Living in a Box

Last Day of July - Random Photos and an update

The beautiful Mystery Rose that I bought last summer. She's doing really well.

Well...time really gets away from me. I think of all these wonderful things that I'm going to write about in the blog, and then - poof ! By the time I sit at the computer (usually late in the evening) there isn't a living cell left in my brain. Not one. Where do they go ?

So I thought I'd show a few random photos from the last few weeks. Nothing in particular.

Summer arrived in our neck of the woods about 2 weeks ago. It's been wonderful to be so warm. I'm such a ninny in the cooler weather. Actually, it's been very hot, but we've had some good showers in the last few days. Much better for the garden than tap water.

My life is busy - it always is. The grandchildren keep me on the go. And, of course, it's the school holidays, so my hands are full. We spend a good few hours in the park every morning. Then home for lunch and a rest, before doing something together in the afternoons.  My house could do with a good clean !! There doesn't seem to be time to get into the nitty gritty of cleaning while the children are here. Oh well...the dirt's not going anywhere. It'll still be there when I finally do have the time to tackle it.

(Photo above - hollyhock seedlings waiting to be planted out in September).

I cleared the little bed to the side of the house - it was 4 ft high with weeds. I am ashamed. Or I was. I'm not anymore. I've planted it up with impatiens, campanula, spirea, ageratum, dianthus, petunias - probably a few other things as well. It looks very nice - peaceful and calming. I can now walk past it without hiding my head.

The garden is flourishing - and very full. I started to thin out some of the plants last week. It was just getting too crowded. I have realised that I'm a collector of plants. I want to grow everything I can get my hands on. This is all well and good if you have a couple of acres, but when you have a tiny hanky patch as I do, it's not a good plan. Of course, I love what I've done with the yard, but its looking a bit crowded. So I'll continue to thin things out until it looks a bit calmer.

I said I wasn't growing any veg this year - just not enough room. But, naturally, I sowed tomatoes (tumbling toms), various salads, and the courgettes from hell ! We have been eating them almost every night for the last 2 weeks. And I'm giving away courgettes at every opportunity. That'll teach me to plant 6 seeds.  The tomatoes are just now setting fruit, so they'll be edible in a couple of weeks. I pick the salad leaves every day - delicious.  My herbs are doing very well in their pots, and will need repotting at the end of this year. I'm sure they are all pot bound.

Look who's peeping out behing the impatiens - Mrs Hedgehog. I find her in the most unexpected places. Meg moves her around the garden every couple of days. I never know where she'll turn up !   

Lottie news and a Good Clean Up

I had a chance to do a bit of much needed work in my little patch this morning. It wasn't raining !! So I dashed out while Erin was having her morning nap, and had a good clear up. I had such a lot of dead-heading to do - so many flowers were soggy and needed removing. A few plants needed pulling out altogether. I had to pot on a few things - why did I plant 6 (yes - six) courgette seeds ? Who knows. We'll be eating them till they're coming out of our ears !  They're all flowering well, and will be producing any day now. My tomatoes (only Tumbling Toms this year) are flowering.

I managed 2 hours before Erin woke up just before lunch, and the garden looks so much better. I carried on this afternoon - with the girls as my helpers. Meg (4) tries her best, but Erin is a nightmare when I'm trying to get any jobs done. She wants to eat everything in sight. I have a large clump of chives, and I allow them both to eat as much as they like. So Erin actually sits herself down in front of the clump and chomps away.  They love chives - but their breath - whew !

It was cool all day - and threatening to rain. But it didn't - which is good. The garden needs a chance to dry out, and it needs some warm sunshine. Please.

Look at the profusion of blooms on the lovely "Just Married". It's a wonderful rose - I love it.

I have never seen as many bumble bees as I have this year. They are very busy here - all day, every day.

I took the photos as the sun came out for a short while.

I managed to speak to our Allotment Officer - and yes...I did a bit of pleading and smarming (I can really smarm with the best of them). But it doesn't look as though the neglected allotment will be mine. They have written to the lottie-holder, who has yet to reply - but there are a few more people on the list before me. So...if the lottie-holder is giving up the allotment, and if the folk on the list before me don't take it up - I will get it. A small chance - but...sometimes miracles do happen...so I haven't given up hope yet. I'll keep you updated.

