'Tis the Early Bird that Catches the Worm

    Good-morning ! This was the beautiful Sunrise over my labyrinth at 5.30 am  .

   The grass in the meadow is surging up so fast now , it will soon be ready to cut .

 I planted out another row of peas that I,d grown in a gutter , a few have already been nibbled over night  grrrrr !

I have pushed in some tall branchy hazel sticks to deter the pigeons . I'll continue to sow more to keep them coming .

 A slug has already eaten one of my beautiful black Tuscany Kale plants , I need to put out more eggshells .

In the potting shed this morning , it was still a bit dark in there at 5.30am . Opened up the window .

 It is going to be another very hot day here . I cant take the hot sun  , so I do as much as I can early .
 It is the best time of the day with the Sun rising and the dawn chorus , nice and cool for me .
I potted up the Tomatoes and Cucumbers into their big pots and fixed up the rigging to give them some support .
  I pricked out and potted on another twenty two Leeks..and I still have another tray of leeks to do .

                                                                   We love Leeks !

The others , that I did back in March , are really coming coming along nicely now and I will plant them out when I have space available . 

 The lettuces are looking lovely and lush . I must sow more to keep them coming !

 Medwyn's Y Draig Goch  -  Red Dragon Tomatoes are romping away and have flowers on already !

 I am also growing  good old Gardeners Delight  , Alicante and two unknown ones  which are seeds  I saved from a delicious supermarket tomato and a Giant Tomato I was given in a salad  ,  also Stupice  a tasty heritage variety given to me by my friend in the village who has a lovely "Edible Garden " ( I haven't  been able to visit it yet due to the Lockdown , cant wait to see it ! )
 I gave away lots of Gardener's Delight Toms and now all the other left over plants will be planted outside where ever I can squeeze them in and take their chance with the weather and possible blight .

                I planted out all my Butternut and Courgette babies into the keyhole bed .
                      I will take and post some better pictures of this later on .

  A wheelbarrow load of Butternut Squash babies ! I hope they do well , as we love to eat them so much and they store so well and can last until March the following year .
  I haven't grown any Pumpkins this year . The bed is totally dedicated to Butternuts Squashes to romp away at the back of the bed and Courgettes , easier to reach , at the front .

                   Well that's all for now , time for brekkers and a nice cuppatea !  :)
                   Hope all is going to plan in your vegetable gardens .

Brassicas planted out

                                      Another beauty in my greenhouse .

Planted out a good selection of brassicas . Purple Sprouting Broccoli , cauliflowers , cabbages and kale . The Brussel sprouts " Evesham special" are not big enough to go out  yet ....and not very many of them germinated  😢
 Anyway , I like to make sure we have plenty of good fresh and healthy green vegetables .
   I have covered them over with hoops and netting from a company called Easy Nets    https://easynets.co.uk/  I found them a bit fiddly to put together and you have to be very careful they don't spring back and poke your eye out , but the good thing about them is you can arrange them into pretty much any shape bed you like .
  My vegetable beds have curved edges as I originally made them to be in the shape of a Celtic Cross , with a cute little palm tree in the middle .
  I didn't think the Phoenix canariensis would grow to that size in my life time !
So I planted out the brassicas and I planted out another lot of beans and now my all my bones are aching !
 So I,m having a day off from the vegetable garden today , to recover .
  My next job is re-potting  cucumbers and tomatoes and fixing up the rigging in the potting shed to support them ....but not today .

 So all I,ve done today is water everything in the  potting shed ....

                         .......and then we took a little walk along the cliffs .

There is a very deep low coming in which is going to make the sea very dangerous over the next few days ...dangerous rip-tides and a sudden surge is forecast .
    They are warning people not to go in the sea , there is no Life Guard service on our local beaches at the moment , with the ongoing Corona Virus Pandemic .
 Please stay safe everyone .
  If you do go down to our beaches , please take all your pic-nic rubbish home with you .               
                            We pride ourselves with our clean beaches !

French beans planted !

                 
                       Sunday - a warm day with a gentle breeze from the West .

            French-beans have been hardening off  and the weather is perfect and I desperately need to make room in the potting shed for the Tomatoes and  Cucumbers .

Last year I grew a variety called "Ryders Top o' the Pole " . I bought these from  https://www.beansandherbs.co.uk/  .
   They gave us a bumper harvest and so I saved some beans to sow again this year . They certainly are determined to win the race to the top of my wigwam , growing faster  than all the other varieties I sown and if I hadn't planted them out now, would have begun to wind around each  other , which  makes planting out very difficult .

