Snowdrops

 

                                     The Snowdrop and Primrose  

                                                          our woodlands adorn 

                                                   and Violets bathe in

                                                                     the wet o' the morn .

                                                                                                     Robert Burns

First Seed Sowing of the year- update 29 Jan 2022

 

Squeals of delight ! I can see eight teeny tiny Lettuce seedlings germinating already ! I sowed these four days ago .

                                     I am SO happy !

Hello my lovely friends !

                   Hello my lovely friends ! Hope you are having a great week ! 

First Seed Sowing of the Year 2022

 In the shed my hanging baskets of Pelargoniums , pots of young Agave and Aloes , Dahlias and various cuttings have been squirreled away to shelter and go dormant over the Winter months .

I have made a cautious first sowing of  "Pot" Leek seeds .The first wave of three sowings of Leeks . I will be sowing reliable good old Musselburgh " Leek seeds in a couple more weeks . 

I like to have a few Lettuces on the go too and have sown some "Little Gem" ," Romaine" "Rouge Grenobloise" "Forellenschuss " and a couple of Lemon Coriander for our salads . These were really good for me last year so I'm growing them again . I found a packet of Brussels Sprout seeds that needed to be used up so made an early sowing of those too.

As I already said , this is a very early sowing , successful for me last year but it may be way too early for you in your part of the U.K . We are as far South as you can go here and although the Violets, Primroses and Daffodils are beginning to bloom here , I would not recommend you start sowing until you are quite sure the frosts have finished in your area . The seeds I have sown don't need any extra heat .

The Lettuce seeds were sown on the 19th January and I will be watching them like a hawk ....then hopefully pricking them out and potting them on ..and sowing more about every two weeks or so  .

BUT that's it , I won't be sowing any other vegetable seeds for a long while yet .

I'll be sorting through my seed box and reading all the seed packets to see what flowers I can sow .

I have a wheelbarrow full of Primroses that I have divided up , that need to be planted out soon .

The Daffodils are coming out here along the road .Sorry about another blurry photo taken as we were driving home .

Beautiful sky here as the sun went down .

Jack Frost has been !

 

 I just wanted to record the fact that we had a bit of a frost this morning . Didn't last long and then it was sunny and blue sky all day !

Today's harvest

 

Squally showers coming from the North . We made it back to the car and didn't get caught in it .

Hellebores are blooming .

Picked a good bowlful of lovely greens from my vegetable garden and did a fair bit of weeding .

The earth is soft from the rain and the weeds slipped out easily . 

I did enjoy that cuppa tea when I came in !

My Labyrinth Rocks !

 

Yes it really does ! lol ! But I have been thinking about the rocks that I originally put into the labyrinth and having second thoughts about them .

One or two of them now have the most beautiful moss living on them .💓

This one has become colonised with Lichens . 💓

So , I have made a decision . It's out with all of the small rocks and in with one or two bigger and more interesting ones and , who knows , maybe more of these fascinating plants will move in .

Labyrinth update -January

 

 So today , while the sun is shining , I am tidying and getting the labyrinth back into shape .

It always looks like this at this time of the year . 

I have just been sweeping off the heavy dew that we had over night . The lawn mower won't cut through such long wet grass ! 

I have done the sweeping and now come in for a cuppa tea while the dew drops soak away into the earth .

I am making out the pathways again as they have become a bit out of shape .There is nothing worse than a wonky labyrinth ! 

I have also pulled off grass and moss that has grown over the rocks . 

O.k that was a very nice cuppa tea .  Now back to work !  🕊🌞☮🕊💓🕊

Labyrinth

 

            The sun is shining once again ! I think it is a gardening day !

To one side of the vegetable garden is the labyrinth I created in 2008 .

People often ask me how I made it ? Well I marked it out with canes , sticks , stones and a bag of flour !

I marked it out and cut the pathways all in one hot afternoon , before my husband came home from work ....because he didn't know ... not any idea in a million years that I was going to do this !

I knew I had to get it done before his car came up the drive or he might not like my idea and put me off .

It was so so hot this day and I got heatstroke and fainted on the grass as I finished it . 

A cup of tea soon revived me and I stood and looked at it . 

Over the years it has changed , matured I suppose you could say . People give me their ideas of what I should do or add to it . 

Here you can see I went with the "why don't you add rocks ? " idea . It was hard work finding and lifting them . So I have only got a few rocks mostly at the main formula points .

