Long Weekend in the garden.

June 15 to June 19

I have a few days off, the weather forecast for this weekend is not good, but although Friday began on a variable note weatherwise, it slowly improved throughout the day until when I got home it was a lovely evening.  I was out all day on Saturday and Sunday and  I went to my favorite garden centre on Monday, so gardening had to be left until later in the week.

On Monday I bought some more plants to replace some that I need to dig up in the garden, namely the Ribes that has never flowered in 7 years.   I knew I should not buy it because I was not sure of the reliability of the store where I bought it. (deserved, as it turns out, although this was over 6 years ago and I think that management strategies have changed since then).

I also bought another broom, (Cystisus) in a different colour, they are such a shot of colour in late spring.  But they have a tendancy to sprawl as they get older.  I always thought that it was not advisable to cut into the old wood  of a broom, but at the garden centre they had done just this and the cut branches were beginning to sprout, so I will probably have a go and see what happens.

The perennials I bought were two Dianthus, a Corydalis,  and a Veronica.








 As a gardener I always have to plan ahead, which suits my personality completely as I like to make lists and plan things and now is the time to start thinking of next years spring bedding.  I want to grow more Bellis Perrenis (Daisy), Honesty, Cheiranthus (Wallflower), next year and I am thinking about trying some Brompton Stocks and Violas as well.

I tend to buy more winter, late spring and early summer shrubs and perennials as I sow such much from seed that the garden is quite colourful throughout mid summer to autumn anyway.

and finally pics of the weekend.

Have a lovely week everybody.

Birmingham meet up

What a day.  As usual I caught an earlier train than I needed to get to Birmingham.  Although I was booked on the 0943 and did not need to be at St Pancras until 0900 I was there at 0800.  I walked to Euston from St Pancras and passed this as I did so.

  Pretty funky for a bank eh!

When I got to  Euston I checked with the rather surly information man if I could upgrade my ticket and without a smile he told me that the tickets were non transferable.   So I kicked back my heels for a while and had a coffee in the multi lounge they have set up there and did some people watching which is always very interesting in London.

The journey from London to St Pancras was uneventful and speedy.  I arrived at Birmingham New Street Station, and after checking in with Claire http://sew-incidentally.blogspot.co.uk we met up with Rachel of  http://layerstitchrepeat.blogspot.co and proceeded to Barry's fabrics.

Now I had had a chat with myself in the morning, that I do not need anymore fabric to add to my already overflowing stash, but (and I know I am not alone in this) when you are confronted with this!

 all thoughts of self denial fly out of the window, and this is only 1/4 of the shop, if that.

But I was very restrained, I only bought this:

 and this

after drooling over the beautiful fabric in this fabulous shop, we decided that we had better listen to our rumbling stomachs (mine was anyway by this point) and get some food.

A table had been booked up for us at Cafe Soya, where the food is plentiful, tasty and cheap and just as importantly the tables are not packed in like sardines. Over much regaling of sewing adventures and  hilarious child rearing anecdotes with Jo of http://theamazingtaracat.wordpress. and Louise http://threadcarefully.wordpress.com. We (me) ate till stuffed and then we astounded the rest of the very busy restaurant by pulling out what seemed like a mountain of fabric and patterns over the two large tables and proceeded to swap our hearts out.

We then went to the rag market, aided by the maps prepared for us by Kat http://akraftykat.blogspot.co and Marie http://www.stitchingoddyssey.com.
Where amongst other bits and bobs I bought this

Then to The Fancy Silk Store

Again this is only maybe 1/2 of the downstairs of the shop, apparently there are 2 or 3 more floors, I was too tired to investigate this.

Where I bought my find of the day

How could I leave without it?

And, finally, exhausted to the Birmingham New Street Station where we ended the day with much hugging and promises to meet up again soon.

All in all a fabulous day, and much thanks to Claire, Kat and Marie for arranging and organising a herd of chatty dressmaking, crafting women around a well fabric stocked and busy city.

