Peas, Salad leaves and Tomato Plants

           What a beautiful day and that cold East wind has eased off at last .
It was nice  to have a wander around the garden and feel the warmth of the Sun again .

After breakfast we each took a pair of loppers on our exercise walk around the meadow .

We are doing this three times a day now for our permitted exercise during this very worrying  time .
   We took this opportunity to cut the Willow hard back down to the base .
I,m going to weave wreaths and plant cloches with it while it is nice and supple. Any left over , will be tied into faggots for kindling , once it has dried out .
I also took the tops off the two year old Copper Beech saplings , to encourage them to branch out lower down to make a good native species hedge .

Butternut babies on my bedroom windowsill . I took them up to the potting shed , pricked them out and potted them on and immediately refilled the trays with fresh compost and made a second sowing of Courgette seeds .  The first lot haven't come up yet and I,m not taking any chances . We love our Courgettes !

                                       Here they are all potted on .
They can now stay in the potting shed for a while to get more established .

I have sown several trays of mixed leaves for delicious salads . I took one of these trays and planted them all out in the Veg Trug .
So delicate at this stage and fiddly to handle , but once watered in they look so much happier !

          Covered with mesh to give them some protection from the wind .

                                               Gardener's Delight

The Tomatoes are all germinating at last and I have sorted out some Gardener's Delight Tomatoes for my neighbours if they would like them . I just need them to get a little bit bigger , maybe ready in a week or two .

    All is well in the greenhouse . I am trying to make space for Tomatoes .
Very difficult as I have so many Cacti and succulents in there !
 I took out all the Pelargoniums and put them into the cold frame . A huge Yucca elephantipes , almost too big to lift and the damned spiky , but beautiful Aloe ferox , now in a sheltered spot outside .
 It has been getting quite  hot in there , so now those big plants are gone there is space for me to get in and open the windows for the first time this year .

     Some of the cacti have buds on them , but I will show you another day .

As the Sun began to set I quickly made a shallow trench and sowed a couple of rows of Kelvedon Wonder Peas and pushed in pea-sticks . We are expecting rain tomorrow morning to water them in .
 Hopefully the ground will be soft after the rain , so I can push in the Runner-bean poles easily and get the frame ready .

Finished doing this just in time for the Mullion Village Clap to thank the NHS Heroes and all our wonderful Key-workers at eight o'clock .

Meanwhile in the greenhouse ...

Back in early June , actually about four weeks ago to the day , we took ourselves off on a one night away trip , to one of our favourite places , Charmouth .
We did a little bit of beach combing and fossil hunting , didn't find anything this time ....but we were tired after the drive  .

So we paid a visit to Groves Nursery in Bridport for some refreshment in their new cafe . Sad to see the old friendly cafe has gone and amazed to see the huge new one towering over the lovely nursery gardens . We enjoyed our bowl of soup and crusty roll .Then had a little wander round . Groves Nursery is famous for it's wonderful selection of Violets especially in the Spring  .They have beautiful healthy ,clearly labelled plants , shrubs and trees .Garden equiptment, everything you could ever need . The Rose garden is lovely, I have several beautiful Roses from Groves , I love their beautiful selection of beans , seeds , onion sets and potatoes ..to help yourself to however many  you want ,scoop them into brown paper bags and weigh on the scales ..love this ! I love the selection of wild-bird / animal food and the pet department ....and so much more !
 Above all , I love the glasshouse with so many beautiful plants suitable for the conservatory or indoor house plants .....too many to name...but anyway...I always make a beeline for the Cacti  , something which always impresses me at Groves , is how everything is always clearly labelled ,with  the plant's botanically correct name .
 In the past I have come across some very rare and more unusual plants in here ..... but nothing was tempting me on this occasion  ......I pottered about for ages...as you do  ........                                                                                                                         

             ........and then I spied this poor little thing ...
 ........ no label ....not much compost ....one shrivelled flower ...
Leaning over in it's tiny pot .....it was coming home with me !

 We had a lovely evening meal  and one night at the Exeter Airport Hotel .

My husband named it "Billy no mates" which I thought was a bit unkind !

I held it all the way home , on my lap in the car . I found a nice pot and some fresh cactus compost and re-potted him .
  It seemed to me that it was happier lying on its side , so I positioned it that way in the pot and gave it a nice top dressing with horticultural grit .

Well , look at it now ! Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would respond like this in just four weeks !

         Look at that gorgeous bud ! Click on it ! Go on ! Zoom in !

 And this morning , as I walked up to the greenhouse , I could see that it had opened in the early morning sunshine .

                                                       It is lovely !

 
                     I would like to label it , if anyone knows it's name ?

                 It is growing very fast , look at those new side shoots !

                            I,m so glad I brought him home with me !