Sweet Peas 💐 - time to Autumn sow 🌿

 

Bearing in mind I am in the far South West of Cornwall and your ideal sowing time might be different to mine . For me , today is the day I'm sowing my Sweet Peas . 

I have sown them as late as the end of November and I prefer to sow mine in the Autumn rather than the Spring. I find that they grow much stronger when sown now .

I bought two lovely generous packets of seeds from Premier Seeds Direct . Sweet Pea "Royal Family" . A mixture of red ,white and blue .

I pulled out all of the Black Eye Suzies and replaced the canes with some taller ones .

Scattered the seeds over the surface .

The  surface is quite a bit lower than the top of the pot , which I do to give the young tender shoots a bit of shelter from the severe gales that we frequently get here .

This picture shows that more clearly and I have added a nice thick layer of multi-purpose compost over the top .... and watered them in really well . A whole watering-can full .

It's not so much the cold that would harm them so much as the risk of the young tender shoots snapping off in the wind . So I have tied on a sheet of garden fleece .

And I tie it on really good and strong .

I can't stand this string . I find it very slippery to tie . It'll have to do for now , couldn't find the good stuff . I will keep checking on this every now and then to make sure it doesn't start working it's way undone .

That's that job done .

 

From the upstairs window I notice the tarpaulin is blowing away ! Need to weight it down with something . The idea is it will catch all the leaves as they fall off the Acer , otherwise I find it  difficult to sweep them off of the gravel . Can't afford a leaf blower .

Now this was a nice little haul for a fiver , that I found in Tescos , including a huge bag of Hyacinths .

All sorts of beautiful bulbs ! Very happy me ! Something to look forward to in the Spring .

I decided to put them all into this barrel . I left the Dahlias in this year . 

Now then , the thing about buying bulbs in boxes from the supermarket , is that I am always thrilled to bits and excited when I first buy them  and then if I am not careful I forget about them  and they remain on the kitchen shelf , forgotten about and shrivelling until January . I think it is about this time we all start thinking about Christmas and so many other things to be doing and lots of other procrastinating excuses etc etc .

So I got to it ! Ripped open all the boxes and chucked them in ! I did bury them a bit deeper than this I promise .

I might add a layer of woodchips to keep them cosy  .

               The Roses above are still giving lots of cheerfulness .

I have the tap wrapped already . I still need to put away the hose . A job for another day .

   So when do you sow your Sweet Peas ? Autumn or Spring ? Or maybe both ? 

                                                               🌿💐🌿                                    🕷️

🥬Wheelbarrow Lettuces 🥬

 Lettuces enjoying the Cornish mizzle and doing alright in the wheelbarrow .

Safe from slugs and snails ...and the bunnykins can't reach them ! Ha ha !

I've been taking a couple of leaves off each one every other day or so . I had thought I'd done the last pick from these , but they still keep on growing .

I have another two waves of these lettuces coming along up in the shed for succession  .  Yet another lot in the veg trug are not doing so well , hard to keep the slugs off them . 🐌🐌🐌

                        Wheelbarrow lettuces are the way to go !   

                                  

A Chilly Morning

 

                     A chilly morning . No frost , but a very heavy dew  .

Warmed up the house by making Leek 'n' Potato Soup and Apple Crumble . 

               Using our own Leeks and Apples . Smells so good !  

                                                        💚🍏🌿

New Greenhouse Roof

 

So , it absolutely poured with rain during the morning and I was worried they would cancel .

But no sooner had they arrived than the sun came out .

Coffee was offered and we left them to get on with it .

I nervously paced about the garden ,trying not to worry about all my Epies , but they told me not to worry .

I worried anyway .

And paced about making lists of things to be done .

These grasses are looking fabulous but I will be cutting them down so that the Dogwoods can become the star of the show now , with their glorious red stems .

After I have tidied up the Dahlias I will lay down a nice thick mulch on top of them and lay these grasses down around them to keep them snug and warm through the Winter and help keep the weeds down .....and maybe the Polecats will come and nest in there .

My daughter and lovely son-in-law bought me a camera to set up and hopefully watch my wild animals friends from a comfortable distance  and I will of course let you know .

I must dig out the cloches for the Agaves . The yellow /green variegated ones are not so hardy as the Agave salmiana  var.ferox . They have grown quite a bit over the summer . I hope the cloche will still cover them .

The Black-eyed Suzie is coming to the end now and I will soon take them out and sow my Sweet-Peas .

I collected some seeds from the Black-Eyed Susan and left them to crisp up on my bedroom windowsill . I thought someone was throwing stones at my window . It gave me such a fright  . 

Nothing to worry about , it was just the seed heads exploding and firing the seeds against the glass . 

Yep  , so  I'll be sowing my Sweet-Peas in the next couple of weeks .

But getting back to the Agaves .....

Agave salmiana var. ferox is usually quite tough....especially if planted slightly at an angle , so any rain can run off easily . Which I didn't do with this one , so I will have to keep my fingers crossed  and will probably place branches over it if we get a weather warning . Also , for the same reason I have laid slabs of flat stones and slates around the base . Any rain just runs away from the roots .

Cotinus coggygria/Smoke Tree - I'll be cutting back very hard this year , as I need to climb in and tackle to brambles and Ivy again .

The Dahlias are fantastic this year , but next year I must remember to push in branches to help support their heavy blooms .

