Skimmia needs help.........

It seems as though I do nothing but moan about the weather at the moment and to be honest I really shouldn't because we have it much better up here than our southern neighbours (for a change) however it really is flippin freezing here.
I wrapped up this morning with thermal clothing, layers of jumpers, thick trousers, a coat, gloves and my 'Hotheadz' hoodie and even then I still froze. We don't have the forecasted snow though it's just a biting gale force wind that is causing the temperature drop.
I messed around outside for as long as I could take it but then headed back in to the warmth of the house.

Here's something I've been meaning to look into for a while now and keep forgetting. I have a couple of Skimmia Japonica - one is planted in the ground and one is in a pot. The pot one looks quite straggly and sickly and while the planted one is a lovely shaped shrub the colour is looking a little yellow to me - what do you think?

It's not just me it IS looking sickly isn't it?

The planted one is in a shaded position so I know it's not getting too much sunlight. When I was potting up the other one I checked the roots so I know there's no issue there. The only other thing I can think of is Chlorosis.
So with Chlorosis in mind I guess I should maybe add an Iron product to the soil? Or should I dig it up, check the surrounding soil and then dig in more suitable soil before replacing? Or do I spray the leaves? Or do I do both soil and foliage treatment?  Is it ok to dilute the soil application to spray on the leaves or do I need a special feed?
Could really do with some help on this one guys because I've looked it all up on the internet and I'm more confused than I was before - have any of you guys had a similar experience and managed to rectify it?

Look what can be made...

I bet many of us garden bloggers spend a fair bit of time reading other blogs of interest and/or typing some relevant search into Google and seeing what it comes up with (I seriously can't be the only one that does this.....can I).
I'm more of a visual gal so once I've typed in what I'm looking for I go straight to 'images' and check out the results that way.
There's been many times when I've seen something so awesome and yet so obvious and thought to myself 'why the heck didn't I come up with that?' and I'll often pin them to 'Pinterest' even though I hardly ever go back to look at them afterwards.

Today I just have to share some of the awesomeness I've found online and I found this idea over at 'Creative DIY Gardening'. If you live with a sloping garden I think this would be an amazing way to grow veggies - if you're not a veggie grower then just imagine it plastered with flower power

Creative DIY Gardening

How's this next one for a veggie or flower trellis from 'The stir', or even just as a garden divide as a piece of art in its own right. Easy to make with copper pipe and joins and when it's weathered it will take on a more muted  tone (though personally I would want it to stay looking this good and copperish)

'The stir'

This 'DIY garden hose hanger' is one of those obvious ones that I wish I'd thought of, however I will definitely be doing this as it's such a nice way of keeping that unsightly hose tidy. It could also have a couple of hanging baskets attached to it to make it look even prettier.

DIY garden hose hanger

I have very clear ideas of what I want in a garden (even though my garden resembles none of them) and this next image of 'Eudora Welty's backyard garden' shows it perfectly. I love this

I could spend so much time sitting there surrounded by my favourite flower - the Rose.


This next one is another project I have had on my to do list for the past couple of years - leaf castings. 'The Yarnability' made some as bird baths but whatever use you want a leaf casting for 'The Yarnability' have a very clear and concise tutorial on their web. I've planned to do Gunnera and Fatsia leaves so hopefully this year I'll actually get round to it.

Hope you enjoyed all the awesomeness.

Spring bulbs

This weather really is screwed up right now isn't it!  One minute we have mild, sunny days and manage to get a whole heap done outside and then BAM! down with the snow, ice cold winds and frozen earth and no hope of getting anything productive done outside.

All these years of gardening and I've never ever planned for spring colour. I have the odd clump of Daffodils planted sporadically around the flower beds but that's it and so I've really missed out on Spring interest in the garden.
I don't know why I've never bothered to incorporate Spring bulbs into the garden - I guess maybe I thought it was pointless (I hear that intake of breath y'know) but having spent so many months getting hooked on other gardening blogs and seeing the riot of colour available this time of year I've decided to make a change this year.
On Sunday we took a trip out to to the town and I managed to pick up a few Spring bulbs at some bargain prices (We have no garden centres here so it's basically a case of seeing what's available in Tesco, Homebase or Poundstretcher). I managed to get 16 Lily of the Valley for £5,   90 Muscari for £1.50 and 30 Pushkini for £0.49.  It's a start!

Muscari, Pushkinia & Lily of the valley at bargain prices.

All bulbs/plants have been potted up ready to grow on and then I'll plant them out at the end of summer when I can see where I want them to come up next year.

The Tomato seeds I sowed a few weeks ago are all doing well and I'll get them pricked out pretty soon. I'm so excited because I have never had seedlings up this early in the year so I'm quite confident that this means some ripe fruit this year.

Tomato seedlings.

I've also sown Brassica seeds (Cabbage, Cauli etc) and I'm hoping this years attempt will be better than my last attempt.  I didn't bother with much veg growing last year because I'd become cheesed off with the whole thing but the year before this is what happened to pretty much all my Brassicas

Dessicated Cabbages

Well can't get much worse can it! guess I'll have to be more on the ball with removing those caterpillars or else getting some netting over the lot of em.

However my Climbing French Beans gave me weeks of regular pickings, but I did come to the conclusion that growing them in the polytunnel was not one of my brightest ideas - they grew to Triffid proportions and literally took over and decided to use the Sweetcorn as an extension of their own poles.

Climbing French Beans.