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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