Green Girl Gardener

Finally I was able to get out in the garden today. Not only has the weather been decidedly ungardening-inducing this week, but I’m also back at work (from the home office overlooking the garden) after several week’s of furlough so spare time has been less plentiful.

We made the most of my last week of furlough (choosing to see the whole thing as positive) and journeyed down the M5 for the first time in months to Webbs of Wychbold, garden centre extraordinaire! I’m not sure how I allowed this to happen, but I had a considerable sum in garden centre vouchers to spend left over from my last birthday and Christmas, and they were finally burning a hole in my pocket.

The first thing that went in my trolley was a blueberry bush (followed by some ericaceous compost) and today I potted it up.

There are a couple of fruits on it, but I don’t expect it to produce much more this year. At least, my first blueberry bush didn’t do anything for the first couple of years, but last year fruited well, and has a fair few fruits on it this year. I noticed the first one ripening today.

Speaking of Christmas (tenuous link, I know, but I did mention it a second ago!) I exploded a wild flower seed bomb, that was a Christmas present, a few weeks ago, and I didn’t think anything had grown from it but today I noticed this lovely blue flower.

No idea what it is, but it’s pretty, right?

The next bloom that stopped me in my tracks today was this Dianthus.

Otherwise known as a Carnation, as a general rule I’m not keen on them. I think they’re a bit old-lady like. This one came as part of a lucky dip box so I planted it anyway, and it may have changed my mind purely because of the richness of its colour. The photo doesn’t really do it justice. It looks like velvet in the flesh (so to speak) and when the sun shines on it, it’s the deepest of reds and makes me smile.

Moving on to things that are about bloom now, and first up is this Zinnia.

I grew these from seed in the greenhouse. I forget now where I got the seeds from. Possibly a freebie from Gardeners’ World. Anyway, they’re now planted out in my wheelbarrow with the apricot Begonias that I shared a couple of weeks ago, and today I noticed that they’re gearing up to bloom. Lovely! I’m not usually massively successful growing from seed so hopefully these will buck the trend. Expect a victorious point in a future Six if they do.

Next is Sunflower Teddy Bear.

Also grown from seed in the greenhouse (the seeds were a Christmas present), planted out a few weeks ago and looking like they’re doing well. This is a smaller Sunflower than your stereotypical Sunflower (of which I also have several growing) and should be a maximum of sixty centimetres. Mine are currently about a foot tall and I’m really excited about them flowering because, as the name suggests, they have a cuddly, fluffy flower that I think I’m going to adore!

Finally I’d like to share my Nigella which, again, I grew from seed in the greenhouse. The packet said to sow where they were to grow so they’re in a pot which I moved outside once they were growing well and I’d thinned them out.

They look a little Cosmos-like, don’t they? I noticed today on my peruse of the garden that these are also getting ready to flower.

According to the packet, these have a quite unusual blue flower so I’m waiting in high anticipation for these. Hopefully they’ll make a pretty display, and after they’re done, I’ll try to harvest the seeds to put in boiled rice (yum!)

Hope you’ve all been able to grab some outside time today if, like me, you’ve been rather rained off this week. Check out the Propagator for more Sixes that I’m sure will be full of colour and burgeoning veg beds.