Weekly Garden Checklist ...

Good Morning!

It's Monday so it is time for another Weekly Garden Checklist. 

Incase this is the first time you have seen this particular themed post, it's a quick list of jobs you can be doing in the garden this week.

Let's get started!

1. Collect Seed - On a dry day now is a good time to collect seed, such as seeds from an Allium head and sow them straight away.

2. Roses  -Along with cutting down Roses to help prevent wind rock over winter, don't forget to collect any fallen leaves beneath the plant to help prevent disease. Of course you can wait until the last buds have flowered before cutting them down if like me you still have blooms to enjoy.

3. Chrysanthemums - Make sure tall Chrysanthemums are well staked to give them the support they need. Especially if you have some outdoors and are prone to windy weather.

4. Sweet Pea's - If you have sown Sweet Pea's this autumn make sure you pinch out the growing tips to encourage bushier growth.

5. Sow - There is still time to sow Hardy Annuals such as Calendula's for flowers next year.

Thanks for stopping by,

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

A Summer Border ...

Good Morning!

Last weekend amongst the rain I managed to get my Summer border planted up at the front of the house. Usually you are meant to wait until the last week of May / first week of June to plant Summer bedding but I got impatient. It wasn't too far off anyway! 

So to start off I moved all the plants I needed so that they were ready, removed all the Primroses that were previously in the border and got a bag of compost ready for the planting. 

Before planting I positioned the plants first where I wanted them to go. I have used a combination of 'Yankee Doodle' Dahlia's and Antirrhinum's 'Day & Night'. I laid them out in a mix of the both.

When planting I added compost to each of the planting holes for every plant.

To finish the planting I added a top mulch over the complete border with the compost and watered in.

I repeated the planting in the back garden with my larger tuber Dahlia's. I have decided to position them in the border against the shed.

Before I go here's a few snaps of some plant closeup's I took the same day. Starting off with one of my Alliums 'Purple Sensation' ...

The border along the fence near the shed is full of blooms from the Geum's & Aquilega's.

The first Sweet Pea flower of 2014 has bloomed!

One of the Calendula 'Sunset Buff'' was starting to open ...

Finally the Hebe in the far corner has filled out and is showing it's blooms along with the Astrantia next to it which is putting on some growth!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are all still enjoying my blog.

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

A Little Bit Of Sunshine ...

Good Morning!

A little bit of sunshine goes a long way and judging from the past few days the plants have lapped it up! Although as you are reading this the weather has turned back to rain but atleast it gives everything a good water! 

Let's start off with the Patio table next to the Veg bed where I have arranged a selection of Nemesia & Diascia in the centre as a focal point.

We have also had our first harvest from the Veg Bed which is one of the Radishes! The Spring Onions don't look too far off either so hopefully we will have a few things to harvest this weekend.

The veg bed now has some netting over it (added since taking this photo) to help stop the birds pecking at the lettuce and the Alliums are still providing a great border.

Against the veg bed you can see the 'Abutilon' and the Iris's have finally flowered!

Last weekend I tidied up one side of the lawn by extending the beds a bit more which will be planted up with Annuals to fill the gaps. You can see the Geum's and Aquilega's are bursting with colour!

In the Greenhouse my Pelargoniums are starting to show their blooms ...

The 'Black Cherry' Petunia has also started coming into flower and I love the deep richness of the red.

Finally the Clematis at the front of the house we planted last year is still only very small but one of it's buds flowered this week and the 'Bee's Jubilee' is definitely the bee's knees!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a great weekend!

HAPPY GROWING!
XXX

A Few Snaps ...

Good Morning!

Today I just wanted to share with you a few individual photo's that I took around the garden last week. First off is a close up of this beautiful moth I found hiding on a decoration in my conservatory ...

We also had a hungry visitor for a few days last week who rather enjoyed my Hollyhocks and a few Aquilega's! 

Thankfully some of my Hollyhocks have started coming back through but it wasn't all bad, as he left me a space to fill and I had a plant ready for just the thing! So I dug a hole ...

Added some Fish, Blood & Bone ...

Then planted a Perennial 'Scabious' which should have deep red rich flowers. I love the Pin cushion look these have and I can't wait to see it flower .... so long as Mr Rabbit keeps away!

I also transformed a shady spot of the garden by rounding off a corner and planting a potted Hellebore.

Here's a look at one of the Aquilega's that was lucky enough to avoid our hungry customer ...

Finally all the Alliums have burst into flower and I love the added height and interest they give to the veg bed!

Thanks for stopping by,
HAPPY GROWING!
XXX

Re-Potting Sempervivums & More ...

Good Morning!

Back on Sunday I spent the afternoon re-potting some plants, most of them needed some fresh new compost and the Sempervivums, well you can see for yourself ...

Each of the heads of this plant can actually pulled out to form a new individual plant. Which is exactly what I did!

Sempervivums thrive in rock garden so just like I did with Auriculas  I re-potted them into teracotta pots with a mix of soil - based compost (John Innes no.2) & grit.

I also re-potted this Fuschia which was actually a cutting I took last summer. Seeing that I want to keep my Fuschias in pots permanently I have used John Innes no.2 instead of Multi-Purpose.

The Pelargoniums were re-potted into larger pots and fresh compost.

Lastly here's a look at how the Raised Bed is looking seeing it's been a while since I last shared it. As you can see I have added some Brocolli & more Lettuces to the left, the Radishes have germinated (thinned to 1 inch spacing) and the Spring Onion are doing well on the far right.

The Alliums have also shot up even taller than before and I can't wait for them all to open!

Thanks for stopping by,

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

Good Friday ...

Good Morning!

I hope you all are enjoying your Easter break. Unlike most of you lucky people I had to work yesterday (Good Friday) and will also be doing so on Monday but I did manage to get a few bits done before I went. Due to starting work half an hour later I had the chance to potter around my garden doing some watering before I started and also managed to get a quick herb pot planted up. I had some leftover herbs from last year and decided it was finally time to do something with them!

I filled the pot with a mix of compost and grit as herbs like free draining soil.

I quickly decided on an arrangement and after adding some chives along with a decorate label I was rather happy with the outcome, especially as it only took a few minutes.

Whilst watering I also took a few photo's of how one of the hanging baskets is looking, the spring bedding is looking colourful and has finally filled out a bit but I have to admit I am already imagining what my Summer baskets will look like!

The buds on the Alliums are slowly developing a purple tinge so we are getting closer to a display ...

The next thing I have to share with you is something a little different. Some of you may already know that I work in a Plant Nursery and today I thought it would be fun to share a few snaps of what I have been up to at work. Mostly the past few weeks have been spent pricking out (I won't even begin to tell you how many I  have worked through so far) but today and yesterday was spent doing something a bit more decorative!

However I couldn't resist sharing a photograph I managed to get of a bumble bee that was trapped in one of the offices. Unfortunately I couldn't giver her any sugar solution but hopefully being placed on this Surfinia did some good.

Okay so over the past few days I have been filling and planting up these wall baskets ...

Sprucing up and filling up some hanging baskets ...

Then to finish off I filled and planted up an array of various sized ceramic pots, which you have to admit is not a bad way to spend Good Friday. For all the baskets and pots I used a variety of Basket & Bedding plants along with a few Shrubs in the larger pots. Now all we need is for somebody to buy them!

Happy Easter!

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX