Planting positivity

Taken by J

Taken by J.

I may be having a blip and not be able to get outside or indeed downstairs at the moment but that doesn't stop the garden and allotment being a real source of strength and positivity and I'm so very grateful for it. Today I've peeked out of the window and watched the blackbird eating the cotoneaster berries from the hedge, looked down on the beds that J managed to do a bit of work on yesterday and spotted the scabious still in bloom and the strawberry and flowering currant leaves taking on their Autumn tints of red and yellow. He's also been busy sowing broad beans and onions in modules in the hope that the mice and voles might leave them alone if they are rooted when we put them in ground. Tonight we ordered our seed potatoes for next year's harvest courtesy of the Transition Loughborough Potato Day online system and J has spent some time pricking out and potting on the cuttings and biennial sowings I made at the end of the summer so we can look forward to pansies, violas, sweet rocket, verbena and penstemons next year - mind you we're already running out of window ledges!

Next stop part 2 of the brilliant Northern Lights adaptation. Happy Sunday all.

Tired but happy...

Starting to flag a bit now but today we've had a lovely morning of plant and pot shuffling as whilst chilly, it has stayed dry and given us a chance to get some of the winter preparation jobs done. Mind you I'm saying we, as usual J has done most of the actual work whilst I've pointed to where I want things to live!

Normally I loathe and detest all photos of me but J took this today and I actually love it so I'm going to share it here. This is me surrounded by my favourite things and very happy to be doing something productive, yes the hair is nearly gone but the smile says it all.

wallflowers for us and a friend and a great view of the garden

Our wallflowers are now in the ground and their final pots and the spares will be being picked up by a friend later in the week, she gave us some lovely hardy geraniums earlier in the summer so it's great to be able to offer something back. Last year's bulb pots have been weeded, sorted and shuffled ready for swapping with the autumn flowering ones when they finally give up in a few weeks time, the parsley pots are indoors ready for cutting and the chillis have come in too for overwintering. Splitting and keeping the lovely little chrysanthemum that we were given as a present last winter has worked really well and, as they are now budding up beautifully, we have brought one of the plants back indoors to add to the kitchen table garden, the others can stay outside for now just to see how long they will flower outside.

As with every garden there is still plenty more to do but it feels like we've made a good start on the list which is always a great feeling. I hope you've had a great weekend too...

Bulb pots cleaned and shuffled

Who needs peat when a simple garden bin produces compost like this?

Wallflowers and bulbs into the path bed

Chrysanthemum budding up well

Roses, verbena and asters delighting

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

Good day

For a chemo day it has been a good one. It all started with a lovely author on Twitter called Tom Cox pronouncing that I'd won a copy of his beautiful book  just because I'd retweeted his tweet - watch this space for photos and review!! It's been on my wish-list for a while and I nearly ordered it this week - I hardly ever enter these draws and have never ever won anything like that before - to say I am excited is an understatement.

Chemo went as well as these things can - the staff are wonderful and kind, J kept me company (after a very quick and soggy trip to the shops nearby to pick up weekend snacks), there was a rainbow to be seen in the sky and I now know all my appointments for the next month so we can make a plan - the treatment itself just happens whilst you sit there - I'll be really tired again for the next few days but that's ok.

The weather kindly decided to give us about half an hour of dry after dinner so J helped me have a potter around the back garden just to say hello to the plants and see all the jobs he did yesterday - shuffling tomato plants to try and encourage the last few beefy ones to ripen before blight hits, finally putting the sweet-pea plant out of its misery which meant a last few blooms to add to the living room vase and transplanting some old grape hyacinth bulbs out of a pot and into the pond bank so they will be little dots of amongst the ferns in the spring.

This week's rain has refreshed everything and the starry asters are now blooming too, the dahlias and roses are a bit bedraggled but nonetheless beautiful, the rudbeckia, monarda, verbena, fuschias and scabious continue to flourish and provide colour and all in all it's looking lovely out there out there at the moment. I could hear lots of buzzing and our wanders disturbed a few moths and other critters plus the odd cheeky slug and snail making the most of the damp and then time to wander back in and put our feet up.

