Tag: Plants

Blooming

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Well the plants are getting well watered by the rain that has poured down here from the start of July after a hot June.

I wish I could send some of this rain south East towards the Mediterranean and its Islands. Plus Portugal and North Africa where there have been more wildfires. People have died. Meanwhile we are dripping wet.

I’m not complaining, as things go I prefer a cooler summer but I’m not sure how the climate will change in the future. We has grass fires here last year…. I would like to think if we can get our act together climate disaster can be avoided

Lilies and cats

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Lilies are beautiful flowers, but when I grow them I put them at the back of the border away from where the cats go. That is because they contain toxins that are dangerous to cats and dogs.

The Internet says :

Both calla lilies and peace lilies contain insoluble crystals of calcium oxalates (insoluble means the crystals don’t dissolve in water). When a cat or dog chews on or bites the plant, the crystals are released and directly irritate the mouth, tongue, throat, and esophagus.16 Sept 2021

So be careful what plants you grow, and try and be aware of what can be dangerous to your pets.

The yard

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Very leafy, I need to pot some small flowering plants on but not while my arm is shaking and sore. I’ll try and use some pain killers to stop it hurting so much. Hubby has dumped a big bag of compost in the way and I need to get it moved so I can get further up the yard. Some of these plants survived the winter, they are very leafy, to be honest I could move them into the main garden but I don’t have the energy and there are some dodgy steps as you walk round the back. I must get hubby to get some sand and cement to replace some loose bricks.

Wild flowers in town

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Wild flowers sewn at a local car wash a few years ago are a riot of colours and shapes now. They haven’t been cut back and each year the crop gets more varied and colourful. I hadn’t seen the yellow spikes of flowers until this year. Unusually we have had a lot of rain recently and I think that has encouraged a spurt of growth.

Rhododendrons are lovely

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But they don’t last long. The huge clusters of blooms soon brown and fade. They are great at the right time of the year, but then they are just big green bushes and they need underplanting to make them look more interesting. Here there are wild buttercups and ferns which were just growing below the rhododendrons. Mostly they shade out other plants and in some places they are cut back and removed because they are not native to the UK and they can spread and can be invasive. The shade they cast stops native saplings growing.

What to give up?

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What could you let go of, for the sake of harmony?

If I had to give up something it might be one of my trees at the bottom of the garden. Why? Because the neighbours don’t like it, it is a huge laurel bush/tree. It shades our garden and their garden too. I won’t be cutting any others back though. I like our little nature reserve. Laurel bushes are evergreen so they give shade and shelter to birds and squirrels all year round. But they do block out the sun. The trouble is ours is about forty feet high and thirty or so wide. It’s also right next to our fence line and about six feet away from theirs.

I know there have been huge legal battles over hedges and trees, and I don’t want to fall out completely with my neighbour, but I also cannot afford to have it pollarded or pruned. We will have to see what happens in the future. I hope it doesn’t get to legal action!

Washing and hanging baskets

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It’s a struggle to dry my washing in the back yard at the moment. The washing line snapped and I’ve tied it back up but it’s a bit saggy. It is also surrounded with hanging baskets which are a riot of colour and lovely scents which I hope will infuse into the drying clothes (although it’s already rained this morning!). I can’t fit a dryer in the kitchen even if I could afford one, or afford to run it. Just hoping the day stays dry now.

Hanging baskets hung

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A few weeks late because I couldn’t afford them earlier. Some of the trailing plants got damaged in their transport in the back of our car. I would like to get a few small colourful plants to dot around the yard and make it more colourful. I will see what cheap plants I can get locally.

These cheer me up. I know they will last well into autumn, and looking out the window on a cold damp day brings up my mood. X