Hobbies and Crafts

Sorry to take so long to get back to the thread.

have been "busy" watching football and falling asleep 9sometimes at the same time).

Well, my "good news" - I planted five (bare root?) Old English rose shrubs in the winter. All five have come into leaf - including one the I accidentally chopped down while hacking away at the numerous weeds. Two have had some beautiful flowers (i.e. the deep pink one and the yellow one) the red one has some tight buds, but as of yet they haven't opened.
However, a few years ago I bought a chocolate (or dark chocolate) bush it has had very few flowers over the years. This year though it has blossomed big time - loads and loads of deep red roses, with a brown tinge on the edge of the petals.
I tend to buy plants from supermarkets - especially when something is going cheap and or on special offer.
two 9or three) years ago I got an outside plant with red flowers, (I think that it may be some kind of Scabius) It too has had loads of flowers, enough to use some in vases. It must have spread, as there now seems to be a few plants. When the petals die back it leaves a beautiful seed head - good enough to use in my vases. I also leave some of the seed heads to seed.

I've got a French Lavender, not in a pot -another supermarket purchase - lots of bloom - again enough to cut a little for flower arrangements.

Planted a few bulbs and many came up - Daffodils did very well.

My heathers survived the winter, but the hot dry spell has seemed to make them disappear! Maybe I'm not looking in the right places.

I tend to scatter my plants throughout the garden. So can never remember what has been planted where. Then I get a nice surprise if something grows. Trouble is, I have difficulty indentifying some things.


Off to watch the footie. (I'll be glad when it is all over.

Hope that nature will supply a nice drink for the all gardens in need soon.

Tess, good to hear that your garden is doing well. Those 'chocolate' roses sound gorgeous.

Ours is still surviving the heat but we are away for 4 days so it may suffer a bit. Our neighbours are very good but it is a lot to expect them to water so we have to accept that, if we want to go away, the garden may suffer a bit.

I love the long hot sunny days, even though it is too hot to sit out most days. I would be grateful for some overnight rain though. :-) :-)

Oh dear. I am not sure whether gardening with my OH is an adventure or a trial. It’s certainly a journey into the unknown :-0

Today he said he was going into the garden to do a bit of deadheading. I assumed he meant taking a few spent blooms off the geraniums and flowering pot plants but that’s too simple for Mr Scissorhands. All my big clumps of salvias with tall purple spikes have been cut down to about a third of their height with not a flower in sight :-|
Some of the spikes had gone brown but there was plenty of flower left and the insects were buzzing round them still.

I think he sensed my displeasure as he very quickly offered to cook our evening meal which he is doing as I write :-)

One good thing is that all our fencing has been done with a nice new gate and the concreting that is now stopping our garden sliding into next door is complete, and it is all looking good. If we want it painted the pale greeny-grey colour we had before, the same people will do it for us in about a month’s time when everything has dried out and settled down. We’re really pleased with it.

Vera you did make me laugh. I feel you should introduce your Mr. Scissorhands to my Mr. Interferon ;-) ;-) ;-)

I had a lovely day at Hampton court flower show yesterday although it was very hot.
Good to see gardens that I had seen on the TV and talk to some of the plant breeders who were in the plant marquee. :-D

It is just far too hot and both lawns look like straw. So much for my weed and feed and scarifying efforts weeks ago, I found that hard work but persevered a little each day and now the grass has become straw-like with all the sun and no rain for such a long time.

I passed on the bedding plants this year but I did set some poppy seeds from last year and now have such a beautiful mass of colour in the front garden border. Pink, Purple, Lavender, Red, Orange poppies which are pleasing not only me but many bees too.
A real joy to see (many comments from folk passing by), cheers me up and all for free!!

kandj
Your poppies sound just wonderful and how lovely that passers-by have enjoyed them and commented too. It seems to be a particularly good year for poppies. I've noticed that in spots where I know even wild ones grow, there is an abundance of blooms this year.
My own garden is suffering from the heat and there are huge cracks now in the grass. We have been asked to conserve water, so it only gets an occasional bowl of 'washed the veg. water ' or similar.
On Thursday I picked a few bits and pieces to take into school, where I volunteer. The children were learning about plants and seed dispersal and were fascinated to learn that sometimes things just arrive in the garden without planting. I took in forming elder berries and unripe blackberries. I also took in a stem of 'blown in on the wind' marigolds,which had some flowers and some seed heads, so that the children could see the different stages. I've been so busy lately that the garden has suffered, so I hope soon to curb the invaders, but at least they came in useful as a learning aid.
That evening I picked my first ripe blackberry of the season.

I will wait for the rest of the crop to ripen, then get busy ousting them.

Add to mr Scissoehands and Mr interferon my Mr Croppit. Wor betide anything that starts to 'straggle'.

Kandj the lawn will recover as soon as we have rain so don't worry, your work will not have been in vain. I think it is better to leave it rather than give small amounts, the roots of grass are very deep so small amounts sit of the top of the grass. Your poppies sound beautiful, ours are all over now.

I still have 2 or 3 poppies but also lots of colourful Cosmos flowers that are cheering me up a little and filling my time as I deadhead them and rewarded with even more.

