Magazine style - all inclusive

[Zenj]

alp I gave my Panasonic to my youngest son replaced about 3 years ago with a Nikon coolpix A900 good zoom and downloads direct to my IPad .

 

[Zenj]

alp I gave my Panasonic to my youngest son replaced about 3 years ago with a Nikon coolpix A900 good zoom and downloads direct to my IPad .

 

[Perki]

Its been a rotten day rained most of the morning, it can't make its mind up this afternoon rain / sun / hailstone.

Some plants turned up today

and some shortbread arrived with them .

3x Phlox Dusterlohe or Nicky
3x Anemone ruffled swan
2X Echinops Taplow Blue
1x Corydalis Porcelain blue

The five pots which has perlite in are my Tropaeolum Speciosum roots which also come today , I am not very good with root cutting.

I potted on the Phlox and Anemone this afternoon .

 

[alp]

Thank you, Zenj! I saw different shades of orange in your troillius. Very pretty. I have googled. Panny LX10/15 is much more expensive. I really don't want to fork out too much as it can be very expensive. Nikon 900 seems very reasonable. \

I use this comparison site to see he difference. Nothing beats Samsung PL70 for pixel density. But your nikon has macro focul distance of 1cm, which is pretty good for close up flowers.

The first phlox has a funky colour. Shortbread edible! ? My anemone White Swan is dead! Very annoyed.

If you're not good with root cuttings, try acanthus mollis. Their roots are everywhere in my garden, just like garlic in my front garden, they would want to conquer the world. No wonder last year Monty told people to grow them in a pot.

It wasn't a bad day yesterday, but it was chilly to the bones and my knees.

More hellebores - veined beauty!

Yellow

This is such a happy clump

Doncaster Double Charmer - has all the bells and whistles

It's so difficult to capture this baby

Snowdrop Spindlestone surprise - I removed all the tunics that I saw yesterday whilst repotting snowdrops

... in between capturing these shy elusive creatures

It was so windy that my hands, my camera and of course, the tits were all moving/shaking!

Teesbrooke Audrey sown on 4th this month!

What a bit of sunshine can do to your photos!

 

[LouisFerdinand]

@alp, I especially like the photograph of the Scented Daffodil.

 

[alp]

@alp, I especially like the photograph of the Scented Daffodil.

Funny you should say that as I smelt every single one of them. And some had very faint scent, like a bubble gum which I didn't like much. Today, I might go to sniff all of them!

Back home, we bought some scented floribunda daff - multiflowered one (usually white ones like Paperwhite and forced them for Chinese New Year. It's probably still very popular.

 

[alp]

Yesterday, the weather was atrocious - nearly impossible to work outside as it was so windy and cold, made even more unpleasant by sporadic rain spells. We fashioned a stop to one of the gutters of the greenhouse and hopefully can harvest some rain which would be badly needed, no doubt, in the summer. I separated a clump of helenium and came out with about 10 small plants with roots and 5 bigger plants - could be Early Sahin, Mardi Gras or even Moerheim. The labels all disappeared because of winds, animal, digging, new planting.

Waitrose couldn't deliver my shopping and today, I have to wait till lunch time to get the delivery. What a nuisance! I used this code MW1807JFY to get £5 off £40 with free delivery, but their stuff was so expensive. As I needed was Bacheldre Organic flour which I could never find in my local Waitrose, so I decided to give it a go. Then the delivery man was ill. Hope he's OK!

Cleared up a lot of casualties - mainly Salvia cuttings. Gutted. Hopefully, we can clear the lean to and get rid of the mould soon. It's not nice. One of the French patio doors had let in a lot of water - nearly half an inch of water collected at the base of the door frame. Called up and nobody answered the phone.

Watched £400bn Covid bill and I hope government strategies about green energy work, but why gave our railway contracts to foreign countries? Spend all that money, only to give contracts abroad and miss the chance of training our teens and adults. This government sucks!

For the front area, I'm scribbling how to make colour schemes, but it's hard to do when I have tons of dahlias, all need a home! Helper is coming Tuesday to fix the other greenhouse which has been making frightful din with the sheets flapping like mad birds. The winds have been wild, ruthless, and relentless!

