Bluebells and purple sprouting broccoli flowers

Who knew they would look so beautiful together. The yellow flowers from my PSB are simply wonderful I had to bring them into the house to admire and naturally a little fistful of bluebells as I went past! Oh spring it’s so lovely to have you back again! X

Happy spring

Whether it’s your Easter, or just a Sunday. I just wanted to say have a ‘happy day!’

Take time today to enjoy the flowers, plants, insects, animals and people you share this planet with.

This blog is now a year old, thank you for taking the time to share it with me.

Much love to you and yours.

Vix…xxx

The spring juggle

My poly tunnel is starting to fill up, trying to find a slot for a seed tray is slowing becoming impossible, I call it the spring juggle. Every inch is filled with a pot or tray – isn’t spring exciting?

Is it me or is there never enough room? Even if I owned the Eden project there wouldn’t be enough space.

April is one of the busiest months for me, sowing and pricking out becomes a full time job. So far I’ve sown (prepare for a huge list):

Soya bean
Runner bean
French bean
Peas
Courgette golden
Marrow
Squash patty green tint
Courgette all green bush
Courgette F1 Atena
Chard Brightlights
Kale Nero di Toscana
Kale scarlet
Kale curly scarlet
Kale dwarf green curled
Leek prize taker
Lettuce little Gem
Rocket
Quinoa
Kohl Rabi purple and white Vienna mix
Tomato gardeners delight
Tomato Tigerella
Sweet Pepper
Multicoloured corn
French marigolds
French lavender
Basil sweet genovese
Basil red Rubin
Coriander fine leaved
Tarragon Russian
Peppery salad
Purple sprouting broccoli
Sunflower velvet queen
Sunflower giant
Sweet pea giant wave
Cabbage primero F1
Calendula Officianalis
Beetroot perfect 3
Good King Henry
Angelica
Pumpkins
Musk melon F1 Emir
Lupin Russell mix
Stock
Tagetes lemon gem
Night scented stock
Nasturtium home mix
Morning glory Rosa Volant

(Told you it was a long list)

I keep records of when everything is sown, the temperatures, and a tick box for if it germinated. Then you can see where you are up to, and it’s lush to look back on in the winter when planning ahead!

Honeyberry

This is my Honeyberry, I bought it two years ago from a shop that was selling it off cheap. I felt so sorry for it I had to buy her and bring her home, (this happens to me a lot).

Honeyberry are actually a form of edible honeysuckle ‘Lonicera caerulea’ some people call them blue honeysuckle or edible honeysuckle. They originally come from Siberia, Northern China and Northern Japan. Like blueberries they are extremely high in antioxidants and vitamin C, but unlike blueberries they aren’t picky about their soil and will grow quite happily in most soil types. The berries make good jam or can be eaten fresh.

So far I have to say ‘she’ is a ‘tough old boot’. Last year whilst we were having work done on our house, the boys threw a load of top soil right on top of her in the raised bed. I didn’t fancy her chances, I thought she was gone. I finally found her whilst digging around with my hands carefully feeling for branches, which I gently brought to the surface as best as I could. Needless to say last year she didn’t do much of anything, a few leaves and certainly no flowers. But today whilst I was checking around the plot I spotted she was blooming away, Result!

I am painfully aware she doesn’t have another mate to pollinate with, maybe I will find another one another day, but for now I thought I would see if I could hand pollinate and just maybe this will fertilise the flowers. I have no clue on earth if this will work. But it’s a worthy experiment whilst I keep looking for another one to put nearby.

So in the spirit of experimental allotmenting I took my little paint brush and tickled all the flowers. Just maybe this will do the trick… Time will tell
!

Globe artichokes (Cynara scolymus) are drunk…

I can only assume my Artichokes are drunk! I have a raised bed which is stuffed with them, I like to grow them for the bees, which adore the huge flowers in summer. Massive purple thistle like heads open up around July time. They are so massive they look like they are straight from Jurassic times. I can only assume it’s been so mild this winter they think it’s early summer and have grown their huge buds early!

I hope this won’t affect the plants through the year, I’m not entirely sure what to do. They have been there for about 8 years so maybe with age they get confused. It could be time to sow some more incase they die this year? Have you noticed anything odd in your garden or plot, would love to hear from you.

Hippeastrum

I was walking around a supermarket in November last year and I spotted some Hippeastrum bulbs going cheap. Mainly because the boxes were a little damaged, well I couldn’t resist, £3, with the pot and soil included – sold!

I planted the huge bulb gave it a water and popped it on to the window ledge in the living room, keeping the soil slightly moist. Well a month past and slowly it started to spring into life, with a huge green spike emerging from the soil. It got bigger and bigger and four buds appeared.

I got home from work today to be greeted by these huge smiling flowers. Well being a gardener I was over joyed.

The miracle and beauty of the world around us, we take so much for granted. And during a grey damp winters day what a truly wonderful thing to behold.

It might be a gloomy overcast day outside, but looking at this I could be in a tropical paradise, I’m chuffed to pieces… Even more so, as it only cost me 3 quid!

My only regret is I should have bought more!

Very Odd

A butterfly just decided to fly into our kitchen – In January?

Flowers are still flowering from last year, what on earth is going on?

Usually in January everything is pretty much dead or sleeping. It’s a very different January indeed.

Please bare in mind I don’t live in an area that is normally associated with mild weather. The North West of England is wet and cold mostly all year round, expect for our ‘one week of summer’.

Well people who say the climate isn’t changing really need to travel more and see what’s going on around the world as this, my friend, isn’t normal at all!