Six-on-Saturday 19th October 2019

Morning Blog-land today is my October link-up with The Propagator's Six on Saturday meme. Please check out The Propagator's post here for instructions on how to join in and take a look at his blog for links to lots of wonderful gardens from all around the world, they really bring a spark of joy to a weekend.  My previous posts can be found by clicking on the #SixOnSaturday label and if you are on Twitter, enter the #SixOnSaturday hashtag in the search bar and you'll see even more beautiful images from around the world.

All these photos were taken in our little back garden yesterday morning before it got too wet and I had to head off to chemo. It then hammered down with rain for most of the afternoon and evening so I'm very glad I got a head start on the pictures. No real rhyme nor reason to the photos this month - although "work to do"would probably sum up the collection!

1. Mint Corner - the recent rains have done wonders for all the potted mints lurking by the kitchen door. Nearly time to cut them again and freeze for using over the winter, well all except the apple mint as whilst, pretty, isn't a flavour I particularly like.

2. Achillea "Cerise Queen". These two were runts of the litter that I couldn't quite bear to compost and I'm so glad I didn't as they are now nice strong plants that will fit in the borders next year and fill the late summer garden (and vases) with their dark pink blooms.

3. Fabulous fuschia fairies - gifted to the hospice as tiny baby plants that a local nursery couldn't use, and offered to patients and volunteers for a donation earlier in the summer. I've no idea of the varieties but they have been flowering for weeks and show no sign of stopping yet.

4. Wallflowers and strawberry runners awaiting new homes on the outside shelves.
All ready for planting out when the rain eventually stops - new plants for free always raise a smile in this house!

5. Still a chance of a few more rose blooms - raised from cuttings from my late Gran's garden this beauty opens pink and fades to a beautiful peach and is proving to be very long flowering so well worth the effort.

6. And finally, weather permitting, the job for the weekend - start to sort out what needs bringing in, what needs re-potting and what needs cutting for use over the winter - herbs, welsh onions, chillis, strawberries and flowers all jostling for space on the mini patio.

Have a wonderful weekend all, and I'll "see" you next month. Tx

Six-on-Saturday 7th September 2019

Afternoon Blog-land today is my September link-up with The Propagator's Six on Saturday meme. I missed August but please check out The Propagator's post here for instructions on how to join in and take a look at his blog for links to lots of wonderful gardens from all around the world. My previous posts can be found by clicking on the #SixOnSaturday label.

Today was a trip to the allotment to see what we could harvest and to plant out the leeks, spinach beet and beetroot that has been languishing on the shelves here at home for far too long. We picked courgettes, Uchiki Kuri squash, dried beans, chickpeas, spinach beet, beetroot and apples plus a couple of lovely bunches of flowers. Then we had a look round to see what was to come.

1. Butternut squash doing well - 8 decent sized fruit on the now stopped plant. Cleared away the leaves to help them ripen.

2.  Some lovely sized eating apples on the small apple tree

3. The Borlottis are ripening well and in a few weeks they will join the bag of already dried beans that we harvested today .

 4. The first of the Achillea Cerise Queen has flowered at last adding their colour to the Rudbeckia rows in the cutting bed

 5. Their stems may be too short to cut but these sunflowers are still giving so much joy as bud after bud opens.

6. And in a sure sign of the changing seasons the sedum is putting on colour in the front border.

Bonus picture - we love our wildlife but it would have been really nice if the badger had left us just one sweetcorn cob to enjoy....grrr....

Six on Saturday 13th July 2019

Morning Blog-land today is my monthly link-up with The Propagator's Six on Saturday meme. Check out his post here for instructions on how to join in and take a look at his blog for links to lots of wonderful gardens from all around the world. My previous posts can be found by clicking on the #SixOnSaturday label.

Today's offering are floral.

1. We're hitting peak hollyhock in the garden at the moment - the leaves may be tatty due to rust but the flowers are beautiful and providing pollen a plenty. These were scatter sown last year from seed gathered from one plant that regrows each year between the paving cracks in the front garden. Really pleased with the mix of colours that has emerged from the red original.

2. The first pot of sweet-peas is producing a bunch of sweetly-scented blooms each week and looks wonderful growing up our willow tower. There's a second one growing nearer the door which should start flowering in a week or so.

3. The Gaillardias are producing lots of lovely firey blooms - these are Carnival and Frenzy.

4.  The lavender is reaching it's prime now and is adding a lovely fragrant touch to our weekly posies. We've two different types in the garden but I can't remember either variety - sorry!

5. The Alan Titchmarsh Rose is still flowering well in the front border and has turned into a huge plant this year. We're also getting a few lovely peachy pale blooms on the cuttings we raised from my Gran's rose when we cleared her house a few years ago.

6. Our pansies were raised from seed this year and have provided weeks and weeks of lovely cheery blooms. We'll be sowing a new batch this weekend so that we have winter/spring flowering plants too.

Happy Saturday all.