I can't believe that Lady Elphinstone was bidding at £31 and rising and yet you can buy them at £13 earlier in the year. This game is not for me! Some people are ruthless coming to money!

 

[alp]

Woke up early!

Apparently, it's going to be cold again!

Brrr! Coldest winter for eight years will continue this week with 'polar spring' bringing minus 5C chills and snow to the South

Thank you very much! Lockdown for sowing seeds direct again!

4c is miserable!

Trying to clear the lean to of plants so that wall cleaning could start, but as soon as I saw some side shoots from Dahlias, I took cuttings. Then I was supposed to train the clematises round the obelisks, I took cuttings again. I love Clematis Josephine! So 3 more pots appeared! Yesterday was a SS hunting day! Killed quite a few! And in the process, took 3 more petunia pirouette cuttings. Went on the internet and all petunia blue pirouette sold out, apart from those doubling the prices. Oh, dear! The lean-to is more choc-a-bloc with plants than before. I'm literally running out of room.

This was a huge mass of helenium ??? (Mardi Gras? Moerheim Beauty? Early Sahin?) and out of these came more then 12 pots!

Cornus Controversa Variegata going to flower soon with variegated leaves

Just when I was sad what having no Fritillaria Imperialis Rubra this year, Out came 2!

Surprise! Surprise! Don't remember buying this Camellia

Thanks for hot tea as it's so cold here!

Nearly forgot to share these with you:

One out of 4 Bird of Paradise seeds has germinated!

 

[alp]

Perki: When you mixed the bit that glued the sandstone to the base (cement?) what is the mix and do you have a name or company eg B&Q?? for your cement and sand please? For example, sharp sand ratio to cement please? Do you put cement all under the Indian sandstone please? Where did your step-brother source the sandstones please and how much per sq metre please? I need to sort it out quickly.

 

[Perki]

I've been repairing the lawn edge today , quite a lot of damage to it from last year. Got loads of moss on the back lawn worst its ever been , I'll attack it later on in the week with the scarifier and do a full lawn treatment plan to get it back in to shape.

Been a nice afternoon and its staying light longer which is making a difference , were nearly out to 7pm .

They don't look like Helenium to me , I've just been out and looked at mine to double check . They look more like Leucanthemums .

You'll have to get cement and sand locally unless you go to a build supplier like B&Q - Jewsons - Travis Perkins etc . bag of cement cost around £5-6 . Ton of sand £50 , I used builders sand because that's what he brought , you can use sharp sand but its not as pliable as builders sand , you can mix 2/3 builders sand to 1/3 sharp to make the best mix which is pliable but strong. Don't know where the stone came from he'll get it trade , its another one you'll have to find locally or look online at pavingsuperstore etc. I'd get calibrated stone if I were to do it again , its where it cut the same depth on the bottom making them lighter and easier to lay. My brother got them for £16 per metre but I payed a little extra cause he did go and get them, you'd be looking at £19 if your lucky but more like £21 per square metre.

 

[alp]

The trouble of going to bed half an hour earlier is that I now wake up at 4 am. Today is a bit more reasonable as it's 4.30. It was raining and overcast yesterday. I was a bit slow yesterday and didn't do much.

Yes, it's uplifting to see the day dawn so early and light last well past 6pm. I remember when I was returning from work to London: 9pm and it's still light.

Sunshine is at a premium in the days to come

******

Perki: Thank you. How much is the ratio of cement to sand please? We found out to our cost that not knowing that kind of sand and ratio to cement, the outcome mixes could be vastly different. We had a hole in the ground in the garage, and we tried to fix it ourselves: little emperor and me. The fluidity of the mixes could be vastly different. Any way, we did it and son said it was really well done.

Did you keep the moss as it is most moisture retentive? I would. In fact, we freegled 3 bags of moss. I will incorporate it into my soil or baskets. Mind you, all my baskets are holding strawberries. Some potted strawberries already have flowers inside my lean-to.

I'm waiting still waiting for this daff to unfurl!

This seems to be a black F Persica

I used to have a pure white Anemone and now this one seems to have freckles and I don't like those dots. They have robbed the flower of its purity.

I potted up my 5 courgettes Defender. Nearly all 7 seeds had germinated; 2 are still thinking.