General Catch Up

Just a general catch up today. I am so busy at the moment - looking after grandkids, housekeeping, gardening etc. etc. You know how it is...especially as we move into warmer weather. We always seem to be doing something. Baby Erin is walking now, and needs constant watching. I need eyes in the back of my head.

The weather is really improving here in Oxfordshire. Mind you, we have had such a lot of rain in the last few days, and it's set to continue for the next week. The little garden is sopping wet. I picked an armful of flowers this morning. I don't normally pick for the house, but they are being ruined by all the rain, so I thought we would enjoy them more in the living room. They look lovely...and what a sense of satisfaction to know they were grown from seed by my very own hands.

This is one of the most wonderful sights in the garden right now - well...to me it is. Last year I planted so many crocosmia bulbs that I thought I would have a wonderful display. Not even half of them came up. The few that did grow formed a small clump (I'd wanted a large drift). but they didn't flower - not at all. I was very disappointed, but that's a gardener's life, isn't it. You can't win them all. This year, however, the clump has doubled in size, and there are flowers appearing. I'm absolutely thrilled !!!

Another thrilling sight are the flowers on the Day-lily (Hemerocallis). I put a very small plant in last year - I think I bought it at a garden sale (can't remember).  I split it in 2 as it was dying down in the autumn. I now have 2 clumps - large clumps, flowering profusely. Wonderful.

The next photo is Cerinthe (behind the Sweet Williams). I've never grown them before, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I sowed a lot of seed (late), and this was one of the packets that came free with a gardening magazine last year. I thought I'd give them a try. They are doing really well. The photo was taken at the beginning of last week, and they are now about to flower.

The garden is looking lovely - like a real cottage garden...just as I want it. But no matter how I love it, I stand drooling at the back fence, looking out at the allotments just 30 feet from my back door. Oh how I want one. I've noticed one of the lotties, the nearest one to my house, hasn't been worked at all yet. I'm wondering if the allotmenteer has given it up. I'm going to phone the allotment officer tomorrow and find out. If you hear any whining coming from Oxfordshire tomorrow, it'll be me. I may have to beg a bit.

If I can't get the allotment this year (I'm on the l...o...n...g waiting list), I thinking of redesigning the back garden, and going for raised beds - might even turn the whole thing over to veg next year. I'm seriously thinking about it. Of course it would involve a discussion with the owner - who might not be too pleased with my idea. But if I can guarantee that we'll leave him with a clean and tidy garden, as we found it, he might go for it. When we moved in it was half paving slabs and half lawn (not very good lawn either). We'll see what happens.

I leave you with our latest stir-fry. My grandchildren do not use woks for cooking purposes - they grow their salads in them.

June Almost Over

Yes indeed, June is almost over, and I don't yet feel as though summer has started ! It's just not warm enough for me. I really hope the temps pick up soon. We've also had some awful winds during this last week.

The garden is coming along - everything is growing well, and I'm quite pleased so far. Of course, I've overplanted - as usual. But I can always thin things out if it gets too crowded. I'm going to insert some random photos here and there as I type.

The herbs are doing very well - they have all come up again, and I'm using them in the kitchen. Yummy. Lemon thyme is one of my favourites.

The courgettes are doing well - in fact, the photo below is from last week. I've potted them on since then into individual (larger) pots. The hot peppers are also growing away, and are almost ready to pot on too. And I've succumbed, and planted tomatoes - tumbling toms and lettuce. Lettuce hope I haven't left it too late. It's killing me not to have a huge veg garden. I am a veggie gardener at heart, and I would gladly give up all the flower growing if I could have a decent veg garden. But I know the owner of this house would NOT be pleased if we dug the little back garden up and turned it over to veg. *sigh*. I had a lot of success with the few veg I grew last year - we were eating salads right into the autumn. Thankfully, I'm a very patient person, and I know my time (and house) will come ! Maybe next year or the year after. House prices are starting to come down slowly. We wait.

The garden is ablaze with colour at the moment. I'm loving it.

Hanging baskets are doing what hanging baskets do !

I was a bit late with a lot of seeds that I had planned to plant in March/April. Early spring just got away from me. I've sowed the seeds anyway, and they are all coming up. Let's hope we have a mild autumn then I'll get to enjoy the blooms.

I got a few new roses, as a present from my lovely Mother ! I'll show them in another post. I'm thrilled with them - they're my new babies, and they are in for a lot of pampering.

