Hobbies and Crafts

It all sounds really exciting Vera. Your husband has been very busy and the rainy weather will help everything to get established. So pleased that its all taking shape.

There is a grass verge in front of our bungalow boundary wall before the pavement and I sprinkled a few poppy seeds along the wall many months ago. Now we have a variety of poppies varying in colour from pinks,to deep reds and dark purple?? There are still buds to open yet and we are curious to see what colours will come from these buds, isn't nature wonderful.

I love poppies Kandj, I planted some in the garden, a few came up the rest wer swamped by OH's Dahlias :-(

I am losing the will to live :-( I have just spent ages typing up a post about the new garden, pressed a letter on the keyboard and a load of gobbledegook flashed across the screen and my post disappeared into the ether. I meant to press shift + q but think I may have pressed control + q. Anyone know what control q does?

Going to cook a meal now but might have another go at posting later.

The garden is all planted up now, apart from about 200 bulbs. Though I say it myself, it is looking pretty good. All the plants seem to have settled nicely in their positions and all look healthy, apart from 2 sickly looking lavenders.

As we have had to allow some growing room, there are still areas of bare earth and OH gets very cross because the blackbirds keep throwing earth over the new paths but I just tell him he should think himself lucky the blackbirds like the worms and insects in our garden.

Next job is to climb past the dustbins and scrabble behind the garage to where we have stored a couple of benches. We have a position marked out for one but I'm not sure till I try them out whether I will like the metal one or the wooden one best, so OH has got to get both out.

Then we have to decide which of the hostas, grasses and other plants that I have in pots we are going to keep and which we will discard. Decisions, decisions...

Today we bought a bird bath and that has made another nice feature, so everything is looking good. Do you think the Queen would come and cut the ribbon when we have our official garden opening? :-D

It sounds really lovely Vera, so exciting to see the transformation I'm sure. Lovely to have a bird bath as well as the pond. Small as it is I am sure the pond will attract all sorts. maybe dragon flies as well as hopefully your frog will return.

Blackbirds are little devils at tossing the earth around as they dig for bugs in the borders. Be careful to plant your bulbs to the right depth, if they are planted too shallow the blackbird will pull them out again.

I find Lavender is quite difficult to get established. We have a huge bush in the front garden but have difficulty in getting one to 'take' in the back garden.

I would find it hard to disgard any of my hostas, haven't you gor room for all of them?

As far as I can see control + q doesn't do anything.

Back online after two and a bit weeks without Internet or phone signal, have been in deep dark Cornwall.

Well, not that deep or dark but still no contact other than a phone box or a trip into Newquay in order to use a mobile !!!!!

Daughter and son in law and the little one came with us for a week, son in law was almost climbing the walls not being able to face book or text or get online, just shows how often he gets his phone out to look at it too. He has given up smoking as well so hasn't been the best person to be stuck in a mobile home with, luckily the weather has been generally good until yesterday so we could get on the beach or to the pool.

Daughter has developed gestational diabetes so baby will be delivered at 38 weeks if he doesn't come before then, if daughter in law is a fortnight late then the babies will only be a week apart. Both doing well otherwise. Getting excited now.

Vera, your garden is going to be absolutely gorgeous, especially in the spring when all those bulbs flower.

M.

Should have read this one before answering the other one as the answers are in your post Maryanna. I didn't realise there was no mobile signal near Newquay, we tend to forget that some places still have a problem. Glad you had some nice days anyway.

Himself managed to get in to the garden for an hour or so early this morning before the heavens opened. He's replaced the two dying lavenders with healthier specimens. We put in 32 lavender plants and the other 30 look fine. He also put in a number of euphorbia plants and managed to plant 50 daffodil and 50 tulip bulbs and 20 allium. We're still awaiting delivery of 76 anemone bulbs and 40 winter aconite bulbs, then that will be us finished. Well, for this year at least.

My only worry is whether OH has planted the bulbs in straight lines. I did keep saying to him "Make sure they are in drifts" but, as an ex-engineer, he tends to see everything much more rigidly. Well, I won't know till they come through next spring but I really hope I don't have daffs and tulips looking like soldiers on parade!

Oh dear Vera I have one like that, I have just about got him to see the it is better to plant in drifts, then, when I actually wanted pansies planted along the edge of a border I went out there to find he had planted them in clumps of two or three close together and I daren't say a word! :-) your OH was busy I bet he was tired afterwards, I think planting bulbs etc is very tiring.

