So the next day ........

                      The sun came out and I pulled my wellie boots on !

 Grabbed the mop and bucket and set to washing the greenhouse and potting shed windows .
I decided to try and do one section from the inside too .

 As the weather was so nice , I was able to take all the plants outside while I did this .  Surely all this stretching and bending will be whittling away my waistline !

            Izzy wizzy , Lets get busy !   Now who was it that used to say that ? :)

What a beautiful day , not the slightest breeze, warm t-shirt weather !

                  I threw lots of rubbish into the incinerator and got it going .

                                           Then , more exercise  !

                                      Sparkling clean windows !

                 More bending and stretching to put the plants back in .

                                                      My peaceful place .

  I sat and watched the smoke curling up into the sky, mesmerising . I took far too many photos of that !

Ran indoors to fetch my two pots of Cucumber seedlings on the windowsill upstairs .

           Time to prick them out and pot them on into the next size pots.

   Other seeds beginning to germinate . It will be good  to have our own salad leaves again in the coming weeks .
No sign of the Tomatoes yet though .

 I tidied up the shed and thought while I,m feeling energetic I,ll take a look at the African Key-hole bed .

I had covered it over through the Winter with cardboard to keep the weeds down.

I will be growing my squashes here this year . Butternuts, courgettes and maybe a Pumpkin or two  .

I had recently prepared a bed for my potatoes , which I am going to plant out next week , depending on the weather.
 The potatoes are presently chitting on the study windowsill .
I lifted the cardboard and put it temporarily onto the new potato bed , just to keep the weeds down .

 The earth under the cardboard is just gorgeous and the Robin flew in and had a feast .

 Potato bed covered with cardboard to keep the weeds down until I come to plant them out .

The keyhole bed looking good again, I just need to re-weave the basket around the watering hole in the middle and make a sun hat to go over it to help prevent evaporation . ( expecting a heat wave any time soon ! )

             On my way in, I pulled a few leeks for Leek and potato soup .

 Also checked on the Redwood Tree seeds . Hmm...is this a Redwood Tree seedling or something else ? We'll have to wait for it's first true leaves to know for sure .

 
Came in and enjoyed a nice cup of tea with a slice of Marie Rayner 's "Family Favourite Banana Nut Bread", spread with Nutella . You must check out Marie's wonderful recipes on this link - https://theenglishkitchen.blogspot.com/
  Mmmmm...yummy ....it was such a good day !  I got a load of washing dry and husband painted the garden table and chairs too . 
   Well , that deserves another slice !  :)

Re-potting Cacti and Preparing the greenhouse for Winter .

 Remember this ? I bought it at a boot fair years ago maybe 15 or twenty years ago .
  Two cacti in a heavy glass vase . .... not really the best way to grow them !
I should have re-potted it straight away .... but as you know time flies..and it seems to have been quite happy and has flowered for me many times .

  Anyway , I finally gave myself the kick up the backside to get on and re-pot the poor old thing .

 After sliding a knife aroun the sides of the vase , they both slid out quite easily and I pulled them apart  . . . I wore a pair of thick gloves for this bit  , but then found them easier to handle without gloves , since the roots were so compacted .

   Nice fresh cactus compost moulded around the sides and bottom of the pot .

                              Making a well to gently drop the cactus into .

I managed to do this without getting prickles in my fingers ...because the roots were so compacted , it was surprisingly easy to handle ....with bare hands  !

                I planted it leaning to one side with the babies uppermost .....

                         .......... to give them space to fill out as they grow .

Sadly I couldn't find a nice pot for the other one ...sigh .....so into a black plastic pot for the time being .

    I cut the top off it with the scissors , the part that was dead and crusty ....maybe I should cut it down lower still  ? Cacti usualy respond by putting out new growth ..in this case from the base of the plant .
  It does look a bit rough doesn't it ? I wont be entering it any shows  . However , let's give it a chance to recover .   Plants aren't always perfect out in the wild either and in my opinion that's what makes them so much more interesting !

They look better already and I topped them off with a nice mulch of horticulteral grit .

         So next I have these two Opuntis to re-pot  ....  not so friendly these !

To make things even more difficult the one one the right has leaned over and put roots down into the pot of the one on the left !  The one on the left has particularly vicious spines and glochids .
   I stood and looked at the pair of them ....this is going to be tricky .
Plant them together in one big trough/pot ?    Seperate them ?  I need to give it more thought .
                                              Aah ! Do it tomorrow !  :)

   And with that , I put everything back and continued tidying and preparing the greenhouse for winter .
        To be continued ..........

Rat Tail Cactus -Aporocactus flagelliformis (disocactus)

 A lucky find in a local charity shop and some money towards a good cause  Bolenowe Donkey Sanctuary ....I couldn't believe my eyes ! Aporocactus flagelliformis or also more commonly known as the Rat Tail Cactus ....and I,ve been after one of these for years .You just dont see them around so much these days and they rarely talk about houseplants any more on the gardening programmes ,  let alone cacti and succulents ....bring back lovely Anne Swithinbank !
  It is very wet from a serious over watering , it has quite a lot of dead brown  stems and needs repotting ....

... I can see that it was once very beautiful , it even had a few dead flowers attatched ...it has lovely crimson-pink flowers . I,m sure I can rescue it , if I can just get it to dry out a bit first .

 I snipped off all those brown stems and pulled out all the soggy rotten stems , that were wilting in-between the more healthy ones . I just hope the stems and roots below the surface are alright . No mealybugs thank goodness .

 I have stood it in this plastic  hanging pot and hung it up in my North facing  kitchen window . Hopefully it will recover in the warmth of  my kitchen and then I can just let it go into it's winter dormancy, but I will keep a close eye on it and if it looks like it is getting worse , then maybe , I should repot it in some fresh , gritty cactus compost , before the cold weather of Winter sets in .
   I,m so happy !   Now I have a Rat Tail cactus and a Monkey Tail Cactus
 ( Hildewinteria colademononis ) Two beauties !

Meanwhile out in the garden .....

We tidied the shed and re-organised it , as I do at the end of every Autumn ....o.k so I made a pretty good start ... Cleaning tools and flowerpots , sorting out the ones I want to keep and re-use next year .
 As I tidied , so I came across the bubblewrap cover that I made to go over the outside water tap , to keep it from freezing , cloches and a pile of hessian sacks are now ready and waiting to throw over the crowns of our Tree Ferns should we get a frost warning .
  Most of our tender plants  have been dragged into more sheltered zones and I have 8 hour candles to light up in the greenhouse if need be and newspapers to throw over my cactus collection .
 I still have to dig up my biggest Musa Ensete , which has been fine up until now on a North facing bed . It's outer  leaves are begining to turn yellow in the recent storms , so hopefully with a bit of help , I'll do that tomorrow .
  Hope you're having a good weekend ........by the way ....if you are going to have a bonfire, please dont forget to check for Hedgehogs
                                               ...........and dont forget the clocks go back tonight !

Winterocereus colademononis Monkey Tail Cactus - update

                          Winterocereus colademononis cuttings back 18/04/2017.
                           Generously given to me in a swap from DaveW BCSS .

  Well here they are a year or so later , today they have lots of little shoots coming !
                                                     I,m over the moon !

                                            Mummabear's Cactus Greenhouse

More exciting news..my husband is painting my grotty old greenhouse..we had some cream woodstain left over and thought it would look nice as well as protecting the wood .
 Well the sun is up and shining again here in Mullion , we,ve got a church service (10am St Michael's in Mullion  ) this morning , then will spend the rest of the day pottering about in the garden .....walk the dog and hopefully find time to do some embroidery  .
 Have a great weekend everybody !