Still no rain ! ☀️

 

            Good morning ! Looking out through my kitchen window .

It has let a lot more light in , since I took off all the lower leaves and Ivy from the Tree Fern .

 It is still very hot here . I expect we'll have some really heavy rain storms soon .

Aah ....there's my little friend Robin waiting for me to come out .

I topped up the bird feeding station and refreshed the water in the bird bath .

There is a big bowl of water in the meadow for other thirsty wildlife .

I think these are "Blue Lake " Climbing beans and there are another lot of dwarf beans down below . Plenty more to come . 

 Peas are coming to the end now . I must remember to sow some more . 🫛🫛🫛

  I picked another big bunch of Lavender , lots more French beans and a couple of nice Courgettes .

Sweetcorn and Runner beans are only just getting going ... no idea why so slow ?

  Plenty of time though for these !

Oh ! Well ! We have plenty of these French beans . Some we are having fresh and some I have quickly blanched then into the freezer .

French beans , which I "open freeze" then bag up into free flow packs .

Meanwhile come with me into the shed ......

Amorphophallus atroviridis - update 

Back in February I acquired this small and strange Amorphopallus atroviridis tuber/corm/bulb/blob  .🤣

I potted it up and have been waiting and watching it for a very long time .

I did actually dig it up at one point to check that I had planted it up the right way .

Well at last it has begun putting up not one but two shoots and I am looking forward to seeing it's lovely leaves .

It really is painfully slow growing , but something is happening now .

          I can see the first bunch of lovely new leaves starting to open !

This is a slightly more rare variety of Voodoo Lily . I think it is a lot more tender , but has the most beautiful leaves  . 

I think it's looking gorgeous already ! 

The other tiny little shoot next to the main one is just stationary ..... 🤔

                                          🌿💚 🌿

Epiphyllum "Helston Library " ( maybe apricot flowers ) cuttings - update -

They are all getting away nicely now . First the new shoots look like they have been squeezed out of a cake decorating nozzle ....

                                    Then they develop "wings"

          Then they grow into proper flat phylloclades or modified leaves .

And then hopefully the flower buds come from the nodes of these adult phylloclades . 

                                 Flower bud coming .

                              One of my other Epies in full bloom 🤍

It is fiercely hot today ☀️ I won't be doing anything out in the garden until this evening when it should cool down a bit .

🪻Might do some patchwork this afternoon or make some Lavender bags 🪻💜

                         Take care in the fierce sun !

                                     Peace and Love 🤍🕊️

                                               Debbie 💐 x

The Sweet Peppers are coming !

 I said  I,d show you the Peppers in the greenhouse . Well I grew these from seeds that  I saved from a pack of supermarket Mini Sweet Peppers ...so I had not been too sure of what these seeds would produce . All going well so far , they look like little Sweet Peppers  . Husband very excited as he loves them !

I think we will wait until they colour up to a nice bright red before picking them .

 I dont think they will grow much bigger  now , mainly  because I just couldn't  get any good quality compost back in the Spring due to all the nurseries closing down during "lockdown". What I did manage to get hold of was very poor quality and very expensive .
  Normally I would have them in much bigger and deeper pots .
The tomatoes in the greenhouse are not as fast growing as the ones in the Solar shed which had good quality compost left over from last year and in much bigger pots .

  Our juvenile Buzzard flew over my head as I walked down to the vegetable garden , screaming out to it's mum loudly .

 Here you can see , after the dwarf beans failed I threw down a mixture of veg seeds . Carrots , beetroots, Pak choi ,Rocket , Lettuce , I planted leeks and a few Gardeners Delight Tomato plants that I,d grown  from seed up in the shed .
 It needs a bit of weeding again after the rain we,ve had the last couple of days .
 We have been eating a few things everyday from the vegetable garden . Lovely  to smell and taste such fresh vegetables .
 I would,ve liked more to freeze away , but I am thankful for all this at least .
 The vegetable garden has not quite gone to plan this year . The autumn planted onions were a complete fail and waste of money , effort and likewise the French Beans ...and I have no idea why , other  than to say that we didn't have any April showers at the time I was sowing seeds and beans . Runnerbeans and French beans are usually so easy , but this time they kept being cut down by something despite all the protection  I gave them .
  I sowed another lot of beans a couple of weeks ago , so I am hoping they might give us  some end of season pods , about as late as can be sown .
     Fingers crossed !

                     Carrots are looking good to pull in a few weeks time .

 A few Gardeners Delight Tomatoes , I think my best ones are the ones  I have grown in the shed .

                                         Some beetroot , I love them !

                                 Romaine Lettuces in amongst the Leeks .

 The Leeks are picking up now at last , thanks to the lovely lot of rain we,ve had .

 Under cover Brassicas and Kale and the first lot of Leeks that I planted out are almost at a usable stage now  . I want them to be a whole lot bigger though before  I harvest  them .
 The tomatoes and courgettes are fantastic , we are freezing them and eating them every day .

 Looking through my Runnerbeans to the labyrinth . We had a few Runnerbeans , but something  kept cutting them down at about two or three inches from the bottom and they did not regrow . I have sown more , but it is late now .
 Some you win , some you lose , This is the way it goes with vegetable gardening , so just don't ever give up !
    I,m thinking of pulling them all out and it will soon be time to plant another lot of Autumn  planting  onions . I will give it a good old weeding , take out the Tetrapanax papyrifer rex and all its pups ( let me know if  you want one , if you are local) feed the earth up with something , not sure what yet, chicken pellets maybe or seaweed ...and plant the onion sets to over winter here .
  I,m just thinking out loud , but I think that is what I,ll do .

