Hobbies and Crafts

It sounds like you've got lots of spring flowers starting already Ann. The bulbs I planted last year are coming along nicely but no flowers yet, mind you they're not suppose to flower until the summer so a way to go yet. I'm glad a put a few pots of bulbs in our greenhouse though with all the ice we have around at the moment. It is starting to melt but very very slowly. We had a downpour of rain last night but the frozen hail is still on the grass. Yes a good idea to wait until the weather improves before re-potting your Hosta, you wouldn't want to damage it with all the cold. I'm so glad we did our garden in December when the weather was quite mild, I certainly wouldn't want to do anything now in this cold.

The roofers said how nice our back garden was and were surprised when I told them everything was in pots. I feel sorry for the roofers working in this cold weather. We've been making them hot drinks and offering our warm kitchen for them to stand in while they have their cuppa's, they are really grateful, they said it's really cold and their fingers were going numb.

How nice to have all that home grown veg Liz, we only grow tomatoes and a few strawberries for Sandra all in pots in the greenhouse. I did try growing carrots and onions in pots but they didn't grow very big so never bothered again. I did have some success with potatoes in pots, but again they weren't that big, although they tasted better than shop bought ones, so I do those each year now. I'd love a proper veg patch though, so I could grow as much as you do. You can't beat home grown can you?

You say you miss your veg patch Vera, maybe you could do the same as me and grow some veg in pots. How are all your plants doing in your mini greenhouse? With all this frost around they should be snug as a bug in a rug in there. :-)

Gill, we have a few snowdrops out now and the others are in leaf, I am pleased because they have spread, they were sent to me by Joan in Scotland a couple of years ago.

I have grown baby carrots (the ones marked especially for containers) in troughs and they did well, we have also grown lettuce and salad leaves, tomatoes of course, baby beetroot, spring onions, all those did reasonably well. Tried courgettes but they were a failure.

The hellebores are looking lovely now and the bulbs are all growing well though none of them are blooming yet. I’m optimistic that we’ll get a good show this year.

I pricked out into individual pots some cuttings that have been in the mini greenhouse and have rooted nicely, mainly penstemon and everlasting wallflower. Strangely the geraniums don’t seem to be doing so well, yet they usually root easily.

Re. Growing veg in pots or troughs, I usually do tomatoes. Sometimes they are almost too successful. There are only the two of us and for medical reasons I am not supposed to have many tomatoes. I am supposed to remove the skin and pips and just eat the flesh but that’s too much faffing around so I have them in moderation. Last year we did so well on the tomatoes that I ended up with a freezer full of home made soups and sauces.

I did find a mini runner bean that was meant for growing in pots and planted 4 or 5 up. They were tasty but we never got enough ready at one time to make a decent helping.

We are apparently due snow tomorrow and Wednesday so we’ll see what that does to the garden. If nothing else it will make the red stems of the dogwood stand out :-D

Yes we are due snow too Vera, don't look forward to it but have enough food to last so no problem there.

We have lots of Helebores in flower now plus snowdrops and a few crocus. and there are some crocus showing leaves and very small buds so they won't be long, a few daffs are out too and the violas and pansies have been especially good this year.

Changed my profile picture to show some of our winter aconites in the snow. I know they don't show up too well but they were such a beautiful bright colour against the white snow that I couldn't resist taking a picture.

It would have been better if I could have got down lower but I didn't fancy lying down on the cold wet path, and if I had got down there I might never have been able to get back up ;-)

Pretty average.

It sounds like you both have lovely colourful gardens at the moment Vera and Ann. Ours isn't as colourful, although the dog wood looks nice. I have one yellow and quite a few red, so that's adding a bit of colour here and there. Our garden is full of water at the moment as we had a massive amount of rain most of today, but the plants don't seem to bothered by it, in fact the potted ivy love all the extra water. I'm now looking forward to the spring, this winter seems to have dragged on and tomorrow and Saturday are suppose to be very windy with lots of rain, so I'm not looking forward to that as one of our new 12ft Red Robins got blown over the other day and it took three of us to put it back in place, I hope it doesn't fall over again.

You must of had lots of tomatoes if you have a freezer full of soups and sauces Vera. I grow tomatoes in pots but both Sandra and I love them so there never seems to be enough left over to make much with. We love them on sandwiches or even sliced cold on top of cheese on toast.

How has everyone's garden been with the bad weather?

