This makes me so happy ! ☺️🪷

🌿Bluebells🌿

                          The Bluebells looking even more blue today .

                        The Cowslips ....I feel so honoured to have in my garden .

 Have a wonderful weekend and don't forget to go out and watch the Solar Eclipse tomorrow !

Solar Eclipse .U.K. from 9:56 am until 12:14 pm . 

Don't forget to protect your eyes  . It will probably be cloudy here...but there might be some breaks in the cloud .

                                                          🌤️🌑🌤️

Bluebells , Cowslips , Kale and putting up the Bean frame 🌿

                                     The Bluebells are on their way !

                    Cowslips in my herb garden ( which needs weeding )

 Harvested the remaining kale .

Washed it , blanched it , removed the midrib .

Dried it as best as I could . Lay it into two roasting tins .

Into the freezer . Overnight . Bag it up in the morning . Back into freezer, ready to cook , whenever I need it .

Enjoyed a simple Chickpea Curry with rice , garlic naans, mango chutney.....twice this week ....second time with potato also thrown in ! Would have taken a pic of it all beautifully presented on a plate , but we were too hungry and ate it before I remembered ! 

Through the kitchen window .  Beautiful Woodpecker .

However , what we are all looking out for is a Hoopoe , which has been seen in several places in and around Helston and Porthleven  over the last two or three days . 

This caused my husband and I to have quite an argument over how it should be pronounced .

He says it should be pronounced .... Hoo pee .

I said it should be pronounced ..... Hoopoh . 

 Moving swiftly on ......

Thinking about Bean frames .

So I spent most of Sunday afternoon transferring a good pile of my lovely compost .....

........onto what will next become the Runner Bean bed .

And hurt my leg whilst digging it in , forking out one or two big weeds and tidying the edges .

I knew I would probably ache after all that , but the cramp I then had during the night and as I woke up was agony !

So today ....no more heavy work . 

I got this years Runner Bean frame put up .

Slight problem with the Phoenix canariensis palm leaves .

I usually take off a couple of these leaves to help decorate my daughter's front door for Flora Day in Helston .💐  It just made me think . Oh my goodness , that is only about five or six weeks away !

I hope Parc Eglos children and teachers are all practising their dancing !💐

                                               Labyrinth in the background .

So there we are , that job is almost done .  Nice and easy to push in the canes while the good earth is still nice and soft .  I haven't tied the canes to the top yet , one or two minor adjustments to be made  . I'm still not totally happy with it .

Next year my Hazel bushes will be ready to cut some really good and tall rods  .  They were recently coppiced and they didn't save me the branches as I had asked . So that's why I'm using bamboo canes which were not only expensive , but the length I wanted would not fit into the car . 

There will be chicken wire fencing all around this bed to keep the bunnykins out .

But I am aching too much and my leg hurts too much to be doing anymore today .

 Oh ..I did sow a tray of Sunflower seeds ....but that's it now for today . 

 The night's are not frosty as we did have last week ,  for which I an very grateful to , for not having to go up to the greenhouse in the dark to light candles and cover over my seedlings .

 I did sow another lot of cucumber seeds . 

The tomato plants are doing fine and will have some spares to give away soon .

Thinking about window boxes and hanging baskets .

 Get some more compost ready !

                         Spring Onion" North Holland Blood Red " and Primroses .

Primroses growing in one of my vegetable beds . I haven't got the heart to move them .

 Weather - Turning milder now . ⛅The winds have eased up . It has been quite dull and overcast , but now the Sun is trying to come out again . ⛅

 Make it a great week .......and hey you .....get some compost in !  

                                                       🐝💛🐝

❄️Happy Spring Equinox ! ☀️💐

 

 

❄️After a bitterly cold night , I had to rush around uncovering all the seedlings in both greenhouse and the shed as we went forth into a glorious warm sunshiny day ☀️

☀️31degrees Celsius / 87.8 Fahrenheit  on the thermometer and that was first thing this morning !

☀️I gave everything a good drink .

Only one Cucumber from the first wave of sowing has survived ....   no idea why ...so  although it is a bit late now , I slipped a few more seeds in .

Very disheartening ...sigh ....so ...it happens ...got to pick yourself up and keep going . 

🌿 💞The Passion Flowers are doing fine though 💞🌿.      In the same compost !

Coriander is looking great .

Zinnias ......all germinated surprisingly fast and then all passed out ..I managed to save these ....but have only just pricked these out and potted on ...I wouldn't be surprised if they all pass out again and be gone by tomorrow morning .

These did really well for me last year ... I have ordered another brand of compost  and I have another packet of Zinnia seeds waiting in the wings .

The Horseradish plants which looked so pretty ...

...are now changing into rampant monsters.....I will put these into a tub of their own , so they don't become a nuisance . I know ! I know ! You did warn me ! 

 The Tomatoes are looking great and my next job is to get the trays and compost ready for their final potting up under the greenhouse bench . 

Buy in some good compost now !

I will talk more on that in my next posting .

