Morning Friends,
Aren't these fab?
Well, no, of COURSE I haven't got foxgloves flowering in my garden yet. It's way too early. I have been busy with foxglove plants though, ensuring we'll get a similar display of wild flower loveliness this June.
And, the best thing is that they are FREE! Once you have a foxglove in your garden, it's likely that you'll be able to have them every year for as long as you want them. I definitely do want them. I love them. They are definitely one of my favourite flowers. I can remember showing a visitor around my garden years ago, & when I commented that I really needed to do some weeding, she said 'Well, you can hoike that one straight out, that's a foxglove'. Needless to say it was not 'hoiked out'. It was nurtured into a beautiful specimen much like the one pictured above & when it finished flowering, I left it for the seed to ripen, then shook the seed head randomly over my flower beds. And so my annual fix of foxgloves began!
I no longer bother wafting seed heads around. I find that foxgloves are very good at doing this themselves. At this time of year, I simply see where the new plants have come up & move them to better places in the flower borders. I also pot up all the decent-sized plants which have self-seeded into our veggie garden. As the Big Hairy Half of the Relationship has been making noises this week about digging over his potato bed, I have been busy on Mission Foxgloves Rescue.
I potted up 39 free foxglove plants from the veggie garden alone (plus one big stray primrose) and have made a start on re-planting them around my borders. Unlike a lot of plants, they do well under trees, so thought I may as well start there.
The remaining plants will sit quite happily in their pots for a couple of weeks while I gradually get them planted out. They are useful at the back of borders to give a bit of height or anywhere where you want a pop of colour.
Our self-seeded foxgloves usually emerge as the traditional bright/magenta pink, but there are often paler pink ones & I've even had a few cream ones with burgundy-coloured markings. I particularly love the white ones. I can just about tell from the leaves which plants will produce white & which will produce pink flowers, but not with 100% accuracy, meaning that I sometimes think I've planted a white drift, only to find a bright pink one standing proudly in the middle. I quite like that though.
When you look closely at foxgloves, you see that there are never really two that are identical. Even if the colour is similar, the markings will be a different colour or pattern.
Every now & again, I try to widen the gene pool of my 'Hagstones foxgloves' by sprinkling a packet of seed (usually Foxglove 'alba') randomly around the borders. I don't know if it does any good, but it sounds sort of 'sciency'. I also enjoy experimenting with sowing different varieties. This year I acquired a free packet of 'Primrose Carousel', which I've sown this week.
These are beautiful pale yellow foxgloves with speckly middles, but I'll admit I don't have a lot of success either with full germination or over-wintering this variety, whereas the Hagstones Foxgloves are as tough as old boots. Anyway, clearing foxgloves out of the veggie beds & deciding where I'd like to enjoy seeing those fab flower spikes this summer has been a really positive job this week, & a sign of sunny gardens to come :-)
It's definitely been a little warmer this past week, as Albert Whiskers opted for some al fresco ablutions.
It was also the week that we decided Albert Whiskers is arguably the worst behaved cat we've ever owned. He is very funny though. I often catch the BHO having whole conversations with him. This week, I overheard the following regarding the imminent viewing of some old Dr Who:
"OK, Albert Whiskers, which Doctor shall we watch? Shall we watch the First Doctor?"
There was a pause, while he waited to see if there was to be a consenting meow. There was not. He then proceeded to list "The 2nd doctor, the 3rd doctor, etc......right up to the 14th or how ever many of the bloody things there are. There was NO MEOW, which I naturally took to mean that Albert Whiskers did not want to watch ANY Dr Who, but it turned out that I had misinterpreted this. Apparently, what it ACTUALLY meant that he was just unable to decided on a season or episode, meaning that the BHO had to choose for him. Hmm.
The sunshine is streaming through the windows of 'Cathy HQ'. I find something to enjoy in every month, but I'm ready for Spring now. Bring it on!
Hope you are all staying lergy-free.....& remember, if you had a foxglove last year or the year before or if you've seen them in your neighbour's garden, have a look in your own garden to see if you've got any free ones coming up. They're our native wild flowers, the bees love them & they're gorgeous! Go on, get your trowel out!
Till next time,
C x
Hello Friends,
Well, Spring is now officially hoving into view as I've just sown the first seeds of the year this morning. We had a great year for home-grown fruit & veg in 2014 & I'm hoping for a repeat performance this year, if that isn't a cue for every known pest & disease to start making a slow sinister crawl over to 'Hagstones'.
Yes, I've dusted off my little heated propagator & sown my chilli seeds.
