🐌Just Weeding again 🌿🤗🌿🐌

 Not a lot to show you today . ☀️While the sun shone yesterday I gave the labyrinth it's third cut of the year and already it is looking much better .  

Today the weather is on the turn yet again . Very damp and mizzley .🌧️🌧️

I am tired after all the gardening I did yesterday . 

 I try to do a little bit everyday .

 I covered the Dahlia bed with some earth , mixing in some chicken pellets to give them a bit of a boost . Some of the tubers had become exposed after all the torrential rain . I should have given them a much thicker mulch back in the Autumn .....but that was when I had my spine injury  and I had no choice but to let go .

 Then I started to try and rake out the weeds growing through this Aloe . 

You may remember I did work on this bed back in the Summer .

Using this rake tool was useless , I ended up on my hands and knees  , to pull out miles and miles of Ivy and the occasional ouch... bramble .

 I don't wear gloves ....but I may have to go back in with gloves and actually  I think I will have to go back in and prize the bramble roots out with my big garden fork .

Annoyingly the brambles have chosen to grow right on the edge where the bed meets the lawn !

 I'll sort that out tomorrow . 

                    Ivy so hard to get to ! 

Big heap of weeds , which I have left on the lawn  to wilt . 

 I'll pick them up tomorrow .

I pulled off a couple of pieces that were beginning to walk across the lawn .

Just look at those gorgeous roots !  

 Gorgeous !  🤩

I will probably plant this somewhere else in the garden .

I got several pieces that I can make cuttings from to give away . 💚 They have lovely flowers in the Summer which butterflies and the bees love   🦋🐝🐝🐝

Meanwhile in the woodshed .......

......everything looks a little sad to say the least .  The Musa ensete maurellii is beginning to wake up after I gave them a little water the other day .

They wont be planted out until May , but can start into growth again now undercover .

This too looking very sad , I will start giving these a drink and some plant food soon .

This is/was a Peony ...... 😱........

....... but look !   There is a beautiful new shoot coming up in there !  🤩

More Agave americana variegata  . They have been kept dry over Winter , no water at all . I will repot these with fresh compost and later on I'll show you how they soon plump up and double in size .

So there we are , no pretty pictures to show you today I'm afraid .

The weather update - so now ,  🌧️it is forecast to rain and be mizzly forever ! 🌧️ For the next two weeks anyway .  🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️

                       Great !!   Easier to pull the weeds out !  🤗🌿🐌🐌

                                 Peace and Love  🩷

Sunshine ! ☀️

                     What did I tell you  ? !!!  🎶🎵 There'll be Sun !!🎶🎵

I want to have a bonfire but can't because Jessie's incredible Giant Echium is too close !

That monster must be eight feet tall !  It should be flowering soon and then it 'll be twice as tall !

Then off to prune and tidy up my little Pear tree and make a start on the Apple tree .

  It's the Ivy that is the main problem here ....but  I will sort it ! 

There's something very therapeutic about ripping off Ivy...I should do it more often !

The Ivy has made such a mess , but now it can get some air in there and dry out . 

I will go back and pull out any Ivy that is growing around the base tomorrow .

It is a right pain . I need to get the Ivy off my tree fern too . 

           ⛈️🌧️🌧️🌿🐌 2026 Year of Ivy , Slugs and Snails 🐌🌿🌿⛈️🌧️🌧️

I lopped off the water-sprout shoots and a couple of branches that were crossing over one another .

 Branches removed , it looks much better and will grow better .

I like to prune the apple trees myself , I know what I'm doing and we always have beautiful apples . 

I am a little late but it had to be done .

 I made a good start on the apple tree but will do some more work on that tomorrow .  

The Pear and the Apple trees will soon be flowering . 🍏💚🍐

A few pics from around the garden . I am in love with Hellebores at the moment . 🩷

                                Musa basjoo   ( the Banoonaah 🍌🐒🤣)

 So far , it seems to have survived the worst of the wild Cornish winter weather  .

 This was it's first year left in the ground . In the end  I had a cloche over it to protect it while we were having the big storms . It had a vent which I tied open to let the air circulate . The beautiful red bricks are what I use to hold the cloche down with ...in case you were wondering .

 Musa ensete "maurellii " the red  leafed bananas are still under cover , and I have started to give them a little rain water . It's time to start waking up ......but very gradually .