                            Very hard work !

I am still not sure about this as , I worry about little people tripping on them .  

"Why don't you plant long swishy ornamental grasses all around it ? "  And I was shown a picture of one where they had done that and it did look fabulous too , but I have ornamental grass elsewhere in the garden and the thing is they spread and in the labyrinth I personally would find that very hard to control .

"Why don't you plant flowers into it ? " Primroses have found their own way into it ...I like them and I did try a few bulbs in the centre , but they all disappeared eventually , a wild geranium also found it's way in there , which is still in there . I like wild flowers . They mustn't be too tall or they will get cut down by the lawnmower when I cut the paths.

It has been fun trying all these different ideas ......it changes a little bit every year .

                  

                     And her mood changes with the seasons .

Hellebores

                The Hellebores are on their way ! Makes me happy to see them 😄

           No sign of the Crocuses yet and usually they would be up by now .

New Dahlias

 

The Sun is definitely winning so far today ! We collected our very generous Dahlia tubers from Alyson , the nice lady with amazing garden in the village and I got straight to it , potting them all up .

It was so nice to be outside in the warm sunshine with my hands in the good earth again .

This one needed a much bigger pot ! Had to go and have a good rummage in the shed , but eventually found one ,a badly cracked and split down the side one , but I can fix that with a bit of string .

I couldn't find the string , but as I will not be watering these for a few weeks ,it should be o.k. for now if I stand it in an old washing up bowl . 

They will only have the moisture already present in the compost for now . I want to keep them dormant , but there is just that tiny bit of moisture . Anymore than this and if we were to have a freeze ,then they could be in danger of rotting . I'll begin to wake them up , undercover...hmmm...end of March/beginning of April time in my woodshed which has a clear corrugated plastic roof and it is always quite warm in there with all the wood . I like to take cuttings from the first shoots and then I leave them to grow and then aim to plant them outside either in the ground or in large tubs around June depending on how the weather is behaving . 

All ready to be squirreled away to the shed and then  time for a cuppatea !

Now I have to think where I am going to plant them all ! I do have a plan ! Husband has decided he wants the big yellow one some where in this bed in front of the Summerhouse .

Next , we are off for our walk , while the sun is still shining 🌞 what a lovely day ! 

More Epie "Lollipop " Flowers

 

Epie "Lollipop" looking even better with two lovely flowers this morning .

Cloudy to the South this morning .

Clear blue sky to the North . Who will win ? It's cold , but not too cold .

Daffodils are blooming here in Cornwall and you might start to see them for sale in florists and some supermarkets . I have some of the tiny wild ones in the meadow ..I dont think mine are out yet , I will check on them later on . My husband has this tub of the big blousy ones ....they'll be blooming very soon .

Yes that is an Epie cutting you can see in amongst them ! After pruning my Epies I didn't have the heart to throw the bits away . So I experiment with them .Some I leave on the greenhouse bench to callous over and be potted up later on .Some of these I pot up and some I leave and forget about and they put out interesting aerial roots . I will usually have some left over and they get left to one side outside , to be put on the compost heap later . I forget about them . Then one day I will come along and think I should at least try and save them . They then get stuck into any pots or tubs outside , just to see what happens . 

Here are some I stuck into the Veg Trug , in with my Strawberry plants and my husbands Garlic .

His garlic is looking far better than mine which are out in the veg garden . I think they need more space than this really . The compost in the veg trug has sunk down considerably , needs topping up again . Big sigh !

Got to dash ! 💐We are going to collect some Dahlia roots from a lady in the village who has been splitting hers up . Very excited ! Nice to add some different ones to our garden .💐

 See you later !  

Sunset

 

I thought I might as well show you the sunset at the end of this lovely sunny day !

Vegetable garden . The Phoenix canariensis looking fabulous in the low evening sunlight .

 I have put the cloche back over the Agave in the gravel bed , in case the temperature should drop over night .

It is getting quite big now , it is worth taking a little care of it  .

 

The Sweet peas will remain wrapped in this fleece until Spring .....

.....but they are romping away in there ! They can take the cold , but their stems can get snapped in the gales .  Later on I will be pinching them back to make them bush out , but I don't want them to get snapped off at the bottom in the wind .

                                      Cat Fox Pheasant Hedgehog Deer ?

I took this picture early this morning  . What do you think ?

The end of another lovely day and we retire to have our evening meal and relax . We leave the garden to the creatures of the night .

  

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