I'm growing -  

T. Alicante     T Roma VT and  T. Cocktail Crush   

It turns out that T. Cocktail  Crush is not the small type that I had thought it was . I usually grow one large variety and one small . I might buy a small cherry type variety of Tomato from a garden centre .

I don't have a lot of room in my greenhouse , so I plant into reusable plastic pot-bags and can then squish and squeeze more in than if I were to use large hard plastic pots .  

🌿 What else is going on in the greenhouse ? 🌿🌿🌿

                                                  The Beauty

 I can see some buds coming on some of the Epiphyllums .

                                                    And the Beast !

One beast of an Opuntia ...it's label , lost long ago . In a huge tub in the furthest corner of the greenhouse .

Next I planted out the seed potatoes that had arrived way too early and that someone recommended I start off in pots in the garage . Which I thought at the time was a bit daft , because I just knew I'd forget about them .

Sure enough I did forget about them and then when I remembered them , they had all gone crazy and I have chopped them back , but now someone else is telling me that this is a waste of time and that they won't come to anything .

 I planted them all out anyway .

I covered them over with compost to about a third of the pot .

Sarpo Mira looking o.k. 

Maybe I could have left them chitting on the egg box for a bit longer , but I really wanted to get on with it . I have so many other garden jobs to be done .

  I am doing the potatoes in tubs so my grandchildren can have the fun of harvesting them when they are ready .

                                      Well ..... you never know !  

      Lol ! ...  but this is what we are hoping for !

Topped up the bird feeders . Nice and clean .

It's really important to keep the bird feeding station equipment clean right now .

 Bird Flu is a horrible thing .

                 I recently gave the bird bath a good scrub . It was disgusting !

                          I promise to clean it out more regularly  .

                                                   Happy birds !  

                                               Happy me !

             Happy Spring Equinox all !  Hey you ! Time to get busy in the garden ! 

p.s. 

Weather forecast ....

                    🌧️⛈️ The rain is coming back tomorrow !   ⛈️🌧️ ......yep ....  sorry  🌧️

Frosty Mornings Still ❄️

                                            Frosty labyrinth 

Still getting the occasional frost . This was yesterday morning . 

It was very cold last night , a bitterly cold Easterly wind . No frost this morning though .

                            Sun is shining  ☀️  Cold East wind blowing ❄️

Just a Quick Saturday Update

 

Good morning . I have had a bad migraine and need to take some time out from the computer for a few days .    Worries .....just worries ....sigh .

Anyway here's a few pics for you  . I cut the pathway in the labyrinth and Ricardo trimmed the walls ....  I was told off for pulling up the Aquilegia that was growing in the middle ...I got carried away weeding and pulled it up by mistake ....I was upset about it too !  I have bought some Anemone corms to plant in it's place , which should be lovely .

A few pics of in the shed ...the Epiphyllums are waking up ,  two varieties of lettuce , Evesham Sprouts , radishes ,  onions and leeks .

                  The Leeks are looking good ...always reliable . L . Blue de Solaise .

 I am not sure if I will do onions from seed this way again in the future ....mainly because I am going to need the space soon for all the salad stuff. Lettuces ,coriander , flowers , cuttings and I'll be sowing my beans and butternuts soon ....I need the space ! 

Note to self -  I need to clean the shed window ! 

A few pics from the greenhouse . Showing how I have been covering the seedlings over at night and uncovering them first thing in the morning . 

Hopefully it should start getting warmer now .

Cucumbers are not liking it . Hope I can pull two or three through .

Roma and Alicante Tomato babies looking good and I will have a few spare to give to my daughter and neighbour. 

Cocktail Crush ....only four have made it . Very disappointed with that one and I already know that I won't be growing it again .

Sweet Peppers - dawdling - looking good though - they are waiting for a bit more sunshine . 

I need a cherry type tomato to replace F1 Super Sweet 100 which didn't do quite as well as it usually does for me last year . I had thought Cocktail Crush would be a good replacement , but now I'm not sure . Maybe it will pick up when I repot them .Supposed to have good flavour . 🍅🍅🍅

I continue to bring back the cacti that are in the front porch , up to the greenhouse . I have lost quite a few , which makes me sad . Some of the Epiphyllums were cuttings from my grandmother's plants . I have no idea where she got them from . Extremely rare plant back then . Some of these are hard to find even today !

                                            Euphorbia stellata .

               Leuchtenberger principis ......a delightfully weird cactus !

Veltheimia bracteata taking it's time to open up her flowers .

I could make it bloom faster by bringing her into my kitchen , lovely but it always gets so tall !

So , this year , here she stays  !

And lastly ......

                                  The Crassula "Buddha's Temple"

My latest acquisition . To replace my lovely big one that went missing . Goodness me this was hard to find ! 

                                                        🌿🪷🌿

                Anyway , that's all for now !               

                                   Make it a great week ! 🦋

                🌿🤍 💐   " May all living beings be peaceful , happy and light "  🙏🏻🤍🌿

                                                      🌤️🌥️☀️         

 .