Hydrangeas

                                    An assortment of Hydrangea blooms from my garden .

 Jessica and I were talking about Hydrangeas the other day . It not being a particular favourite of mine ......

 ......and she mentioned that she would really love to have a blue one . So I had a look around my garden and found this one  ,  which I think is a Lace- Cap Hydrangea . I have no idea of it's proper name . Maybe someone can tell me  ?

It is blue , with flashes of pink .....but mostly blue . I dont "do" anything to my hydrangeas to make them go any brighter or darker blue or pink than they already are . This one has always been blue .

 So I thought I,d get a cutting rooted for her .  If you'd like to have a go , this is what I do .
 The picture above pretty much shows  how simple it is to do . Here I have cut two  non- flowering stems of about 5 or 6 inches . I took off the lower leaves , which just sort of snap / pop off easily . I pinched out the tiny leaves at the top and cut the really large leaves in half so the plant can cope with the shock better and not wilt too much .
 This will be going back onto my kitchen window for a few weeks until hopefully a few roots appear . I will refresh the water every few days .
 I,ve also prepared another two in the same way , but put them into a pot of multi-purpose compost .
  So now we will just wait and see !

Borecole Kale a late July Sowing

                     21st July 1.30 pm I thought I,d do a final sowing of Kale seeds .
On the seed packet it said "Borecole "...which I have just found out is Kale ....same thing .  Only difference that I can see with this particular packet is that it says I can sow it up until end of July , which is one month later than my last Kale seed packet said .
 Now then , it has been exceptionally  hot here on the Lizard , Cornwall and I think we could well have a storm and some torrential rain with it in the next few days . So rather than have them all washed away , plus the slugs which will then all come out again and gobble them up ,...I decided to sow them indoors on the kitchen windowsill and plant them out when they are a bit bigger . Also I should have more space in the veg garden in a few weeks time hopefully .

                            22nd July 7.30 am and they are germinating already  !

The New Plants

So here are the plants that I bought from Lower Kenneggy Nurseries Rosudgeon .
    We have starting from the one on the left . Aeonium tabuliforme , Pelargonium  " Lady Plymouth  " , Dryopteris sieboldii  which is also known as Siebold's Wood Fern  .
    My friend surprised me by giving me the amazing Aeonium tabuliforme ! Thankyou ever so much Jessica  x
 The beautiful fern is going into the Secret (untidy at the moment ) Fern Garden .
 The sack of Wild-bird seed we each grabbed a sack from Trevena Cross Nurseries  Breage , a bit further up the road , on the way home . It was reduced to £8 or so ..normally £12 or so ...and actually a very helpful young man carried them both out and loaded them into the car for us . So that's the birds sorted for the coming winter .
  Right now , put out bowls of fresh water for passing thirsty birds and other wild creatures.
     Anyway ......

 .......Pelargonium  " Lady Plymouth " is now right by the back door in my kitchen , to brush against and perfume the air .....it sits next to three plastic dinosaurs  , a very rare Clivia variegata which I grew from seed  and a red leafed Tradescantia plant .
       Yes  , that is a Tree Fern outside the kitchen window .    Yes , I know the window needs cleaning .

                                                    Aeonium tabuliforme

      A close up of the wonderful plant that Jessica bought for me  as a lovely surprise !

Lower Kenneggy Nurseries Rosudgeon

One very foggy afternoon last week , my good friend and I took a left turn down a little country lane , somewhere along the main road to Penzance , opposite  a pub called The Coach and Horses ....the sign said " Lower Kenneggy Nurseries "
  My husband would never go this way , fearing that the track would become narrow , go on for miles, no passing places , no where to park  or turn around  and in this fog get confused by the Cornish Piskies  etc .
 My friend being far more adventurous , however said " Dont worry about it ! "  and took the plunge .

We needn't have been worried at all . It isn't very far along the lane and there is plenty of space to park and turn around . And look ....what an intriguing place !

            The fog made us feel like we were exploring in the Amazon Rain Forest  .

                                      A beautiful greenhouse welcomed us in .

                                                     Rare and spiky plants !

                              On the other side , lots of lovely scented Pelargoniums .

 The Scented Pelargoniums and especially the Lemon Scented Pelargonium has been around in my life since my childhood days . Mum always had one on the kitchen windowsill along with the Buzzy Lizzy , Tradescancia , Spider Plants , African Violets and Rubber plant cuttings . I love them and these things are getting hard to come by now .
  Is it that people dont share their plants by giving or swapping cuttings anymore ?
I cant seem to find these once very common house plants any where .
  Some of these Scented Pelargoniums can survive outside here in the far South West of Cornwall . They make a lovely house plant , giving off their fragrance as you brush past them .

 They were all there , mint , chocolate , pine , lemon . I could not believe my luck , as I have been looking for Pelargonium " Lady Plymouth " for ages ...and there it was , and at a sensible price too .

                                  A very happy Lower Kenneggy Nursery bee !

                                            I just adore these dangerous plants .

                                                  Aeonium Tabuliforme

                                                                Agaves

                                                    Aeonium Zwartkop

Outside you can walk around and explore the different types of even more exotic and rare plants . I especially love the ferns .

 If you love the more unusual plants then you must come and visit this sweet and friendly nursery .