Today I noticed the Arum Lily is starting to flower ...but of course this has really enjoyed all the rain .

 In a really cold winter , this will completely die back . It's been fine this year .

I brought the washing in off the line and did two more loads and got them dry on the line also ! 

I took the remaining tomato , cucumber and sweet pepper plants up to the shed . ..to join all the others .

The plant labels finally arrived from Amazon , so now I can label everything .

And more seeds arrived from Premier Seeds  Direct 🤗💛😃

 

I think we're off for a walk now while the sun is still shining ....sort of.....maybe clouding over a little bit now . ... who cares ...it's been a beautiful morning ! 

                                              ☀️🌤️🌥️

                     p.s. They are saying it's going to turn cold again  ❄️😒

Sansivieria cuttings - Propagating 🌿(fingers crossed 🤞🏻)

     Sitting in the car at Pendennis Point with our coffee , looking out to sea .

 You can just make out the sea , at the bottom of the photo ... through the fog .

We took a drive over to Penryn  . 

Wow ! How Penryn has changed !    Husband's grandparents lived in a house on the Square .              His grandfather was A.J.Thomas  a great Cornish rugby player .  His grandparents wouldn't recognise the place now ! 

It was St Piran's Feast Day a couple of days ago .So it was a nice time to remember a bit of our Cornish family history .

    He's the good looking one standing on the right , with his muddy knees !

Anyway ......

Then Ricardo wanted to go to B&Q for some boring bits and pieces  and while he'd gone to get them I went off to look at the plants and wild birdseed  . 

 I came across a trolley with half price plants .....which even at half price I couldn't really afford ....but then I noticed these broken bits lying at the bottom of the trolley  .

 I plucked up courage to ask the nice lady if she might do me a little deal on them for me and she said she'd ask Diana ......and Diana said " Oh! Go on then !"    🤩🎉🎈🎊🎉...  SO kind !

Thankyou Diana 💐, you have no idea how happy this made me today . I haven't stopped smiling ! 

                            FREE !!   Very very happy me !

  I seem to remember that these can easily be rooted in compost or water ....not sure and this plant is a fairly new one to me .  

My mother had one , I think they were quite a fashionable plant to have in the sixties and seventies .

I suppose I have been more into cacti and succulents .

Two of the pieces had a bit of a stump at the bottom and maybe a very tiny bit of a root .

And one single leaf , which was rotten at the bottom .

To begin with I hastily potted the two bigger pieces in compost that was too wet . I had been thinking about what to do with the leaf .

I sent a message over to my botanical brother and he advised me that I can cut the leaf into segments and dusting with a bit of hormone rooting powder , making sure to plant the lower side of each leaf into gritty compost . Growing side upwards . 

He told me that this is an African plant ......and it actually needs to be in very well drained gritty earth . 

So this is a sort of succulent and needs to be treated as such . 

So , I pulled the plants carefully out , tipped the damp compost out and replaced it with some of the dry gritty earth that I had left over from repotting the Agaves yesterday . I had just the right amount left !

There is plenty of horticultural grit in there !                 All potted up !

That's a fossil I found on out last trip to Charmouth . I was sorting out all the bits and pieces I had put into my coat pocket . It's the top sticky up bit of a vertebra of an ichthyosaur  !  It's not much , but I'm pleased with it .

I digress !  

So here are the three pieces that I gave the snip to ✂️ Chonk ! Very satisfying ! 😷 🤣

I repotted the the two large ones and I think the three sections are looking quite professional , don't you agree ? 

I hope they will be o.k. I have put them at the front of the bench in the shed but I might bring them indoors .

I will do a bit more research on them ..Sansivieria trifasciata var laurentii  .....also known as Snake plant ...Mother in law's tongue ...... 

I dug over one of the vegetable beds again , to encourage better drainage and put the cardboard back over the top . The Robin and the Blackbird had a feast while I was doing this . It makes me happy to see them hopping about around my feet .

I hung washing on the line this morning hoping the sun might come out  . It stayed foggy all day .

I have left it all out on the line and there it can stay . I'll bring it in next week !  🤣

                              Hope you had a beautiful day ! 

                                        ☁️☁️☁️☁️☁️

                🎼🎵🎶The Sun'll come out.....tomorrow ! 🎶🎵🎶