Hobbies and Crafts

Ann
It's good that the council has resumed their garden waste collecting. What a lot they collected!
I'd be lost without mine. My bin has been full to the top each fortnight lately.

After the cold and wet days of winter, spring growth, sunny weather and time to spare have all added together to make gardening one of the favoured activities since lockdown.

I thought this was an interesting message from our local council offices re the garden waste collections.

Since the garden waste collections resumed last Monday, the crews collected over 222 tonnes in the first three days which is more than one quarter of the total collected in May last year. Its quite clear you all like your gardening! :-D

so far OH has planted so many seeds I can’t remember which they are. One packet of lettuce (which was old seeds from a couple of years ago) didn’t germinate so he planted another new packet. He has also planted some carrots in a tub, tomatoes, Rudbeckia, French marigolds sweet peas, tomatoes and probably others I can’t remember.

T has also planted out his Dahlias and two lots of gladioli and the first lot of Sweet peas.. We managed to get an order of compost, farm manure and grow-bag delivered from local Garden centre which was useful.

I planted wild flower seeds plus some nasturtiums, calendula and anything else which looked as if they would mix well. (we had a lot of unused seed packets in the drawer which we tried to use up.

He has freshened up the garden mirror by painting it sage and also the bird table and the little stair rail up the steps onto the lawn. And yesterday he spent out in the garage redoing the little bug house which has been re-mounted on the trellis.

The garden is looking really nice, especially after the rain of the past two days. We noticed today that the aquilegia is starting to show buds and also the Allium. some of the tulips are over and all the daffodils are finished now but we still have some lovely double tulips in flower. and masses of forget-me-nots

They are a beautiful colour aren’t they Tess not sure they would last indoors though.
Gwyn it is French marigolds that OH is growing not the larger flowered ones that self seed I love their colour too.

It is a shame to be missing the bluebells Vera isn’t it?

managed to do some gardening last Tuesday even did some mowing.
Since then I have had loads of yellow flowers springing up everywhere - very pretty they are too.

The only downside is that they are dandelions! Is it bad luck to pick them and put them in a vase in the house? Or do they just die quickly when picked?
It seems such a shame to waste their splendour.

An abundance of pink blossom on the ornamental cherry trees. They are in full bloom now and really beautiful against the bright blue sky of recent days.

Had a busy day gardening on Friday.
Another invader here is 3 cornered leek. The delicate white flowers are pretty, but it's doing it's best to take over the back garden. You can actually eat it, but not in the quantities here! Some years, I've spent ages trying to dig out the individual small bulbs, but there still seems to be so many plants the following year.

It does seem a little bit early for the bluebells but it has been a very mild winter. We don't live very far from Arger Fen which is smothered in bluebells around late April/early May. We usually drive there and have a walk round and I shall miss seeing them this year.

I've ordered a few plants online from Beth Chatto as the garden centres are closed. They reckon it will be about 2 weeks before they arrive, but it's something to look forward to.

Your garden sounds lovely Ann and I love to see the natural look.
I had to smile at T planting marigolds. They flower here almost like weeds in my garden,every month of the year. I didn't plant them. They are self seeded from somewhere local, although my neighbours either side haven't been growing them, so it's anybody's guess where they originated.
I do like the cheerful colour though.

Masses of bluebells out in the gardens around here today, so perhaps it's just our mild south east climate. Ornamental cherry is about to burst into life too. There's just a couple of sprigs opening so far on most trees, but an abundance of blossom to follow, by the looks of things.

Yes we will miss seeing the bluebells this year Gwyn. I think it is a bit early for them but maybe they were in a sheltered spot.
We are still spending time in the garden, trouble is we seem to have caught up with ourselves. I am hoping we are not too far ahead and then get a frost. Not that we have planted out any tender plants. However OH has planted his dahlias which is a bit ealier than usual. Yesterday I planted wild flower seeds some in the garden and one packet in a pot (it said for a pot). Among the wild flowers I also planted calendula as that seemed to work last year. OH has planted gladioli as well and he has found an old unused packet of marigolds which he has also planted. Good job we go for the cottage look as there is nothing organised about the planting. (If there is a space, fill it!).

