Daisy in the Garden: 2025

Monday, 3 February 2025

Wild Snowdrops 🤍

The Snowdrops are coming .

The wild ones on our Cornish hedges . Go out and see !

To acquire knowledge , one must study ; but to acquire wisdom , one must observe .

🌿💚🌿

Saturday, 1 February 2025

🍅Sowing my Tomato Seeds today 🍅- Cornwall 🌿

Got up extra early to get my Tomato seeds sown . Our grandchildren were coming over to spend the day with us a bit later on and I really need to concentrate when I'm sowing seeds .

I have also sown my leeks and a packet of beautiful white poppy seeds that my brother sent for me .

The Tomatoes have now joined the Sweet Peppers and Passion flowers on the propagator on my bedroom windowsill .

I wanted to sow my cucumbers but I seem to be one pan down , can't find it anywhere ! I will be pricking out and potting up the Sweet Peppers very soon so can use that pan and keep looking for the other one . Hopefully tomorrow .

Then just as I finished , the children arrived ....both wanting to do jobs to earn some pocket money !

My older one painted the shed and did a very good job of it I thought .

My younger one thoroughly enjoyed helping me make a chocolate cake .

🤎 Insisted on doing it herself .... mostly ....

.....and she is a very good cook 🤎

Wow ! 🤎 Yummy !

We did have fun of the most chocolatey kind !

...... and I love washing up ! 🤣

🌿💚🌿

Friday, 31 January 2025

Weeding again ! ☀️🌿

Aaah ...at last the sun has returned .

So much I want to do in the garden . It is very squelchy slippery underfoot . I decided to make a start and just do one small area .This little bed was choked with Ivy and three Sloe and a Sycamore sapling . I still need to do some more work to get the Sycamore out .

I pruned the Cornus alba siberica back down to about two or three inches .I want lots more of these lovely red stems which we enjoy through the winter .

I left a couple of the ones at the back , to enjoy for a bit longer .

I may plant these out somewhere, I have bundled them up on the Summer house deck , for the time being while I have a think about it .

Those are some of my Agave babies and cacti sheltering from the winter weather on the table inside . I am longing to put them all back into the greenhouse . . . but the greenhouse is no longer my happy place , with it's leaking roof and the bad atmosphere that the greenhouse builder men have left up there . Nothing more is going to be done about it now . Husband gets angry . I have to make the best of it ..at the moment it makes me feel ill .

I will begin to try and take my plants back up there soon and make it a happy a place again .

We are having a new fence and gate built up there , which I went up to see this morning . Gave my heart such a lift ! I didn't expect anything so smart !

We occasionally have visiting deer , which I love to see , but don't really want getting into the vegetable garden .

Anyway , I pulled out lots of Ivy , revealing Hellebores and Primroses underneath ....

.....and this . A seedling Phoenix Canariensis which has somehow found it's way there . Maybe brought in by a squirrel from my giant palm up in the vegetable garden . I'm delighted , but it can't stay there !

So all it needs now is a nice mulch of woodchip .

Mission complete .... well almost ....I still need to do a bit more tidying up around the back .

Tomorrow I will work on the bed on the other side of the Summer house steps .

Sweet pea update -

I sowed these in November . I wrapped up the tub as you can see with fleece .They are tough little things as far as the cold goes , they can take the cold , but their stems can snap in the severe gales that we often get here .So the fleece wrapping is a good idea .

However this past week we have had wave after wave of big named storms . Storm Eowyn actually blew this big heavy tub over onto it's side ! Twice ! I need to have a peek inside .

Hmm...a little bit bashed about but not too bad . I will pinch them out a little bit , which will make them bush out and grow even stronger .

This will give me lovely early Sweet peas and when they finish I will be growing Black Eye Suzie's again ....because my mum loves them and I have the seeds of the ones I saved from the ones I grew last year just waiting in the wings .

But they can wait .... because tomorrow... is the day ....I sow my Tomato seeds !

🌿 Happy gardening all ! 🌿

☀️☀️☀️

Wednesday, 29 January 2025

Storm Ivo ⛈️🌧️ Cornwall

Yet another cold windy rainy miserable dark and gloomy day . We have Storm Ivo rattling through .

I'm just sitting on my bed with my hot water bottle , deciding what to do . Sowing ....or sewing ?

I sat and shuffled through my seed packets .

⛈️Please note - With regard to sowing seeds . I am in the very far South West of Cornwall - this may be far too early for people further up country .

So far I have only sown a few Onion and Sweet Pepper seeds , on a heat propagator on my bedroom windowsill .⛈️

I am going to sow my Tomato seeds on 1st February . It is what I did last year . I have it written in my little red note book . We had a good harvest .

I usually grow Alicante , Supersweet F1 , and last year I tried Roma VF . All very nice !

This year I am switching out the Tomato Supersweet 100 F1 for Tomato Cocktail Crush F1 ,this is because I want a slightly larger cherry tomato . I am definitely growing Roma VF again . It has lovely plum shaped fruits .

I start them off on my heat propagator on my South facing bedroom windowsill .

I plan to grow just a couple of each in the unheated greenhouse and give away any spares .

I am also going to start off a few Cucumber seeds Femspot and Beth Alpha ....but not too many .

So I checked on the Sweet Peppers and I will be gently pricking them out and potting them on , maybe later today , once again ,I don't think I'll be needing all of them . After a couple of days I'll take them up to the shed ....or maybe the greenhouse .

The new greenhouse roof is still leaking even after the men came to fix it . I am so disappointed . I can no longer recommend that particular portable buildings company .

Here are my little darlings . Sweet Pepper babies .

I will be sowing Leeks , as they are so easy , reliable and useful in the kitchen . They don't need any heat to germinate . I'm growing Leek "Bleu de Solaise" this year . I also found an old packet of Leek "Neptune" .

Anyone know where I can get hold of some seeds of a French variety called "Jeune de Poiteau" ? I used to grow it together with Bleu de Solaise and they just looked very handsome growing together .

Anyway ...

Only one Passiflora mollissima seedling so far . They can be a bit erratic germinating . I am overjoyed though to have even just one of these lovely plants ! I might carefully prick that one out and pot it up .

The Lemon scented Geranium plug plants that I bought on Ebay , are doing fine . There are lots of other different scents to choose from , but I just love this one .