Pottering about in the garden .

                                                     Crinum powellii "rosea"

So what do I mean when I say that I,ve been "pottering about in the garden " ? .......
 In the ornamental garden we have two huge clumps of Crinum powellii that give us a beautiful display later on in the summer . It really is a lovely thing in full bloom with the bees buzzing happily around it . I want to move some of it to a couple of other places in our garden .
 Also I had promised a friend a bulb from it .

 So I thought  , today's the day !  I shoved my fork in ..but would it budge ..no !

 I tried again and managed to get this piece off , but the main good strong roots snapped off ... grrrr...cross with myself !  It has got a few tiny roots..if you click to look more closely  ...sigh ! Stupid me !

I have potted it up and hopefully it will grow stronger new roots ....think I'll leave this job till later on in the year ,when we've had more rain . We haven't had any rain for about a month here the ground is so dry now and the water but is empty .

          So then I decide to tackle that very slowly withering Agave potatorum . (  Look , I just had the urge to dig ! )

 It very satisfyingly ....came up and rolled into my wheelbarrow , which I had ready laid on it's side . All I had to do was shove the wheelbarrow together with the Agave , up with my foot.

 I couldn't get a photo though whilst doing this, but here it is in my wheelbarrow . No idea what I,m going to do with it now ! I,ll think about that later .

                                              I rescued the last few pups .

We are slowly re-working the gravel bed . Now to take out the smaller Agave Americana behind . It isn't happy there .

                     The Acer "Bloodgood" is over shadowing it too much .

 So up it came , with very poor roots too and I have replanted it here in a much better place . It looks a little lost at the moment , but should grow much bigger than the Agave pottertorum did eventually .

           Ooh ! At this point ,I stood up and stretched out my poor aching back !

 Stretching out my back and my hands aching , I look around and admire the Tree Ferns unfurling and the Gunnera manicata leaves pushing up .

I give my hands a good wash , go sit in the Summer house with a glass of lemonade and do a bit of stitching ...and have a think about which Agave baby ,up in the greenhouse is going to replace the old one . I have a nice Agave ferox ..or a Dasylirion wheeleri ..or a wicked Aloe ferox ?

Gete - okosomin germination !

 So , after a lovely sunny day again here in Mullion , pottering about in the garden , weeding and tidying .....I go up to my greenhouse to close the windows and light an 8 hour candle..to keep the temperature up just a tad over night .

 I cant afford to run any sort of heater ..but this works for me  and gets my cacti through the winter just fine .... if it is really cold I light two .
 But hang on a minute ! What's this ? One of the Gete-okosomin seeds has germinated ! That wasn't there this morning !  ( Mummabear does a little dance ! )

                           Gete okosomin sown 7th April 2017 moon waxing gibbous.
                           Gete okosomin germination 23rd April Moon waning crescent .

Today's Harvest from my Veg Garden

                                  I picked a good arm full of Rhubarb and Leeks .

      I decided to harvest all of my Purple Sprouting Broccoli and get it into the fridge .
    It was just starting to flower in this lovely sunny and warm weather ...I caught it just in time . We love this beautiful vegetable ! It is also time to sow some more for next year .

                       We enjoyed a dish of Rhubarb crumble and vanilla ice cream .

Making a Frog Pond in Mummabear's Secret Fern Garden

 It has been surprisingly hot here and I escape from it , in to the cool ,damp ,shade of my little secret fern garden .

     On one side I planted it up with ferns of all kinds , it is beautiful lush and green .

On the other side is the back of our garage , and it is here that I laid some paving slabs and created a propagation zone for all my seedlings and cuttings.
 It has all become overgrown with weeds ...most quite easy to pull out  , but the Ivy has become a nightmare ! Growing up the garage wall , it is beginning to grow onto the roof and even coming through inside the garage  !

                              This picture only shows a little bit of the problem .

 So I'm moving out all my plants , so we can get in there and do a proper job of it ...groan .

 So anyway then I found this sweet little frog and suddenly it all became more fun again .

                My little helper came over and suggested that we make a pond .
                     To begin with we dug a hole deep enough for our box .

 The kind lady at B+Qin Penryn let us have this plastic box for half price as the handle was smashed on it ....no one else would want it..but it was perfect for us to make a pond with .

                                              We put the box into the hole .

 We cut open a big black binbag and laid it in the box to make it look dark and tucked it in all around the edge.

             We found some rocks to go in and one big one for the frog to sit on .

Then we filled it with rain water from our water-but . Frogs don't like tap water !

                                               This bit was so much fun !

