Gardening

It’s been a while ….

greengirlgardener3 Comments

I’ve missed a couple of Six on Saturdays and haven’t seemed to find the time to write any other time for a while, so I thought I’d use some of the bank holiday to write a quick catch up on the last couple of weeks.

My new love of Lego continues. I succumbed to ordering 4 Privet Drive, the house that Harry Potter lives in with Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and Dudley and it’s fab. You can make Hogwarts letters come flying out of the fireplace like they do in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Ron’s blue Ford Anglia really does pull Harry’s bedroom window out as it does when Ron, Fred and George come to rescue Harry in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. You can even open up the side of the house to see inside the cupboard under the stairs which was Harry’s bedroom until he went to Hogwarts.

I also treated myself to a newly released set – Winnie the Pooh’s house in the Hundred Acre Forest.

The attention to detail is fantastic. Pooh bear can sit on the log outside his house and inside he can look in the mirror when he can do his stoutness exercises and obviously there are honey (hunny!) pots galore.

I’m super excited that Lego have just announced some new Harry Potter sets being released on 1st June. I’ve already ordered the Hogsmeade set which includes the Three Broomsticks pub and Honeydukes sweet shop, but I can feel a couple more purchases coming on!! Honestly, we need a bigger house so I can have a Lego room.

We could also do with a teddy bear room! I treated myself to a new bear called Theo last weekend when I went to Webbs garden centre.

He’s currently living on our bed. I did buy some lottery tickets this past weekend thinking that we could see if our neighbour would consider selling us his house so we could make a Lego room and a teddy bear room and a gym. We did win, but I don’t think he’d sell it to us for £30!

My actual reason for going to Webbs was to choose some plants to go in Granny’s pots that I inherited. I tried to choose plants that either had a relevant name or that I thought Granny would like.

On the left of these first three pots is poppy Beauty of Livermere which I thought Granny would like. She was a very cheery person so the bright red of a poppy seems appropriate. She was also born between the wars so a poppy is relevant. In the middle is a fuchsia. My Grandad loved fuchsias and they remind me of visiting them both when I was a child. This fuchsia is one of six that arrived from QVC. Unfortunately they’d been tipped upside down by Hermes so I’m trying my hardest to help them recover. I’ve put a little fairy in the pot with this one, which was the worst hit, to watch over it. On the right is a patio rose called Sweet Memories.

On the other side of my raised bed we have, on the left, hebe Golden Pixie. Granny had a hebe in her front border which she told me someone reversed their car into. In the middle is geum Pink Petticoats which, again, I thought Granny would like. Finally on the right is polemonium Stairway to Heaven with obvious relevance.

I love how they look arranged around my raised bed, with the two lily pots at the head.

I also bought this rose …

… because it’s called Sheila’s Perfume – Granny was called Sheila. I haven’t decided where this is going to go yet.

While I was planting these up, I spotted some movement out of the corner of my eye so I went to investigate, and found this friendly little robin.

Now I know it’s not unusual to see a robin whilst you’re gardening, but I’ve never had one let me get this close and for so long. It really seemed interested in what I was doing. My Mum said it was my Grandad popping in to see what I’d done with his pots. They were his and Granny’s when he was still with us, and he was the gardener really, Granny maintained them after he’d gone, and now I’m going to continue doing that.

I also inherited this stool which makes me think of Granny and Grandad every morning when I get up.

It’s been around for the whole of my life, and I remember sitting on it when I was small enough to do so! It came from Kenya when my Great Uncle (Granny’s brother) was working there. It’s not worth anything to anyone else, but to me it’s priceless.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of crochet too. I finished my Picnic on the Beach blanket which was a cal (crochet along) by Coastal Crochet.

And I’ve made quite a bit of progress on my D’Histoire Naturelle blanket which is a Scheepjes cal.

I should now be doing the next cal which is the Picnic by the River cal also designed by Coastal Crochet, but for Little Box of Crochet. However, I’m being patient with that one because I’m busy crocheting something else which I can’t tell you about in case the intended recipient reads this!

Moving back to the garden, and it’s coming back to life slowly but surely. Everything seems to be taking longer this year, probably because it’s been so cold and dry. Here’s a collage of colour for you – Welsh poppy, geum Totally Tangerine, pieris in full on show off mode, honesty and two different erysimums.

Finally, I’ll end with some pics of our visit to Hoo Farm last week. We’ve been here a few times and it’s always a good day out. They have lots of animals, and many of them are rescues or old animals that are living out their last days in peace. They’ve also added a walk through dinosaur section called Hoo-rassic World since our last visit which was fun.

Right, I’m off to do some more speed crocheting as the decidedly autumn weather outside has put the kibosh on anything outdoorsy!

