MORE STORMS!

What a storm we had last night; torrential rain, thunder and lightning it must have been overhead for a good hour. It was so bad that my friend from across the road text me to see if I was OK on my own during it. Luckily storms don't bother me; my first thoughts are always...well at least I won't have to water the garden.....then they turn to......oh no everything going to get flattened again.....and finally.....I bet the slugs and snails are having a field day!

This morning I went out into the garden prepared to see what damage had occurred. Luckily nothing major had occurred...well except for the chomped lettuces!

I was pleased to see that some of the the Lilies are starting to flower.......

and so is the "Fascination" Dahlia..........
even the Habranthus robustus are starting to put on a show...I love the delicate pink of these....
the Thyme has burst into flower....this morning the skies are clear and we seem to be in for a beautiful day so I shall enjoy having a potter about and watching the Bees on this...they LOVE it....
I don't usually cut flowers for indoors...I prefer to see them in the garden...but the Sweet Peas are a MUST for cutting.....for one thing it keeps the blooms coming...once you let them go to seed they think they've done their job and stop flowering..................BTW if you have problems with pollen beetle on cut flowers there's a handy tip on my RUTH'S SHOOTS blog

Due to the fact I was so tired last night.....a bath and bed with a good book was the order of the evening......I didn't catch up with all my Blogpals new posts so as I'd woken quite early I thought I'd catch up. Typically my PC has decided to have one of its "shut off every five minutes" days (goodness knows why this happens)...so my Blogaround time has been mostly spent waiting for the computer to reload again! It's so infuriating...I can be halfway through a comment or just waiting to publish it and "POOF!" the computer shuts down. So if you've seen me "lurking" but not commenting now you know why!

TIME FOR A LINGER?

It's been a little while since I had the time to invite you in for a sit down and a beverage and as the weather is so pleasant we may as well make the most of it and sit in the garden;

That's it...make yourself comfy.... and I'll tell you what's been going on in the seedling department.

The "Poor Man's Orchids" (Schizanthus) are really doing well
and so are the Alpine Strawberries.And talking of strawberries; the Strawberry Spinach seeds are already germinating....I only sowed them on 8th March.
The Great Pip Challenge pots are doing quite well

the Lychee has now sent up a shoot
all the orange pips have germinated
and the Avocado looks like it's going to be an attractive plant.
I'm not sure about the ginger though....Libby's is really shooting well but mine just seems to be sitting there and not moving at all.
I've got to repot the Bishop of Llandaff and Fascination Dahlias so while I'm doing that help yourself to an ice-cream

The Bishop hasn't been repotted for two years now; I've just been top dressing it so I reckon it deserves some fresh compost.

As my hands are dirty anyway I'm lifting these Carnations that have got quite woody. I could take cuttings but I think I'll just "drop" them; I'll dig a deeper hole and plant them deeper so that all those woody stems are beneath the soil; the stems will start to send out shoots and the whole plant will look far bushier...I've done this before with heathers too and it always seems to work.

If you look very closely this frog is eating a worm; would rather he had eaten a slug!
Some poor frog must have "missed" and has laid its spawn on top of this rock; I'll quickly turn it on its side so that the spawn is underwater.

I love the way that this daffodil holds it's petals so far back.

The hanging basket begonias are shooting well; I'll start topping the compost up soon.
Even the bedding Begonias are starting to shoot.
The freebie grasses I found in the paving cracks are looking happy
and quite a few of that VERY OLD packet of Sweet Peas have grown...they were well past their sow by date.
I'm glad I cut the Epymidium leaves off as the flowers have started to open. They are like miniature Daffodils.The Senetti are growing on well; I'll start sorting out some proper large pots for them next week. I don't want them becoming root bound in these modules.
Well I bet you're all itching to get back to your own gardens; see you again soon!

CODE RED ALERT!

There were Mick & I quietly sitting in the garden yesterday when what did I spy;

WARNING #1

AGHHHHHHHH......THE DREADED LILY BEETLE!

It was bad enough finding greenfly on the roses the other day but LILY BEETLE.....NOOOOOO! For goodness sake it's only the beginning of March!!!! If you have Fritillaria or Lilys in your garden please be on the lookout and take the necessary action*.

WARNING #2

Another "pest" that has started to rear its head in our garden is the Sycamore seedling. because of our close proximity to a large Sycamore Tree each year we are inundated with seedlings attempting to turn our garden into a forest. Sycamores are lovely trees but N.I.M.B.Y. Be on the lookout for similar offenders in your own garden.

I did a few little clearing up and cutting down jobs while we were out there and....

WARNING #3

......remember to move your finger before clamping secateur blades together.........or it can result in severe blog typing difficulties.

After all those warnings........a few friends

and a fabulous sunset

*It should be noted that the offending lily beetle was disposed of as quickly and humanly as possibe with the aid of a size 7 shoe.

GONE TO POT!

It promises to be a fine day to day so I think that I will have to do something about the plastic cover on our greenhouse. We've had it for quite a few years now and the winds of a few weeks ago have really ripped it.

The sweet peas I sowed are starting to come up and I really need to get them off of the warm window sill and out into the greenhouse. I don't want them getting too leggy and we have no severe weather forecast at the moment so I want to get them toughened up.

