Sundays gardening

greenhouse temperatures. max 23 c   current 18.5   min 2.5c    seeding herbs and wild flower mix into new seed tray/propagator; coriander, sage, rosemary, thyme, parsley and re-sown onion seeds, Cipolla Rossa Di Tropea.

old propagator lids on the left.. look how yellow they are compared to the nice new clear ones. will use the old ones till they fall apart, they've given good years of use.

 bookmark from Wildside, keeping place

favourite gardening book. I reccomended this to a friend who unfortunately bought the 'new edition' which I've looked at and don't like at all.. the author has changed his views and ways of doing things over time.. so I'll only recommend the old edition, not the new one... what suits some people doesn't suit others.

I've been piling horse poop on top of this bed for a couple of weeks, bringing home a couple of bags at a time in the car.

that's it dug in now, weeds removed, stones removed. I know its not been tended well for a number of years but the soil seems such poor quality.. like its never been dug over before... oh well, it can only improve with work and time.

these are snakeshead fritillary which were coming up underneath the twisted hazel... its the right time to move snowdrops.. but not these... but, being on my knees removing the snowdrops from under there, I just thought well move them while I'm there... as not likely to want to crawl under again.... hope they survive. snowdrops and fritts now in a place where they can be better seen when they come up next year.

March

hyacinths, smell wonderful.

snow on the hills, weather is changeable with some warm days and some not

a good day, out riding.

in the garden, the first little daffodil to flower, its about six inches high, and the purple sprouting broccoli, making a nice colour and providing some to eat, I eat the leaves too, and the last leek, which is a skinny one, but tasty all the same.

dreich

driech is a scottish description of a dismal, drizzley rain, foggy, cold day. todays temperatures are Max 6.7c (44f), Min 0.9c (33.6f) and current also 6.7c. Yesterday I recorded ( probably for the week as I hadn't been able to open the door for a few days... frozen shut!) Max 8.1c (46.5f), Min -8.4c (16.8f) and current of 1.3c (34f). So it's a  milder day , but preferred the cold with the sunshine....

leeks and onions , a flimsy plastic cover

and then the hard plastic domes over the top of that.  there's a post somewhere with the trays covered with garden fleece, must have been before I discovered the high dome tops and I have photo evidence of them in 2007,,,, they have some age to them and are cracking, discolouring and disintegrating.. I have purchased some new ones that are still in the house and will come out to be used when needed. I hope they last as long !!

Casper joined me in the greenhouse.. on the wicker footstool which is in there with the wooden garden chair to be protected from the weather .

little clumps of snowdrops coming up through the leaf litter beside the hedge

nearly nearly  but not quite open yet

and again , himself , quite the gardening cat today, lol

I received some amazon tokens for christmas, along with the max/min themometer, so I've just spent about an hour online choosing a garden journal , and also a plant journal to record the plants in the garden. I have attempted to keep a diary on my laptop but would prefer to write the notes , also the journals are 'prompted' so you just have to fill in info. I'm nearly finished typing up a current seed list, too many - too exciting....
 

in the garden

 solomons seal growing in-amongst some late snowflakes

the tree, almost.. nearly.. bursting into leaf. not be long till its bright with leaves

hellebores

 hellebores. always hang their flowers down, and this is what they hide, just beautiful

 and the dark  purple one, still so pretty underneath

Casper looking out of the window, he does not enjoy going out into the wintery weather, so if he's out I need to keep an eye on whats happening outside so I can let him back in, he's never very far away when you call him in.

flowers in the garden

 Cyclamen, looks a bit lonely, I think there is a bigger clump elsewhere in the garden, but I forgot to look for it.

Leucojum, they are usually quite tall. so I'm not sure why these are so little.

Hellebore, not opened

Hellebore, again not opened.
I tagged this with spring and winter flowers, as it seems like spring , but winter is surely not over yet. As I've had more time this week I've been collecting a bag of the well rotted manure from the farm every day and I tip it into my compost bins. One bin was mostly filled with weeds, the other mostly with grass clippings and then autumn leaves. I eat a lot of fruit and veg so any peelings, skins, cores etc... all go in as well. I have three bins and a fourth one is dismantled , in future I'm going to place the empty bin right on top of a veggy bed.. so once its 'cooked' I can just lift it and spread the compost.. currently when I have to empty the bins.. not likely till the end of this summer... I'll have to get them tipped over and mostly onto a tarpaulin and then move it to where its needed. More thought.. less lifting.

underneath views of todays snowdrops

Snowdrops

I was patiently waiting for the snowdrops to come up, inspecting a clump near the front of the garden every day.. they still haven't come up... but elsewhere in the garden, behind shrubs and under leaves, these have come up , I will have to wait till the weekend to see them open, to see if they are singles or doubles. I can see from a quick look round this morning that more have come up and nearly at the opening stage.