 French-bean Ryder's Top O' the Pole . I surround them with chicken-wire  to keep the bunnykins and pigeons out .

    I,m looking out for things to cover the tops of bamboo canes - small bottles , old gloves , tennis balls to protect eyes .

French - bean "Coco-sophie"  I originally bought this rare old variety from the 1700's from Real Seeds . We had a good harvest of the most tender buttery beans and once again I saved my own seeds to grow again this year .
    I,m also growing French bean St Anthony , bought from Beansandherbs .
I am trying a dwarf french bean called  " Sansoucy " from Mr.Fothergills....I am already very disappointed with them because there are so few seeds in the packet which cost me £3.60 !

 I hung up my daughter's old cd's ! They make excellent birds-scarers and I love the way they throw out little dancing spots of light as the cd's spin in the breeze !

 So the carrot seed failed to germinate and I have temporarily covered with weed membrane fabric weighed down with these little bricks . I will sow another lot as soon as I have finished planting out everything in the potting shed .

  So then I walk up to the potting  shed ......

               
            ..........passing the greenhouse on the way  ......

                          ........and notice something  !

                                                Oh ! My goodness !

                                                Just look at that !

                       Cactus flowers are just so worth the waiting for !

 Then I notice these and especially that pink one !
      That has never flowered for me before ! 
 I  reach in to pull it out , and see that it really could do with a bit  of pampering .

                                I took it outside for a little photo-shoot .
 .

 Isn't she lovely ! It is one that I bought from an Epiphyllum expert Mr Horobin quite a few years ago . On one of the leaves I have written "Epie. Hatherton sunshine from Mr Horobin" . 
     I have another one in the greenhouse which has a label stuck into the pot which says "Epie. Frosty -Rose" and is looking as if the flower bud coming is going to be a red one . That one will almost  certainly be Epie . Hatherton Sunshine !
 I think he must have got them muddled before he sent them out to me .
         

               I am pretty sure that this one is Epiphyllum var Frosty -Rose " .

                                                   I,m delighted !

             I gave it some pampering and put it back in the greenhouse .

                    So much loveliness everywhere I look in the greenhouse  .

                                        All cares and worries melt away .

                                This one has the most heavenly fragrance !

            O.k.  I must get back to the vegetable garden ! Work to be done ! 

Bowiea volubilis update 14th May 2020

  Someone complained that I hadn't given any updates on this crazy plant  last year . So this is for you Bowiea volubilis geeks wherever you are  ! Lol ! You,ve got to be a bit of a geek to want this extraordinarily weird thing .
   O.k I will give you regular updates !
It is surprising how fast this thing grows ! I found it had grown about 10" over -night and now needed support . I have given it a twiggy branch to wind around .
Increasing the watering now .
                  It's looking happy !     :)

House Martins and Swallows

                                                Goodmorning all ! 
    So I got up nice and early to dash outside and check my Runner-beans where still there and watch the sun rise .

All is well , so far  . I pushed in some twiggy branches to help prevent the pigeons from landing on them .
  Then we set off  for a morning walk , early , nobody around , for the first time in months !   We,ve been good "stay at homers " during this lockdown .

Only a short walk , husband not long had hip replacement op , so this way is nice and level and such a beautiful view .

      Admiring the wild-flowers in the hedgerow , the butterflies , enjoying the sweet fresh air .

      As we were walking back along this narrow footpath we noticed something on the ground ahead of us  .

 As we got  closer ,we realised it was a little House Martin . It's not normal to see them on the ground , in fact it is hard to get a photograph  of one when they are flying .
   We thought that it might be injured and I walked very slowly and very carefully up to it , Taking photos as I approached  . Then I crouched down to make sure it was o.k ....

   ....... and a jogger ran straight past us , squeaking "sorry " as they went startling the poor thing and it flew off .......sigh ....
  I was squatting down and my knees would not let me get up fast enough to move to a safe distance  .
  If we hadn't been there , they might have trodden on the poor little thing !
  Anyway .... we think it was only resting , exhausted after it's long journey from Africa . They are looking for places to nest in under the eaves of the Poldhu Nursing Home .
  Remarkable birds and such an honour to see one so close up !

The Swallows have been here for a few weeks now . 

We haven't seen any Sand Martins yet which nest in the sandy banks of the cliffs down at Poldhu .

We continued our walk .

Such love !

                                           Then home for brekkers !