How come our easy maintenance new garden is already taking so much time to maintain? I popped in to the garden at 2.45 for ten minutes and I have just come in nearly two hours later. All I have done is snip the dead flowers off the lavender and give them a slight trim, and deadhead the other flowering plants.

I can recommend a rudbeckia called Little Goldstar. We have several of them throughout the garden. They are quite low growing and covered in flowers and, as long as you deadhead, the flowers just seem to keep on coming; and the bright gold colour is really cheerful. :-D

We went to Montacute House today ( Somerset ) it was absolutely lovely. Built with gorgeous golden coloured Ham Stone, it just glowed in the sunshine.

Extensive grounds but just a small flower garden, planted with pretty perennials. I was tempted with a golden Crocosmia in the shop but didn't give in to the temptation as I already have a few yellow as well as orange and red ones.

There were a few Buzzards circling about and every so often they got mobbed by Crows.

Still no baby news, Son and Daughter in law' s little girl is due tomorrow, but she seems to be far too happy in there to come out and say hello. I jump every time the phone rings, can't be doing my blood pressure any good at all.

Daughter has a monnth to go at the most, looks like they are not going to be very far apart.

Both gardens need some time spent in them but am just waiting now until I can just give them a good cut back and leave them to it. for a few months. We have hardly been able to sit outside anyway for most of the Summer with next doors building work. Men up on scaffolding peering over the fence and as for the noise ...... I think every form of noisy electrical equipment has been used at some point or another.

Vera, lots of Lavender, love it !!!!

M.

Yes, love Montecute house. Have you been to Barrington Court? Interesting to see the bare bones of a house. There is a nice garden there too.

Bought two bargains at village Morrisons...... a bronze chrysanthemum and a pot of yellow violas, both at an amazing 19p each. Just needing TLC and too good to miss!

I doooooo love a BARGAIN!!

Good price that wasn't it? Hope they grow ok. We bought an orchid last week for £3. Amost finished flowering and badly needed watering but it is looking fine and when the flowers are finished it should come back next year.

That's quite a bargain Kandj. I've had a couple of orchids as presents and they'll be fine for a while and then they die on me, even though I follow all the instructions carefully I definitely don't have green fingers when it comes to orchids.

A week or so ago I split a dense campanula in a pot into two bits and planted them in the garden where I hope they are going to grow over a low wall...well, more of a step really. They looked a bit sad at first but now have picked up and one is throwing a few blooms again.

This morning I tidied up the hostas in pots. They are so pot bound that they will have to be split this year but I don't think I'm going to be able to get them out without breaking the pots. That's a problem for another day.

I am amazed at how much is still in bloom in the garden. It's looking really good at the moment.

|My hostas have now all died off and the leaves will now rot down.

I think the thing about orchids (I have 8 or nine I think) is you have to find a position they like. Mine are on the kitchen windowsill which faces north, gets a small amount of early morning sun then nothing but it is bright and, of course there is a bit of humidity in the kitchen too. I spray the leaves and roots, water them once a week in the summe less in the winter and otherwise don't fuss over them at all.

Just put a few last photos of the garden for this year on the photo blog.

You are good at photography Ann, thanks for sharing all that is in your garden, there is certainly lots of colour there. Loving your Avatar!

The bargain 19p chrysanthemum and the yellow viola definitely look much healthier in the garden with just a little TLC...... bargain of the year I think??

At the beginning of the year I bought packet seeds for Cosmos white Purity and a pink variety Gloria and they are giving us a beautiful colourful showing even now.
I go and deadhead the plants each day and I'm sure they will continue flowering until the first frost as there are still very many buds on all the Cosmos plants right now. Our Peace rose and other roses are in bloom still and all have flowered well this year.
I am not as good as Ann with a camera and so you will have to take my word for it.

Vera, I am sure that you will think that the landscaping of you garden was money well spent. All the plantings are sure to give you and OH such a lot of pleasure.

Kandj I love Cosmos but never seem to have any success with them, they don't seem to like our garden. Thanks for the remarks re the photos, photography has been my main hobby since I was eleven and allowed to use my Dad's Kodak camera.

I got carried away with ordering far too may Spring flowering bulbs from a Sunday supplement gardening catalogue.
So far, I have managed to plant over 60 daffs and tulips. I still have 20 Snowdrops and 50 mixed Crocus bulbs to plant out before the first frost appears., it seemed like a good idea at the time!!
I am spurred on by thinking what a colourful display there will be to cheer us two up after the bad Winter that seems to be predicted. I hope that they have got that wrong.