🌿A Happy Little Harvest 🌿🦋🐝

                    A happy little harvest gathered from my garden this morning .

           A nice quiet hour tending to the cucumber and tomato plants in the greenhouse  .

                               The sun is shining here this morning 🌤️

                                    A peaceful start to the day  🌿🕊️

Onion harvest 🧅🧅🧅

 

                                Hover-fly and the Great Mullein 

Yesterday was very warm and sunny . ☀️I can't work in the garden when it is this hot  .☀️

I did get a huge load of washing dry on the line , which really pleased me . I don't have a tumble drying machine . 

I also don't have a dishwasher and quite enjoy washing up the old fashioned 🎶"for hands that do dishes"🎶way in my cheerful lime-green washing up bowl full of lemon scented bubbles with my yellow rubber gloves . And through the kitchen window I enjoy watching the blue tits, goldfinches , robins and squirrels on the bird feeders .....and  the occasional woodpecker . The blackbirds come in for grapes here ....then fly over to my friend's garden where they dine on apples and fat-balls ! 

Washing up time , is time to quieten my mind . 

However I do appreciate someone else grabbing a tea-towel and giving me a helping hand .

Sorry - that was a bit of my waffling on  .....

Back out into the garden , I'm enjoying all the wild herbs and this is one of my favourites .

  I love the stately Great Mullein  with it's velvety soft leaves . 

   It pops up wherever it will and the bees love it . 🐝

                     It is my flower of the week !

                        🤍  Looking deeply meditation time 🕊️

Then work to be done .  The weather is changing ...rain coming tomorrow ...may be heavy rain with some rumbles of thunder thrown in......as they say !

I decided to take up the pathetic onions and get them on a rack to dry in the shed . 

If I do a close up photo ....I could pretend they were lovely big onions ! 🤣

   But the truth is ,  they are all just a pathetic bunch of tiddlers !

                                                     lol !

                             The log pile is growing !   We are so grateful !  🙏🏻🤍🌿

While I was taking up my onions , I noticed a couple of parsnips coming up ! 

Very surprised to see them . Of course that little sprunch of leaves might just be only one parsnip !

Made me chuckle ! 

I threw down a whole packet of seeds back at the beginning of March or thereabouts .

I had given up on them ! But now .....well .....  🌧️⛈️🌧️....hmmm ......

Hopefully , if we get the forecasted rain tonight/tomorrow , it might help to germinate a few more !

         ⛈️   Hoping for rain again ...sorry everyone !  ⛈️🌧️⛈️🤣 lol !

                                        Have a great weekend ! xxx 

                                        

 

🌿Meanwhile up in the Vegetable Garden 🌿

 

All is going well ! The slightly cooler weather than normal over the last month or so , has meant I have  been able to be outside in the garden doing things .  I have a feeling that the hot weather will be with us soon .

Time to take up the onions . 

I knew it was a waste of money buying those onion sets and I wish I'd grown even more leeks . 

Leeks are just so much more reliable for me and can stand out to be pulled as and when I need them all through the Winter months .  (note to self - the leek bed needs hoeing again ! )

French beans are beginning to wind themselves up the canes and the Dwarf Beans are flowering .

The Runnerbeans have reached the top of the frame and are blooming like crazy .

The Bees are happy .It is so nice to hear them humming and buzzing around and about the flowers.

I planted out six nice healthy looking Lavender plants to replace the big old bush that was withering and dwindling away and not coming to much anymore . I want lots and lots of Lavender . I want to make Lavender bags .

I think they will look pretty growing all around this pink Rose .

 You can't see them but at the back I have also planted a Curry plant and a hardy Fuchsia , can't remember the name of it  .

I have been so busy with getting the vegetable garden up to speed , it is nice to be able to relax a bit with my herbs . My Herb garden up near the greenhouse needs sorting out . Maybe tomorrow morning, while it's cool , I'll get stuck in to tackling that .

I need to gather the seeds and deadhead the Marigolds/Calendulas . I sowed lots of seeds this Spring and they are all coming up . I think I'll save these seeds for next year .

Other news -

 

I have been waiting over two weeks for a Schlumbergera cutting to arrive in the post . I have been so worried about it  ! 🌿Poor little segment cutting in the post system for over a week and in hot weather too .Anyway , the nice lady sent me a message to say that it had been returned to her address because of a damaged address label and that she would send out another one to me .

It arrived ! Yesterday !  So happy me !

I only ordered one and she has generously sent me two double segments of the one I ordered which is a bit of a special variety that has orange flowers ...and ..another one...I have no idea what colour that one is going to be . I have sent her a message to ask , but not sure if she will get back to me . It is red tinged around the edge . These segments are not really true leaves as such but Phylloclads .

So away we go up to the shed .

Where I get them gently potted up in a mix of multi-purpose compost and perlite .I don't water them in , but just leave them with only the slight moisture that is in the multipurpose compost as it comes really .

 I will leave them until they show some signs of growth before I give them any water . 

 They are now up on my bathroom windowsill , the plants intensive care unit , where I will be watching them like a hawk ! 

 

p.s So there are labels on them S. Aclea which I know is a gorgeous large orange flowering one and S. Agatha which I don't know and can't find anything on the internet about it . 

The Courgettes are coming big time now !

My lovely botanical brother sent me a packet of Geranium maderense seeds ..(.which I didn't think was in my ability to even germinate ! ) I think I now have enough plants to give one each to everyone in the village !! 

Geranium maderense has amazing flowers !

 I think I will plant them out tomorrow .....see if my next door neighbours would like some too .

                                        All fer now !  🌿💚🌿