         The gentleman owner didn't mind me taking photos ..I do always ask first   .

                         We came away from here very happy with our new plants  .

                                             We will definitely be coming back .

 Here is the link to The Lower Kenneggy Nurseries web site , where there are far more superior  directions to get there , than mine ! Lol !
                          http://www.lowerkenneggynurseries.co.uk/find-us-opening-times/

Making Hay While the Sun Shines ! 2016

 ..........and then the gate was opened ..the time has come to cut the hay .

 Yesterday afternoon , it was fiercely hot . I had to go in and lie down with a cooling  fan on  , it was so hot ! ( I,d been up since 4.30am watering the veg garden  remember ?! )
        I was glad to see he at least had a sun hat on  ! Phew it was hot !

                                            Good bye lovely long grass !

Precious Meadow

 This year , we decided  not to cut the path up to the picnic table....partly because we had so much else to do in both the veg garden and the garden around the cottage , so much to catch up on after me being so poorly for a year and a half or so ...and partly because we felt that the amount of hay that pathway takes up must amount to probably another one or two bales .
 I dont really know , but anyway I have missed ambling along through the long grass .

Missed standing up on the picnic table to see the far reaching views over the gently rolling countryside  towards and beyond Cury ...or just lying there in the long grass watching the night sky , listening nature's evening song .

                                                   Red Clover
I decided that I just had to take a stroll through the long grass before out good neighbour farmer comes to cut the meadow .
I didn't see the wild Spotted Orchids this year ..I know they are there ,but after fertilizer was put on the field the grass grew so fast that they were quite hidden .
This is the first time we have ever had fertilizer put on the field , so it has been interesting to see the results.
 I have been watching for new wild flowers arriving into the meadow ...

                                           Self Heal and Yellow Rattle
It isn't a riot of colour and actually I dont really want it to be..... It must be only native species and these must be edible .

                                                       Noon Day Flower

                                             White Clover

  This teeny tiny yellow flower is this years newbie ..anyone know what it is ?
  It is these simple humble plants which bring in the butterflies and the bees .
 I must pull out my wild flower books and do some revision ..butterflies too ! : )

This year we have seen Stoats , Weazels, bunnies, Shrews , fox , buzzards, Red Kites , Owls, The beautiful and wise Ravens ...sadly we haven't seen the badgers and I repeat ...sadly ....but you may remember that I saw a young Deer in my veg garden ...I wouldn't have got the photo ,even if I,d had my camera with me , it vanished away  so fast and so silently !
   I thought maybe I,d dreamt it ...but my husband was pottering about in his new Solar Shed and said it had been curled up sleeping in the near by long grass , he said they had a fleeting moment of shared eye contact ,before it once again , melted away across the meadow ....but this is SO exciting ! Where has it come from ?

Planting out my last leek seedlings mid July

 You may notice by the ripples under the water-but that we did have a very brief shower of rain , during which I thought I,d get this little job done .
I ,ve had dreadful migraine for most of last week ...so unable to update my journal .
So I actually did this just over a week ago and I,m so glad that I did it because right now we're having some fiercely hot sunny weather .
  You see , leek seedlings should be planted out and in the ground by mid July . I had already planted the main lot out  , so these will give me a good succession in supply . I use a lot of leeks , we love them and they stand so well , out in the ground  , through the winter months .
 The water in the wheelbarrow is water I put into it from the almost empty water-but , not from the rain shower ,which evaporated almost as soon as it hit the ground .

I tipped them out and gave them a swish around in the water to loosen the matted roots .

 Being careful not to get compost between the delicate leaves ...we dont want gritty leeks .

 I think I already mentioned this before ,but I dont trim the roots and leaves as some folk do .

I use this leek dibber  tool to make the holes... it's a bit like a wooden garden fork handle , with metal around the point . I found it in the shed when I moved here .
If you dont have one of these ,  just use a similar sized piece of  stick or spade handle .
 See hoe dry the ground is ?

 So what you do is , you water into the hole , let it drain away , drop the baby leek into the hole , you dont have to back fill as when you then water them all in , some of the earth will fall in around the roots . Actually , sometimes I do put a small pinch of compost onto the roots ...then over the coming months the leeks swell and have lovely blanched stems .
 Some people earth them up and put pipes around them to make the stem taller and even more blanched ....... I dont  and my leeks are always just fine .

                                   So there they are ..poor pathetic little things !
                 They will only really get growing when the cooler weather returns .

I still have about thirty more or so baby leeks left to plant out ....I hate to waste a single one and will slip them in wherever I can around the veg garden .

 Then to weed the Squash bed again  and whilst hanging upside down to do that , some how ,  I get my ear ring caught on the pig wire ...can you see it ?
You can click to zoom in . Yes my ear was attached to the pig wire fence ...mercifully  the rest of me was also still attached ....my husband had gone in doors calling out " Dinner will be ready in ten minutes ! "

It was like one of those magic tricks , where the magician links two rings together and then magics them apart again .....only , I didn't know the magic words to undo it ! With muddy hands I fiddled and fiddled and finally got my ear ring open to release myself .
  Oh my aching back , but my ear still in one piece .

                                         Husband's tomatoes are looking great .

       With the exception of this one ! ..but then wonky vegetables are very trendy at the moment ....we have now actually eaten this extraordinary one and it was delicious  .