Another very hot day again and the lawn is crunching underfoot and looks like straw.

Just back from Cornwall. We went to the Eden Project which was well worth a visit but it was absolutely packed. We also went to a couple of little known, smaller gardens which were lovely but tucked away and visitors didn’t seem to find them. There were four of us and at one garden we only saw 2 other people and at the other there were just 4 or 5 other visitors.

Our poor garden looks in a sorry state. OH gave it a good soaking the night before we went but everything looks half dead now and there is lots of deadheading to be done if we are to get any more flowers this year. The problem is that it is far too hot to work out there at the moment - it’s about 30 deg. I’ll have to try to find enough energy to do a bit this evening and a bit more first thing in the morning. I daren’t ask OH for help as his idea of deadheading is to take the shears to everything!

Pleased you had a good holiday Vera, what were the names of the smaller gardens you went to?

We have just had 3 days in Telford there were sixteen of us celebrating OH’s 80th birthday. Son, daughter and partners, three grandsons and partners, one granddaughter and three great grandchildren. Noisy but fun.

Belated happy birthday to your OH Ann. Sounds as though it was quite a party.

The two gardens I mentioned were Enys Gardens near Penrhyn and Bonython Estate Gardens which I think is near Helston. I think they both have websites.

Vera
After a particularly bad misdemeanor last week by Mr Interferon I have posted "Do not touch notices". ;-) ;-) ;-)
Ann hope you feel better soon <3

We haven't had rain for weeks now so everything is dry. I'm collecting grey water and watering the pots. I do use the hose on vegetables though.
Luckily no ban yet. Everything else in the beds has to take it's chance :-(

Thanks Von not too bad today lust tired. Home tomorrow.

A bad almost tropical storm here on Friday, heavy rain for a short while yesterday and I have awoken to more heavy rain and strong winds. More is forecast for tomorrow and then sunshine once again for the remainder of the week. The gardens badly needed the rain but not the storm and strong winds as everywhere looks battered and broken.

Belated 80th birthday wishes to your OH Ann, I hope you all all well again now.

Your holiday in Cornwall sounded good Vera. It's very many years since we visited.

Von is your "Do not touch" notice working with Mr Interferon???

Kandji
So far so good. ;-) ;-) ;-)

We have had quite a lot of rain and very strong winds so the garden is a bit bedraggles. This afternoon the sun has shone and OH has given the lawn a cut, I did some dead heading of the French marigolds and cut off some of the Buddleia dead flowers and a broken branch. It looks a bit better now and the lawn is slowly going green again. It will all recover (or most of it) as is the way with nature but it is always a shame to see a garden being blown around. The hanging baskets really don't like it. I'm afraid my Mr Croppit is on the loose again as it is brown bin day on Tuesday!

I took the advantage of the rain to deal with my indoor orchids which badly needed attention. They look a lot better now I have removed dead leaves and stems and cleaned up dead flowers!

Also cleared out my 'sock' drawer but that is nothing to do with the garden of course. :-) :-)

I like both of the Cornish gardens you mention Vera. The bluebells at Enys are something to behold aren't they. The best I've seen anywhere.

We noticed on the M1 going through Charwood yesterday that most of the Silver Birch tree leaves were completely brown. They really stood out among the green trees. Also many of the shrubby things growing on the rocky outcrops looked dead. We have lost a few Hebes in the garden. The cats love using them to mark their territory and I think the heat has been the last straw for them. They are the nice moundlike whipcord ones that are evergreen. We have 4 linked water butts behind the shed and two behind the green house, but they are just about empty now. I keep meaning to run a hose from them to water some of the flower border as I buried soaker hose in some parts. I must try and get it done as both of us get bad backs so easily now with carrying umpteen watering cans!

We don't have any grass now either but I think grass has a nice cooling effect in a garden.........not in this heat though!! Our neighbours grass all looks the colour of a beach!

Hot already and I'm weary from being out in the garden too long yesterday, silly me.

The garden waste dustbin will be emptied today and it is over half full. I won't be outside for very long today, just watering and a little deadheading and that's all.

Annx, both lawns look a mess with the ongoing hot weather, but will recover with rain.

We are due rain at the weekend I think Kandj, after the weekend a few weeks back when it rained our lawn did recover and has even had a cut, but it needs more rain now. Despite the lack of rain and not a lot of watering everything still seems to be growing in the garden and OH is happily still chopping away and filling the garden waste bin. Keeps him occupied I suppose. :-D

I’ve been deadheading and cutting back like mad since we came back from Cornwall as the garden really suffered while we were away, but my hard work was worth it as we now have a lot more flowers again.

OH decided he would paint our new fence himself rather than have it done by the company that put the fence up. I wasn’t keen on him doing it as it is a big job and he is a bit of a perfectionist but he had made his mind up. He is less than half way round with the first coat so far but there is one BIG advantage. While he’s holding a paintbrush he can’t be wielding the shears :-D

My weather app told me this morning that today we would have light rain showers. Huh! It’s been pouring all day - no need to water anything tonight. It will do the gardens a power of good. We don’t have a lawn but all the shrubs already look fresh and green :-)