Weekly Garden Checklist ...

Good Morning!
It's time for my Weekly Garden Checklist ...

1.Seeds - There's still just a bit of time to get those Hardy Annuals and Biennials sown for next year. Here you can see I've sown some of the 'Apricot' Foxglove seeds along with some Black Pansies for Spring Bedding. There's also still time to sow some veggies!

2. Winter Bedding - Along with seed sowing now is the time to start thinking of Winter Bedding! I know we're only in July but if your buying online it's a good idea to get it sorted early before all the best ones are sold out! Here you can see I've decided to get some White Primroses and some vibrant 'Amber Kiss' Viola's as a contrast and last but not least some 'Thalia' Narcissus bulbs.

3. Hedges - Now is a good time to keep hedges looking presentable and to give them a light trim to tidy them up.

4. Quick Plants - If you go to a Garden Centre and decide to treat yourself why not try this quick and easy way of giving yourself even more! If the plant is well established in a decent size pot, tease the plant apart into sections and pot on into individual pots. In an instant you've doubled what you bought! You can see that I have done this with the 'Trifolium' I bought recently.

I also couldn't resist buying myself this Oxalis at the same time ....

... or this Hosta.

5. Dead Heading- Keep up with deadheading, not only does it help promote more flowers but it keeps the plant looking tidy and reduces the risk of grey mould.

You can also remove the old leaves from Water Lilies that are past their best.

5. Cuttings- Continue taking cuttings of the plants you would like spares of incase anything happens over winter, or if you simply want more! Plants such as Pelargoniums, Dianthus, Surfinia's and Penstemons are good to take now along with soft wood cuttings from shrubs. 

Don't forget to check any cuttings taken a few week's ago for signs of root growth and if needed, potting them on. 

As you can see below I managed to create extra plants from my Sempervivums and Echeveria's as I suggested last week.

Thanks for stopping by, don't forget you can find all the previous Checklists on the page tab above.

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

Frosted Flowers ...

Good Morning!

We've had a few frosty mornings where I live over the past fortnight and even though it's not ideal for us Gardeners, plants can look magical with a touch of frost!

Here's a few snaps that I have taken, I hope you like them.

The Rose 'Princess Alexandra of Kent' was still in bloom at Christmas and the frost gave the edges of the petals a sparkly outline.

The white Polyanthus are my favourite's when they've been frosted, the leaves also take on a magical look.

The buds on the Primroses also catch your eye.

The Cyclamen Coum, Hellebore, Heuchera and Azalea have all been given a frosty outline ...

Finally the one bloom on my 'Passion' Dianthus was given a sparkly transformation too.

Thanks for popping by,

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

Cuttings Catch Up ...

Good Morning!

Today I thought I'd share with you how some of the cuttings I took a few week's ago are getting on. If you remember I took some of my Pelargoniums as it's much easier to over - winter them when they're a smaller size, specially if you only have a little GH like me!

The cuttings had developed a good root growth last week so I decided to pot them on into some Teracatto Pots and give them a top dressing.

I have set them out across the top of my staging, with some space between each which will improve air circulation and fingers crossed help keep grey mould at bay!

As you can see one of the 'Bergpalais' cuttings has even flowered.

The Clematis 'Winter Beauty' cutting has also successfully rooted so I potted that on too and gave it a little support for the new growth it's developed.

I also decided to pot on my Dianthus plants and give them a top dressing too.

Also the seeds I sowed a few days ago have already germinated and seem to be doing well! I should hopefully be able to prick them out into individual pots soon.

Lastly I have also made a start on my Winter Baskets. I decided to have some with just Trailing Viola's in. They're rather dinky now but once they get going they'l spread out.

Thanks for stopping by,

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

A Spare 5 Minutes ...

Good Morning!

Just a short and sweet post from me today, but I thought it was better than nothing at all! I had a spare 5 minutes yesterday morning so decided to have a bit of a clear up of the potted plants. The following set were holding a selection of Diascia and Nemetia, but they were past their best and ready for a freshening up! 

After getting these lone 3 White Polyanthus plants I hadn't made my mind up where they would be going in my Winter display seeing that there is only three. However the answer came when emptying the above pots, a happy coincidence!

They were ready to be potted on so I planted them up with some John Innes No.2 (Multi - Purpose would be perfectly fine, I've just ran out of it!)

I then set them outside in a spare patch of the garden, once flowering I think they'l look quite cute together!

Lastly one of my Dianthus Plug Plants has flowered that I received back in Mid Summer. It's the only one that has flowered so far, as you can see the plant is still rather small so could've probably done with the flower head snipping off to concentrate it's energy on the rest of the plant. But I couldn't bring myself to do it and it give's a lovely splash of pink and has a vanilla scent!

The variety is called 'Romance' and you can find the set that I ordered HERE.

Thanks for stopping by,

HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

Greenhouse Catch Up ...

Good Morning!

It's been ages since I had something to share with you other than the Weekly Checklist, so I thought it'd be a good opportunity to show you how things are looking in the Greenhouse now that we are in September!

The first thing that literally hits you as you walk in are the Tomatoes! 

The tomatoes on the left are a mix of Sungold, Alicante & Golden Sunrise. As you can see from my earlier remark one of the Sungold plants has some fruit hanging from the top of the pant which tap you on the head each time you walk in and out.

Admittedly they aren't looking their best and are on a serious tilt due to me having to move them up trying to fit some staging back in, but they still fruit wonderfully and at the end of the day that's all that matters!

These are the 'Golden Sunrise' Tomatoes which are a lovely bright yellow and the only variety I grew from seed myself this year. I have to say they are also my favourites!

 Over on the right are my three TomTato plants and I am rather impressed with the size and taste of the fruits. Considering the plant is grafted with a Potato plant I wasn't expecting the fruits to be too impressive but they reach a good size and have a lovely sweet taste. It'l be interesting to see if the Potato's fair as well when it comes to tasting them!

My Pepper plant seems to still be going strong and the peppers are full of flavour so I'l definitely be growing these next year along with my Cucamelon Plant which finished last week.

As I'd mentioned in my Checklists the Winter Bedding has arrived and been pricked out, here you can see the bottom shelf and on the left of the top is full of Primrose 'Rosebud' plants along with 5 Polyanthus plugs I saved from work. On the right of the top shelf are Bellis 'Pomponette'.

Not forgetting the trailing Viola 'Teardrops' which finally arrived last week.

Alongside the Viola's are Pelargonium cuttings which I took a few weeks ago and seem to be doing quite well.

Lastly if you turn the corner outside the Greenhouse you will see on the staging I have there that the Dianthus Plugs which arrived a few weeks ago seem to be doing well too.

Thanks for stopping by,
HAPPY GROWING!

XXX

Never Too Late ...

Good Morning!

At this time of year most people have finished adding plants to their gardens but as the title says it's never too late! For example last week I couldn't resist an offer for 12 different hardy Dianthus Plug Plants, I've potted them up in small pots and when they are large enough they will be placed in large pots or planted around the garden.

Yesterday I bought a selection of plants that were originally going to be planted separately in various places but after taking this photograph of them I decided to keep them all together.

Incase you can't tell very well from the photograph I bought 'Chocolate Cosmos' which smells just like it's name, 'Ajuga' and 'Echeveria'.

I planted them up in a large pot which should look lovely once they have filled out a bit. All of the plants last year round, the Chocolate Cosmos is infact a tender perennial so the pot will need to be brought inside during winter. I will also be taking some cuttings from it to hopefully get some more plants!

Thanks for stopping by,
HAPPY CRAFTING!

XXX