It was so bad with the wind last night when we woke up this morning another one of my tall pot plants had been blown over, luckily we had some rocks around the pot so it's just leaning over on those. We're going to leave it that way for now as it's still quite windy and it'll probably fall over again if we put it back up. It's not doing any of the other plants any harm. If we can we're going to dig a small hole to stand the pot in so hopefully it'll be more secure and not blow over again. Apart from the one plant everything else seems to be okay. At least the sun is out and it's dry, so that's one good thing. The big Red Robin that fell over the other day seems to have withstood last nights wind, so moving it along a foot seems to have helped. I hope I haven't jinxed it now.

Everything seems to have survived the wind last night but I was very glad we replaced our fence a while ago. We were always losing a panel or two out of the old one every time there was even a puff of wind.

It’s a lovely bright sunny day today but the wind is still very strong. I’m expecting visitors for a meal shortly so I hope they don’t get blown off the road getting here. They might be disappointed in the meal anyway. Starter and dessert are fine but you could sole your shoes with the slow roast beef that I am doing :-|. They’ll have to fill up on veg :-D

I'm sure they'll love the meal you are making Vera, just cut the beef very thinly and it should be okay. Pleased to see your garden survived. Yes, it does sound like you timed it right when you had your fence changed. Our new neighbour wants to take down the new fence we had put in last year which is very secure against the wind and replace it with one of those fences you slide in between concrete posts. OH and I think it'll blow out, but it doesn't look like we're going to have a choice as he's paying for it. The only problem is if it does blow out it might blow onto our car on the drive. OH would not be happy about that.

We were lucky in a way, with our garden today as only one pot was blown over and thankfully wasn't damaged or damaged any of the other plants around it. We've popped it back in place now the wind has died down, so hopefully it'll stay put for a while. We've put rocks around the pot so there isn't anything else we can do at the moment. We are hoping to dig a hole to put the pot into but can't do that until the ground dries out.
So long as it stays put for now, we'll be happy.

My visitors have just left. The beef turned out fine in the end. It seemed to get tender in the last hour of cooking and the whole meal went well.

Gill, our fence slides into concrete posts which were already there but the company that fitted it made sure the posts were properly upright and strong and the right distance apart for the fence panels to fit properly. The fence is made of a strong good quality wood with vertical planks, strengthened by horizontal struts and it seems very firm. Nothing moved in the wind.

We were a bit limited with what we could put up. The whole fence round our house and garden is ours so we could do what we like but bits are shared with five other properties so we had a lot of neighbours to keep happy. They all seem to have the original wooden fencing put in donkey’s years ago so we tried to find something that was better and stronger but wouldn’t look out of place from their side of the fence.

Who is responsible for the fence your neighbours want to change? If it is you, then even if they pay they cannot take down your fence without your permission. If it is their fence then, provided they don’t breach any regulations, they can put up what they want. I hope it gets sorted out for you.

Pleased to see the beef turned out nice and tender in the end Vera. I don't know who's responsible for the fence, the old neighbour went halves with us last year for the new fence. I think I might ring the council and ask them, but so long as they don't damage our drive taking the old concrete posts out and the new fence isn't likely to be blown onto our car, we don't mind the fence being changed.

Our concerns are damage that might occur. Up to now there has been a few damages both to the fence and the end concrete post that the skip man hit with his truck and broke. Although the builders are very good next door, they do seem to do some daft things every now and then, like leaving large ladders propped up against the new extension, if the wind was to get up like it did yesterday then the ladders could fall against our back fence and onto our tall Red Robin we bought six weeks ago. OH had to go around there and put the ladders on the floor, just to be safe.

He's also had to move things that have been left laying around in the front and today some rubbish blew out of the skip all over our garden so he had to pick that up and put it back in the skip. All the workmen need to do is tidy up after themselves properly, I mean it wouldn't take 2 seconds to weight the lighter rubbish down inside the skip would it?

I was joking with OH before and said what are we going to do when the work is finished and we've no longer got any tidying up to do next door, we're not going to know what to do with ourselves lol.

Pleased to hear the meal went well Vera, the older I get the more concerned I get over cooking for others. Never used to bother me but I suppose after so many years on our own ir always seems harder cooking for more than 2.

Gill do you by chance have the deeds of your bungalow? I think, if you have, it will show you which fence is your responsibility. I am almost sure that it is usually with your back to the property that your fence is the one on the left. But it may be different where you are. (and/or your previous neighbours could have been very clever!).

