Leeks Finally Planted 🐝🐝🐝

 

7am ...Mizzle ! And hopefully the promise of some rain later in the week . So I decided to plant out my Leek babies .

Tidied up the Rhubarb which had a huge fern and clump of stinging nettles growing right in the middle of it and gave the Perennial Kale a bit of fresh earth to cover where it's stem had flopped over and was now beginning to take root . I might actually move it to somewhere else in the garden .

The ground is so dry , but I feel that they are now best planted out . It has been easier for me to water and  bring them on in the shed .

The earth too hard and so dry  that I decided to use this bulb planter and make a much deeper and  a more substantial hole to drop them into . I also kept most of the compost on their roots and gave them all a good handful of fresh compost . They had a good drink before being planted out and each one another good drink to settle them in .

I got the idea of using the bulb planting tool from Cliff and Diane of the YouTube Channel - Castle Hill Garden . It  cuts nice and easily into the hard dry earth , makes it so much easier for me .

Always great advice from Cliff on Castle Hill - Highly recommend you go take a look at his channel .

So this was slightly different to the traditional and usual way I do it  . Got to keep them well watered and this is so difficult for me with the hose-pipe ban  ...carrying watering cans .

So I gave each one a good drink to the top of each hole and I will give them another drink this evening .

Fixed up the chicken wire , there was just enough to go around the leeks to keep the bunnykins out  . I don't think the Rabbits would eat my Rhubarb ..they haven't touch the Perennial Kale  . I'm not sure I like Perennial Kale either ....but you know , it's there , just in case , along with the Egyptian Walking Onions , Dandelion and Nettle-leaves . 

Actually I quite like Nettle-leaves ......

Anyway ......

Two hours ! It took me two hours !   

I pulled back the netting from over the courgette plants , while I was planting out the leeks , to let the bees and other pollenating insects  in . 

                

                                    Happy little Hover-fly !

                           Happy little Courgettes !

                                   Happy ( exhausted )  little me !

The First Tomato Harvest of the Summer !

 

                                       🌿    We shared it of course !   🌿

Cloud Watching

 We're seeing some magnificent clouds . Saw this walking along the cliffs . 

               Gonna be hot today ! ☀️  Take care and keep cool 🌿💛🌿🐬

Summer Solstice Rainbows

 I was so excited about the Epie flower that I almost forgot to show you the beautiful rainbows that appeared over the labyrinth during the Solstice Sunrise this morning !

                                                          🌿💛🌿

Happy Summer Solstice

 

Happy Summer Solstice - may all be peaceful , happy and light 🌿

Yellow Epiphyllum flower opened ... I am in love again !

 

So there she is !  hmmm ....what d'you think ?  Not quite as bright a yellow as I was hoping for , but still very beautiful .  She has only just opened .

 A very pale lemon /apricot  outer petals , purest white inner petals , green centre and gorgeous pale apricot stamens ...at the moment . 

 Her colour may deepen overnight and tomorrow I'll check out her fragrance .

 The person I bought this from just said that it was a yellow one . It get's a "wow" from me anyway .

I know it's a long shot , but  does anyone know the name of this one ?

Hardly worth mentioning really ......

 

....but , we had a little rain shower during the  night . No thunder . no lightning , no torrential rain .

 Just a regular little rain shower . Not being ungrateful , but we just need MORE !!  

Maybe later today ...

                                          ... so is it going to be yellow ?

Waiting still ....

                                                Maybe tonight ?

Sunday Flowers

 

I was just walking around the garden , when I noticed these beautiful white flowers . 

The white Foxgloves are self sown from last year ,  but I have no idea where the other flowers have come from .  A lovely surprise ! They are beautiful !  Anyone know what these are ?  I'm thinking some sort of Mallow maybe ?

Climbing Rose "Schoolgirl " Looking fabulous today .

And a Kiftsgate Rose is making it's way up the big pine tree  . 

Make it a peaceful Sunday all ..love Debbie  x ( p.s. I'm feeling a bit better today  )

                                                        🌿💚🌿

Happy Hay Bales 2023

                           It was all so lush and green .Then so hot and dry .

Too hot for me to work in the garden unless very early morning or late evening .Haven't been up to doing much anyway with this horrible ear infection thing . Doctor says another two weeks maybe .

      The meadow has been cut and baled . 86 beautiful hay bales . Colin is happy !

           🌿🐎    Beautiful quality hay . 🦋🌞🐝 Happy Hay for Happy Horses 🐎🌿

                 Clean , no dogs are allowed to play in the meadow until after it is cut .

             Only safe edible wild flowers/herbs and sweet scented grasses .

    Lucky local horses to have this to munch ... I'm told lucky local Guineapigs and Bunnykins too !

                                                        🐎🎠🐴

Early morning gifts

 

Another hot day .Still bad ear infection - seeing doctor again this afternoon  . Took a walk over the meadow . Smells sweet . I can hear the tractor coming up the lane as I write this . I think to twizzle it one more time , make sure it's all drying nicely in the hot sun .

Then to share out two cans of water ....I can't carry any more  . Just the beans and courgettes .

The Brussels-sprouts  can jolly well get their roots down .

                    I can see the first immature fruits coming . Yellow courgettes .

                                        Zucchini "Bolognese" 

On my way up to the shed I notice the Blackcurrant bush loaded with berries . I'm thinking Blackcurrant crumble and clotted cream  mmmm ...

In the shed I'm growing salad things . I gather a bunch of lettuce , coriander and onion leaves .

The salad leaf bed out in the veg garden is very slow and erratic germinating . I seem to do better and it's easier to keep things watered in the shed and there are no slugs .

I have a couple of Epiphyllums in the shed which are having a bit of intensive care at the moment .

 Back in March , I took a chance on a couple of cuttings that someone was selling on Ebay ...it didn't have a proper name but they said it was a yellow one . Now listen to me , this is usually not a good idea  because very often the resulting bloom will usually be red ...which is the most usual Epie that people will have and even the red ones are not that commonly found . They are not rare but they are unusual . Normally I would only spend money on named varieties with a picture of the flower . . . the reason I was tempted by it is because my grandmother had a lovely yellow one and I was given a piece of it . Some years later I gave it away to someone by mistake and was too shy to ask for it back .

 I know , I know , there has got to be more than several yellow varieties out there and my grandmother's one will be an old variety or even a rare species type , but anyway , I thought I'd take a chance on this one .

Anyway they sent me this picture of the mother plant . It didn't have an open flower on it but it was on at a reasonable price and looked good to me !

 So I received the two generous unrooted cuttings and quickly potted them up .

Note that these were both unrooted cuttings . 

  They must have settled in and got their roots down very fast indeed because the next time I looked , I saw two buds ...one quickly dropped off but the remaining one is really swelling up now .

  I am really looking forward to seeing this flower bloom in the next few days hopefully .

 Watch this space ! 

My other patient in the intensive care unit is this Epiphyllum oxypetalum  also known as The Brahma Kamal . I need to take the top off it to encourage it to branch out lower down . It has suffered from a bit of sun scorch , so now I've moved it and it is recovering nicely .

Epies prefer shade - like me ! 

                   It is said that prayers are answered when this one blooms .

72 degrees F right now   ...ugh ! Need rain !

Bowiea volubilis

 Usually I give this a frame to climb on . Last year I forgot to put the frame on it  and it climbed out of the window .

This year I forgot about it again and now it is scrabbling happily all along the windowsill ! 

Unbearable for me 78 degrees F today . Still taking the antibiotics ...still suffering  😞🌿