Garden Flowers

I took a few photos of the garden the other day when I was out there enjoying the sunshine, I'm glad I took them when I did as yesterday rained most of the day and today is very gloomy and overcast (very warm too though, feels very close).

I wanted to show you our beautiful foxgloves and thank everyone who identified them when they first appeared.

Looking quite glorious now, lovely trumpets for the bees to go in and out of.

We have a few tubs around the garden, this one has petunias tumbling out of it (I kept Honey in the photo, she's nice and relaxed in the sunshine).

I'm rather fond of Geraniums, good staples to have in pots providing such vivid colour.

The camellia has finished flowering it's beautiful full pink blooms.

This is a new addition, a Honeysuckle to grow up our pergola. It's in a pot so I'm hoping it still manages to thrive, there are lots of buds waiting to burst into flower.

The rambling rose climbing up the other side of the pergola, also full of buds.

Lupins too,

more Lupins along the back of this raised planter.

 Pretty anemone, closing every evening then waking up each day and stretching open it's petals.

Couple of hanging baskets starting out

Sweet williams and our heuchera.

It's had a lick of paint this year, our tiered planter. Full of trailing petunias, lobelia and some geraniums too. It's just started flowering, so hopefully each tier will grow and reach down to the one below, filling the garden with colour.

Looking over everything are the green men

The vegetables are doing well too, we have lettuces, cauliflowers, peas and brussel sprouts in the trugs and tomatoes and cucumbers in the greenhouse. There are a few things we haven't planted this year such as radishes and potatoes, which I shall miss, if only there were a few more hours in a day (more space would be nice too).

Andrew's watching the rugby so I'm going to go and sit in the conservatory and do some patchwork while the light is still good.

Take care

xxx

Bunting in the Garden

I haven't felt like doing much today as one of my teeth is playing me up. One of my canines is a baby tooth that never fell out when I was young, I think it's lasted very well, but is perhaps coming to the end of it's life? I clench my teeth very hard (and unconsciously) when I sleep at night so wear a guard over my bottom teeth to try and save them from wear and tear from the crunching (ouch, sounds horrible). I have been very lucky and only experienced toothache for the first time a couple of years ago and then had to have one of my back teeth removed as it'd cracked from the constant pressure. I went from being terrified of having an injection in my mouth and a tooth removed to being desperate for it to happen (anyone who's had toothache will relate to that I'm sure). I digress... really I was just having a moan about my tooth hurting.

I popped into the garden for a bit, it's very grey out there and we've had some rain on and off (the conservatory has the airers up with washing drying on them). I took a quick picture of the bunting I put up on our small pergola.

I made it from some oilcloth offcuts, some cotton tape and a highly technical piece of card from a cereal box.

There was quite a mishmash of cloth to look at and it all needed to be smoothed out so I could find pieces to fit my template.

I had a collection of a few different pieces, this patchwork style one had some pretty patterns in it

With it being oilcloth, there was no hemming or fraying to worry about. I cut my bunting out with pinking shears to give it a more interesting edge.

My piles waiting to be sewn onto the tape.

I still have quite a few bits cut out so I can make some more bunting for the fence to brighten it up a bit.

While I was out there, I had a quick check on our little apple tree. I planted the seeds from an apple core about 3 or 4 months ago not really expecting anything.

One of the seeds grew and just went from strength to strength.

So this afternoon I repotted it to give it some more growing room. I shall be watching it with interest.

That's me about done for this afternoon. Imogen is in a play tonight so I'm going to pop a couple of painkillers, get gussied up and off we go. We shall be dreadfully early as Imogen needs to be there about an hour and a half before it starts, so I think we'll drop her off then wander around the area for a while. She's very nervous because her knee still isn't 100% so she probably won't be able to take part fully in the dancing (they're performing Chicago) and she worked so hard on them. Imogen is playing Mama, the prison warden, so even if she doesn't dance, we'll enjoy her singing.


Take care
xxx

Planting Seeds and a Weeping Window

Hello lovely people, I do enjoy my time in blogland, reading blogs and getting a glimpse into other people's lives. Today it gives me the opportunity to show something else happening in our city of culture. A weeping window made of poppies in Hull city centre.

I went to see it yesterday, it was amazing. Made of the ceramic poppies originally seen in London pouring from a window at the Tower of London.

A cascade comprising several thousand handmade ceramic poppies, Poppies:Weeping Window was originally seen pouring from a high window to the ground below at the Tower of London as part of the installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red.

I didn't see the display in London, so it felt really special to be able to see the poppies in Hull and I really do recommend coming to see them if you can before they're taken down. There's some more info if you click here.

It's been good to see some sunshine this week. It motivated me to get into the garden, tidy up the greenhouse and get some more planting done.

I planted some californian poppies, cosmos, lobelia and one other flower that I can't remember right now, it's a good job they're labelled!

There are plenty of peas, lettuce and some sunflowers planted.

Cauliflowers, butternut squash, cucumbers and sweetcorn

These next photos were only taken a few days later, lots of the flowers have already germinated, sending teeny shoots upwards. I'm quite amazed how quickly the germinating has happened, I wasn't expecting them for a week or so yet, it is nice and warm in the greenhouse though.

They weren't very evenly sown were they, a little crop of poppies poking through

I need to keep the sunflowers in the greenhouse for a while once they start growing, otherwise the pesky slugs and snails tend to munch on them, the sweetcorn seems be a favourite as well. Sunflowers just starting to germinate now... happy times.

Andrew's planted up few sacks with potatoes outside, so hopefully we'll be eating fresh potatoes in the summer too.

We also bought a couple of roses, one for each side of the pergola, both highly fragranced. I meant to take photos them too, but forgot! There isn't a great deal to see at this point though.

Take care
xxx

Growing a Garden

Thank you for your lovely and helpful comments on my last post, it's nice to know I'm going in the right direction.

As today is such a beautiful sunny day (after quite a few wet and chilly ones) I thought I should venture into the garden and see how the rain has helped things grow.

I planted some Alium bulbs last autumn (amongst others), they're past their best now, but are still eye-catching.

We have quite a few tubs filled with flowers, gradually starting to get more colour.

Good to see the Dahlias thriving, isn't the yellow magnificent...

These Pinks have been with us a few years now. Still giving us beautiful blooms though getting a bit straggly.

The plant at the bottom of the picture below is Basil given to us by our American friend when she was here... it gives lovely Basil...

We have a few vegetables growing in our raised beds. After losing most of our carrots to the horrible slugs and snails, we seem to be OK now.

The peas have pods!

As they can be rather unwieldy and our space is limited, we planted the Courgette and Cucumber seeds in pots. They both appear to be thriving

Tomato too

This was our bird bath. I'm afraid the birds just weren't brave enough to use it with our 3 little Chihuahuas and 2 cats. As the garden isn't very big, I don't like to waste space, so holes were drilled and seeds were planted.

The dog kennel has been brightened up with a new friend (fortunately this one doesn't need walking or feeding). The dogs gave it a sniff, then promptly proceeded to ignore it.

I think it's rather cute.

That was little tour of our small space. Im hoping in another month so, the colours will be spilling out everywhere.

I think Mitzi approves, Im sure she's trying to smile for the camera.

Take care
xxx