🌿 Beautiful new steps 🌿

                            Beautiful , beautiful new steps !

                                     🌿☀️🦋💛🌿💐🐝               

🌿Beans 🫘🫘🫘🌱🌱🌿🌿

17th April -Started off in the shed . These propagators are brilliant by the way !

Hardening off outside ,by day, for a few days .

Planting out -12 May -  Ready Steady Go !

I'll start with the Runner beans , they really put on some growth when I started putting them outside to acclimatise .

    Ricardo did a great job tidying up the labyrinth !  

I'm growing Super Marconi Runner bean  this year . Look at those roots ! 

                                 🌿 Runnerbean Super Marconi 🌿

                               🌿  Climbing bean Blue Lake 🌿

                              Strawberry in a hanging pot 

Then went in for some breakfast and a nice cuppatea  🫖☕ I still have more to plant out . 

  Not sure about this bed yet , I might change it around a bit and I must put some chicken-wire around it . 🐰

Dwarf beans , more climbing beans , peas maybe . I've done some peas in a hanging basket this year . I need to make space for my Leeks , Beetroot and a few Sweetcorn .

 The potatoes in tubs are coming along nicely over there ,by the pink wheelbarrow in the back ground .

      

   ...and now there's some space on the bench in the shed to start sowing some flower seeds .

   Not sure I will be able to get going again now I've stopped ! 🤪

               See you later !  Love Debbie 🦋 x

Epiphyllum "Yellow" flowers opening

 

At last ! Epiphyllum "Yellow" is opening her beautiful flowers .  

The outer petals are yellow and the inner ones are ivory . Like Cornish Clotted Cream .

They benefit , colour wise , from having a cold winter .They get a better or much stronger colour .

 I keep them dry through the winter months .... only covering them with fleece or sheets of newspaper if there is a serious freeze forecast . 

Three more buds to go , although I think that small one might drop off . 

They will probably be fully open tonight . Moth pollenated 🦋

I will take some cuttings after it finishes blooming . 

All my Epies need a good tidy up .

                 Made my day !   love Debbie 💐 x

                

                         

Our Evening Walk - Along Mullion Cliffs ⛵☀️

      ........and then .....

      We saw this Slow Worm basking in the sun in the middle of the path .

   Oh ! Wow !  💚🌿

Decided to move him to a safer place as there are very often cyclists and people running along this way .

 Remembering that one should always pick a Slow Worm up gently from the middle . If you grab the tail it could come off .

  Oh ! Wow !           

 It's o.k. It's o.k. !  It's not a snake , but a type of legless lizard . These don't bite !

                           Wow ! He made my day ! Look at this !

  

 So beautiful ! What an honour to see this beautiful golden creature close up .

I gently put him down into the bushes and grass along the path , close to where found him .

   Eight year old me , would have wanted to take him home with me ! I grew up living near and playing in the woods . 

   Not sure I ever grew up , but this time , I let him go . 🌿😊🌿

                                What a lovely end to the day !

                                   love Debbie x

💐Seeds Glorious Seeds ! 💐

My lovely brother sent me lots of flower seeds !  Such a lovely surprise ! 🤩💛🌺🎶 I have mostly been growing vegetables so far , so this will bring some colour into my garden . It needs brightening up !  

I will be planting out all the vegetables soon which will make room for starting these off .   I might save some for Autumn sowing , such as the Sweetpeas and Foxgloves ...ooh lovely ....cream Foxgloves  and Forget Me Nots !  

    Thankyou my lovely brother !

I had lovely Roses from Ricardo and a box of chocolates (which Ricardo ate most of ! 😐) and Tulips from lovely Daughter ..even though we had to use them for decorating her front door on Flora Day . It is nice knowing they made lots of people happy as well as me .

My other lovely daughter found me some lovely Indian belly dancing bangles ! 💃🏼💛🌺

I was really hoping the Epies would open up their buds today .... nope .

                  What do you think ? Tomorrow ?

                 This will have to do for now ! Look at this beauty ! 

                     Hope you've had a great weekend ☀️

                                    Love Debbie x

 

Almost time 🌱🌱🌱

 Not much happening in the greenhouse .Still waiting for the Epies to flower .

Courgettes , Butternuts and Pumpkins are almost ready to plant out .

I moved the beans outside to begin hardening off .

I'll bring them back in this evening . It is almost time . Maybe next week .

They are at the right size now and it needs to be done before they start to wind around each other and that makes it a harder job to untangle them when I come to plant them out . 

   At the moment they are fine , but I might put some sticks into them for them to wind around . Then I'll plant them out with the sticks leaning against the bean-frame poles .

Giving some plants a good drink . 

I repotted my Bleu de Solaise Leeks ,I won't be planting these out for a while yet . They need to get to pencil thickness ideally . Some fresh compost in a bigger pot should give them a kick up the back side !

  I repotted the big Elkhorn Fern that has been living in my bathroom .

Three Furcraea plants desperately need to be planted out in the new tropical bed I am going to create .  Just waiting for all the branches to be cleared from what was our compost heap .

Yesterday I tidied up the Phoenix canariensis  , lopping off all the branches that were badly damaged during Storm Goretti  .