I've chosen 'Heatwave' this year. I usually sow one very hot variety & some jalapenos, but I still have plenty of last year's lovely juicy jalapeno crop in the freezer, and have also (so far!) successfully managed to overwinter three plants on a bedroom windowsill.
One of them has even produced a chilli....not something I expected to see in the depths of winter. Chilli seed packets often state 'March or April' for sowing, but I find that here, they usually need an earlier start to get a decent growing season, probably because we're not in a very warm country. If you haven't grown them before, give them a try. They make attractive plants & it's great to be able to snip the fruits off & chuck them straight into a curry or slice them onto a pizza. They freeze well too.
Over the next 3 or 4 weeks, I'll be sowing tomatoes, peppers, aubergines & cucumbers, as well as making a start on all the free packets of flower seed I've accumulated. As a gardener, I just feel my spirits soar as soon as I can get outside & get my mitts in the soil. Like, like, like......AND free vitamin D!
I'm also busy this month doing a de-cluttering challenge. It's called Minsgame if anyone fancies checking out the rules & joining in. The basic idea is to begin on the first day of the month & to increase the target amount of items to de-clutter each day. So on Feb 1st, I got rid of 1 item, on Feb 2nd, 2 items, etc. Today being the 9th, I have shed 9 items. According to the big hairy half of the relationship, I shall have de-cluttered a total of 406 items by the end of the month. So far, I am not finding this challenge difficult, although that may change when I am having to find 20+ items each day. More to the point, I'm enjoying it! Will let you know how I get on at the end of Feb.
Beautiful sunshine today, although a fierce frost froze the garden completely white overnight. I'd like to say that all residents at 'Hagstones' have been kicking up their personal effort levels, but I'm afraid there are still a lot of fireside scenarios like this, where a certain be-whiskered individual is concerned!
Hope everyone is managing to stay lergy-free. I can't remember the last time I had a cold.....but I do seem to get through approximately my own bodyweight in hand-gel every year, so maybe that's helping to nuke a few germs.
Until next time,
Cathy x
Hello Friends,
Oh my days, I'm not sure where January went. It seems to have disappeared straight up its own you-know-what! And now it's February, which means spring gardening season is on its way. (Like, like, like. Big smiley face!) Decided to mark the new month by having a walk around our garden looking for signs of life.
Some of the winter shrubs are still adding a flash of colour. This pyracantha has been covered in bright berries for what seems like months now.........
........and the winter jasmine, while almost over, still has a few cheery yellow flowers.
Even the witch hazel, which is pretty much pot-bound at the moment is ignoring my neglect & throwing out a few spiky blooms.
The bulbs are mostly poking through the soil now, despite the cold of the last week, with the snowdrops just beginning to get underway..........
.
.......and the daffodils & pots of iris reticulata I planted are showing promise of good things to come.
Dotted here & there are tiny splashes of colour where primulae are defying the biting winds to add their own little touch of spring promise.
Meanwhile in the Vegetable Plot, there are positive signs of future food! The late autumn-planted garlic has sprouted well.......
......and the frosty nights this past week should have helped the bulbs to form decent cloves. The sorrel is putting up new leaves, which add a fresh lemony tang to salads, as well as making great soup later in the season.
I popped the rhubarb crock into place last week.......
......& a quick peep down the top this morning revealed the first signs of pale pink loveliness which will almost certainly find their way into a crumble when they've climbed to the top of the crock :-)
I have had to put a little bit of work into the broad beans this week, as the weight of the Boxing Day snow collapsed half of my support frame & netting, then the gales saw off the rest. Spent a bright chilly morning replacing damaged plants, tying them in & re-staking, while our tame robin sang to me from the apple tree.
Robin-help was cheery & uplifting. I wish I could say the same about Cat-help, but swiftly came to the conclusion that cats have little to offer in broad bean cultivation which can be deemed remotely constructive. Albert Whiskers was of the opinion that I had wrapped myself in 4 layers of clothing & even more layers of mud for his own personal amusement. As fast as I wound twine around my bean canes, he pounced on the other end & pulled it off.
Unless I've missed something, fishy cat saliva does not much add to the strength or tying properties of twine. Thankfully his assistance levels dwindled significantly when the Tabster & Big Massive Blackie took it upon themselves to cross the garden & had to be Promptly Dealt With!
So those are the signs of life in our garden today. What's happening in yours? I'd love to know.
Until next time, when I'll be telling youo about the big decluttering challenge I'm attempting throughout February. Yes, it has started today!
C x
