Hobbies and Crafts

And yesterday I made a couple of pounds of gooseberry jam which is OH's favourtie and you don't seem to see it in the shops.

We had some rain yesterday and this afternnon it has been raining off and on so the garden is looking and smelling much fresher. And, as you say Kandj, no need to water it. :-) :-)

Heavy rain from early afternoon yesterday until about 5 this morning. Lots of the plants are flattened again and one of my pots had tipped right over. It had contained a tomato plant so some of the green tomatoes have been knocked off. I know we needed the rain and it's good it lasted long enough to soak the ground but did it have to be so violent?

As the troughs we planted up and put up the long dull side path of our house have been so successful - lots of people commenting on how bright and cheerful it looks - we decided to do the same along a side of our garage that faces into our little cul-de-sac. It's looking good though we can't see it from the house. Our neighbours across the way appreciate it as it faces their sitting room window and it looks welcoming as visitors turn into the road :-D

Next garden job when it dries up a little bit is to remove the crop of wheat growing round the crab apple tree where the birds' seed feeder hangs. If I leave it much longer I'll have enough to start baking my own bread!

I'm sitting in our conservatory watching yet another heavy cloudburst batter the garden again. Every time I tidy it up a bit, it gets hammered again :-(. It's very dispiriting.

We added another 3 troughs to the side of our garage, two filled with white nicotiana and one with white petunias. For some reason I really dislike petunias but decided I could put up with white ones and they were being sold cheap - always an inducement. We got 2 trays of nicotiana and one of petunias, with more than enough plants for the three troughs, for £8.91.

I also took several penstemon cuttings in the hope of increasing our stock or having replacements if any don't survive the winter. Fingers crossed that they take.

You wouldn't like our garden then Vera, most of the baskets are petunias such as night sky, also a lot of the tubs. I like the colours of the modern varieties. You seem to have had more rain than us. Must be frustrating.

This is normally the driest part of the country but we have had more than our share of rain recently. Every time I go out now I take my sunglasses and an umbrella.

I don't know why I don't like petunias Ann. They're bright, colourful, cheerful flowers and go on blooming for months but I just have a thing about them. It's an odd quirk in my character I think.

Just glanced up and the rain has stopped and there is a most beautiful pink and grey striped sky. Now, if only I could find a shirt just that shade......

Treated the lawns this morning. Planned to do this before now but I couldn't find it??
Not trusting the gardener (grass cutter) who burned back and front lawns and caused me extra work last year, so I said I would do it myself and leave him to cut the lawns.

I bought some petunias at supermarket weeks ago and some are good and others are
not doing very well at all. No idea why. Such is the mystery and joys of gardening!

Rain here first thing this morning and it is still raining a little now. Badly needed in
the garden and one job less for me to think of doing today.

Just read back and see Ann has been busy making gooseberry jam, sounds delicious!

:-D at Kandj not finding the lawn, I know what you mean Kandj, that was ours after the holiday. Yes rain here overnight and a bit splashy at the moment so no watering today. OH playing golf I might go into town.
Jam is delicious. :-) :-)

I found the lawn feed..... never lost the lawn Ann. Glad you understood me. Blame
it on a Senior Moment haha.

Our daughter bought me a meadow mixture of seeds which I sowed in April. We now have a colourful display of poppies, chamomile, cornflower and tiny marigold.
I need more compost and will fill other containers with the seeds. They are so pretty

I was weeding at the bottom of the garden last weeks and saw a MOUSE..... and freaked out. I am being brave and have put traps in that place and in the garage.
Nothing has been caught yet, so I'm hoping the the mouse has moved away??!!!

Ann, I do hope that you haven't got a rat in your garden. NIGHTMARE!!!

Your meadow mixture must look lovely Kandj. We went to a local town the other day and someone must have scattered some seeds in a bare patch of earth in a corner of the car park. It looked so pretty and cheered me up. I hope the town council lets it stay.

You are being very brave about your mouse. I don't mind mice as long as they don't get indoors but rats...ugh!

It's been raining on and off all day again. OH did a bit of weeding in between showers and I dashed out and took a lot of cuttings and potted them up under cover. We've spent a fair bit on plants this year so I am hoping to increase my stock and have a few things spare to donate to plant sales. So far I have taken quite a few cuttings of penstemon, fuchsia and geraniums. I don't have a greenhouse here so they are all in the conservatory at the moment. As that is usually very hot in summer and freezing in winter I'm not sure if they will survive. OH is banned from touching them :-D

Ooh vera hide any cutting instruments so he isn't tempted to give them a haircut.

No sign of mice or rats so maybe Felix was just being hopeful, or even (more likely) looking for birds.
That wild flower mix sounds lovely Kandj, Do you mean theya re in a container? We still have a couple of poppies in flower among the dahlias. And also a lonely gladioli bulb has flowered in between dahlias, Must be one I sowed last year although it didn't flower then.

I did sow some lettuce and carrots in containers yesterday, I am hoping the seeds were not washed away by the heavy rain we had. :-( :-(

Ann, bigger plants get the crew cut treatment, he kills small ones by drowning them!
His motto is "If it looks unhappy give it some liquid" ;-)

Is Vera away. Not seen her around for a week, hope she is ok.

