Wednesday 25 September 2019
Planting out my Mint cuttings .
It's beginning to look a lot like Autumn !
It certainly been very gloomy and drizzly here ...the odd torrential shower , even the odd rumble of thunder ! I have pulled out my thermal vest to wear and my dressing gown ....and last night I filled my old stone hot water bottle for the first time this Autumn ...and a little rug was laid on the cold bathroom floor to keep my toes warm .
However , I do love this time of the year and it is a good time to rearrange and plant new things into the garden so they can get their roots down and settle into the still warm earth before Winter .
I have had lots of cuttings of various herbs rooting away in glass jars on my kitchen windowsill .
Lots of different Mint varieties. Peppermint for my tea , Pineapple mint , Applemint, Chocolate mint , Gingermint , Pennyroyal , Bowles mint and I could never have enough Spearmint to go with my boiled and buttered new potatoes or mixed into a sumptuous salad . They all smell so good too !
I want more of it ! It roots so easily , even this tiny piece is beginning to put out roots . A few weeks ago I potted some of my rooted cuttings up and now they are ready to plant out .
I weeded this area in front of the cottage , my hands are still stinging from the Stinging Nettles ! I hope I got all of them out , they have such long strings of yellow roots riddling through the earth , but I did the best I could .
It is the perfect weather for doing this job today ....and this area is quite damp , pretty much most of the time , which all of the mint family love .
Here's the Chocolate Mint that I bought from the Trerice Manor House plant stall the other day . The sales assistant let me have it slightly cheaper as it looked a bit sorry for itself .
I planted all my rooted cuttings out , but then decided to just re-pot the Chocolate Mint to bring it on a bit more .
When I tipped it out of the pot , I could see that it was quite root-bound too .
So now it has a slightly larger pot and I,ll probably divide it up next Spring .
The next job I had to do was pull this huge cloche out of the shed , repair it as best as I could , fix up the fence and cover the Agave from all this torrential rain .
I put a couple of branches over the top to hold the cloche down and stop it from blowing away .
I don't want it to get too wet and then for the weather to suddenly turn very cold or freeze . Agaves can take being cold but cant take being cold and wet .
I will pull this off when it stops raining , the fence makes it easier to just drop the cloche into .
If ever we are issued with a severe gale warning , then I put rocks on the edges of the cloche to hold it down too , but the branches do a great job done like this .
So that's my lot for today in the garden , and my husband has been chopping logs to go into the wood-store ....an excellent job done today !
So , it's Autumn again , I do love Autumn so much !
Time to clean up , have a bite to eat , put my feet up and do some more of my Autumn embroidery .
Autumn blessings and joy to you !
Tuesday 24 September 2019
Bowiea volubilis exciting news !
Oh ! It's good to be home again ! Any longer and I start to worry about my plants . Only been away two days ! Lol !
The first thing I noticed yesterday , right on time with the Autumn equinox , is my Bowiea volubilis beginning to wither away for it's winter dormancy .
At around this time of the year , I am beginning to get fed up with its rampant growth all over and around the windowsill and look forward to cutting it back ....
...... but I noticed something different in amongst those squiggly stems ...
.......is that a seed pod I can see in there ?
Does anybody know ?
It always has lots of flowers , but they usually wither away , you can see them all around this thing ! I would like to save and grow the seeds if it is ..in the past I have tried sowing what's left of those withered flowers but nothing came of them ...so ..is this a proper seed pod ?
I am so excited !
On the way home - Trerice
So here we are driving back from Dorset and now through beautiful Cornish countryside .
There was one place we wanted to visit on the way back ....
.........it was quite a bit further than we remembered ....
......down narrow , winding country lanes ....feeling queezy at this point ...deary me......lol !... I don't travel too well in cars ...but I knew that it was just about at my limit and that I could rest and recover with a nice cup of tea in the cafe on arrival .
So this is the beautiful Trerice Manor at Kestle Mill near Newquay Cornwall .
Trerice is a beautiful Elizabethan Manor House surrounded by stunningly beautiful gardens and now owned by the National Trust .
Today we are just coming to see the Trerice Potager and Labyrinth in the Mowhay .
Very excited to see the Elizabethan Labyrinth ! As you know I have a labyrinth , back home , in my garden and I appreciate the work it takes to keep it looking good !
This labyrinth is actually not strictly a labyrinth at all , but a maze .
It was made according to directions in a very old book "The Gardener's Labyrinth " by Thomas Hill about 1570 . It was very fashionable to have a maze/labyrinth in your grounds back in these times .
It is a beauty ! Love it !
Then near by is the Trerice Potager .
You really have to come and see this lovely little vegetable garden !
I love the trellis fencing around the boundary , I suspect there may be lots of little bunnykins here !
Surrounded by lawn and a neatly clipped box hedge ...and a greenhouse that I was not sure if we might be allowed inside ....so no pics of the inside ...maybe next time !
Lots of different varieties of Apple trees , beautifully tended to .
The gardening team were doing a wonderful job !
They have so much to attend to here !
This is such a good time to visit...amid flowering herbs such as Lavender, Rosemary , Borage and Spearmint Peppermint and Thyme , beans and vegetables ready to harvest .
I felt so happy wandering around the lovely gardens .
We found a pretty place to sit and look over it all .
The ornamental gardens to the front of the house .
My lasting memory of the gardens are of the pure white Japanese Anemones ....
.......with just a touch of blue .
We decided to come again another day to go into the house ....we,ve been before and really did not have time to do it today . ( Thinking about home now )
Just visiting the gardens was a joy enough for me anyway !
I enjoyed my cup of tea and bought a Chocolate Peppermint plant from the Herb Plant stall .
New babies , all safe and ready to head home again !
Along those winding Cornish lanes .
We saw this beautiful cottage garden ! Look at it ! Isn't it wonderful ! Giving everybody joy as they drive past ! ( and hopefully make them slow down....I know ...I live down a country lane like this too ..people drive too fast ! )
We saw the lady tending to it ...lovely Begonias and Cannas and gorgeous hanging baskets . It takes a lot of work to put on a display like this ! Maybe I,ll give this a go next year ! :)
You have to drive slower along our Cornish roads and lanes .
The Cornish hedges look might soft but are built of rock ...so keep over !!
Through our beautiful Cornish countryside .
Old Cornish tin mines and engine houses along the way .
Have a snooze ......
............but it is so beautiful , all along the way !
Farmers are cutting the meadows and fields and preparing for Winter .
Can we see the sea yet ? Are we nearly there ? :)
Poldhu Cove Mullion
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