So the thing is .....

 

The weather has calmed down at last and while the sun shines it is lovely and the Cosmos is still flowering ....

I have sown sweetpeas in here and sprinkled seeds from the Cosmos .

I will soon wrap the whole wigwam with frost fleece   .

    ......Dahlias and the African Daisy .....

                ...Roses ....

Osteospermums positivly basking in the sunshine ☀️ 

Echiums are looking great ......

               ......and there are more Echium seedlings popping up in the lawn .

I will be lifting these and planting them in other places around the garden .

                .......Impatiens tinctoria ....are loving the sunshine too  .

                        Lots of buds still to come .

   By the way , this is not the awful invasive Himalayan Balsam / Impatiens glandulifera , that fires it's seeds like bullets out of a gatling gun ! 😱

🕊️ Mine is the very lovely and very well behaved Impatiens tinctoria / Dyers busy lizzie  .🤍

It grows as a clump and has beautiful white flowers fushed with crimson .

🦋 The bees and butterflies love it ! 🐝

I have never yet tried dyeing cloth with it . The dye is extracted from its tubers , which are rather like Dahlia tubers and it is used in Ethiopia by women who dye their hands and feet with it rather like Henna for ceremonies like weddings etc .

Depending on how it is extracted and mordanted the dye can be either black or an intense red . I like the sound of " an intense red " ; one day I'll have a bit of an experiment with it ! ........cloth .... not my hands and feet ! 

So all these things are doing fine and will only die down after we get frost . This is fine and it's just what these plants do .

However ...

I am worried about my Beauty of Bath Apple tree which really shouldn't be flowering now .

These will almost certainly seccumb to the cold as we go forward into November .

 And then what will happen ?    Will they flower again in the Spring ? Or maybe not produce any fruit at all next year . Such a shame because this is a lovely sweet eating apple . 

  The nights are becoming much colder now , tonight will be down to 5 degrees C .

I will be keeping an eye on the temperatures and get ready with my cloches to put over the Agaves and sacks to throw over the crown of my Tree Ferns . 

Poor old Tree Fern . It was beaten up something awful by Storm Goretti . I did manage to get all of the Ivy off it and it should start to look better next Spring when it puts up some nice new crosiers /fiddleheads . 

                  Little Monkey Puzzle tree is happy whatever the weather .

                                     Peace and Love 🕊️🤍

                                                      Debbie 💐 x 

Survived Storm Austen - Musa Basjoo Update - Protection Cornwall

 

                                                      Musa basjoo

We survived ! ⛈️😱🌧️I checked all around the cottage this morning and everything looks a bit battered but o.k as far as I can see .

So my Musa basjoo is about three years old now and this will be it's second winter planted outside . It is the (for Cornwall) left in the ground most hardy one !

It came through the terrible Storm Gorretti earlier this year ,with a simple cloche over it held down by bricks .

This year it is quite a bit taller . I fixed up a double row of pig-wire and plastic trellis fastened down with some metal rods . 

I placed three old compost bags in between them as a windbreak . 

I thought that would do it ...but as the storm winds picked up I decided it needed something more !

                              I pushed Rosie up alongside . 

That is one heavy wheelbarrow . I can hardly manage to push it even when she's empty !

So after one very wild night , I can see that the biggest leaves have shredded in the wind . . . but they are designed to shred in the wind . The two new leaf shoots look fine . 

 I will see if I can make the windbreak a bit taller . As it gets colder and those shredded leaves wither away , I,ll then be able pull a cloche over the top  of it . We have milder winters here ( though you still need to wrap up warm ) and when the winter sun shines it would not be good for it to have the cloche over it all of the time .

Generally the older and bigger the plant is , the more hardy it will be over the winter months .

You might be lucky , leaving these in the ground , but far safer to take them up and get them under shelter .

    Musa ensete "Maurelii" are all potted up in lovely fresh compost and dragged into the woodshed . I did this on the 23rd September so that they have time to adjust and get their roots down before going dormant .

 I will lash on polystyrene all around the tubs as the weather turns colder .

                                        Snug as a bug in a rug !

It is still blustery here and I think Storm Boelo will be causing havoc up north this time .

       I have just hung some washing on the line , double pegged everything !

Take care in these Storms , especially on the roads,  stay home if you can .

                             Love and Peace 🕊️🤍

                                         love Debbie 💐x

Still Waiting for Storm Austen - Getting prepared ⛈️🍁🍂

 Torches , matches and candle lanterns on the table .... Ricardo made a delicious spaghetti bolognese and cooked up extra mince to have as a shepherd's pie tomorrow ...possibly cold if the power goes off in the storm ....still delicious !  

 Storm Austen is expected to hit at around 3am tomorrow morning . We are on the Lizard Peninsula  .  So it is very likely going to be a very rough night . 

We have been busy putting away the garden furniture ....dragging in the big furniture into the garage and this table and chairs I managed to squeeze into the greenhouse and I might get a few more plants in there  .

I dragged the Spuds in Tubs under cover in the woodshed . Some of these potatoes will be used on tomorrow's Shepherd's Pie . 

I reorganised the woodshed and was delighted to find a nice pile of kindling that I'd forgotten about . I filled my basket .

  I'll light the fire later on , to get the cottage cosy and warm before the storm .

And now we are being told that there is another storm coming in , straight after Storm Austen ..... Storm Boelo .

I think we are as ready as we can be now .

 

I think pretty much everywhere in the U.K. will be feeling the wrath of this storm , so take care and keep safe .

                        Peace and Love 🕊️🤍

                                   Love Debbie 💐 x