all my angels

 think all my angels were having a meeting?? there were more on the gravel leading up to the car too. I have a lot of angels, miss all of them

 moved some of the snowdrops from my garden to the farm for 'in memory of', this fat leaved snowdrop I think is 'cats whiskers', nice big flower with lots of green inside, they are for Eric, the farm's old dog.

and a wild type snowdrop with narrow silvery leaves, a gift early on in the garden from my friends dad, who has now passed on, so this brings him to  memory too. these are over Daisy and Smokey. I am a bit sad Tansy is not near them... but its only a body.. and she'll be remembered with them always, many blessings xx

''rescued crocus'' from February 29th 2008

2008 was a leap year like this one. I wrote ''a quick walk round the rainy wind blown garden, the helebores are flowering beautifully, snowdrops, crocus and daffodills, primrose, pulmonaria.....too wet to take the camera outside! I found a crocus with its stem snapped, and it was rolled up tightly so I brought it in and plonked it in a jar, within 20 minutes it had opened up, lovely!''
I do miss my garden, and hope to have another one someday. 

flowers to add cheer.....

Cheerful bulbs in a pot, sitting at the caravan doorstep. I though they might all get blown away today but they're fine!
Having 'moved' a lot of my activity on the internet to facebook I find that I can't really be 'me' on facebook, that it becomes a very public thing, people who come to where I work as customers, my boss and her family.
I find facebook a great way to keep in touch with a lot of people, my family included!! Its great for oraganising things and not getting missed out.
However I am returning to  my blog with any of my opinions, not so much that they are out of order but because not everybody needs to know them.
I practice smiling in front of a mirror.
and still today four different people who know me outside of the workplace came up to me and said I looked exhausted and  miserable. I apologised and said that wasn;t what I wanted to convey to people when I was at work.
but that was today, tired out and sad.

spring

how nice it is to see emeging buds, leaves, flowers, a bitof warmth in the sun, some heavy rain making it gloomy but no snow and no frost.

here are the beetroot in their module tray, and three trays of onions, all old seeds so sprinkled liberally, some very well germinating and some not. a tray of White Lisbon onions did not germinate at all so I have sat it outside, it might or might or might nor germinate in time. in the house the tomatos, peppers and aubergines have all germinated, hopefully get them to maturity sucessfully.

and a couple trays for salad leaves, they've germinated very well. I've had some already in a cheese sandwich, I've no patience!!

one little daffodill

one little daffodill out today, this is about 6" high. I love daffodills so hopefully all its relatives will be flowering soon.

and in the background a Chinodoxa Forbessi, glory of the snow. very pretty and lots to flower in this clump too.

more seeds into trays today...in the house I've done the following tomatoes..Rutgers, Royal Chico, Yellow Brandywine, Black Brandywine, Oregon Cherry and Gardeners Delight. also in the house are Aubergine Tres Hative de Barbentane and Sweet Nardello Pepper.

into the greenhouse a tray each of Delphinium Galahad and Agastache Blue Spike, I think they might look very nice planted with each other. if they get that far, I often plant seed trays of flowers which get neglected in favour of the veggies needing done.......

too wet outside...

Smokey Tiptoes says no to going outside...too wet!!

this little pot of Scilia Siberica has bloomed year after year on the doorstep. they are still in a plastic pot...think its time to upgrade them to something nicer.

turning up the snowdrops revealing how pretty they are...note the raindrops, I had to run back inside as the rain came on so heavily.

the last standing vegetable!! the leeks survived! I had left some purple brocolli as I have done this before and had a nice wee crop in the early spring, however this winter the very cold temperatures turned the plants to mush...

one veggy plot is tidied, the rest are waiting on some drier days. I must get out into the greenhouse and plant some onion and leek seeds. these will be 'leftovers' that are not yet out of date. perhaps germination is not as good with older seeds but its worth using them up.

started spring cleanup

the snow drops are just begining to show themselves. I have some time off work so hope to get the garden tidied and readly to 'go'. also time to put pencil to paper and get the veg beds planned.
last year lacked colour in the flower beds, a combination of bad weather and being busy so I would like to deal with that a bit better this year.

work work work

potatoes in the green house, about to be put outside as I will be needing the room, I like to do this as it provides some early treats for a couple of meals hopefully. the carrotts in pots aren't doing so well.

outside potatoes not doing a thing yet which shows what a difference the shelter of the greenhouse makes.

'something' is chewing on the fritilliarys.....

inside...fascinating!

its been all work and no play here, like the 'running faster to stand still' thing, I am so tired. a couple of days off coming up so a lot of sleeping in to be done I think! I would also like to get started on planting seeds in the garden beds, lots of plans! less running around to do as Abbey is now 'out' 24/7 for the summer, hope its a warm one! its nice to go up and ride and not have to muck out, carry hay and water all the time. she does get worried that this means she won't get a dinner every day......she gets a small token dinner.