Hanging basket

Posted on July 8, 2020July 8, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Back yard, Bargain, Blogging, Colour, Farm, Flowers, Fun, Fushia, Gardening, Hanging baskets, PlantsLeave a comment

A few weeks ago, we had so many plants in the boot of the car we had to fit a hanging basket on the back seat. They are all doing well but it’s rained so much since that I haven’t been able to set them up as I would like. I also pulled a shoulder muscle picking them up so I can’t lift my left arm up above my head. It’s frustrating me. It meant my hubby had to reach up to pick the cherry crop while I pulled the branches down. I’m hoping we get some breaks in the weather. Then I can get the stepladders out. Even if I don’t climb them, I can direct where they should go.

The baskets are beautiful, I was told about a farm a few years ago that do baskets for half the price of garden centres. You order in advance and they make up whatever size you want. I chose colourful plants. Sometimes they last into the winter. I even have fushia plants that have over wintered in the yard and are growing again now. And are in full flower! I think our small back yard must have its own microclimate. I have courgette flowers growing there at the moment.

Who’d think, cherries in coleslaw.

Posted on July 8, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cherries, Cherry, Cherry tree, Cooking, Crop, Food, Fun, Gardening, Jelly, Life, Poem, Poetry, Salad, TrifleLeave a comment

With such a large crop,

bowls full to the top,

I tried-

To decide-

what to do with them?

Each cherry on a stem!

Salad with cherries

fills my belly.

Coleslaw with cabbage

with cherries added.

Now I’ll make jelly

with added cherry,

summer fruit,

so much loot.

Birds are merry

They have cheery

Cherries too!

🍒

More cherries…

Posted on July 6, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Branches, Cherries, Cherry tree, Food, Fruit, Gardening, Life, Nature, Plants, Sunny, Sweet, Tasty, Tree, UmbrellaLeave a comment

Used a hoe to pull the branches down and caught all these cherries in a brolly today. It was sunny for a couple of hours and the wind had dropped so we took the chance and dodged the rain showers. Picked loads, but there are loads left on the tree.

Now I’ve got to decide what to do with them. I might add them to some gin. Or I could make cherry pancakes.

This is a glut of cherries. If we were not in lockdown I would be sharing them with friends. It’s the biggest crop we have ever had from the cherry tree. If I could freeze them I would but I think they would spoil.

Yard sale at cherished chimneys.

Posted on July 5, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Cherished Chimneys, Chimneys, Delphiniums, Gardening, Lavender, Longport, Pelagonium, Plants, Reclamation yard, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Yard saleLeave a comment

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Cherished Chimneys at Longport, Stoke-on-Trent is a reclamation shop which specialises in chimney pots and tea pots. They were selling cups and teapots, chimneys and books, plants and beautiful ceramic decorations for roofs.

We bought a chimney stack and a zinc bucket for planting up. I want to plant the delphiniums we got in one of them. I also bought a lavender plant and a pelagonium. When I’ve tidied up the yard I will post photos, but I need to cut back the neighbours bramble / blackberry bushes that are growing through our side of the fence. I don’t mind the ones with flowers on as I can pick the fruit later in the year.

Cherry ripe

Posted on July 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cherries, Cherry tree, Crop, Eating, Fun, Gardening, Happy, Harvest, Pick, Tasty, TreeLeave a comment

Got to try and harvest some more cherries between the thunderstorms.

We got a lot off the lower branches. We need a rake or something to grab some of the other branches. We have almost eaten the other ones we picked. I’m jealous of the birds that can get at the ones on the top branches. It’s great to have fresh fruit grown in your own garden. My friend bought a cherry tree but hers was a sour type. Ours is sweet. It’s worth checking and this tree is self fertile which means it sets fruit without the need of a companion tree.

Happy gardening.

Rainy day

Posted on June 27, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Annoyed, Garden, Gardening, Grumpy, Hot, Irritated, Lockdown, Relax, Tense, Time, TiredLeave a comment

View out the back door. The yard needs work but there is a passing thunderstorm so I’m keeping dry and watching a classic race from 2018 in the tour de France. At least the heat has gone. Its a good thing to I was shattered yesterday. Still tired now. I didn’t sleep well because of the humidity.

The madness continues my hubby is not happy. Grumpy. We are winding each other up in this weather. Even my feet feel tense. I have a low level tension running through me. All my muscles are tight. I feel like exploding. I think I will go out in the rain…..

Cherries, before the storm.

Posted on June 26, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Birds, Blogging, Cherries, Cherry crop, Fruit trees, Garden, Gardening, Low hanging cherries, Red, Ripe fruit, TastyLeave a comment

We just picked all these from the lower branches of our cherry tree. Had to use steps to get at some of them. We go for the lower hanging fruit but try and leave the unripe ones. The birds are getting ready to feast. Some of the fruit has already been pecked. Blackbirds and wood pigeons are particularly partial to them.

Hubby used a broom to hook the branches while I climbed up a couple of steps ( I’m too wobbly to go right up). Then he climbed to strip a well laden branch. Luckily they are bendy so it does no damage to pull on them. We’ve got a bowl full of cherries ready to ripen. Saves them blowing off in the wind which is whipping the branches about. The forecast is for big thunder storms later. It got to 33.3°C in places yesterday. Hot!

Morning glory seeds

Posted on June 22, 2020June 22, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Annuals, Blogging, Climbers, Colours, Gardening, Horticultural, Morning glory, Need warmth to germinate, Plants2 Comments

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Apologies to the seed company for using the photo. I hope they don’t mind.

Tomorrow, as the weather warms up, I’m going to plant some seeds for these plants. They are trumpet shaped and climb up a long stem. They open in the morning and fade by the evening. I did a painting of one of the plants a few years ago. I only had blue striped ones last time. The coloured ones look like they will be fab. Wish me lunch with them

Gardening

Posted on June 20, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Decking, Facebook, Gardening, Green lungs, Lawn, Ox eye daisies, Patio, Unkind words, Wild flowers, WildlifeLeave a comment

I just read a really sad post on Facebook. A woman had friends round in her garden and someone said her garden was ugly. It was full of flower borders and a neatly cut lawn. There were pots on the lawn and it looked like a proper cottage garden with ox eye daisies.

Unbelievable how unkind people can be. I replied to her post:

“Looks amazing, if you have birds and small mammals you are doing the right thing. I’d rather your garden that something covered in decking! Ours is full of trees, squirrels, hedgehogs, the occasional fox. Loads of birds. Don’t let them get to you.”

I thought about it. We need to make more space for wildlife not less. Somehow patios and outdoor rooms have become the norm. How much money is spent on concrete? Lease think about making a small place in your garden for wildlife.

My own flowers

Posted on June 19, 2020June 19, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bright, Colours, Flowers, Gardening, Heat, Morning glory, Nasturtium, Poppies, Rain, Summer, susunshine, Torrential thunder storms, Water, Weather2 Comments

Last year, painting of morning glory flowers and some poppies. I haven’t grown much from seeds this year. We do have some lettuce plants, but they have probably been drowned by the amount of torrential rain we’ve been having over the past few days. Some places have had a months rain in a day! That compared with six weeks of sunshine in April and May. As usual our weather is topsy-turvy. Basically because of where the United Kingdom is positioned. We get weather from every direction, the Atlantic, the Arctic, Siberia, even dust dragged up from the Sahara. We are a weather magnet!

I want to go and get some seeds and see if I can grow some nasturtiums for late summer bedding, and the butterfly caterpillars love them. They are a nice, spicy, bitter and peppery orange flavour when added to salads and cold soups.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Gardening