So...that's June in a nutshell. I'm really enjoying my little patch - I'm out there fiddling for at least an hour or two every day. Hubby wonders what I can find to do every day. But we know that a gardener's work is never done, is it ? And I can always rearrange the pot plants. 

Update on the Mimulas

I said I would post an update on the mimulas, so I took these photos this afternoon (a very overcast, grey day!)

I seem to have far fewer yellow flowers than I did last year. They are so pretty - the yellow ones - beautifully speckled.

I have actually added a new category just for mimulas as there have been so many searches for them. 

Mimulas

Last summer, I wrote a post about the mimulas that I'd planted as annuals. On checking the stats on my stat counter, I see that many people are searching for information on Mimulas, and are ending up at the post I wrote last May.  Well...I'm really no expert on Mimulas (as that post will show). In fact, I knew very little about them last year. I think I know a little bit more this year. (I'm sure there must be some-one out there who has a great deal of knowledge on these plants).

Last spring, I bought a few small seedlings (about 12 I think) from our local nursery. I bought them as annuals - which I was sure they were. The folk who worked at the nursery didn't seem to know much about them ! I searched and searched for information on growing them - there isn't much ! I had a wild variety of Mimulas growing in my garden in Africa. I never paid any attention to them at all - they did their own thing. And of course, because of the tropical climate I lived in, they never died down or faded away.

Anyway - back to the Mims I'm growing now.

They were really lovely last year. I planted them in full sun, about 6inches apart, and treated them the way I did the other annuals. They grew to about 12" in height, and flowered all the way through the summer. In fact, they were very prolific. I deadheaded them regularly. Looking back, I could have planted them even further apart - they are really bushy plants.

Here's a photo from last summer. This photo shows the size of the plants that I originally planted.

And here they are later in the summer.

As winter was closing in, and all the annuals were on their last legs, the mimulas died down too. As I said, I thought they were annuals.  They disappeared completely. I covered all my little beds with a good 3inches of bark chips over the winter.

Imagine my surprise, when the weather started warming up, and the Mims appeared. They have travelled too ! It looks like they've sent out runners, or shoots underground. I'll dig a few up gently, and have a look. They've come up thick and bushy again.

Here you can see what they looked like last month - they're on the left of the square (almost in the centre of the photo).

And here's a photo I took last week - they're ready to burst into flower.

And I took this photo yesterday.

There you have it ! I will be treating them as perennials from now on - and giving them a few good feeds over the summer.

Very rewarding plants - the speckled flowers are unusual, and everyone who saw them commented on them. If you can get your hands on some - do grow them.

I hope this post helped those of you are looking for info on growing them.  You can always leave a comment if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer.

General Update

Where does the time go ? Mind you, I always seem to be very busy - especially with an 11 month old granddaughter around my legs all day.lol  Wouldn't have it any other way ! The grandkids keep me young - they keep me crawling on the floor, giving piggy-backs, playing ball games & busy, busy, busy. If I wasn't looking after them I'd probably be sitting sedately in a chair, knitting. Yeah - right !!

We had such wonderful weather the first couple of weeks of May, but it's been a lot cooler since then. Disappointing. I really thought summer had arrived. Its supposed to be warming up again soon.

The garden is starting to look very nice. The hard work is paying off. Annuals are all doing well. Perennials have all come up again, and are twice as big as last year. And I've been shopping (as usual) - I just can't stay away from the garden centres ! I got £50 worth of gift vouchers for Milletts Farm at Christmas, so spent those in the last week. And I also got another £50 voucher on Mother's Day in March. What wonderful presents ! My children know me too well. They know that nothing gives me more pleasure than working in my little garden (well - apart from the grandchildren that is). So I have been spoiling myself, and bought a few shrubs to go in pots & a few more annuals. I've taken photos - I just need some time to get them all uploaded.

