Scabiosa .. Year 3 and going strong

This is one of the first plants to go into the garden when the beds were dug and lawn laid. Who would have guessed that it would turn out to be one of the best flowering plant I have. It just goes on and on and on. While it does require a bit of TLC during the winter months, I have to put a fleece over it when the weather gets cold, it generally looks after itself. The bonus to having it in my garden is that it attracts bees, as bees are on the decline, it feels good to be helping them!

Closeup look

 

 

Courgettes

After all the flowers, it's time to talk vegetables. I started way back in February/march carefully cultivating the little courgettes indoors and then moving them into the shed as they grew, I had about 6 plants. Out of the 6 only 3 survived the erratic weather we had leading to summer. In the last month, with the unseasonably warm, I should say hot weather, the courgette has finally come to its own. Flowers have appeared and little courgettes are starting to form. I think this will be another one that I will continue growing in the years to come.

Lovely large yellow flowers

 

 

The little courgette forming

 

Ranunculus

Today's highlight is the Ranunculus! Dainty medium sized flowers, I expected it to have more petal layers as shown on the package it came in, that's what I get for buying bulbs from cheap supermarket! Must be a lesser variety that I got, nevertheless it's looking good and hopefully more will follow!

Only one had the multi layer petals I was expecting

 

The lone pine

During Christmas time, there is always a tree buying frenzy and once the twelve days of Christmas have gone, most people just discard their trees. A friend of a friend of mine (honest!) bought one such tree for Christmas and decided to palm it off on my friend saying that she was going home to Holland for the holidays and didn't want to waste the tree sitting by itself in an empty house. So my friend took it off her friend, after Christmas my friend found out that she was moving away to Norway so it was to the tip or a new home. To cut a long story short, I decided to rescue this poor pine tree and give it a permanent home. For a while, sitting in my garden it continued to act like the ornamental tree it was sold for i.e. it didn't grow and neither did it wilt...just like a plastic tree! Then suddenly after all these months since December, it woke and started to act like a proper real tree...haha...if you look at the picture, the lighter green parts are new growth. So little pine tree may you live long and prosper!!

New growth-light green

 

 

 

When it first arrived in the snowy weather

 

Take time to smell the roses!

For a while now the rose bushes have had lots of buds on them. Finally, they are starting to burst into blooms, I have two old plants, one being a climber and another a normal bush. This year I have three new addition, but they have yet to start flowering though buds have appeared on them too. My climber unfortunately is suffering from rust and though I tried to remove as much of the affected areas it is looking like I will have to get rid of it which is such shame as it has really grown well in size. That's gardening for you, you win some and you lose some!