Green Thumb Sunday 17th June

Tomato!

The tomato plants I got free from work are doing well. This one already has fruit on it though it isn't very tall. I have no idea what variety of tomato I have as the plants were freebies. Does anyone else love the smell of tomato plants? I do! I love pinching out the side shoots too.

Window box growing well!

My nasturtiams and ivies are growing well. I have both upright and trailing "nasties" and they are filling the box out very well indeed.

The acer is looking much happier!

I don't know what it was I did but it's putting out lots of lovely fresh new leaves and seems much healthier. Those leaves are such a pretty and delicate shade of pale green.

Geranium in bloom...

Looking a little battered by our recent heavy rain but still pretty. I'm very fond of geraniums.

Bottlebrush plant

I don't know the official name for this but I do love it. It was an impulse buy from a DIY store and was quite expensive but it's given me so much pleasure. I've not had a huge amount of success photographing it especially as it blows around so much in the slightest breeze.

It's been a strange week for weather. The first couple of days were very hot and sunny then Wednesday evening the rains came. Much of the country has been flooded but despite our garage floor being awash otherwise we've escaped fairly lightly. The garden seems to have really sucked up all the rain.

Happy Green Thumb Sunday everyone!

Green Thumb Sunday June 3rd

In praise of aubretia...
I really love this cheerful little plant. I've never managed to make it grow as rampantly as other people seem to, but even my own modest show pleases me a lot.
last night we ate salad from the trough of mixed leaves Talj gave me. It tasted delicious!
The acer is looking better. There is another one in a garden around the corner which looks exactly like ours. I'm encouraged to see some new leaf growth pushing through.
This week I've done some weeding in the front garden. We really need to get some more plants for the acer corner. Oh deat, what hardship, ANOTHER trip to the garden centre....poor me!
Have a wonderful gardening Sunday everyone!

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Lots of planting...

On Sunday morning Phil took me to the nearest Wyevale Garden Centre.We had a lovely time choosing some new plants. We had cleared out a dead conifer and a dying cotoneaster in the front garden and wanted a tree to replace it. After much deliberation we bought an Acer Brilliantissimum. It's described as " a distinctive small tree with glorious shrimp-pink young spring foliage that later changes to pale yellow green and then green." We bought some dryopteris Ferns to go nearby but that corner still looks a bit bare so "watch this space"! The photo below shows Phil trying to avoid having his photo taken....

This next photo shows him putting bonemeal into the hole he's just dug for the new tree!


I bought this cordyline at Morrisons and got the pot last Sunday - I love the colour and shape of these plants, and this one stands out well against the fence just opposite the back door.

I bought some more mint. I was going to plant it in an old welly boot but changed my mind. This pot may SAY biscuits but it actually CONTAINS mint now. I'm glad I didn't throw it away when I discovered it didn't keep biscuits from going soggy very well at all....

I used to have an indoor plant in this zinc Ikea pail but when we re-arranged the study it had to go. I punched drainage holes in the bottom, planted it with one of my favourite acid-green conifers and some geraniums, then put some gravel on top and I like the way it looks :)

I found the Skimmia I wanted for Ollie's grave. It looks really pretty. I didn't see any cat statues today but no matter; I can keep looking. I'll know when I see the right thing. The skimmia is a hermaphrodite as it has both male and female characteristics.

I bought a plastic trough for my garlic chive seeds, I'm so impressed with Talj and Ruth growing so much from seed I feel lazy in comparison So I'm having a go with the garlic chives. I also planted some indoors as it will be interesting to see which do the best. I was desperately wanting to buy tomato plants but resisted as I won't be around to look after them for so much of the summer. I also planted some garlic - another first :)

This last picture is of the rockery behind the pond; Phil has just planted some heathers and a saxofraga "Red Pixie". We had some rain on Sunday afternoon and you could almost hear the thirsty garden sucking it all up!

The ENTIRE time we were outside the yappy dog next door but one was yapping. It's very distressing; this Westie is confined to a small area of the garden and he runs a sort of circuit around it; with frequent stops for loud yapping at nothing sessions. It's like watching a wind-up toy :( He doesn't get taken for walks much, if ever. It's tricky as the woman who owns him got him after she was widowed so i don't want to upset her BUT he yaps from dawn to dusk. It's so loud and goes on so long you literally can't hear yourself think or speak. She makes no efforts to tell him to be quiet. I think if it carries on I'm going to have to go to see her but she's likely on past experience to tell me to go to hell. I don't want to involve the council but I think the dog is both a noise problem AND is not being properly taken care of......his behaviour is very odd.