Meanwhile in the Greenhouse - Martlothistella uniondalensis

I promised my brother ( the one who loves cacti ) that I.d post a picture of my Marlothistella uniondalensis  , to see how it has grown , over what must be about six years since he gave me the little rooted cutting from his .
 It has become one of my most treasured succulents , I look forward to seeing it's pink daisy flowers which appear between November and February .

It is a Winter growing mesembryanthemum  from the Little Karoo  in South Africa.                 Although said to be cold hardy , I keep mine in the greenhouse .
 I,m going to take a closer look at it tomorrow , with a view to getting a rooted piece off it to give back to my brother who has lost his .
   I also read somewhere that the caudex / fat root of this plant can be raised up , to make it look even more cool ...so I will take a look at that and see what I can do  .
 Anyway , I love having this one in my collection  ,  its a little charmer .
 Have a great week all ! :)

Collecting Seaweed for the New Pumpkin Patch

So I,ll start again . Here we are down at Gunwalloe . There's rain coming in , but who cares ? !

The tide is going out and has washed up some lovely fresh clumps of seaweed .

I usually bring a black bin sack for us to sit on , but today it is coming in really useful ,  to gather some seaweed for the veg garden .

I filled it to about half way , since it is quite heavy and we had quite a walk uphill to the carpark . I can always come and  get some more another day .

Back home I empty it into my wheelbarrow and wheel it up to the veg garden .

              Seaweed is great in the veg garden , it really makes things grow !

I,m busy getting the new Pumpkin patch ready for next year , layering up newspaper , grass clippings , cardboard , horse manure ,  hoover bag contents , Autumn leaves , spent compost , shredded branches and seaweed  . The more effort that is put into the garden now during the Autumn , the bigger the pay off next year ....but this is no effort really , since it is our friends the worms that will do the work , chomping through it all .
 No hard , back breaking digging for me ..except just to gently turn it all over and rake it in the Spring .

                                                 Beautiful Cornish seaweed .

So the next  layer will be more cardboard ,then green stuff grass clippings, newspaper , I try to alternate it;  green stuff followed by brown stuff is how it really works and the air trapped within it keeps it all  beautifully light and smell free.....so no walking all over it !
     The worms love it !

It hard to see from my pics , but it is a fairly large circular bed ,but not so large that I cant reach easily into the middle of it without treading on the earth .
Not treading on the earth is very important , because in doing  so the earth  becomes compacted and the worms get squashed : (
   So there you are , my new Pumpkin Patch for next year . Hope I haven't put you off your tea ! : )

The new Pumpkin patch

I,m busy getting the new Pumpkin patch ready for next year , layering up newspaper , grass clippings , cardboard , horse manure ,  hoover bag contents , Autumn leaves , spent compost , shredded branches and seaweed  . The more effort that is put into the garden now during the Autumn , the bigger the pay off next year ....but this is no effort really , since it is our friends the worms that will do the work , chomping through it all .
 No hard , back breaking digging for me ...except just to gently turn it all over and rake it in the Spring .