@Loshy h How fab. Love your visitors
Morning Lorraine @Loshy. Great photos, they are also admiring your garden and wishing that fence wasnāt in their way, but you wouldnāt have any plants left, they would be a tasty treatš. Julia x
The orchard, full of ladyās smock and dandelion.
My gardening at the moment has been a bit arbitrary. Iām watching my horehound seedlings pop up. Waiting to see if any of my liquorice seedlings have materialised, as I have never grown it before, not sure what I am looking out for. I am pleased that I have managed to save a Bardsey Island apple which, in the ground, was failing but since trimming off the diseased wood and repotting it, it is looking a treat. It has been the fifth year of trying to grow Tasmanian snowberries but, I fear, this year will be another disappointment. I have four small strawberry trees that are coming along nicely. One grafted medlar is holding on. I started pruning the grape vine but my vision is so poor that I was snipping off tiddlers, I have decided to wait until the bunches get a little bigger, so that I can at least see them!
I have just moved a a climbing frame to the loganberries, and the next step is fixing up the wiring. Iāve been cutting laurel in the woods and piling the offcuts on brash. And repairing our many wheelbarrows. Iāve been doing a bit of home-brew, sticky-willy wine and rhubarb and apple wine, just gone onto ferment.
All this, but I am terribly limited, and seem to work like a bee collecting nectar. I canāt seem to get started until about 1 pm, from then I am okay, and look forward to a glass of wine at 5 pm. I can soldier on until quite late. Iām a little caboose, each day saying to myself, āI think I can, I think I can ā¦ā
Finally, I have summoned an army from the village (and surrounding villages) to cut or dig my bamboo, as it has swamped the ornamental cherry trees. This has been taking up a lot of my time as people have been making appointments with me at about 11 am. I am knackered after talking to them, and being so sluggish at that time, it knocks me about for the rest of the day, makes me giddy and very fatigued. This is one of three bamboo patches I have. I am clearing another small variety that has gone mad. I am doing it myself, and feeding the wild raspberries that have popped up amongst it to the pigs. The offcuts, I use as brash for cutting down the laurel. The variety pictured below is an edible species, one of the few out of about three hundred, I am to believe.
Morning @Rups. You certainly have your work cut out there. Thank you for sharing your photos. I start with a clear plan but am so easily distracted that by the end of a day I have more unfinished tasks. I have become a master put offer also, partly out of fear it will all be too much, wonāt work out etc. I have a list that I make every morning for the day and for next week. This helps me focus and set an intention. I try and start early so I can get jobs done and plan rests. At the moment I am trying to make sense of my greenhouse - there are too many tender plants in there and I need to bite the bullet and get alot of the tomatoes into the veg patch but worry it is too soon. My head gets overloaded every time I go in there which is not the intended emotion my growing is meant to evoke. It is a beautiful day here and my husband has gone fishing so I have all day to deliberate and bash away. Hope you have a good Sunday, Julia
Hi Rups echo what JuliaH said, no easy answer to eradicating that mini jungle. I know some Zoos and Safari Parks are always looking out for herbage and they come and harvest. Would weavers be interested? There has to be many uses for them. In my prime would have come up with some ideas . Pity you canāt trade in your pigs for Giant Pandaās Pds
My cape gooseberry plants, a very easy indoor plant for the UK, treat them like tomatoes and they are very thirsty. Beautiful flowers and then lovely little lanterns with edible yellow berries inside. They grow back every year, need pinching out and will grow quite tall.
Evening @Rups . They look great. I have previously grown tomatillos which are very similar, but green not yellow/orange for a mexican enchilada sauce. Iām not doing them this year as the plants are quite thug like in the greenhouse and I donāt want to take on more than I can manage but may be next year⦠Enjoy, Julia
Hi gardens all. If you have space cape gooseberries can be a nice little earner. At a nursery I worked at we had an empty glasshouse , planted it up with cape gooseberry, provided it them with strings to climb, thrived on neglect just needed watering? Very long period of harvesting and late harvested ones were laid out on trays husks still intact in frost free location and used for months Pds
Good idea @Pds, I shall look up uses for bamboo. There are a couple of parks around here that accept it as fees but, unfortunately, donāt cut and collect.
They look much better now that I have given them a drink. Yea, it is a poly tunnel, or as I call, a hoop tunnel. Thanks for your private message, it meant a lot. Mostly, in the poly we grow sugar snap peas, lettuce, beets, flat-leafed parsley, fennel, and other salad crops. To be honest, Iād prefer a traditional glasshouse but needs must.
@Mahoney ooo it could be an azaleia. Iām pretty sure itās not a rhododendron as we have one of those a couple of pots along
Thank you xx
@Loshy oh I didnāt realise they were same family. Both are very pretty when in flower Iām learning loads on this forumā¦all I need to do is remember it all
Hi Rups Had similar experience with a Roe deer that had been hit by car, had broken leg. Fox and deer both put in a bad place by human action .with the deer it seemed to be communicating to me ,this is not my fault ! The balls now in your court, Deal with it.It was crouching under a tree at roadside and I had friend dispatch it, I didnāt see terror or fear in its eyes just puzzlement. Wild things I observe seem to preoccupied with just living, have seen an otter and a stoat really enjoying themselves on separate occasions but never seen a wild creature down in the dumps ! Letās meditate on that. Will send on details of book Iāve been loaned that will be of interest. Away at moment on south coast, book at home. Stay on track as best you can Pds
@Loshy they are beautiful colour. I googled azalea & it says rhododendron family so think mine will be rhododendronās too have a lovely Sunday xx
Hi Loshy yes rhododendron. Have mentioned before a very diverse family,always hold their thick dark leaves and colours range from white to shades of blue and every colour in between, some can be fragrant. Azaleas have now been lumped in with them, there are dwarf evergreen ones with vibrant colours and taller deciduous ones that can give good autumn colour and many can be heavily fragrant like the yellow type. When I mentioned your landscaped garden I was paying your husband a compliment as I thought you had bought an established garden or one where you had hired a garden designer and got a landscapers in to create it. Visited wonderfull garden in Hampshire created by military man who planned it all when he was stationed in Oman Pds
Morning @Loshy. This looks like a great project. Alot of hard work but it will be worth it Julia
Oh gosh, I am useless with flowers. I am much better with herbs and fruit trees.
Rather proud as I have potted up my first seedlings - some Basil. Hardly spectacular but they smell nice
has anyone else been watching the Chelsea Flower Show on TV? Thought the winning garden looked a nightmare for anyone with even the slightest mobility issues