Weekend in the garden 8 and 9 June

Its been a lovely week weatherwise, but it is still very windy, we have had to contend with winds blowing at 20+mph all week, which does not sound much but it feels as though it is gale force and because it is from the North East It is cold as well.  As I look out of the window I can see the trees swaying madly in the wind against an azure blue sky.

I'm still carrying on with planting, making sure the watering and feeding is kept up to date. with it being so windy, the pots dry out very quickly. I use every aid  that I can to assist with watering and feeding, crystal gel water granules and slow release fertilizer at planting, then a pinch of high potash feed every week.

I potted up some Thunbergia and planted some more of the hardy annuals.  This is the seed packet picture for the Thunbergia, wonder if the reality will live up to the the photo.

Some of the Virginian Stock I planted up a few weeks ago have started to flower.

The Peony in the front garden has just started to flower, but look at the buds on the Peony in the back garden, if the weather is kind it is going to be spectacular.  I have to stake both Peonies, because with it being so windy  they will get battered if I am not careful.

I grew these Aquiligia from seed a few years ago and I am very pleased with them.   I also grew some Lupins but they were decimated by slugs.  I am going to try again, but maybe leave them in large pots and see how they get on.

As I have said previously, I used to have an allotment but gave it up several years ago.  The fruit came home with me though and and look at the flowers on my blackberry.  It is in a large pot and will be planted into ever larger pots until it is producing enough blackberries so I have enough to eat and cook with and have enough left over to make jam.

And last but not least is this

I do like bright colours.

linen and binding

This is yet another skirt made with fabric from Walthamstow Market.  Bought several years ago, I originally made the skirt up to take on a holiday with me to Turkey.  The skirt did not get worn at all in Turkey because it was just too hot and when I returned the weather took a turn for the worst in Britain, so I did not wear it at home either.  I think that possibly the reason it has not been worn much is that I just did not like it. I did not  wear it at all last year for various reasons.  So this year I decided to refashion it slightly. I originally made it with an elasticated waist, so my first alteration was to take the elastic out and put some darts in.  This meant that I had to unpick the binding down the front.

I have also lost a bit of weight and like a lot of my other clothes it was just too big, so I took the seams in as well.  I then made it a bit shorter so that it felt a bit more on trend.

This is what I have ended up with

It is a simple skirt, but very easy to wear, and I am hoping relatively cool if we ever get any hot and sunny weather.

Lunch at Googies

Had a brilliant day today.  A few months ago, I decided that my social life was severely lacking in social.  I have made a conscious decision to 'get out more' as they say and connected with some old friends, I had also recently acquired a second hand laptop and decided to use it to help improve the situation.  I joined some meet up groups and have made lots of lovely new friends.  This weekend I met up with some of them for lunch at a cafe/restaurant on the South East Coast in Folkestone.  The weather on the day was similar to that all week, glorious azure blue sky all day, not a rain cloud in sight, but and its a big BUT the wind felt like it was gale force.  Still those of us that met up for lunch went to this cafe , and I cannot speak for the others but I had a lovely time.

The food was lovely, I had a classic burger but just look at the pancake my friend was given

and we were all drooling over the cakes

and then when we left these were outside,

 

These bollards clothed with knitwear have appeared all over the town, gotta love the quirky and eccentric British haven't you, makes me proud to be one.

We walked down the Old High Street, It was very windy but the Old High Street was quaint and quirky and proceeded to the harbour.

Where we found the red arrows were putting on a show for us, unfortunately my camera phone does not have a zoom, so you cannot really see the aereoplanes just their trails if you look closely enough.

We walked around the harbour up to the Sunny Sands beach.

