Bunk bed trellis

I think that Spring may just have sprung and today has been glorious, a tad windy but not on the back garden and that's all I cared about really.

I was supposed to spend the day sowing Parsnips, sowing other veggies and planting out the Leeks but the wind round at the polytunnel was quite high and I didn't fancy fighting fleece in the wind so I spent the day in the shelter of the back garden.

I got a trellis up next to the Pergola. It's a bit of a weird trellis though. Originally I wanted to use an old bunkbed frame coming off the actual pergola but I decided I wasn't risking sinking a post into the ground without knowing where the pipes underneath are.
My alternative idea was to attach the metal frame to these posts which I only had to sink into the ground a few inches

It meant that the trellis would be free standing as opposed to attached to the pergola but I really wanted to get something up, I was getting impatient to get the climbing rose actually climbing something.
This is the finished trellis (well apart from sawing off a few inches from the top of one of the posts and adding a finial to both) and here is Mr TG's opinion of it

"All you need now is the horse"

Yes, it does look like a horse jump Mr TG and yes I would love the horse to go with it, thank you for the offer!
The rose is still in a pot at the moment because it's growing so well I daren't disturb it but it will definitely be in the ground next year.

I must show you the current state of Mr TG's pond though

Mr TG is apparently leaving it to see at what point the water level stops going down, this is supposed to give him some idea of where the leak is!
He checks it regular but it's still going down - what I haven't actually told him is that I use the water to water my garden plants pretty much most days, well I figured we'd be emptying it anyway to sort the leak out so it wouldn't matter.
Am I going to tell him it stopped leaking ages ago?  Erm nope, especially after the horse jump comment.

Anyway I don't care if it looks like a horse jump, once all the plants have grown up and filled out you'll not see much of it anyway

Now then, do any of you have a foolproof way of growing Fuchsia from cuttings? I try this pretty much every year and out of hundreds of cuttings I probably have a grand total of 4 that have taken.
I've tried big cuttings, small cuttings, lots of leaf, hardly any leaf, heat, no heat and this is how they all seem to end up

I need help guys and a sure fire way to get Fuchsia cuttings to take.


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Tootsie Time

Garden bargains.

Don't you just love a garden bargain!
Mr TG and I took a trip up to a local DIY store today because there was 20% discount going on all the gardening stuff, top that with my daughters 20% staff discount and we stood a chance of picking up some bargains.
So what was in my garden bargain bag? Well firstly this Fatsia that was selling at £10 the other day (a price I refused to pay) and I figured the 40% discount would be something I would pay, so imagine my suprise when we found the same Fatsia's outside on the reduced isle already price slashed to £4.00. With the 40% discount I got this Fatsia for £2.40.

Next I have 3 Verbena Bonariensis - £1.75 each before discounts. I've never grown this plant before so it's going to be interesting to see how they cope with these conditions.

Next we got Asiatic Lily 'Vesuvius' in a pot, £3 before discount.

This Variegated Ivy is a bargain in more ways than just the discount on the £2 price tag - this one pot has at least 6 plants in it!

This final plant was Mr TG's choice and I have to say I'm more than a little shocked - it's very .....erm......fru fru!
Don't get me wrong there was a time when I would be drawn to the blowsy plants but even then this Ranunculus would not really be my cup of tea. Lord only knows where I'll be putting them! Still, I guess they were a bargain at £3 each before discounts.  I guess!

I honestly don't know what my hesitation with the Ranunculus is, I like the shape of the flowers (especially the Yellow one) but it may be the colours putting me off, they're very bright but bland if that makes sense?

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Fishtail Cottage
Rooted in Thyme

Garden centre here I come......

So yesterday was Mothers day here in the UK and I woke up to a fabulous treat, a trip to the garden centre to buy plants - yes!
I should mention that our local garden centre is 2 hours drive away! Oh we do have the garden plant area at the local 'Homebase' and there are a couple of small garden centres within the 2 hour drive to Inverness but they're tiny and seem quite limited in their plant selection - especially this time of year.
So a trip to Inverness it was and we also took the opportunity to take our daughters shopping for their birthday presents (they're 22 on Tuesday) at the same time as we have no decent clothing shops here - 2 birds, 1 stone - cool!
Now back to the 2 hour drive to the garden centre, many people would baulk at the thought of it and tbh I wouldn't blame them but you have to realise that here in the Highlands vehicle traffic is negligible - especially on a Sunday (even Mothering Sunday!) and the scenery all the way down is pretty amazing as it's a coastal road. So you see the journey down and back again is part of the whole package and very enjoyable.

Having forgot to grab my camera I had to make do with the camera on my Ipod but this was taken around 7.30am as the sun was coming up.

I really wish I could have got a picture of the beaches as they're beautiful however the tide was in so all you can see is the seaweed.
This next one was taken on the bridge leading to Tain but my Ipod just couldn't deliver the scenery half as beautifully as we could see it.

But look where we ended up - yay! I was so excited to get to visit an actual purpose built garden centre instead of an addition to a shop - 'Simpsons Garden centre'.

First things first though, people needed feeding and it just so happens that there was a cafe which opened at 9am just as we got there - how convenient.
This was mine

And then - Tada!

Having been without choices for so long I kinda didn't know what to get.

Here's my plant stash:
Sedum: 'Angelina'
Iris: 'Pastel Charm' & 'Langport Storm'.
Roses: Bush: 'Faithfull' & 'Princess of Wales'.
           Climb: 'Compassion'
Aucuba Japonica: 'Crotonifolia'.
Polemonium: 'Stairway to heaven'.
Cotinus: 'Young lady'
Plus a standard Rose and a fern I don't know the name of.

But not only did this Garden Centre have plants, trees, Bulbs etc, it also sold garden tools (I got a rake, long handled garden edge shears and garden swivel shears) and look what else

Various water features, bathbombs that looked edible (in fact my 21 year old daughter tasted one of the sprinkles cos she refused to believe they weren't real) and Yankee Candles! Yankee candles! OMG I could have spent hours just smelling each and every one of them, they're my favourites! I contained my enthusiasm though and only bought a Plug in set.

Basically I had a fabulous day. A whole day with MrTG, both my daughters, a garden centre and a McFlurry - Bliss!
I hope everyone else had such a brilliant Mothers day!