Hobbies and Crafts

Ann, it has heads on it about ten inches or more, across, they are huge !! They are a lovely pink that even when they fade, stay a nice colour. This year though it has just kept on flowering and without any frosts they are still a pretty pink.

The poor sheep over the back had to be moved out of their field as it was so wet. There are three big bulls in the next field and even they look like they are having a job wading through the water sometimes.

When we came back on Tuesday through the Levels it was like driving along a causeway, luckily the actual road us quite high but instead of fields each side it looks like you are driving through sea.

I feel so sorry for the people who live there, it is going to take so long to get any sort of normality back. A bit if a soggy garden is nothing compared to what they have to contend with.

M.

It must be awful to live there, the people interviewed are distraught, they can't see an end to it can they. I assume you were not on the motorway when you drove back?

Ann, no we usually come from the coast to Taunton then onto the A303 and back up through Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire. This week we had to pick something up from a friend who lives further up near Glastonbury.

That is the area worst affected, north of Ilminster and East of Bridgwater way. She is ok where she is but it is all the land around there that is under water.it is very low lying.

Still more expected I hear. M. :-(

Yes sadly, still more expected. When we go to Dorset we usually drive down the M5 to Taunton where we have coffee in Sainsburys, then we drive across via the Ilminster road and when we come home we usually take the road that goes through Somerton so I do know the area that you are talking about. (A lot of our ancestors come from the Somerset area.)

You might remember a few weeks ago OH planted out one of our witch hazels in a bed in the corner of the garden. It's a yellow one and is now flowering well and has really brightened up the corner, but I don't think that corner will look very interesting in the summer. I'd like to plant something around and under it.

I'm looking for something that won't mind shade from the witch hazel in the summer. I'd like a bit of colour, preferably in the summer/autumn season. Any ideas please? Do you think heuchera would work?

Heuchera seem to be fairly easy to grow, although we did lose a couple last year. There are some with bright green leaves that would look ok, they don't root that deeply so should survive there.

Vera I have planted spring, summer and autumn flowering bulbs under my forsythia, I don't lift the bulbs so there isn't much work involved.

Two weeks ago I planted five sungold tomato seeds and all five have taken, another week or so and I will have to plant them up into individual pots...............here comes summer:-D

Thanks ladies. I shall have a look round the garden centres and see what I can find

Vera, how about some Hostas, as well as the variegated leaves you get blue flower spikes. Just keep an eye on them as slugs and snails tent to find them Oh so tempting.

M

Thanks for the idea Maryanna but I already have lots of hostas in pots all down one side of the house. I have copper tape round the pots and that seems to keep the snails and slugs off, provided I keep the pots a little bit away from the wall. Otherwise the little devils just crawl up the wall and over on to the leaves.

I've got several different sorts and they do add a bit of interest to a long boring bit of paving.

I bet you will soon be tempted when you visit a garden centre Vera. We will look forward to hearing what you choose. We now have a lot of lilac coloured crocus out in the garden plus a few daffs and some helebores and the Mahonia tree is still full of blossom, as is the winter flowering jasmine.

There is a tree in a neighbours garden (not a flowering cherry not as big but not very small either, the blossom is white) which is full of blossom.

Ann, I had a walk down the lane earlier on the way to the shops. There is a Summer Jasmine, which this winter, has stayed completely green.

It is absolutely smothered with flower buds, not only that I should guess that a good quarter of them are out and in flower. The smell is amazing but something we usually experience somewhere around June or July, not February.

In the £ shop today, I bought some Tuberose bulbs, thought I would give them a go,they are supposed to have a very strong scent.

Not too sure what to do with them but I assume plant soon and wait for them to flower in summer.

The crocus are like a carpet at the moment, well more like a small rug really.

M.

Sounds like a very confused jasmine there Maryanna. It will be interesting to see what the Tuberose does then.

I had a walk round the garden in the lovely sunshine this morning (trying to ignore the fact that I have a sore throat). I was amazed at how many flowers there are out there, Crocus, Helebores, Daffs, dutch Iris, snowdrops, more than usual for February.