I have never had much luck germinating stipa gigantea seeds. So I just chucked them inisde a pot with moist compost and let them do what they like with a lid on. After seeing dahlia seeds germinating like that, I thought it might be a good idea to try stipa. After all, it's better than throwing them away - there seemed to be nothing inisde the seeds. I will give it a month. After that, if nothing stirs, to the recycle bin the whole content will go.

I'm gutted as all my petunia pirouette seeds have vanished, together with Green Twister seeds (I'm turning into a broken moaning record). I'm taking cuttings from a blue pirouette which I had bought from Summerhill. They might not work, but it's what I like to do, fiddling and messing about. Today, I will remove the mauve hellebores as the dominant genes are ruining Alp's helleborus posterity.

It's already mid-May!

Crikey! Thank heavens that I checked. Vaccination today at 5.15! Hope it's OK!

 

[Perki]

I used 5 parts sand to 1 bag of cement . I don't keep the moss they probably not enough moss to do one basket , I prefer the wicker type hanging baskets .

I've scarified the lawn this afternoon.

Its not been a good day the Garden Centre mugged me off , told them they've added up my stuff wrong about £20 under what it should of been so I mentioned it , they then overcharge me thought I added it up in my head wrong only to realise after . Didn't lose out on a lot £6.50 but to say I could of walked out paying about £20 less possible saving someone job / telling off I am a bit miffed . The fire alarm at home then had me for a clown up and down the stairs, turn one off then the other goes off upstairs 4 times it had me going round 3 alarms running up and down, the 4th time the alarm upstairs went off it entered the bin sick to death of the dam thing, just goes off for no reason some days.

My haul from the GC today think I need reigning in spending going to having nothing left , Got a pot for a rose which hopefully will turn up soon its quite a size 40odd cm tall by 50cm thought it were a decent price for the size , think I'll curse the day when I want to remove the rose from it because of the shape. Also got a Clematis Julia.C and some bags of topsoil for topdressing the lawn .

 

[alp]

Went for the jab, Zenj ! It was very busy. Apparently, you just go online and book your appointments. The place is a former Sport Soccer, I think. Any way, there were about 20 stations or more. 5pm and it was still very busy. Glad that I can talk to you all this morning.

Madame Julia Correvon is well worth it. 2nd flush in November here. Thank you, Perki. Now, I will plan the bit using the Indian Sandstone. You must do a headcount before going to the till. I asked my millennial to do it all the times and he got it wrong 2/5 times. You will have problem with that shape of a pot. I've found out that these pots tend to exfoliate and then develop fissures. Neighbour gave me some good quality pots and I sold them on gumtree. Good quality pots are snow-proof. I don't use clay pots as it means more watering.

Pot up 3 x salad leaves in giant pots after watching a video; and that nearly emptied my compost bag. Also sowed some alfafa, for human and chicken consumption. Divided a Salvia Glutinosa.

Watched hairy man presenting Gardening Australia episode 1 2019 and the accent (This video always made me laugh. I think the dad could be a Canadian) really put me off, but unlike Scottish or Irish English, it was easier to understand. I remember talking to an Apple staff who's based in Ireland. She couldn't pronunce apple properly and it was hilarious and absurd in equal measure.I think I'm going to buy Petrea! A most beautiful flower.

Salvia Glutinosa - it doesn't look like that now. All sideshoots repurposed as cuttings.

Another massive clump of salvia

A camellia Brushfield which has been ravaged by something.

Aurore Fritllaria Imperialis

Erythronium

This could be a Fritillaria Imperialis Lutea or Aurore.

Tulips

Love this - someone planted it along the side road to the bus stop.

Must make a stinky pot and grow melons and I will water it with warm water, as suggested by Larissa!

 

[Zenj]

Good that you have had your jab alp ,very dull here today after a lovely sunny spring day yesterday ,I think the south are getting a cold spell later in week .it’s time the weather got a bit more settled but at least the nights are lengthening.

 

[alp]

Yes, I saw it 1c on Friday or Saturday. I had exactly the opposite, Zenj! Yesterday was grey, drizzly and spitty, and it was cold as well. Today, all glorious now but might cloud over later. I hate this cold. All my direct sowing has been stopped on the track!