As I was uploading the previous photos the skies blackened and it's now pouring down with rain so that's my plans up the spout. The strange thing is....as it started raining I heard the crash of mail on the doormat. More junk mail and bills I thought.............but I had a nice surprise as in with the mail was a card from Libby....she had emailed me the other day to see if I'd be interest in some Castor Oil Plant (Rincinus Carmencita) seed.

And here they are...what a pretty little card too.

And excellent growing instructions and "poisonous" warning. I'll get these into soak and shall look forward hopefully to some success as I've never grown it before.

I too could have a plant like this

NEGLECTED

Our back garden is North facing; this in itself can present problems for some of the plants we try to grow; however it also means that all of the windowsills at the back of the house are continually in deep shade. As we don't have a frost free greenhouse any non-hardy cuttings that I want to overwinter have to be squashed onto the front of house window sills. Then along comes Christmas; because we have so many Christmas ornaments and lights the poor cuttings have to be moved to the upstairs back windowsills. They are stuck there for almost a month and boy! do they sulk. Because of the low light levels they strain their little heads trying somehow to find the bright light they have been used to. Hence when Christmas is over and I can return them to their usual position this is what I find:
The first lot of coleus cuttings that I had potted up and were looking nice and bushy have overstretched themselves and lost half their leaves. Drastic action I know but I have cut them back by half and hopefully thay will bush out again into nice short, stocky plants.

Luckily I'd still got room on the front upstairs window sill for the second batch and they have faired somewhat better.....save for one loss!

The sweet peas had been doing really well but they to have become weak and leggy. Normally I would have them growing outside in an insulated cloche as they are quite hardy but these ones are in the special pot that Lynn had arranged for Mick to get me on our Wedding Anniversary and so I want to keep it indoors. I'll have to pinch them out and see what happens.

I'm pleased that the busys and begonias, which I'd cut right back when I lifted a few for spring flowering houseplants, are starting to regrow well and starting to come into bud.
The Lucky Bamboo that I had been weaning from water to soil is also doing well.

*******************************************************************

I'll finish this post with a little update on the rubbish situation. There has now been another SIX bags dumped further down our fence!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think I'd better start singing

"AWAY IN A DUSTCART"again and see if anyone takes the hint!!!!!

A "F.D.H.T.G." MORNING

Phew.. a real "Feet Didn't Hit The Ground Morning". First I must ask did any of you in England see the beautiful sunrise this morning? I know it showed up in Surrey because Lynn sent me a photo of it via her phone. Mick was still asleep so I was able to click away with my camera and took at least 10 shots. Don't panic I won't show you them all; just the one:

Once Mick was breakfasted and dressed; seeing that the morning was still gloriously sunny; I wheeled him out to the front garden and got on with pulling out the begonias from the round pot and planting up the violas. This job was well overdue. Although the begonias were still doing well, the violas were starting to get a bit cramped in their little containers and I needed to get them planted out post haste.
It won't take them long to fill out. It wasn't that many weeks ago that I planted the wheelbarrow up; and look how that's filled out!

Of course I couldn't bring my self to throw ALL the begonias out. I had to save a couple to cut back, pot on and grow on to use as house plants. I did the same with a couple of the double busys and at the moment they are all residing on the bed upstairs (nice and light but not too warm). Goodness knows where I'll put them when we have visitors I really must stop using the bedroom as a frost-free greenhouse!!!

The winter jasmine in the back garden is really starting to make buds and flower. It's gone a little wayward this year so I took the opportunity to cut some of the wispy growth back.

The sweet peas are really doing well. Every seed germinated. They are a little leggy but that's only to be expected when growing them indoors. Once they have three or four pairs of true leaves I'll pinch the tips out to make them bush.

I have somewhat neglected the houseplants lately - all the gardening books say reduce watering in the winter but I think they must have been written pre central heating. I always find that my house plants put on most of their growth during the winter and need watering more regularly than they do in the summer. I was really pleased to see the Jade Plant (it has so many other common names) was coming into flower. This is the FIRST time I've ever had one flower and have always been envious of other people who seem to get theirs flowering year after year.

It was blue bin day today. Have I told you about our dustbins? Stop me if you've heard this before. I don't know if it's the same for Ruby, who is also a Suffolkite, but we have fortnightly collections dependant on which colour round you're on. We have 4 bins.

• Black.....general household waste........................collected every other Wednesday


• Blue......recyclable waste (not glass).....................collected the week that the black one isn't


• Brown..garden waste (no soil or big branches)..collected the Tuesday of black bin week
• Yellow..medical type waste...................................collected the Thursday of blue bin week

It can get quite confusing sometimes remembering which day/week which bin goes out for collection! Not all households have 4 bins. The brown bins we have to pay about £50 a year for and the Yellow bin I requested because of Mick's incontinence pads which were taking up so much room in the black bin. We don't have enough room for them in the garden so they live either in the back alley or in the garage.

Once we'd got back indoors I thought I'd better make a cake or something to have with lunch. I decided on a Bakewell Tart as time was getting on and it can be served hot so I wouldn't have to worry about getting it cooled down in time. I don't want this blog turning into a recipe book so I won't write that down but if anyone is interested just click HERE (it's a nice easy recipe; not one of the make your own pastry, whisk egg whites, fold in, ones).

As you can see we have already polished off a good chunk of it.