5 Gardening Dairy: Happy gardening and happy snapping ..

[alp]

On the way to view houses at 8.30am, saw a cordon round a large stretch of a park and it turned out to be this

Pictured: Teenage girl, 17, found with knife in back after being stabbed to death in east-London park - becoming 18th murder victim of 2019 in blood-soaked capital

• Jodie Chesney killed last night in play park near St Neot's Road, Harold Hill
• Teenager found suffering from stab wounds and pronounced dead an hour later
• Blade still protruding from her back and she'd lost two pints of blood, neighbours revealed
  
  Lawlessness prevails
  
  Happened 9.25pm last night! RIP!https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6763443/Teenage-girl-17-stabbed-death-east-London-park.html

 

[alp]

It's raining now

But it's not so full on as the weather report would have you believe.

I'm forcing my dahlia

I'm doing the same with my Franz Kafka! A most beautiful pompon.

All my apple gala cuttings have died, but the pear cuttings from down the road are doing very well, and so are the figs.

My tree lily scaling - left on top of the fridge freezer. Might let them stay here for a while.

 

[alp]

Camellia times

First Brushfield

Could be EG Waterhouse

Now who is she?

 

[alp]

3 hours of sunshine hopefully will dry my clothes. The wind might help a bit. But there is a lot of moisture in the air. Hopefully, my plants will benefit. Need to add top soil to pots and generally do an audit of plants in pots.

 

[alp]

Couldn't sleep until 3am and woke up to bright light. Mown the 2 lawns within half an hour. Not well done, but done! At least, it looks a bit tidy. Such a lovely sunny day. My 3 amigos are smiling - Brushfield, EG Waterhouse and a small pale pink one from Thurrock garden centre. Bought as a tiny plant in a 9cm or even small flat pot! Lovely. All the others sourced elsewhere took longer to flower. But this tiny pot has done me proud. Shame they had no rejects so far there! Last year, I bought some asters and others from them.

Spring has sprung!

I did some grafting in the winter and some has taken.

Mainly like this

Mainly peach to nectarine and vice versa. Apples to pear and vice versa!

 

[alp]

Now, just when I have found a conveyancing solicitor, things suffer from more twists and turns.

I had promised the house to someone and was happy that the online conveyancing solicitor actually has offices in the SE. Today, we drove home from shopping and on the way to the garage saw an Audi blocking our driveway, so we had to horn him a bit. After we drove the car in front of the garage, the car was blocking our driveway again. A man came out and said he wanted to buy my house and my estate agent wouldn't answer the phone. He even suggested bypassing the estate agent, saving me thousands of pounds. I was a bit scared and also, I had promised the house to somebody else. He then asked to see the garden which was in a mess, as usual. He phoned the estate agent in front of me and arranged a viewing.

He said he could come with some cash deposit, which was unheard of. I looked a bit stupid and dumbfound. Any way, I told him everything about the house, and he joked he was t***an and was scared of nothing. I said I wanted £400K and he said fine. I was surprised that the estate agent, a new operative, actually took down all his details. When asked what his ideal house was, he said my house number and road! Such a flirt.

Later, the estate agent phoned me and I was told that the previous potential buyer had a bust up with his girlfriend and when I went up the road to try to help, she's away for 3 weeks. Oooops!

Perki must be amused! Sold, available, sold, available ... I just am happy to enjoy my newly plastered house with lovely LED lights. My next house will have automated lighting ..

 

[Perki]

Sounds a bit subspecies to me alp how many people just come out of the blue and gave you more a less exactly what you want, all sounds at bit to good to be true. Keep a close eye on him and don't sign anything without reading / thinking about it first. If he is genuine it all good and everyone happy

 

[alp]

Sounds a bit subspecies to me alp how many people just come out of the blue and gave you more a less exactly what you want, all sounds at bit to good to be true. Keep a close eye on him and don't sign anything without reading / thinking about it first. If he is genuine it all good and everyone happy

I think so too. Especially he came out of the car and asked for details of my house. I think he dealt in cars. He asked a man how much a non-running Merc was and repeated £354+ vat! Lol! Some del boy character. He took calls during his conversation with the estate agent. I wish I had pulled out of the estate agent as they kept giving me ridiculous prices and threatened me that the buyer would walk away if I didn't accept the offers. I can sell via a very cheap agent and pay £1499 instead rather than £5000 for these cowboys!

Any way, now that next door is let out, I hope I can let my flower go to seeds and then move. Today, I even saw a bud from my bearded iris! Whoa! So happy!

 

[alp]

Daphne rubra Very sad. One tiny flower!

Camellia Brushfield

Guess what this is called? You've guessed it! PINK!

White anemone

 

[alp]

A very dark and wet morning -

Need to grow some salad leaves today. The way this selling house business is twisting and turning, a day is a long time in history.

 

[Perki]

Well another day and another year older . Its been lashing it down all night and raining on and off continuously all day , don't think rest of the week much better. Been out and put some slug wool pellets around some delphiniums which have started showing. Think I will go and sow some seeds in the gh , I got to dig out the tomato bed and replace with my own compost .

 

[alp]

Are you having your birthday, Perki?

 

[alp]

Can I say Happy Birthday then?

Chronological age has no meaning! Once you're at peace with yourself, that is the most important thing!

Yes, I have been out about 3 hours solid. Dug up all my expensive galanthuses and pot them individually. I bent the seed pods into its own pod and hopefully by May, I will have seeds. To tell the truth, I don't even know where all my Wendy's Gold seeds have gone. I had quite a few, I instead of leaving them somewhere with no slugs or ants in a pot and inside a clean environment, I just covered them with sand in the same area as the mother plant. There go all my gold bars. Bought tons from a woman in Suffolk and have nothing to show for it. Very cheesed off as they cost me more than £60. Think even Monty Don got conned as he mentioned it in one episode.

Tomorrow, I will pot out the other lot and make a note next year so that I put pellets down before the slugs snap off all my buds. This is so heart-breaking. You waited one year and before you could say hello, the slugs had them for feast! I saw and iris bud and put some coffee grind around it.

One thing I will not sow is tomatoes as I know they will seed themselves later. One of the mini tomato greenhouse s(the middle one of all of them?!) got blown off and the cover was blown nearly 8 feet away ny the storm several nights ago. Imagine those living in Cornwall or the southwest. Here, I have had no rain, but a tiny bit of drizzle and it has been very grey the whole day.

Lidl is selling camellia, but the flowers are not that nice. The white one was OK, but £10.99 is a bit too much for me. Last year, they sold them at £7,99 and I really regret not buying them. Most pleased with the pink one for £2,99 in a 9cm pot. I have audited my hellebores - nearly half of them were white/cream/white! Grrrrrrrrrrr! If I were 10 years younger, I would go for a propagation course. Imagine the money I can make! Wish I were a millennial!

 

[alp]

Bought this for £1 in Homebase!

 

[Perki]

Didn't get round to sowing any seeds looks like a job for tomorrow instead, I do fancy going GC tomorrow but weather looks bad again . 60 quid on snowdrops mind if they are rare its aways seems spending the extra cash , buying plants is the only time I kind of look the other way when spending money I am not a mug though I know when things are over priced got to keep your eye on some places

Had a seed germination today I was really pleased with Tropaeolum Speciosum , had other germinations as well tomatoes - cucumbers - melon and some rudbeckia. Got lots to prick out as well gone mad with antirrhinum this year.