I seem to be fighting Time at the moment. I just don't feel as though I have enough of it - not enough hours in the day for all I need to do. The grandkids are all gone by 5.30pm, and then I start cooking our evening meal. By the time we've eaten, and I've cleared up, washed dishes, tidied around and prepared for the following day, done a bit of admin work for Baz, its usually around 9pm. I'm so tired by then, that when I finally stagger over to my desk and turn the computer on - all I'm fit for is to read a few blogs. Most nights I'm even too tired to comment - sorry ! I'm trying hard to summon up the discipline to post on a regular basis. I have a few other blogs - a family blog, a painting blog, photography blog and a genealogy blog - and they are all as neglected as this one. I'm seriously considering combining them all into one blog. Wonder if that would work ? Maybe not - after all, the gardening folk wouldn't be interested in my genealogy research, and the genealogy folk wouldn't be interested in my painting blog etc. etc. Hmmm. I will just have to make more of an effort.

The photos I've uploaded in this post are just general shots around the garden. I'll post more specific photos and comment on them in later posts.

 

I'm off to watch Sarah Ferguson trying to reform a family from Hull ! Its on ITV1. I watched it last night, so thought I'd follow along.

Gardening Weather

What peculiar weather we've been having. From this...........

to this..............

...and all within 24 hours. I had thought spring had sprung, but we were plunged into winter again for a few days. It has now started to warm up - and so it should - it's the middle of April.

I thought I'd share a few photos of our village during last week's snow.

I don't know about you, but I certainly feel as though this winter has gone on forever. But I think I say that every year. We've been here in the UK 6.5 years, and I'm still not used to it. I cannot stand the cold.

Today has been a mild day - a gentle breeze, warm sunshine, and not a cloud in sight for most of the day. It felt like heaven. So I spent the day doing what I enjoy - gardening. Of course I had my usual helper. Meg turned 4 last Saturday - and she was digging with gusto. Baby Erin, now 10 months old, ate her weight in good fresh compost ! (Not really - but she wanted to). And Jack - our little terrier, also 10 months old, was a real pain. He wanted worms, and did all he could to get them. I didn't get a lot done watching the antics of these 3 - but we enjoyed it. Just to be out in our little patch in the sunshine was such a pleasure. I feel as though I have been a caged animal for the last few months. Growl !   

Autumn Chores

Today was a really mild day. I couldn't believe how warm it felt. So I decided that this would be the day when I would catch up on all the little jobs that I've been neglecting. I have had so little free time lately - and this last week was particularly busy - 4 grandkids here each day (school half-term break). I rushed around this morning in the house, did the weekly shopping and then called in at our local garden centre on the way home. I had been planning to buy bulbs for weeks, but just never seemed to get around to it. I bought them today, and can't wait to get them in the ground. I also got a few trays of pansies and primulas. I'll get more annuals next weekend.

This afternoon was spent on a garden clear up. My back is breaking !! I pulled up the last of the veg - tomatoes still on the vine...they have really done well this summer.  I cleared a few weeds - there aren't many though. I think with the garden being so small I have been able to keep on top of them.

I dug over a few areas and added compost. The soil is still very heavy - and will need a lot more compost in the spring. I'm still digging up builders rubble. Annoying.

I also cleared out the dying pot plants, and cleaned the pots - ready for some bulbs and annuals.

I worked out there for 3 hours, and then decided to call it a day. It was cooling down rapidly, and my back was really staring to ache (I obviously need a LOT more physical exercise).

This week I hope to get all the bulbs in, and I want to buy more for the bed at the side of the house.  I'll really have to take some photos to show you how things are going in my little patch.

Tonight we turn the clocks back - blech !! This, to me, is the sign that winter is really on it's way, and I don't like it. It will be dark an hour earlier, and it just seems to get so much colder once we start into November. I'm really going to need some cheer in my garden over the coming months. 

Catching Up

I have a lot to catch up - so many blogs to read, and photos to share !

My little garden is looking lovely - really filling up. I can see I will have to move a few plants, and thin out quite a bit. But I don't mind a full garden at all. The temperature is really helping too. It has been over the 20C mark for the last week, and we expect the temps to climb steadily (until we are complaining that it's too hot and humid - never satisfied). Some photos from late Sunday afternoon. The first one is the back right corner of the garden - or "the Vegetable Patch" LOL!!!

The beautiful Daylily (Hemerocallis) is in flower.

We have peas in abundance.

Radishes pushing through the soil.

Lillies pushing up between Nemesia and Bacopa (Sutera cordata, 'Snowstorm')

Herbs in containers.

A full load in the wheelbarrow.

Isn't this particular petunia beautiful ?

There is just so much going on in the garden right now. I expect it's the same for all of you who are gardening in the Northern Hemisphere. The growing season is well under way !