Flowers

I have had chance to have a nosey round the yarden.

It was nice to see the purple Tradescantia in flower.

Sadly some plants have dried out a little and I’ve had to give them a soak. Thankfully they already look like they are about to recuperate.

I have this pot in my yarden and I can only thing that they are solanum from my friend David. Sure he’ll be able to confirm.

Happy to see this lovely flower on the Butterwort.

Also noticed the impatiens in flower. This is Impatiens balfourii.

Also added these shelves to make space for compost and other garden sundries.

Hope to get more done.

Indoor gardening type of day

Had an indoor day of gardening today but managed to get a fair bit done.

Was great to see these little fun-guys in my compost. I always use organic and mainly SylvaGrow. The fungi generally shows the health of the media.

Getting my potting on inside.

My avocados definitely needed potting up!!

These are the collection of plants that I have potted on it cuttings that I have potted up.

My Rhaphidophora tetrasperma is sending that root out. I’ve had to move it to a bigger jar.

I’ve mounted this half pot in my bathroom hoping that the pothos will take the lower light conditions.

I was given these Tradescantia cuttings last week by our friend Daniel and they are already growing roots!

I have sown about six pots of seeds to include – Cyphomandra sibudoyensis, Aeonium glandulosum, Mimosa pudica, Solanum atropurpureum, Carina canariensis and two seeds a friend game me that he didn’t know what they were but were unusual or exotic. Watch this space.

I’m going to leave you with this strange and rarely seen Pelargonium tetragonum cutting. Fingers crossed it roots. It has a climbing habit I believe.

Enjoy your green space!

Another rainy day

Here is the amazing reusable bag of peat free compost. I buy this from Bud Garden Centre – it’s Sylvagrow ‘Bag for life’.

These are the promised photos of the Thalia dealbata from yesterday.

The leaves collect the raindrops like jewels.

With the downpour I really haven’t spent much time gardening at all.

Cool plants!

Yesterday was a busy day. I visited Bud Garden Centre in Burnage.

I bought the lovely little cacti that I posted yesterday and my favourite compost – Sylvagrow. It’s a peat free compost but it’s the best I’ve found that you can buy!

What’s even better I buy it in a bag for life so in effect I am not using plastic.

After here we had a quick stop to Wicks for some top soil.

Have you ever been to Aqualife in Poynton? They are an amazing plant nursery that stock everything to do with aquatic plants from water lilies to day lilies and hostas. As long as the plants thrive in water, bogs and marshes they will have them!

Not only that, the service is amazing and David, the guy that helped us, really knows his stuff and is passionate about what he does!

I picked up this beauty that I have been after for a while – Thalia dealbata. A tropical aquatic plant with stunning leaves and a small (in comparison to the leaves) dark purple / maroon flower.

I love how the rain sits on the leaves. Sadly I knocked them off when taking pictures so watch this space and wait for better pics.

I also picked up some oxygenating plants. Here are water violet – Hottonia palustris and ivy leaved crowfoot – ranunculus hederacious.

I’m also really happy about this impatiens cutting it took. I put it water about a week ago!! Look at those roots!

Whilst shopping in Aldi today I was surprised to see the following plants …

The rain has been non stop all day and I have had a day in catching up with housework.

I hope I get chance to do a bit outside tomorrow as I have lots to do!

Gardening frenzy

Today I have been fairly busy with gardening things.

I found that the wood is used to make a frame for my climbers had rotted in a section and fell off landing on hostas and veg. Thankfully the climbers seem to have had little harm.

I went to a fire salvage company and was surprised to see they had named hostas, healthy and cheap! Needless to say I bought a few.

I also managed to get some gold dust – aka Compost.

My friend and I headed to a garden centre that I haven’t been to in years. I can happily say it will be many years until I return … if ever.

I popped to my parents and drilled a hole to add the newly bought tap to convert a bin into a water butt.

I’m happy to see my yucca flowering so well.

Back home I took a look at my indoor plant nursery. Here are some pilea that I am growing. Roots are coming in nicely. I want to see if any additional grow. Last time I did this nothing happened.

Here is my Alocasia macrorrhiza ‘Borneo Giant’, it’s growing slowly and as with many of my plants this year has an attack of aphids! Let’s hope it grows stronger.

Here is my luffa. I grew this from seed but doesn’t seem to be doing much.

I also potted on the grape and bomarea that arrived recently as they both had roots growing out of their pots.

A quick water of some plants and then time for a shower!

Beauty in the garden

Another scorching non stop day.

I have amazing friends, my friend Jamie has loaned me this mechanical riddle to make lighter work of emptying the compost bin.

Look at the quality of this!! It’s so light yet full of life and healthy!! Can’t wait to use this with my plants!

Another friend, Helen, gave me these sweet peas, they are growing really well and I can’t wait to see the flowers and more scent in our yarden.

I had forgotten how beautiful some iris are and these are no exception. I will need to move these to a place that they are appreciated much more!

I am so happy with my caladium collection. I now need to move them to make best of their display!

I have more to do tomorrow and no doubt I’ll keep you updated.

Blazing Bank Holiday happiness

I hope you have had a great bank holiday weekend!!

Enjoying a long weekend in the garden and in the sun competes with holidaying abroad. My highlight this weekend was seeing a blue tit eating from my bird feeders. I love my little family of sparrows but seeing another visitor made me so happy!

The heat and sun has it pros and cons, hostas generally prefer the cool damp shade so I’ve had to move some pots, the hostas and ferns seem to appreciate it. Sadly I didn’t realise my new shrub, a lovely spring scented -Edgeworthia Grandiflora, was sensitive to the hot sun and some of its new leaves burnt to a crisp. Noted and moved! I bought this from Kevin – Village Plants

I was pleased to see the return of my hardy edible ginger, zingiber mioga, only small but safe!

There have been lots of little jobs and some bigger ones that I have managed to get done this weekend too!

Continuously deadheading the spring flower bulbs allows them to save energy and hopefully they’ll flower well again next year.

I’ve planted one of my larger hostas into a nice big pot, here is Hosta ‘Queen of the Seas’ standing tall.

I visited Bud Garden Centre for some organic compost from Sylva Grow and finished off another planter. I was so happy that the hardy ginger – Cautleya spictata, had overwintered so well and had so many rhizomes that I was able to split it to fill the planter. Adding some lily of the valley for earlier interest will give a great scent to this area of our garden. I’m excited to see how well these grow in their new home.

Two other little projects are my ‘vegetable bin’ and washing machine planter. I bought some sweetcorn plants and mini curly kale from Brenda at Bud along with some wild rocket that I bought a few weeks ago and sprinkled some lettuce, radish and pea seeds about for faster yielding crops. Watch this space!

Here is one of the three washing machine planters that I am going to try this year, I have added some acorus, a white Hawkshead Fuchsia, some black pansies and finally a trailing mint.

Another new addition to my yarden was a climber called Gynostemma pentaphylum, which is a herb that is native to China and Korea but I’m hoping it will fill a trellis and be able to make some herbal tea.

With the weather being so hot, I’ve installed my solar powered watering drip system, I bought these at Tatton Flower Show over the last couple of years.

With only getting in at 21:30 I can honestly say I’m lovely the progress of our yarden and hope to show you some pictures of how I am greening grey Britain in my own very great concrete back yard.

On that note I will say adieu for now.