It was quite a workout ! My arms are still aching and I am afraid I will have muscles like Popeye now  ! 

I cut off all the spikes at the base of the palm leaves . They are nasty !

        Those branches are really heavy too ! 

These nasty spikes will be going on the bonfire heap ....really nasty !

I have always been worried about the children catching and hurting themselves on those spikes , but now , for the first , time the branches are way over our heads .

  Letting more light in for the vegetable beds too . 

                       Baby Phoenix canariensis in the middle under wraps .

Here it is in 2006 , not long after I had planted it . I was wrapping it up for Winter by the looks of it .

 I never thought it would grow to such a size in my life time  ! I just thought it would look cute in the middle of my vegetable garden . 🌿🤔🌴 lol !

I have another Phoenix canariensis quite near to the greenhouse . I thought it would look cute in the middle of my herb garden .

  It has flowers coming  .It's beautiful . It is also quite big ....not as big as the vegetable garden one ..but it's getting there ! 

             I know ! I know ! ........ It's too big to move now !  

  You can use the flower cases to sow seeds in .... by the way . Nicer than loo rolls !

 I saved four nice ones to decorate my daughter's front door for Flora Day which is today .

                    It looks lovely !  The town looks lovely today ! 

                         All fer now ! Love Debbie 💐🦋☀️ x

         

  

  

🌿Sunrise on Flora Day 🌿

What a beautiful morning !

Slightly misty with the promise of more sunshine to come .

Over in Helston the Flora Day celebrations have already begun .

We took flowers and greenery to decorate our daughter's front door . We are not going in this time, but will be watching on the Flora Day 2026 Live Stream on YouTube .

They will have a lovely sunny day for it .

We're having a quiet day here . Just pottering gently about , doing things in the garden .

                                          Happy Flora Day !

                                       🐝🐝🦋💐☀️💐🦋🐝🐝  

Repotting the South African Bulbs

                       O.k . Let's get on with it 🌿🌿🌿

 

First things first , spread out some newspaper ; briefly reading the interesting article . Yep !  It's going to get messy !

                 It's been in this lovely blue pot for over twenty years ! 

            

                                "  Time tiptoes ...suddenly it's gone ."

These tiny bulbs have practically used up all the goodness of the earth There is hardly any compost left ......just the grit and stones I originally mixed in for drainage .

               I gently teased out the roots and removed all the stones .

I found little pieces of polystyrene in there too . I must have thought it would help to keep the roots warm through the cold winter months .  

 I have on occasion left it outside .

It's a lovely shallow pot , I might use it for the other bulbs Ledebouria cooperii .

 After I have teased these all out , I will need a much bigger pot .

I have been meaning to repot these bulbs for some time and did a bit of research to remind myself about the conditions they like etc .

I came across a great Wordpress Blog called The Belmont Rooster , talking about how he repotted his bulbs . Very inspiring and useful ! I highly recommend his wonderful botanical notes ...and now I find out that there are even more varieties of these South African bulbs . I love them and now I want them all ! 🤩

   I believe it is also known as Silver Squill . The leaves here are stunted in growth .

The bulbs should be much more plump , more like these in this pot . 

My other bigger shallow pot was already in use with a cactus in it ....I thought about switching it over but decided it was beginning to get too complicated .

            I decided to see how they would do in a deeper pot .

I feel guilty for having been so mean to them ....and now they deserve to be proper pampered !

 I mixed up the old compost with some new and perlite and expensive horticultural grit .

I plucked them all out and carefully planted them into their lovely new pot and watered them all in .

......and sprinkled a generous topping of yet more expensive horticultural grit about them .

             And now I've done that , I can hardly see them !  🙄 

 I am hopeful that they will plump up and their leaves will push up up and maybe they will even flower .

They are now in the greenhouse , next to the Bowea volubilis which is another South African bulb ,very weird , in fact a totally crazy thing that I love and can see is just waking up in the pot on the left hand side .

              This year it has three new shoots ...watch this space !

Next I wanted to send some of these bulbs up to my brother upcountry . I only have a small pot of these but I pulled them apart and put some aside for him and potted up the others quickly in the lovely shallow blue pot .

                                   Ledebouria cooperii 

They are smaller bulbs but a lot healthier than the Ledebouria socialis violacea bulbs which are quite withered . 

  I gave him some of the better ones in the other pot .🌿🌿

Next I tipped out the Ledebouria cooperii , the one with the stripey leaves and lovely pink flowers .

That job done . I had a quick tidy up in the shed . 

Packed them all up .Then off to the post office in the village to send them off .

Epie update -   🌿  We are still waiting .....

                                    Epiphyllum "Yellow "

                            Epiphyllum " Acapulco Sunset "

              Echinocereus viereckii subsp morricallii  

Interesting how this one opens in the morning , closes midday, opens up again before nightfall . I guess it must be moth pollenated , but not sure why it would close up midday when the sun is shining brightest . I guess it is protecting itself and that is how it lasts so long .

 I wonder if it will be there tomorrow morning ? 

               That's all fer now my lovelies !

  Sorry if you found this a bit boring today 😂🌿💚🌺💐🐝

                       love Debbie x