2: Our gardening diaries - from latest toys, flowers to wildlife .. Please upload pics

[marlingardener]

The first set of shelving for plant starts was brought to the patio and washed, and now is in front of the big windows in the guest bedroom. I'll install the grow lights tomorrow and turn them on after the plants germinate.
Some of the herbs take longer to grow, so I start them early and then gradually start the other vegetable plants, depending on their garden planting dates. (This is from last year)

I'm hoping for enough starts for our gardens, and to share with friends.

 

[Mark56]

This one is stunning

View attachment 31750

Thank you, @Mark56 !

What a treat!

I highly recommend the third episode too, exceptionally sophisticated little black Hellebore that Monty plants in his Spring garden, a true black if I ever saw one!

 

[Logan]

Morning all

 

[alp]

Good morning to everybody: @marlingardener That's such a neat job. I think I need to do this as from tomorrow as it will rain, rain and rain. A very warm morning and just started the bonfire. Hopefully, I can burn off all the cuttings from yesterday's clearance.

@Mark56: I wish I hadn't ignored Farmyard's email and now I still have not a single one of the black variety. T&M sent me replacement. Needless to say, my experience is the same as Logan: Sent the wrong thing again. I'm going to record all the future programmes on TV so that the definition is better. It's a pain watching all the blur. But the flowers are still stunning. Monty is lucky. We pay for all his flowers, I think. I love the single back. I have single maroon, maroon veined, but no black. Farmyard is quite reasonable and I have had 3 or 5 unique hellebores from them. Very pleased.

 

[Logan]

It's a lot milder today so going to do some more hellebores. Hopefully do all of them, asked hubby if he could take it to the recycling place. He said yes of course.

 

[alp]

Was going to watch @Mark56 's suggested video and bumped into this one

About the benefits of eating avocado seed. Very interesting.

And here is why you shouldN'T eat the seed

 

[Logan]

Just watched the 2 videos.It might be a good idea, but looking at the 2nd one,i don't think so, not going to take the chance. I wouldn't have the oven on for that long time.It's a bit too much.

 

[alp]

I know, Logan. It costs me my grinder when I ground egg shells. My little James Martin grinder literally smelt burnt and I had to chucked it. Another video showed how a woman grimaced when she ground the split seed (one split into 2). It definitely would ruin your grinder. I bought a Krupp which I think was not genuine. After a bit of egg shell grinding, it's another write off.

Just not worth it. If it is so good, some companies will be marketing it. Don't you think?

 

[alp]

It's a lot milder today so going to do some more hellebores. Hopefully do all of them, asked hubby if he could take it to the recycling place. He said yes of course.

Logan: Make sure he doesn't go today as it's Sunday.

 

[Zenj]

Morning all mild but very wet a lot of rain during the night.

 

[Logan]

Logan: Make sure he doesn't go today as it's Sunday.

Thanks no he won't go today. I don't grind egg shells in the grinder. I put a few shells in a container then get my wooden rolling pin and crush them like that. Takes a long time, but it does the trick.
I've got got a Kenwood chef mixer with attachments, i had a mincer attachment and i used it to grind up a piece of ginger, it broke the metal bit of the mincer. So i won't do anything like that again.

 

[Logan]

I've done the hellebores by the side of the house, filled up 2 compost bags up. There's some down the bottom i'm going to do. Might put some compost around them. Trouble is when i put some down the local cats toilet.

 

[MaryMary]

It costs me my grinder when I ground egg shells.

I get a glass bottle of spice and a plastic measuring cup and use them like a mortar and pestle. I didn't want to grind glass on glass. The bottom of the measuring cup now has tiny little scrape marks in it - those eggshells are tough!

I'd guess any type of plastic for the mortar would work, I chose the measuring cup because it had higher sides, and the eggshells don't pop out. (Also, because the cup is so old, I can't read the measurements anymore. I found another use for it!! .) I use the glass jar of spice because it fits nicely in the palm of my hand, and aligns with the circular bottom of the cup.

I find it somewhat therapeutic, I don't know why, but there's something soothing about it. Of course, your mileage may vary.


Edited to add - I put a towel in my lap to catch any that do pop out, and then I can watch the TV, and not feel like that time is "wasted" when I could have been doing something constructive!

 

[alp]

@MaryMary That's a lovely avatar. Clever that your recycle your stuff.

I really abused my Kenwood kitchen chef. I used it to grind compost and now I realised that there were stones in it! Of course, the stones blunted the blades and not to mention the human waste incorporated in the compost. ! I never use the Kenwood for grinding any food. It's just for egg shells and sometimes I bought dodgy looking bananas (not all of them dodgy, but some) and ate the good ones and used scissors to chop the banana skin up and just ground everything in it, together with torn teabags. Then the whole lot went to the wormery. The grinder is now in the lean to.

Today we went to try to video the parakeets. I caught sight of one flying away. 9.30 and we were too late. Next time, I will try Saturday rather than Sunday. But on Sunday things would be reduced. I got a sturdy gate like wooden thing

but shorter, short enough to fit into the car.

for £1. One fan shape trellis for £1

and another square one for £1.

Bit shorter.

Except for the first one, all with a bit of damage but can be repaired. The quality of the last 2 is just poor.

One two dying orchids for 20p and they came with a ceramic pot each. Then realised that we dropped a credit card. Rushed home to report loss and stolen and then went out again. Video to follow. My hands shook so much. Last time, it was the winds wreaking havoc. This time, my hand trembled like hell.

Ah, bought 2 pots of snowdrop £5.99 each. Fasting again or scavenging all next week.

 

[alp]

I've done the hellebores by the side of the house, filled up 2 compost bags up. There's some down the bottom i'm going to do. Might put some compost around them. Trouble is when i put some down the local cats toilet.

I've found my hellebores very slow this year. Most of them are still in bud.