Heat Wave - Day 2 ☀️

 

 7:24 am ....not as early as I usually am . The hose was sort of connected to the outside tap . As in stand well back from the tap as you turn it on kind of way ...but it'll do !

I will have to disconnect it when the men come to do the drive , but at least for now , I can give the vegetable garden a good drink .

This is only the second time I have used the hose this year  and it is beginning to look as if we may have a hose pipe ban any day . Other areas of the country already have a hose-pipe ban .

Apart from the newly planted Dahlias , I don't usually water the ornamental garden .

I do however water the vegetable garden ,the tomatoes , sweet peppers and cucumbers and rain forest cacti up in the greenhouse .

The hose doesn't reach all the way up there and now the water barrels are empty , so I drag the hose up as far as it will go and fill the watering cans at that point and carry them the rest of the way .

                                              As far as it will go !

While we're here , I can tell you about an upcoming project . My granddaughter and I are going to make a little pond .

I did have one here a few years ago .

It had a huge bumblebee nest underneath it ! Anyway, that one is long gone , those old whisky barrels don't last long . And the second one I bought didn't hold water very well .

Then there was the pond my grandson helped me make .

                   This was SO much fun !

We made this one in my shady and cool fern garden .

       We added pond plants and rocks and a piece of wood so the pond creatures could climb in and out ..........and ......

......we found a froggy to go in it !

So I've ordered a sort of shallow plastic tub , I think it should be arriving today and this is roughly about where it is going to go .  

The children break up for their School Summer Holibobs next week  ! 

It's going to be SO much watery fun !

Then onwards I go , to do the greenhouse watering .

It's about 7:20 am and hot already !

                🌿 Through the greenhouse window 🌿

            I fasten back the door and give everything a really good drink . So hot already !

                                Then into the shed .....

           .......where we have lettuces to eat . I take a couple of leaves from each at a time . Plenty for our salads and sandwiches .

                        Lettuce seedlings to prick out and pot on . 

                 These are practically floating in this bowl of water to keep them cool .

      Four varieties of Kale for our Winter greens ...waiting to be pricked out and potted on .

They will replace the useless onion sets I'm growing out in the vegetable garden . I knew I shouldn't have bought those onion sets ! The Globo giant onions that I am growing from seed aren't looking much better ! I'm so glad I grew more Leeks this year .  Leeks , as they say in America , " Are the way to go !"

I held back one of those Passiflora manicata seedlings . I have not grown these before and am so looking forward to seeing the gorgeous red flowers .

I don't know much about the Passifloras . The seeds germinated easily, I had plenty to give away . I planted some in a big tub outside  . Actually a pink variety as well as the red one . I have read that they can get through our U.K.Winters and come back up the following Spring . We are a little bit warmer down here on the Lizard , but we do get some ferocious storms . I will keep a very close eye on the weather as we get nearer the time .

I thought it could be nice having one scrabbling about inside the woodshed maybe with a grapevine !

Mum's Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri is starting to look like it's coming back . ( about thirty years after a horrible teenager angrily smashed it !) It used to be ten times bigger than this . I tried to re root all the broken pieces , but lost all but one segment . I have been trying to save it ever since .Yes I could easily have gone out and bought another one , but this one was my mum's and maybe even from a piece off my grandmother's one .  It's very precious ... so is the teenager .....sigh ....

Never give up .

A wild flower that I love 💛🌿

These wild things pop up wherever they will ....and I let them !

I love their big silvery soft rosette of leaves that hug the ground and actually stop unwanted weeds .

In olden times the stalk was used for a candlewick .

Bees love it 🐝🐝

                                             🌿  The Great Mullein  🌿Verbascum thapsus 🌿

                                       Lots of beans coming now .

                                  Got to keep picking them !

                                                Tetrapanax papyrifer rex

               Job to do later when it's cooler  -  my daughter has asked for a cutting  .

                          So there is a story about this .....maybe tomorrow 🤣

                                                          ☀️      

                                          So hot ! 

P.S. I had part one of my annual health check ....chat , blood pressure ,weight , height , bloods , etc there will be a follow up at some point .....but... anyway ....

                    ....... all I remember the nurse saying is ..." You've lost weight ."

              Hope you are enjoying the sunshine !

                               Make it a great day !  ☺️  x