Ivy round the back door flourishing

Verbena going strong and wafting beautifully

Gran's Rose still so very pretty and more blooms to follow

Go on you know you really want to ripen!

Starry asters blooming at last

Sneaky but rather pretty snail hiding in the bird feeder!

Little apples ripening

Bulbs added to the fern bank

Night all!

Equinox garden

The natural wheel keeps turning no matter what is going on in a pesky human's life and the garden is taking on the definite look of Autumn now that we are arriving at the Equinox. I took a toddle round on Thursday evening and took these images in the front and back garden just as the sun was beginning to set. Still warm enough to be pottering around in a tee-shirt and so dry all the pots needed watering and some of the beds are stating to look a little parched but that definite hint of chill that comes with the last rays of an Autumn day. Refreshing.  As I wandered I found myself reaching for the mint leaves, the rosemary and the roses as well as the bewitching scent of a rosy/citrussy geranium gifted by a friend - my eyes are troubling me so scent is super important at the moment and I must take some cuttings of this beautiful plant as I really don't want to lose that scent. 

Gran's rose latest flush

Dainty fuschias

Tatty but still giving us joy

Soon there will be starry asters

Gentle Hermione delighting us still

Phlox in bloom

Dahlias delighting

Rudbeckia thriving

Today is the first of the new chemo days but that is later.

September afternoon in the garden

Had a quick dead-heading session in the front garden this afternoon which turned into a "ooh that looks pretty where's the camera" and "that weed needs to come out of there" session followed by an "ooh that's got a bit warm and swimmy-headed from hanging upside-down and now I need a drink and a cool spot to catch my breath" - where would I be without my perching stool and J to grab a glass of water for me!

Anyway mission accomplished and a few splashes of beauty to share on this Friday afternoon.

Blue scabious continuing to provide food for the soul as well as the bees

These white dahlia mignons are proving popular with a whole host of bees and bugs

Gentle Hermione on her third or fourth flush of flowers

Flowering currant now giving berries for the birds

We thought we'd lost all the plants from last year -  I think they are phlox but here it is quietly coming into bloom and adding more late colour to the bed.

Happy Friday folks

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....

September is the season for shuffling

After the pot-shuffling at the weekend this week has continued to be about tidying the garden and preparing new plants for the coming season. Tuesday was a spot of pot weeding, cutting back gone over shrubby plants and herbs and generally tidying up the patio pots. It was also an impromptu slug and snail hunt as every pot I moved or emptied seemed to be offering up a hiding place for the hungry little beasties. Yesterday we pinned down a dozen or so strawberry runners to replace our ageing plants - strawberries will last several years but according to the experts their productivity drops off after two or three so we always try and generate our own plants from existing stock. J then emptied the coffee sack planter that was threatening to spill all over the patio and retrieved 1.6 kilos of lovely clean potatoes ready for cooking over the weekend and then weeded some more of the pots before ducking indoors to avoid a passing shower.

Pinned down and ready to root

You can never have too many strawberries

Tidy lettuce pot - should get one more meal from these

Today is a bit more house-related as Mum arrives to stay for a few weeks which we are really looking forward to but I did pop outside briefly to take some photos of the flowers in the sunshine and was rewarded with a newly minted Red Admiral and what I think could be a Tawny Mining bee, but my ID skills aren't brilliant even with the aid of the excellent Field Guide book by Steven Falk.

Red Admiral and friend on Rudbeckia Marmalade

Bee on perennial wallflower

Colours of September

After a decent night's sleep 'twas a chores kind of morning this morning - washing hung on the line, loo and sink cleaned and various phone calls and computer based errands completed. After a quick break I took a gentle trundle to the postbox, all of a hundred yards but got me out in the sunshine and made me stop to take a look at all the colours in the front garden as I came back to the house.

Golden Rudbeckia by the door

Snowy white dahlia in the border

Pots of gentle blue scabious & vibrant magenta dahlias

Firey-red Rosehips in the hedgerow

Flamingo pink hollyhock in the paving crack

Not a bad start to September