We put a piece of wood in for the frogs and other creatures to climb out on .
                      We hope our frog will be happy in his new pond .

 Little helper went home ...so now I'm back to pulling out the weeds ... hope the weather is nice with you .

Found a Frog !

                        Whilst tidying in my secret fern garden , I found a frog !

Gete - okosomin in my Cornish Veg Garden

             
                 Sowing the Gete -okosomin seeds by the Moon waxing gibbous

I have decided that I will record on here , progress with growing the Gete -okosomin  .
 Kindly sent to me from Nancy Wolf in Vermont .Thankyou Nancy for passing on these interesting seeds and the fun and joy of growing them and your friendship .
I decided to give these precious seeds the best chance I can and begin by sowing them at a good Moon phase .
Yesterday 7 April 2017 - Moon waxing gibbous - a good time to sow vegetables that produce internal seed bearing fruits. Tomatoes, beans, peas, peppers, chillies, pumpkins and courgettes .......also good time for garden maintenance . I usually check  and recommend  this information  on a brilliant website -- http://www.the-gardeners-calendar.co.uk/
 I have sown three of the four seeds I have , into seed compost , each in its own 3inch pot watered in and these are now up in my greenhouse . ( yes I still talk in old measurements )
 The weather has suddenly changed to being blue skies , sunshine and warm . The greenhouse is unheated , but gets very hot when the sun shines . I open the windows in the mornings when it is fine .
Wish me luck and hopefully I will have delicious squash to eat and seeds and fun and joy and friendship to pass on .
 I will update you on this soon .

Trevena Cross Nurseries

We took a drive to Trevena Cross Nurseries over at Breage ...We have been coming to this wonderful place for years.....they have all the most exciting plants ...dessert , outback , savanna , rain forest or jungle..in fact there is a distinctly Jurassic feel in the shade tunnel !  The plant displays are the best ever this season ,whoever planned all this should be really proud of themselves .
 They've  had a huge delivery of Agaves and Tree Ferns . Dicksonia antarctica truly magnificent specimens in tubs , or you can buy them as stumps ....I was delighted to buy a small one for £3.99 ! That is a bargain !  ...and they soon grow !

I couldn't resist this Podophyllum "Spotty Dotty " and Nick kindly went and found me a slightly better one .
I bought a couple of Mountain Ash saplings ..they were reduced to half price (all the hedging saplings ) To plant out along the boundary between our meadow and the neighbours field to encourage and indeed welcome wildlife...and then I went to have a look at the new Cactus display .....

 
                                                           What is this ?

                            .....and found this ....except it has lost it's label , so I have no idea what it might be . Is it a Kalenchoe or an Adromischus  ?  Does anyone  know please ?
 Anyway I love it ! I bought a couple of nice shallow terracotta pots..I'm in the process of re-potting my cacti , giving each one a bit of pampering and loving them again .
 On the way back , we stopped at the top of the cliffs above Poldhu to rest and watch the waves .

                                           ....then home to cut the grass .

Schlumbergera opuntioides and Agave Utahensis

                                                  Shlumbergera opuntioides

 I,m so busy in the garden at the moment sowing seeds , tidying, planting , pruning , that I have hardly any time to blog !
 I thought I,d very quickly show you a few pics of things going on .
The pictures above are of my Schlumbergera opuntioides . It has been coming into bud since before Christmas..it really takes it's time to flower ..hopefully I will have some fully open flower photos to show you very soon . They last so much longer than the flowers on Ripsalis ,or the regular Shlumbergeras . I love how it is half Shlumbergera and half Opuntia .

                                                       Agave Utahensis

 Meanwhile up in the greenhouse  I have hundreds of cacti , succulents and Agaves that desperately need re-potting . So I have made a start with this Agave Utahensis .
I grew this from seed from the British Cactus Society about 15 years ago and it hasn't left this pot..which has forced it to remain small .
 Now I want it to grow big !
 I am thinking about replacing the Agave potatorum , outside on the gravel bed with this, if and when it eventually withers away .
 Agave Utahensis is a much more dramatically and sharply angular  Agave . Very spiky . Love it !
     The sun is shining ..I,m off out into the garden .....so much to do !

Harry's Runner bean

Parc Eglos School Helston sent the children home for the Easter break this week . My grandson came home clutching a beautiful Runner bean seed wrapped in wet cotton wool inside a little plastic bag .
 Already germinating !
 The children had been told to pot it up and grow it on during the school holiday .....so Grandma helped out with a pot and some compost . Here it is already to go on his bedroom windowsill .