It was just the meat I was worried about Ann. I didn’t want my guests being polite and chomping away while wondering if they would manage to swallow the old boot they were apparently eating. I’ve been in that position myself. Anyway it all turned out well.

Gill, as Ann says, your deeds will probably tell you about the fence, if you have deeds. If you are paying a mortgage they are probably with your mortgage company. If you have moved in the last few years you will only have a document from the Land Registry basically saying that the title to the house has been transferred to your name. I hope you get it sorted and stay on good terms with your new neighbour.

Just looked out of the window and noticed that the witch hazel is coming into bloom. The flowers seems to have opened up almost overnight. We don’t have any daffodils in flower yet but with the winter aconite, hellebores, viburnum and now the witch hazel blooming the garden is beginning to look quite colourful.. :-D

Vera, yes awful if you have tough meat and have to eat it because you are a guest. So it was good yours was OK. Was it roast or casseroled?

It has been a glorious sunny day here and OH has pruned our buddleias right back. As we do every February. Walking round the garden this afternoon it was quite warm in the sun. Lots of crocus and snowdrops and Helebores out now, a few large daffs and I notice that the little miniature daffs are well in bud. It does make you feel better to see it all blooming.

I had a doctor's appointment to discuss the results of my recent blood test and was pleased to hear that everything was fine and blood sugar had actually gone down but was still just about borderline. The ECG I had at the same time was also fine and, despite the palpitations I have had he said my heart is healthy. So that is all good then and the low sugar diet I am following is working.

Pleased to see all your results came back good for you Ann, that must be a relief.

Apparently you don't get your deeds anymore, the land registry keep them as everything in online now. I think I could order a paper copy if I paid a few pounds. If it's the same as by you Ann then the fence the neighbour wants to change is theirs and not ours, but like I said I'll ring the council and see if they know. So long as they don't damage our drive or put in a fence that could blow onto our car, then we don't mind what they do.

I had a walk around our back garden earlier and noticed my bulbs are starting to grow through the net covers I made for the pots last year, so I've now taken the covers off and put the pots into the light, I bought around 500 bulbs last year, put some in pots in the back garden and the rest in the ground in the front, so we should have lots of colour soon.

It sound like you've got a lot of lovely flowers coming in your gardens like me Ann and Vera. The only problem I've got is I planted so many bulbs I can't remember all the ones I bought, so it's going to be a nice surprise throughout the year. I did leave the cardboard labels near all the bulbs, but they have warn out over the winter, so I'll just have to wait and see what flowers now.

Glad your blood test results were all good Ann. One less thing to worry about.

It has been a glorious day here; a bit chilly still but not much wind and lots of sun. I should have been out doing some weeding or cutting down the buddleias but I seemed to have so many other jobs to do that I never got around to it. I did walk to a local shop for some milk and managed to fall over on the way. Once I picked myself up I had a look at the path where I had been walking and there was nothing that could have tripped me up. I think I just fell over my own feet. Luckily I landed on grass so suffered nothing worse than a bit of a grazed knee (and a torn pair of trousers :-|).

The garden is starting to look a lot better than it did a month or so ago. I took a few pictures of plants. The one in the avatar is a hellebore called Penny's Pink.

That is a pretty Helebores Vera, they are lovely aren’t they? Pleased to hear you were not too badly hurt, you need more water with it :-D
OH pruned our three budleiss pretty hard yesterday, last year we didn’t cut them down enough and they got too tall and straggly.

Lovely day here today, frost early on but lovely and sunny now. Temp says 7 degrees outside but it did still feel a little chilly when I went out to put some mealy worms out for the birds an hour ago. OH gone to golf so no gardening for him today I think.

Fairly thick fog early on yesterday, then it cleared and was a beautiful day. Today it was frost first thing but then the sun came out and it was glorious.

I’ve been too busy to get in the garden today but yesterday I managed to cut down our three mini buddleias. They are supposed to be bred to be mini but, given half a chance, they will grow big so I am containing them in large half barrels. I see that one of them is bursting the barrel so I might have to get OH to do a repair job on it.

I also checked over all the plants in the mini greenhouse. Most of the cuttings I took are fine, though one or two have died, but I seem to have lost a few geraniums - mother plants that I had lifted.

No daffs in bloom yet. I think I shall have to rename our February Gold ones as there’s not a lot of February left :-)