all up for kindling and actually it wouldn't have been able to bear the weight of another crop of Runner-beans .
    I had planted a small cutting of Rosa Dorothy Perkins here a couple of years ago , and while I had been out of action due to quite a major health issue , it had really got away and become a large clump . I did think that it would look lovely growing on the Bean frame together with the Runner-beans and thought it would be no trouble to pull out at the end of the season  ....  very silly me !
 What you can see here is after we'd lopped down all the very long climbing and trailing stems . Dorothy Perkins fortunately doesn't have a lot of thorns , but the ones it  did have , managed to tangle in my hair, scratch my face , snag my jumper and pierce my thumb .....got most of it out....but it's still very sore .
   We still hadn't got the blooming rose clump out and we were both tired and fed up and the wheelbarrow was full of rose branches..so we decided to leave it for now , have a cup of tea and come back to it later .



 I pulled up the very last of my leeks to have with our dinner later .
As  I wheeled the barrow of rose branches over to the bonfire/compost heap , I wondered to myself how long it  would take for my newly sown Leek seeds to germinate...I sowed them just the other day all mollycoddled on the windowsill of the Solar Shed .
 As I tipped the wheelbarrow up to empty it , to my great surprise I noticed this huge clump of Leeks growing there !

They must have grown from a seed head that I had cut off and discarded onto the heap back at the end of Summer and being thrown on to  the South side as you can see they have done really well .
 It seems we can grow them all year round here on the Lizard !

They look like the variety of Leeks called Jaune de Poitou which I had grown last year .
 So that was a nice surprise ....and more work though as I then had to dig them up and replant them into the African Keyhole bed where I,m growing all the oniony things this year .

I grew all my Squashes and pumpkins in here for two years in a row..it needed a rest .

The onions are doing really well but the garlic-bulbs that I was sent were very small and I don't think they'll come to much .
So then very tired I dug a big hole and dropped the clump of lovely newly discovered Leeks into it , heeled them in and that was that , as I had no energy left in me to separate them or even think about what to do with them today .
  Went in for my dinner and long soak in the bath .

.........and then it was Valentine's Day and the sun was shining and the sky was blue and the under gardener swept me away to Charmouth for the day !
                It's o.k.... lol !....he's also my loving husband !

....and what a beautiful day we had hunting for fossils along the beach towards the Golden Cap .

                                      ... and explored Iron Age forts ...

           .......and he took me to Groves Nursery , where we enjoyed Sweet-potato Soup and the most delicious bread and butter ... and he bought me an Epiphyllum to add to my  collection ...you don't often see Epies for sale at Garden centres or Nurseries but they have some really interesting plants for sale in their conservatory , Orchids, Tillandsias, Cacti, Succulents , Ferns ......I got a grip and just came away with the one plant ! One very happy girl !

          We drove past Colmer's Hill ....we'll climb it next time we visit .

                                     Dorset countryside is beautiful .

                    Drove through Chideock past pretty thatch cottages .

On to have a quick look at Lyme Regis .

Then we drove home to beautiful Cornwall , taking photographs of the majestic trees all the way along !

                 The shadows getting longer across the fields and meadows  .

                                            .....as the sun went down ...

                  ...over the trees and pylons , glistening streams and rivers.....

                                  Shining through the branches .....

                Appearing to set then rise again as we past each hill ....

 I love this circle of trees that we always pass and I look out out for every time we go this way .

....and the Sun set was just such a fabulous ending to our lovely day .