Six on Saturday 15th June 2019

Another month has passed in the garden and so I'm linking up with The Propagator again  for today's Six on Saturday entry. You can find out more about the meme and how to join in on his blog here . You'll also be able to see links to all the other participants' posts too. I'm just taking part once a month but many folk take part every week - enjoy! To find my other posts just search on the label #SixOnSaturday.

I took advantage of a brief break in this week's rain to have a peek at all the edibles in the back garden. Many are destined for the allotment but it looks set to be too soggy this weekend to get them in the ground so some temporary re-potting may be required to hold them over. The herbs live here so I have quick and easy access to them from the kitchen.

1. Lots of beautiful Basil - this year's spring sowing of lettuce-leaved basil has germinated really well and this is just a small selection of the developing plants living in the kitchen - if it ever warms up some may end up outside. Already had a few leaves of these to add flavour to the salad leaves.

2. Outdoor Herbs - Cheating slighly here with pictures of both our Mint corner - Apple Mint, Tashkent Mint and Garden Mint all hangout by the drain and benefit from the damp shady space and of our Golden Oregano (and inherited Pinks) which benefit from a sunnier spot on the patio.

3. Purple-sprouting broccoli - nice happy sturdy little plants that will go in the ground soon - plenty of time for these as we won't be harvesting the sprouts until next Spring. In the background are some white sprouting plants too, all nestling on our garden shelves and tucked up in the corner between the house wall and the start of our not-so-long border!

4. Spuds - a trial of growing a few seed potatoes in an old coffee sack bought with our Transition Loughborough seed potatoes in January. You can source your own from The Crop Club. The rest of our crop is at the allotment and we watching the "Hutton Period" forecasts as we really don't want blight this early in the season and wet and mild is really not good. Find our more about "Hutton Periods" and late Blight from the Blightwatch website.

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5. Spinach beet - or silver beet or perpetual spinach - lots of names for this staple of our kitchen - these really really need to be in the ground and will keep us in leaves for the rest of the year. Less sensitive than true spinach but just as good in pies and pasties so we tend not to bother with that any more.

6. Apples - our lovely little family tree is covered in baby apples at the moment - mind you so are the path beneath, the pond next to it and the bed below as the June Drop is well under way here. Will wait another couple of weeks before we do any manual thinning as nature is doing a pretty good job on it's own.

Happy Saturday all, hope you enjoy the sixes...

Six on Saturday 11th May 2019

I know it's been a quiet week on the blog this week - will have a few more posts for you next week but to round out the week here's a peek into the garden.

Linking up with The Propagator again this month for my Six on Saturday entry. Find out how to join in on his blog here . You'll also be able to see links to all the other participants' posts too. I'm just taking part once a month but many folk take part every week - enjoy!

1. Rosebuds promising joy - The Dark Lady, Gentle Hermione and Alan Titchmarsh all budding up nicely in the front garden

2. The aquilegia that fling themselves all over the garden with joyful abandon really come into their own now - dainty ballerina flowers from an incredibly hardy plant

3. Voluptuous velvets and dainty pastels from the grown from seed pansies.

 

4. Golden oregano joining the re-emergence of the over-wintered herbs

5. The promise of strawberries despite a small cat-astrophe

6. Daisies dallying at the edge of the grass area - soon the mower will be out but we'll enjoy these for a little while longer.

Six on Saturday 13th April 2019

Hosted by The Propagator I came upon this meme a little while ago when admiring the photos on Karen Gimson's wonderful blog and again on the new to me The pink wheelbarrow so thought it would be nice to join in especially as the Winter photographic scavenger hunt has now come to an end. The Propagator produced a guide to participants way back in 2017 so if you fancy a play too then follow this link for instructions. I'm going to try for posting once a month but we'll see how it goes.

We have a really small back-garden but try and provide different habitats in different areas. Today a peek at the bottom of the garden

1. Our family apple tree has three different varieties grafted on to a single rootstock. I have no idea what the varieties are but we have a lovely sweet little eater that comes along fairly early in the season, a versatile smallish cooker that is quite late and makes great apple pies and another that sort of sits in between them. We always leave the last few apples on the tree for the blackbirds to enjoy but this time of year it's all about that blossom just watching and waiting for it to burst - it won't be long now.

2. Underneath the apple tree our mini-woodland garden always looks it's best in the spring. It's a mix of inherited from previous owners, planted deliberately and "leave-it-and- see-what-it-is' ".

3. Peek through the trees branches from the path and you get a glimpse of the bank behind the little wildlife pond where colour is just starting to emerge from the many different greens. The dustbin is of course a compost bin.

4. Over on the bank the inherited red tulips that have lived here longer than we have are highlighted by geranium foliage brought from my gran's garden and cornflowers from the allotment, ferns and privet. Dead tree chopped and left for critters to colonise but the cleavers, snowberry and sycamore seedlings are less welcome ... 

5. Further along the bank the bluebells are just starting to flower, we'll need to do battle with the snowberry again soon as left unchecked it dominates everything.

6. Finally for today,  next to the pond the violets are starting to give way to the dandelions and the herb robert and grasses are starting to grow. The dead-nettles and forget-me-nots continue to delight and provide food for whatever needs it.

Bye for now.