I've seen lots of posts about people busy in their gardens. It's great to be able to get outside, when so many of our activities have been curtailed.

Today on my exercise walk locally, I saw a large bed of bluebells in flower. They were the larger garden variety, but with visits to woodlands off bounds, that might be the only sort I see this year.
It seems a bit earlier flowering than I remember them, but may be not...

Our camellias are starting to flower now, the pink one looks lovely. The only problem I have with them is when the flowers drop to the ground, it's a job and a half keeping up with all the mess they make and of course the flowers turn brown, which isn't a pleasant sight to see. I have a few Tulips, well, the ones the squirrels haven't got at and they look lovely to.

I agree with Vera, Gwyn you'll need some gloves to handle the Pyracantha plants, otherwise you'll have no hands left. I hope you manage to support it in the end. We had lots of them years ago planted like a hedge in front of our fence, as we had problems with the neighbours children climbing over the front fence to collect their football and the thorns are massive, needless to say it solved the problem and they started walking around to retrieve their football after that. Apparently the police recommend them to deter burglars.

It sounds like your garden is going to be very colourful with all the plants you have Ann. I love the spring, it's when my garden looks it's best. I have lots of primulas in flower at the moment, all along the side and back borders and they look lovely.

I hope you've managed to sort your garden out now Vera. That's the problem with wet and windy weather, you can see the jobs that need doing but can't get out to do them. Having a bad back isn't helpful either. Pity Mother Nature doesn't have a few days off, then there wouldn't be to much work to catch up on. I quite like the natural look to, but not the weedy look. When we bought our water feature, it was an ex-display one, they said they would clean it for us but I asked them not to as I liked it the way it was. I had to laugh as they put a note on saying "Do not clean" ;-) ;-)

Unfortunately the local snowdrop garden has said that most of the snowdrops have been wiped out by the wet and windy weather..

Our tete a tete daffy are lovely this year and our snowdrops havebeeb good as they are sheltered. But the cricusvare not quite as good as usual

I remember doing that too. We haven’t got any now but had it in both the front and back gardens at our old house. A gorgeous shrub when it’s in bloom but a bit boring for the rest of the year.

OH remarked on how good our February Gold daffs are this year. They must be extra good for him to notice :-). We also have a viburnum which is covered in white blossom at the moment and that seems to be better than last year and our little white anemones are just starting to come into flower.

I suppose everything is coming up a bit earlier than usual and is looking so good because we have had such a mild, if very wet, winter. I realised today that I haven’t had to de-ice the bird bath once this year. Mustn’t speak too soon, there’s still time for an icy spell.

Ann, I remember doing that one year when my friend needed yellow and white flowers to decorate the church for Easter.
It worked out just right.

If you pick the branches before the buds are out they will blossom indoors. Not got any in the garden here but did use to have some in other gardens. :-)

Forsythia buds starting to open now.

Such a lovely show of cheery brightness, when they are fully out.

We have a lot of tete a tete in flower as well as some larger daffy. Our Helebores too are looking good, the crocus are flowering but I don’t think they are looking as good as usual

Gwyn, as well as another pair of hands, you might need a strong pair of gloves to handle your pyracantha :-)

It is lovely to see all the spring flowers coming into bloom. Our hellebores look great this year and the winter aconite is a lovely cheerful gold colour. The daffs I have in a flower bed are just starting to open up which is great as they are called February Gold and for the last couple of years haven’t opened till late March. The daffs in pots are only about 3 or 4 inches high but I think they are later varieties.

We desperately need to get out into the garden to do some jobs which are long overdue but a combination of lousy weather and bad back problems have put us well behind. I like the natural, slightly untidy look but I think nature may be taking over a bit too much at the moment.

That will be a prickly job you have there Gwyn. Yes all the daffy and crocus look lovely.

Beautiful camilias and pretty japonica flowering in nearby gardens and so many daffodils and crocus about too.

I hope predicted Storm Dennis doesn't give them too much of a battering.

I still have to sort out a pyracantha which keeled over in the last storm here. I've trimmed it back to make it more manageable, but need another pair of hands to renew the support it needs.