 The kitchen windowsill at the moment . Mint and Pelargonium cuttings rooting in the hyacinth vases and tomatoes ripening in the sunshine .
  I love early Autumn !

St Piran's Feast Day . It's time to sow sow sow !

                                                 In the shed .
 I have begun sowing seeds . There are trays and pots of seeds everywhere . The Sweet peas and Leeks that I started on my bedroom windowsill , came up very quickly , but there was no sign of the Chillies . So I decided to take all of these out to the solar shed to begin hardening them off .
 I was a bit disappointed about the Chillies, but not quite given up yet .
The Chillies would germinate much quicker in a propagator .
 So , I ordered a heated propagator the evening before and am very excited as I,ve never used one before and have been too skinflint to buy one , but now tis done and I wait excitedly for the postman to call !  :)
I have put all my onion sets into little modules , just until the ground dries out a little bit more . It also gives them a bit of a boost and they will have some roots growing which will soon get a hold in the earth and help prevent the birds from pulling them out .   You can just plant them out , but this is what I like to do .

 I have some kale plants from seeds I grew end of last Autumn . I,m growing these in large pots under cover and taking leaves from them to mix with our salads and for cooking .

Today I went up to the shed to check on everything and very surprised to see that the chillies had germinated overnight !

                                  How much energy in those tiny seeds !
       
Delighted ! Now I,m going to sow some more , different varieties .

        These little dibbing and pricking out tools come in very handy .

 I have pricked out four of the Chillies and ten Leeks and will leave the others as I need to go and collect some more compost .

 In the greenhouse , it is nice and warm , which is good , as on the shelf I have sown some very special Tomatoes .  Medwyn's New variety "Y Ddraig Goch "F1 Tomatoes .  The Red Dragon and I sowed them on St David's Day . It seemed like a very good day to sow them .
  The greenhouse is full of my cacti and Epiphyllums , not much space left . So the photo above is taken looking down at the floor , where I have a tray full of Coriander and Dill . I sowed these yesterday .There are some for us , some for my daughter and some for my friend . I keep going to have a look for any sign of movement , but they should be up in a few days .

                       Happy St Piran's Day to all my Cornish friends ! :)

                                        St Mellanus Church in Mullion

End of August Veggie garden update

We,ve had a tough couple of months since I last wrote on here . . . our dear little dog and faithful Jack Russel friend came to the end of her days aged 17 years , passed away peacefully .  I am feeling so tearful ...we are all feeling so sad  ....the garden feels empty , yet the cottage feels like she is still here ...but she is not.....grieving is cruel .
 I have not been able to write ...apologies .... I know that time heals .

 It has been a struggle to carry on , but I have really tried hard to tend to the vegetable garden , we need to keep the vegetables coming  . Good  "fresh and healthy for us " food .
  See in the first photo....that is my first ever Cauliflower ! Small , but just the perfect size for the two of us ! ( and it was so good and tasty too ! )

 The recent gales smashed down two heavily laden branches from my Plum trees . ..I was so shocked and saddened when I first noticed this ....I hope the torn and jagged tree trunk can recover . Both trees were too badly torn to bind back together  and I,m not sure if I should paint the damaged parts over with something to seal the wound or  leave it to heal naturally . There are differing thoughts on this .
  I harvested a huge bowl of beautiful plums and there are many more for the birds and squirrels , wasps and butterflies to enjoy .

 In the Solar shed we are having a good steady supply of Tomatoes and Cucumbers .

    Lots of Runner-beans and French-beans , which I am freezing up as fast as I can .

                       Brussels sprouts are doing fine mostly under cover .
                                  Oh !...... but they are such a worry !

                                  Blooming Cabbage White Butterflies !
I have left a couple of sacrificial plants uncovered to try and attract them away from my main area of my Brussels sprouts crop .
 When I,m there I find myself chasing them away ....  shoo !  shoo  ! ..but I couldn't harm them .

        See how cleverly they hide underneath the leaves and lay their eggs .

 
The caterpillars  hatch out and munch away and leave all their messy droppings and very soon your brassicas are ruined ......

........but underneath the netting .....my perfect sprouts are growing  !

 Ruth Stout experiment .... in which one doesn't need the garden fork, nor spade .  You just pull back the straw with your hands...lets see .......

                       Squeals of delight at first !......but ....hmmm.....

 Not so good  lol !...next year we will go back to planting them under the good earth and earthing them up again .

 Onions ....lots and lots of beautiful onions , I cook with onions everyday , I can never grow too many .
 I am about to try a sowing of an onion called Toughball , for some fast and tasty Spring Onions .
 I got my order in for my Autumn planting Onion sets -Yellow Senshyu and Red Blood ..they should be arriving during the first two weeks of September .
   I cant believe we are nearly there already !

                            I,m really going to miss this little sweetheart .

                                            Tender French-beans
 This morning I planted out lots of Kale, Purple sprouting Broccoli and Cabbages ahead of the heavy rain that is forecast . . . . planting for my winter vegetable garden .
 More seeds to be sown on the three legged table in the Woodshed .... dont ask ... ( Husband says it will be o.k ! ....hmmmm ....I,m not so sure )  lol !
We are also very busy splitting  , chopping and stacking up logs for our Winter fuel .

    I also picked as many of the French-beans and Runner-beans as I could find ......they hide !
    The wind is picking up as I write this and I,m afraid they will be smashed down  .

   I wanted to make some Lavender bags ..but I think now the rain has come , I may be too late .  I picked a bunch to go into a vase on the table and some to go under my pillow for sweet dreams .. I rubbed my eyes and now have one very sore eye , beware of this in future ! The bees and butterflies are enjoying them  !