Freebies

I'm so lucky that I have a daughter that works at a DIY superstore! She's bought me back many many plants that were destined for the skip for various reasons - often times they're on the brink of death - and I cherish each and every one of them.
The latest haul she bought me back included Hyacinths in Teracotta pots, loads of Erica, a few Leucothoe and plenty of Viburnum Tinus - all healthy plants too.

These are Pansies that she rescued from the skip a few weeks ago - they've given me weeks of colour and smiles.

Lovely aren't they. I've never grown Pansies before though so I really don't know what i do with them after they've flowered - do they come back next year?

Skip treasures, detecting finds and yet another plant I.D

Mr TG and his friend are addicted to metal detecting, it's quite sad really but I have to admit that I'm glad he's finally found a hobby. I've been nagging him to find a hobby for years and while I had imagined more along the lines of Airfix kits or building something from matchsticks (basically something that kept him home lol) it's nice to see him so enthused about metal detecting - he's like a big kid when they come back and show me their 'treasure' which so far consists of weird Turtles (I kid you not), old coins, musket balls and spindle whorls. The greatest find as far as I'm concerned though is a sixpence he found on our own land, the reason being that Mr TG has always claimed he loves me sixpence (makes no sense I know) but I've never seen a sixpence so I love this sixpence and will cherish it forever.

We don't know the full history of this house and land, there is evidence to suggest that it could be up to 300 years old but the rest of what we think we know is pieced together by local memories and the way the house was built. We believe that at one point it may have housed large breed horses (probably clydesdales) before being turned into a living space and was part of the estate owned by Lieutenant - General Patrick Sinclair who not only founded this village but was a British army officer and govenor in North America, best remembered for overseeing the construction of Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island in what became the U.S state of Michigan. In fact Patrick sinclairs grave is sited in the field next to us as he was buried there at his express wish.

Anyway I digress - sort of - I was supposed to be telling you that I spied some other detecting finds that Mr TG has found on our land and I've claimed them as my own for garden use.

Not quite sure what I'll do with them but I was drawn to the sun looking object and the hook. we find loads of horseshoes and the bolt probably came from the railway which used to run alongside the house and is no longer there. We find a huge amount of railway bolts.

More horseshoes - these are rear shoes whereas the above one is a front shoe. Not sure what the two handles would have belonged to - farm machinery probably.

Here's a comparison of one of the rear horse shoes against my own size 7 foot - there were big horses.

He's found bucket loads of other metal items and strange looking objects so who knows what else I'll be able to sneak of with.

Back to gardening and I have a plant come up that is self seeded and I'm not too sure what it is. It looks like a Hypericum to me but the leaves are nothing like my clump forming one, this plant is spindly, taller and has tiny leaves. The flowers look like Hypericum though - what do you think?

The sweetcorn is ripening really well in the PT. This year has got to be the most abundant it's been, I always have good success with Sweetcorn but this year it seems extremely good.

This is the Garden Tiger Moth that seems to be popping up all over this year. I was quite suprised to read on the RSPB website that numbers are decreasing for this Moth because I've seen a few this year and have never seen them before. Maybe they're relocating lol.

We all love freebies right?  Well my daughter works at a local department store and I've blogged before about the plants she's bought me home that she's rescued from the skip - the most amazing one being 3 huge Golden Bamboo priced at £40 each. Those Bamboo are now thriving.
This little lot is my latest haul and I even had the chance to check the skip out myself, I cannot tell you how exciting that was, hmmmmm maybe I shouldn't have admitted that part huh!
Anyway included in this haul is Clematis 'Voluceau',  3 Fuchsia (think they'll be trailing), Arrow bamboo and a couple of other plants I'm not sure about yet.

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Tilly's Nest

Garden projects and another plant ID

Yesterday was my first  day of doing anything resembling 'real' gardening since popping a disc in my back, I'm not fully recovered but I think I did pretty darned well to hold back for 3 weeks so I thought 'why not give it a go'.
I'll admit I could have started with something less taxing on the back than shifting slabs and heavy pots (I never learn) and yes my back is sore today but I don't care, I had a blast!