Folkestone is a vibrant, colourful town.  I looked through some local papers and their are a lot of events coming up. The first I can see is a festival on the sea front on 22 and 23 June. Like many British Seaside towns, Folkestone has had its share of bad press and difficulties but It looks as though it is pulling itself through and attracting a more diverse crowd.  The creative quarter still has some way to go but it has made a difference and will hopefully continue to do so.  I close this post with a picture of the the majority population in Folkestone who posed rather disdainfully for me.

roasted tomatoes

I love tomatoes, but unfortunately the promise of flavour is usually more enjoyable than the actual flavour especially if they are imported.  I have found that a good way to combat this is to slow roast tomatoes in the oven for 1 - 2 hours on a low heat.  They cook down and become soft and sweet.  Somebody called them the poor man's sunblush dried tomatoes.  Whatever!  I think they are delicious.

I have occassionally  made a batch at the beginning of the week to use during the week.  They only last a few days with me, but if you wanted to keep them longer, I have read that you can cover them in oil and keep them in the fridge.  I have not tried this so I don't know if it works.  If you really wanted to push the boat out and add to the Mediterranean flavour, you could use olive oil  as a flavouring when roasting.  When the tomatoes begin to soften you can add some dried herbs to ring the changes.

Cooked this way, they can be used cold in salads or sandwiches or stirred into pasta sauces.

LUNCH SERVICE

I slow roasted a trayful of tomatoes with no added flavourings and used some to give some extra oomph to a mozzarella roll.

A weekend with summer potential

So this weekend in the garden.  The forecast is good and as usual loads to do.  More annuals to pot up, more to plant, pruning and general tidying to do.

Shrubs to prune
Spirea (Bridal Wreath variety), Snowberry Bush (Symphoricarpos), Dogwood (Cornus) I'm a bit late with this one

Annuals to plant out, this has been a bit more difficult, because the leaves on the bulbs have not died down properly yet.  So I am planting my annuals as the leaves fade.  I still have to try to keep the old bulb foliage tidy though.  I decided that I would try to tidy the bulb foliage as much as possible.  I also removed some of the Forget Me Nots that were becoming a bit mildewy and replaced them with annuals. This was more in the front garden than the back. I interspersed Pelargoniums (Geraniums) taken from cuttings last year with HHA Asters.

As soon as the foliage from the bulbs has died down, I will be able to tidy up properly.  I still have a lot of work to do in the front garden.  The remains of an old Lavatera needs to be pulled up and replaced with a Viburnum Tinus that I have bought as a replacement and I need to put more stones down over the black membrane.

 The garden is really getting into its stride now, the spring flowers are fading, Tulips need to be deadheaded and the summer flowers are beginning.  All my roses have big fat buds on them, the Geraniums are beginning to flower

and the Aquligias, 

The Californian Lilac (Ceanothus) and Geums are in flower.  I also have one beautiful Iris in flower.  This Iris is 7 years old.  It did not flower last year, my fault, I know that Iris benefit from being divided every approx 4 years and I had not done it in 2011, so I did it last year.  As you can see It worked.

Yellow Iris you can just see the Geum in the background

I tried an experiment last year, I read somewhere that Tulips would flower better the next year if they were lifted for the summer.  I was a bit skeptical I have to admit, but the flowering was not very good last year So I tried it last summer.  I lifted them, when the leaves had died down, put them into net bags (I used citrus nets from the supermarket) and left them in a warm place to dry out.  I replanted them in November and guess what.  They were spectacular this year.  It is a lot of trouble I know but I will definitely be doing it again this year.

Tulips on the 6 May 2013

I also grow some fruit, I used to have an allotment but found that It did not fit in with my lifestyle and I was not working it enough.  I still love to grow some of my own food though.  I now grow blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, Strawberries, I have a cherry tree and fig tree.

My strawberries are currently in flower

As I mentioned the Californian Lilac (Ceanothus) is in flower, It is a spectacular shrub when in full flower and evergreen.  It can be shortlived though and I have heard that it can die suddenly without warning.  It needs sun, well drained soil and to be sheltered from cold winds.  But if you can provide these conditions this is what you may get every year.

and last but by no mean least I have a large Broom (Genistia) in the front garden, for 11 months of the year this shrub is at best a good screen but for the last week or so this is what lights up my end of the street, like fireworks.