No gardening today: Just done the tesco shop. Horrible day here today, really windy (almost gale force at times) and stupid people leave their trollies not under the shelters. When we came out of Tesco it was in time to catch two trollies linked together heading for my car! Raining off and on as well, not really cold but we didn't linger long enough to find out really. Anyway, an afternoon for card making or reading or both. Easy meal tonight, got a reduced pizza when shopping, not good for the diet but never mind. Still finding it painful to lift things from the cupboards so shop pizza is fine. Not looking forward to changing the dressing this afternoon. Think OH is going to practice golf so have to wait unti he is back.

I'm still around Ann but life has been a bit hectic so I've not spent much time on GR. I have had a couple of full day outings, a half day trip and a cream tea with a ladies' group, a day in bed with a severe migraine, a trip to the travel company in one town to finalise arrangements for a holiday in Russia at the end of the month and a trip to another town to shop for bits we want for the holiday and birthday presents for various people.

No gardening has been done but it hasn't been the weather for it anyway. Lots of rain and wind. Today it has been windy but not quite as cold and we've only had a couple of showers.

I hope your neck is feeling more comfortable now Ann. Forget the gardening until it is completely healed or perhaps you could sit in a chair and supervise while your OH does the work :-D

Goodness Vera no wonder you had a migraine. You will need a holiday if you keep up that pace. Hope you have it all sorted now. Are you excited? We

Nothing getting done in the garden because of the awful weather we are having. Everything is looking battered and soggy.

I managed to get out between showers on Monday and start to tidy up the lavender but I only got about a quarter of it done before the rain came down again.

It's been pouring all day and no sign of it stopping yet. It's so heavy that I can't even get out to fill the bird feeders.it's making the weeds grow though :-(

I intended to make the most of the dry day yesterday and get some more garden tidying done, but I had another bad migraine and spent the day in bed again. Still can't manage the bending over and dropping my head down without getting woozy so OH has decided to help me. SHOULD I BE AFRAID?

At the moment he is deadheading a large patch of helenium so I don't think he can do much damage there. I just hope that keeps him going all afternoon so that he doesn't get on to the lavender I started tidying up. Just in case I have told him how careful he has to be not to cut into old wood but I am still a bit jittery.

Daren't be too critical or he won't offer help again ;-)

I was right to fear the worst :-| Mr Give-Everthing-A-Crew-Cut has struck again!
He started well with the lavender, just gently tidying up with the secateurs and little shears, then he decided it was all getting too woody and untidy and he could see some little leaves low down so he cut it all down to these leaves. I am not talking about an odd plant or two. I think we put in something like 32 plants which edge a nearly circular path.

He seemed amazed when I suggested it might have been better to take a few cuttings first or to only cut half of them right down, so if it wasn't successful we would still have something there. At the moment it looks dreadful.

The lavender is all Hidcote variety which is very hardy so it might recover. Fingers crossed.

What would you do with him? I never noticed his lack of gardening finesse in our old house because the garden was so big that all his time was spent on the heavy jobs - hedge cutting, tree pruning, mowing the lawns, turning the compost heaps and so on. Now we have a much smaller garden with no lawn or hedges, he has turned his attention to the plants. I can't keep him out of the garden; it is his home too, but I do wish he'd stick to weeding. He's very good at that :-D

RHS advice re Lavender Vera
Pruning

Lavenders should be pruned every year to keep them compact. On established plants use secateurs to remove flower stalks and about 2.5cm (1in) of the current year’s growth, making sure that some green growth remains. At Wisley, pruning is undertaken in late summer after flowering, although spring pruning is sometimes recommended in books. Lavender does not break readily from old wood and neglected specimens are best replaced.

But I also found the following on another site so you may be ok.

Pruning English lavender. You prune English lavender by cutting it back by two thirds in the second half of August and you can cut into the bare wood, if needed. New shoots will quickly appear at the base of the bush and these will have enough time to grow and harden up before winter comes.4 May 2017

Hope your migraine improves. Do you know what starts it off and can you avoid it on holiday?

Thanks for that Ann. I have looked at a lot of sites and books and they give conflicting advice but, as far as I can make out, the hardier the variety, the more likely it is to stand drastic pruning. With luck they will survive.

I am over the migraine thanks, though they always leave me feeling drained for a few days. Having had them since my teens and being formally diagnosed with "severe chronic migraine" at 23, I know all the triggers and try to avoid them but sometimes they seem to arrive for no reason. I've been on permanent medication for many years since one caused a mini stroke and complete loss of memory and put me in hospital for 5 days. I have 2 lots of daily medication for prevention and two lots to take when I do get one.

Russia classes my tablets as strong drugs and I have had to jump through hoops to be allowed to take them in to the country. I had to get a copy of my prescription with a note from my doctor to say what everything is for. This had to be translated into Russian and then had to be signed by a notary. Then I have to declare the meds at customs.

Enough about me. When are you off to Tenerife Ann? Do you have anyone to water your garden when you are away. We don't usually but I am thinking of asking my neighbour if he would water some pots for us if we don't get a lot of rain while we are away.