Those who don't go on facebook, I have put some photos of the flowers in the garden on the photo blog.

We were out today and I was amazed at the amount of crocuses and daffodils out along the verges.

Your garden must be a picture Ann. We have very little colour in our garden at the moment. I've been waiting to see if anything that the previous owners had planted was going to come up but they obviously weren't gardeners as all we have found is some weeds and a couple of dead shrubs.

A little while ago I got 6 primroses free with a voucher from Homebase and this weekend I was able to get another freebie12. I've got them all in shades of gold as that always looks so sunny and cheerful so at least I'll have a bit of colour in one tiny corner.

Today is my birthday and daughter rang a couple of days ago to ask if there was anything particular I would like for a present. She didn't seem impressed when I suggested a bag or two of compost!

Lol Vera, there speaks a gardener.

Happy birthday, I hope you have had a lovely day. :-) :-)

Gardening presents are the best. For my 10th birthday my presents included a red watering can and that set the trend. One of my retirement presents was a new Fort wheelbarrow which is a joy and beautifully balanced.

Have started to seriously sort through my seeds and am sitting on my hands to stop me sowing them too soon when we get a lovely day like today. Hope to start a great tidy up today, wash down the greenhouse, sort out the seed trays etc. Wonderful to get outside

Anyone growing anything new this year? Trying out Cosmos Rubenza - dark ruby red- for the first time, but will also grow Cosmos Purity White in case I change my mind

Well, as well as my tuberoses, I also got some Peruvian Daffodils in the £ shop, they have some very unusual plants in there and most that I bought last year were successful.

I think they are a type of Crinum, looking at the picture, also known as Hymenocallis, googling them it appears they have very pretty flowers but floppy foliage so we shall see, worth a try for £1.

Can't really do a lot outside, the fence on both sides is having to be replaced, along the whole length of the garden which will involve big muddy boots trampling over the newly emerging plants. That is those that have survived being crushed by the broken fence panels, many of which have been laying over the flower beds for a few weeks now.

The grass is slowly drying outs and the bulbs are either out or coming out. The main problem will be digging up the patio and relaying it after it's trying to be a swimming pool effort and the retaining wall is looking dodgy, full of cracks so we shall have to see.

Oh, and it looks like something nasty has happened to the Summer house.........

There was me thinking that after all last years work I could just sit back and enjoy it this year.

M. :-(

We don't grow many flowers from seeds now, find it a bit much as we like to go away for at least 2 weeks in May, used to be four but we have cut it down this year. OH does all the growing but I know it will be tomatoes, and this year he has managed to clear some space to try runner beans again.

I have just pulled the last of the baby carrots grown in a trough so will grow those again, plus probably spring onions and certainly lettuce and mixed leaves, all those in containers.

Dahlias my OH loves growing and they seem to be doing ok in the garage as they did last year. He also grows sweet peas and french marigolds. All the basket flowers we grow from small plugs/plants same with fuchsias and I do those. too early to buy them yet as our greenhouse is not frost proof. We are away a couple of weeks and then we will start on those and keep them in the conservatory. We have very good obliging neighbours but we try and keep garden care in the growing season to a minimum.

Maryanna is that the Somerset or Sussex garden?

That's the Surrey / Hampshire one Ann.

Funny, isn't it that we seem to have to pick up the bill and do any work that needs doing here as well as in Somerset, which has got a much smaller garden, so not so much work so I tend to put most of my gardening efforts into the bigger one for all the family to enjoy. I have also had nearly thirty years to work on it. Daughter certainly isn't a gardener and I wouldn't allow son in law anywhere near the mower, like I wouldn't let Himself who can't tell the difference between grass and Roses.

Need to sort out the a Summer house, little one loved playing in there last summer, just like her Mum did when she was little, and now she is bigger she can put the kitchen and shop she had for Christmas up there.

Sorry if it's confusing but I tend to refer to the two gardens as one, adding info from both. !!!! It's the Surrey one that has suffered so badly with flooding and gales, though.

Actually, I am going to confuse things more here because it is really in Hampshire, we just have a Surrey postcode.......... We are right on the border, literally.

M.



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