Six on Saturday 17th April

greengirlgardener7 Comments

Well, I think it’s safe to say that Spring has finally sprung. It’s warm outside, the weeds are starting to go crazy and there’s hope in the air. I’ve just popped in to do a really quick Six because I’m actually going out to eat tonight for the first time in over six months! So exciting! Hope it’s not too cold!

I’ve decided to showcase the uncultivated end of our garden today. Some might say the whole thing is uncultivated because it’s certainly got a thrown together feel, but it’s a whole lot better than it was when we moved in. We’re slowly working our way through the whole garden, but we’ve chosen our battles wisely and thus far the end of the garden has just received enough attention to stop it running completely wild till such time that we can decide what to do with it.

Here it is in all its glory.

I’m not counting that photo as one of my Six – that’s just to illustrate what I’m talking about!

We need to get out there and do our annual damage control because I noticed today that we have a couple of what I think are sycamore trees in the making courtesy of the wind and next door and I don’t want or need sycamores. They do look surprisingly pretty as the leaves unfurl though.

I spotted two other new additions that must’ve blown in on the wind or via a bird today and I’m unsure whether they’re worth leaving or moving elsewhere. The first is this which looks like some kind of euphorbia to me.

If anyone has any clue, please let me know your thoughts. It certainly looks more attractive than the nettles and dock leaves that populate the area in numbers!

The second is this variegated delight. Some sort of euonymous, do you think? Definitely worth saving if so.

It’s definitely worth having a scout around up there at this time of year, because the odd beauty does appear. A couple of years ago this cowslip decided to grow itself and I moved it to my birthday planter and it’s gone from strength to strength. I love it’s beautifully cheery yellow flower.

This next plant is determined to make itself at home and reappears in droves every year. We usually pull most of them up but leave a few remaining because the bees absolutely love it. I’ve put it in a plant identification app and I think it might be a great forget me not.

My final point seems apt today, being the last Six before my Granny’s funeral. On the day that Granny passed away, as I was sitting working away blissfully unaware of what had happened a hundred or so miles away, a whole load of white feathers came puffing out of a tree over our lawn. I’ve mentioned before than whenever I see a white feather in the garden it makes me feel close to my Grandad who passed away several years ago and now I wonder if Granny was somehow letting me know that she’ll be there with him overseeing my garden adventures. Who knows!? It’s a comforting thought.

Told you it would be quick! All that remains to say is that the Propagator’s blog is ready and waiting for you to check out other Sixes.

Six on Saturday 10th April

greengirlgardener1 Comment

This Saturday has come round quickly because I had an extra day off work after the bank holiday weekend because it was hubby’s birthday. We couldn’t do much with most places still closed so we went to a garden centre to have a browse. I didn’t buy much – I know there are plants that I need, but I just don’t know which ones yet so I decided not to just buy willy nilly, but to restrain myself and go back when I know what I want.

Anyway, on to this week’s Six. I shared a couple of weeks ago that we had lost my Granny unexpectedly. I have been lucky enough to inherit her outside pots. I haven’t got them yet because she lived a couple of hours drive away, so I’ll get them on the day we go to say our goodbyes (for now). Excuse the quality of the photo – I had to take a screen print of a photo that was emailed to me. I’ll think of Granny every time I look at the pots.

With that in mind, I decided to have a bit of a rearrange outside so that the pots can go somewhere visible from the house in a pretty arrangement that we can enjoy. I potted up the pretty orange cowslip that I shared a couple of weeks ago. It’s flopped a bit, but on the whole seems to have coped ok with being uprooted.

This will probably need to be moved around when I have the pots so I can show them off to best effect. I bought the wall basket from the garden centre this week, and I really like it so I think I’ll get a couple more.

I did succumb to one impulse buy at the garden centre – this Nigrescens grass. I figure it’ll look good in one of Granny’s pots.

Over the Easter weekend I finally got outside to do a little bit of tidying and clearing of winter detritus. There is a vast amount still to do, but it’s far too cold to be out there this weekend. I bought a chrysanthemum last year which was flowering in early summer, and then flowered again in the autumn. I assumed that it would die in the cold and snow we had but, happy days, it’s survived and is putting on some good growth. I don’t know how well it’ll do because it looks a bit patchy, but we’ll see.

Next is my white camellia that I bought in the sale when garden centres reopened after the first lockdown last year. I think it’s fair to say that this bud is full to bursting!

I’m going to finish on a slight cheat – two photos for one point! The daffodils aren’t going to be around for much longer – a lot of them have already faded, so I thought I’d feature them one last time before (hopefully) the summer plants take over. These two, while they don’t look like your stereotypical daffodil, are so delicate and pretty.

As ever, do pop over to check out the comments at the Propagator’s blog for more Sixes. Hope you all enjoy the rest of the weekend.