Azaleas

Someone decided to help me and got too enthusiastic about pruning and pruned one of my beloved shrub down to the ground when it only requires light trimming. That someone is now demoted to trimming grass edges and weeding, but it also gave me an excuse to buy new shrubs! How about replacing one with two? Sounds about right to me ..hahaha! This time the newcomers are azaleas, my office has some of its larger cousins rhododendrons, they always looked amazing with their clusters of delicate flowers when in bloom, so now I have mini versions of them in my garden...happy again!

The dark pink one

Close up of the flower

 

 

Lithodora diffusa 'Heavenly Blue'

In case you are wondering, no I'm not going to start spouting Latin names of plants and flowers. I just so happen to save the little card that came with this plant so instead of saying those little blue flowers, I thought I'd use its proper name. This is one of the first few plants I planted when we first moved in, so it's about 3 years old now, it's been going strong giving me lots of little blue flowers starting from spring till late autumn, I'm well pleased with it. It is also one of the few plants that stay evergreen through the winter months helping my garden look like a home for plants rather than a dead wasteland. This year when it's done flowering I will attempt to divide it and see if I can get another plant from it.

The images make the flowers look more purple than the striking blue it actually is

 

 

The gooseberry

The gooseberry bush has been growing for almost 3 years now. I was hoping to see some fruit last year but all I got was leaves and thorns. I was not expecting anything this year, hence didn't inspect the bush at all as I saw it was once again flourishing with plenty of leaves. Upon closer inspection today, I noticed flower buds forming....hooray!! what a pleasant surprise, so this might be the year that I finally get some gooseberries...hmmmm, what wonderful creations I now dream about in my kitchen to use the fruits for!!

Flower buds appearing

The raspberry is budding too!

 

 

Taking shape .. The new bed

The new bed is taking shape, the new plants have taken and are starting to grow...phew! This will be the white, pink, lavender, blue border!! Hahaha, trying to work some sort of colour scheme into the garden but don't ask me what the names of the plants are!

 

Courgettes ... New this year

One of the new vege that I'm trying this year is the courgette. Not all the seeds have produced seedlings but enough sprouted to provide a good yield if they survive. Now to do some research on how best to grow them! Aside from this, I'm doing the usual leafy vege of kale, lettuce, broccoli. The seedlings are doing well and will need pricking out, I only hope that the temperature outside stays warm enough that I can put them in their permanent home as soon as possible before they outgrow the little space I have indoors!