🐌Just Weeding again 🌿🤗🌿🐌

 Not a lot to show you today . ☀️While the sun shone yesterday I gave the labyrinth it's third cut of the year and already it is looking much better .  

Today the weather is on the turn yet again . Very damp and mizzley .🌧️🌧️

I am tired after all the gardening I did yesterday . 

 I try to do a little bit everyday .

 I covered the Dahlia bed with some earth , mixing in some chicken pellets to give them a bit of a boost . Some of the tubers had become exposed after all the torrential rain . I should have given them a much thicker mulch back in the Autumn .....but that was when I had my spine injury  and I had no choice but to let go .

 Then I started to try and rake out the weeds growing through this Aloe . 

You may remember I did work on this bed back in the Summer .

Using this rake tool was useless , I ended up on my hands and knees  , to pull out miles and miles of Ivy and the occasional ouch... bramble .

 I don't wear gloves ....but I may have to go back in with gloves and actually  I think I will have to go back in and prize the bramble roots out with my big garden fork .

Annoyingly the brambles have chosen to grow right on the edge where the bed meets the lawn !

 I'll sort that out tomorrow . 

                    Ivy so hard to get to ! 

Big heap of weeds , which I have left on the lawn  to wilt . 

 I'll pick them up tomorrow .

I pulled off a couple of pieces that were beginning to walk across the lawn .

Just look at those gorgeous roots !  

 Gorgeous !  🤩

I will probably plant this somewhere else in the garden .

I got several pieces that I can make cuttings from to give away . 💚 They have lovely flowers in the Summer which butterflies and the bees love   🦋🐝🐝🐝

Meanwhile in the woodshed .......

......everything looks a little sad to say the least .  The Musa ensete maurellii is beginning to wake up after I gave them a little water the other day .

They wont be planted out until May , but can start into growth again now undercover .

This too looking very sad , I will start giving these a drink and some plant food soon .

This is/was a Peony ...... 😱........

....... but look !   There is a beautiful new shoot coming up in there !  🤩

More Agave americana variegata  . They have been kept dry over Winter , no water at all . I will repot these with fresh compost and later on I'll show you how they soon plump up and double in size .

So there we are , no pretty pictures to show you today I'm afraid .

The weather update - so now ,  🌧️it is forecast to rain and be mizzly forever ! 🌧️ For the next two weeks anyway .  🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️

                       Great !!   Easier to pull the weeds out !  🤗🌿🐌🐌

                                 Peace and Love  🩷

Leeks

Still aching from yesterday , but up early and got on with it . 

Glad I did , because it really was quite weedy and I filled the wheelbarrow .

Very awkward because there was no space to plonk my kneeling mat . I had to stand carefully between the Leeks and reach down to pull the weeds .

Oh boy !  I am really aching now  !

So now I have done the Kale , Brussel sprouts and Chives bed .

I took out all the French Beans and planted that bed up with Lavender .

I weeded out the Leeks and Globo onions bed .

 Note - I grew the Globo onions from seed ...they are not as giant as they were supposed to be but useable . 

I know , I say it every year " I am not growing Onions next year ! I'm sticking with reliable Leeks !"

 

Two beds still to be weeded .....but that's all I can do for today .... exhausted !

Hoping for some rain to come .☁️🌥️☁️☁️

           Ooh ....you know the season is changing when these start coming in ! 

                                                              🌿💚🌿  

 

Tidying the Herb Garden and Greenhouse

 

I couldn't sleep last night . I have a lot on my mind . Tossing and turning . I finally threw myself out of bed at 4.30 am , got dressed , made myself a nice cuppa tea and went for a walk around the garden.

All the stuff for the new workshop and woodshed has arrived and the men will be coming to build it next week I think .

Anyway , so we are still in the process of emptying the old workshop and the rule is that if you are going past the workshop , then you have to take something out of there with you on the way .

So I grabbed a few more bits and walked on up, to put them into the small shed up by the greenhouse .

Deep in thought , I pulled up a nettle from the herb garden and the next thing I knew , I had filled this tub to overflowing ......

......and pulled the weeds from the cracks in the path ....

...... I carried on and filled the big pink wheelbarrow  !

Then I opened up the greenhouse and began a big tidy up of the Tomatoes , cucumbers and sweet peppers . They all did remarkably well in the greenhouse and I have been picking bowlfuls everyday , morning and evening . I have a ton of tomatoes in the freezer now and am very thankful .

They are now coming up to the tatty stage and I decided to really thin them out down to just the remaining few healthiest looking vines .

Still lots of green tomatoes coming .

Another large pile of withering leaves .

I have been quite ruthless . It means there is more space and light for the Sweet Peppers .

                                     Sweet Pointed Peppers from saved seed .

It has been so nice to work in the garden in more comfortable temperatures this morning .

Poached egg on cheese on marmite on toast and another nice cuppa tea .

Aching now but happy ....putting my feet up !  

Weeding , weeding , weeding !

 

There are two roses in this bed , an Iris , a nice clump of Impatiens tinctoria , a huge Chamaerops humilis , a couple of Dahlias  and hundreds of Cowslips and Primroses .

Ivy such a nuisance in this area of the garden , all in-between the roots of the Iris  and grass growing likewise through the roses . I had no choice but to take out one of the Roses to pluck it all out ! 

Look at all that grass at the front of this bed . It is coming up through all the Primroses , I have had to take them all out !

I gathered all the equipment I needed from the shed and wheeled it down in the wobbly wheelbarrow .

I promised myself , that I could have the pleasure and reward of planting out into this bed one of the Furcraea longaveas , or maybe Beschorneria yuccoides that I have been growing up in the greenhouse .   It was such a long time ago that I found the seedlings , that I can't remember which it is ! 

Anyone know ?    Anyway , either of these and it will be fabulous here ! 

Happy to be planted out ! ...and there is rain on the way to water it in  .

It should look lovely with the Iris next to it and a rock to shelter it and soak up the sun and give out some warmth at night .

I did a quick rearrangement  of those rocks . The large one on top , has a nice  hollow that collects a small pool of water when it rains and it is where the Thrush and the Blackbirds like to smash snails , so it is important that I get this right . I will come back to sort that out tomorrow , as I really want to get this wretched weeding done before the rain .

Meanwhile up in the vegetable garden , since the wind was blowing well away from our neighbour's direction , my husband  , after checking the heap for Hedgehogs etc got a good fire going to clear all the branches and weeds that we'd cut back at the end of Winter . He did a good job !  I didn't get even the slightest wiff of smoke in the garden , here , down below the vegetable garden and the heavy rain coming will ensure it quickly goes out this evening .

We plan to plant more fruit bushes here eventually .

Back down where I am in the ornamental garden , I plant out this lovely Aeonium . 

It is getting dark and beginning to rain ! 

I thankfully , manage to get all the grass out from around the second rose without disturbing the roots too much . The rain was really coming down now , so I knew the roots would be settled  in again . Anyway , these two roses need a good prune and mulch .  Which I can do tomorrow .

Now it is really dark and lashing down with rain and like we used to see on the Royal Tournament , I run with the wheelbarrow full of tools and heavy with clumps of Primroses and Cowslips up into the shed . Put the tools away and run back to the cottage , soaked to the skin !

                                                   Photo taken with the flash !

Passing the Carnivorous plants on the way . They are looking happy enough !

I think I will have a quiet and gentle day tomorrow .