 We needed to widen the route through from the ornamental garden into the vegetable garden and my big strong son-in-law found and pulled out these enormous boulders from the Cornish hedge . They are fabulous .....I'll be pondering about them , but I think I am in love with them , just as they are !

Meanwhile ....

The greenhouse builders were taking off and replacing half of the greenhouse roof  with the badly leaking window .

They were doing a wonderful job up there and I didn't hear the sound of any breaking glass .

So now we are wanting it to rain again ,so we can check that this window is not going to leak !

The rain had been coming in along the hinges at the top . I think they have done a great job , just as they did building our old greenhouse . We will just have to wait and see .

 I am very grateful to them coming to do this before the really bad weather starts .

The sides of the new window has a lip over both sides , which I presume is to stop the rain from blowing through the gap , but it was definitely coming through the top of the window .

So I waved them off and quickly brought back in the big dangerous ones  . Fierce they may be , but really not liking our Cornish Autumnal weather . 

I brought in my roll of insulation foil stuff and fixed it up along the rafters .

Just loosely mind , as we have to watch for any leaks .

I dragged out the lantern . I didn't need to use it at all last winter , but I have the 8 hour candles at the ready just in case .

 I hauled the Yucca elephantipes back in .

Tomorrow I will begin taking all the cacti collection back up to the greenhouse .

Starting with all the plants that have been taking over our little front porch  . 

It will be so nice to have it clear again and make some space for the fire wood . 

 It's now very late and I bid you all  good night  🌔🌟✨⭐💫

 

They're coming to fix the greenhouse roof tomorrow !

 

It was a lovely warm and sunny morning and after hanging out the washing , I had planned a more leisurely day .....that is until Ricardo announced that the greenhouse builders were returning tomorrow after lunch to fix the leaking roof .

It is 5pm now , I have come in exhausted and I have pretty much spent the best part of the day moving everything from the left hand side of the greenhouse , including sweet Buddha , who is now safely placed indoors .

The plants on the left hand side of the greenhouse are all the more dangerous spiky ones (and heavy !)

Anyway , the sun was shining and quite a warm day after all the rain the last couple of days . Oh, we weren't too badly affected with Storm Ashley .  Lovely to see the blue sky again . A good day to get on with this and I hope it will be a dry day while the men are fixing it tomorrow .

They are going to take off one half of the roof and replace it with another non leaky one .

It has been a lot of water coming in and I have had to keep a deep tray underneath to catch it . The rain also runs down the glass and all along the floor on this side , so it really must be replaced .

It is a brand new greenhouse by the way , in case you are reading about this for the first time .Very expensive and it really should not have been leaking at all . 

Really not very good for my cactus collection .🌵🌵🌵 This greenhouse is in use all year !

The big dangerous spiky ones were so heavy for me that I am leaving them out over night . I hope it won't get too cold for them . Opuntias are fairy tough .

This poor old thing needs tidying up !🕸️ I think someone may have moved into the pot at the top of that bamboo cane 🕷️

Some of my more rare Epiphyllums were taken down to the cottage ... many plants squeezed into the porch , some taken upstairs . 

Two trays of Geranium maderense ...some to plant out and replace the ones the bunnys have nibbled 🐰 and some to give away .

I made room for some plants in the solar shed . Rearranging everything . 

Out with the cabbages .

Harvested the first wave of lettuces and replaced with fresh lot of seedlings , moving everything along the bench .

                           To make room for all these .

    On top of the veg trug - lovely Agave celsii . Actually have two of these lovely ones .I might put them into the shed as they are a bit tender and snails love them 🐌🐌🐌

                             ..and under the veg trug . 

A big tray of Agaves and the very special Aloe that my brother gave me .

One very , very sharp Agave utahensis . You really don't want to get spiked on this  beast !

Tradescantia pallida /Purple Heart - very beautiful , very tender and very fragile . Falling to bits as I moved it  ! It needs tidying up anyway and will come back even more beautifully after it has been cut back .

Yucca elephantipes which I had not long ago dragged up to the greenhouse from the front porch . Next year I am going to get it into the ground , in a nice sunny place , so that I don't have to drag it around anymore .

( I say this every year ! )

Lovely Agave celsii again ,with the mint and parsley ,spring onions , a couple of Fritillary imperialis one orange and one red starting them off in pots as I have not yet decided where I want them . One Epiphyllum  ..which I  have just now remembered to bring in .

I was told that I can leave all the plants on the right hand side , which are mostly all my Epiphyllums . I am worried about them though .I hope they won't get knocked or damaged during the fixing of the greenhouse roof .

Anyway I have done as I have been told , and cleared the left-hand side . Job for tomorrow - I just need to take down the windbreak mesh over the door , because I think it is fixed up on the roof panel .

It is chockablock in the solar-shed now and it looks so nice now it's been given a coat of paint and the glass made more secure for the winter 💚

I manage to put some of the cabbages back in there , the others are to be planted out very soon .

The lettuces are doing great . I need to sow another lot to keep them coming for as long as I can .

Prepare for Winter  - 

❄️I have already wrapped up the outside garden tap  .❄️

❄️I found my 8 hour candles for my greenhouse lantern and a piece of fleece to throw over things if it gets too cold . I need to get hold of some more and newspaper .When the guys have gone I will be fixing up my insulation roll up onto the greenhouse rafters .❄️

So that's all fer now folks . Hoping the weather holds fair for tomorrow ,while they are fixing the greenhouse roof . 

                                                              🌿☀️🌿