It took me pretty much all day to complete 2 small jobs but hey ho I got there in the end. The first job was to replace this scaffold board walkway at the pond with something a tad better looking, obviously this involved plentiful weeding too but it's certainly improved it.
This is the before  (look at all those weeds - eek!)

And after - excuse all the mud/stone/weed right at the back, that whole area is going to be decked ........ eventually!

Next job was to pot up a climbing Fuchsia 'Mrs Boothby' and provide some kind of trellis for her to cling to. Originally I came up with this first trellis simply because it was lightweight and meant less bending etc for me

but I thought it look blah and that the Fuchsia would soon outgrown the trellis so I changed it. Whatever I put there has to be moveable until Mr TG has finished the Harling to the external walls and all I could find big enough and moveable was this

At first I liked it but the more I looked at it the less I liked the colour, the creamy first one looked much better against the wall and suited the plant better so I'm either going to spray this one ream (it's a metal bed frame incidentally) or I'm going to build a brand new one and paint it the cream I use all over the garden - 'Cuprinol garden shades - Old stone (I think)'.
I've hankered after a climbing Fuchsia for a while and I love it, obviously it will need protecting in the winter so will go in the poly tunnel but I can't wait to see how it performs next year - I may even attempt cuttings.

I have this lovely yellow plant flowering in the garden this year. I remember planting it last year but assumed it had died over winter, for the life of me I cannot remember the name of it - any ideas? I think it began with an 'S' but I could be wrong.

I'm supposed to be taking it easy today, supposed to be making a start on Christmas cards and I was happy to do that when the weather man claimed we'd have rain all day today, but there's no sign of rain and I want to make an outdoor potting bench - what to do, what to do!

Growing fruit in a polytunnel.

The weather has once again been glorious and perfect for gardening - except for the darned midges, those things drive me up the wall with their constant biting and flying round the face. I've yet to find a product that drives them away but I certainly won't be trying Mr TG's method

"I can't sit out there cos the midges are driving me nuts" says I at 6.30 this morning.
"I know" says Mr TG " they were driving me nuts too. I even tried turning my chair round to see if that helped"

I kid you not that is what he said and he was deadly serious too.

"How did that work out for you?" says I laughing, at which point Mr TG realised how ridiculous his comment was and tried to back track.
"Don't you put that on your blog" he said.

Anyway I seem to have spent yet another day weeding and I still haven't even put a dent in it. My house garden is looking amazing right now and for the first time since moving here 10 years ago I'm absolutely loving it, but it has come at the expense of the other areas around the land which have been neglected - I'm talking head height weeds of jungle proportions.

Despite the external neglect though the fruit and veg inside the tunnel are doing very well.
This is the first year I have managed to grow Onions, I've tried every year but nothing has ever come of it so to see these swelling roots is balm to the heart

The Apple trees are fruiting happily and I think this years fruit is set to be the biggest harvest yet

But what is going on with the Pear fruit?

I have a plant here that I need identifying if possible. It self seeded itself on some gravel in the garden so I dug it up last year and put it in a pot but I don't know what it is.
I had a Ceanothus just to the right of it but it only flowered the once and then died due to the conditions - could this be a seedling? I also have a couple of Escallonia but they're situated a fair way away from the garden - could it be one of those?

I've had much fun this evening watching the Swifts swoop down for water from our little garden pond. They managed it well enough after a few practice runs but I can't imagine why they even attempted this pond in such a tight space when we have a mini lake a hundred yards away - much easier for them.
The Housemartins were also using the fence as a resting post for the first time ever and we've had Gold finches, Siskins and Greenfinches all visiting the feeder.
I have never had this amount of activity in the garden ever, it's all usually going on over at the polytunnel where there's more tree coverage but I think the structures I've built and the trees etc that have been planted this year have turned the garden into party central and I'm loving it.