Drink Up Me Hearties, Yo Ho...

This Bank Holiday weekend has so far seen a fair amount of the wet stuff, with more forecast for the coming days. Despite this, I've still had to water a few of my planters as the wind has a tendency to dry things out almost instantly.

The lobelias appear to enjoy a good drink (don't we all!!) and a few of them are starting to flower. Both the white and the red jasmine are playing host to hundreds of bees, which is always good to see, and the plants that self-seeded from the wild-flower mix I bought last spring are coming along nicely.

The bright orange Californian Poppies are the current starts of the show and there's also some white alyssum in the tubs for a bit of contrast. Two of the 4 geraniums that survived the winter are doing well (the remaining two are looking very unwell at this point) and the begonias are getting stronger by the day.

Although the rain is good for the garden, and saves me having to use expensive tap water, it'd be nice to think that June will bring forth a bit more sunshine. I guess that time will tell...

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

…And don’t bother coming back!!

I’m lucky enough to have a partner who’s father has tremendously green fingers and a generous nature, and last weekend I was bestowed the gift of 4 trays of glorious bedding plants. A wonderful array of geraniums, lobelias, petunias and begonias have now been planted into my terracotta pots and borders but at some point they’re going to need some sunshine in order to thrive.

It’s almost the end of May, and a Bank Holiday weekend, and the weather is utterly depressing. My new solar lights need sunshine to charge their batteries, but all week long the sky has remained the colour of dirty dish-water.

Although highly controversial, I’m rather glad I put down slug pellets because judging by the snail carcasses if I hadn’t there really would be nothing left of my new plants. The constant wet conditions has brought the slimy pests out in force.

A few weeks ago I experimented with a new product; Miracle Gro Flower Magic (a plastic container filed with 29 varieties of wild flower seeds, plant food and growing material which you conveniently simply shake all over wherever you wish the plants to grow, and then water). I opted to trial this in long, slim, plastic planters and at the moment there does appear to be some shoots appearing – so fingers crossed! There was more than enough mix in the container to fill all my planters, the window boxes at the front of the house and a patch of soil near my front door, so hopefully something will grow… despite being frozen to death by hail stones and drowned with rain…

MAY 24, 2013

Hail Season...

It’s a fairly typical British May Bank Holiday Weekend so far weather-wise…

Yesterday I was languishing in the scorching heat long enough to actually get a touch of sunburn as I enjoyed the company of starlings and sparrows watching three full loads of washing dry in the beautiful sunshine. 

However, today the wind is bending the cherry saplings until they almost snap in half, I hear the ominous boom of thunder up above and there’s an unwelcome mixture of rain and hail pouring out of the sky!

Thankfully I have yet to put any delicate bedding plants out, but the yellow primulas have taken a battering and the pansies look a tad shell-shocked. Needless to say there’s now not a single bird in sight and my magnolia has lost the vast majority of it’s delicate petals. Five minutes later the storm has blown over, leaving a trail of soggy mess in it’s wake. I am not impressed…

MAY 4, 2013 

Bring Me Sunshine...

It’s a Bank Holiday Weekend and, predictably, the weather has shown it’s spiteful side with overcast skies and rain. My new solar lights are struggling to get any charge whatsoever into them, although the water butt is now full and the lobelias I bought from tescos a few weeks ago are doing really well.

I have to say, I’m really not impressed with this ‘global warming’ – especially as I’m still having to turn the central heating on in May!! The red jasmine has a few small shoots but there’s no sign of any flowers as yet. I was rather hoping that I’d have the geraniums in their tubs by now, but I guess that it’s still too cold and wet for tescos to stock them…

MAY 7, 2012