The azalea is now in full bloom. I just love it when the bush is fully covered in flowers, it's a shame that the flowers only appear once so no deadheading does help to give continuos flowers. The other bush is just catching up with some buds opening..... Just lovely!
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| The fuchsia one |
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| Close up |
Not quite a field but 3 strawberry plants in 3 pots! I've finally decided to plant strawberries this year. It's one of the first things the people tend to grow but my "I'm not doing it just coz it's the fashion" DNA kicked in and I haven't till now! The flowers are coming through now so there will be fruit soon...talking about fruits a quick sort of update on the other berry in the garden, I've been checking it everyday but I will not reveal what I see, in case I jinx it! Hahaha...
Finally on a Tuesday off,I managed to weed the vege plot and prepare the soil. Then this evening, the exciting bit, putting the seedlings into their permanent home. I hope the weather is not still too cold but really there was no room at the inn for them anymore. This year I'm trying all things new, for the first time there will be French beans, broad beans, runner beans and cauliflower! There is also 3 pea plants that sprouted from peas dropped from last years plants. And making a comeback, potatoes planted by mini me!
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| The top plot |
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| Potatoes by mini me |
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| Broad beans |
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| French beans |
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| Runner beans which looks very like French beans |
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| Cauliflower |
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| Peas |
The tulips are popping up everywhere! Some new ones, some olds ones ..most of which I've forgotten I've planted! The thing is tulip bulbs goes in before hard winter sets in, this is the time where the garden is bare and there's lots of gaps in the beds, so there is a tendency to go bulb crazy and bury them all over the place. Come spring, I've forgotten where I put them till they start poking out of the ground! I will also refrain from buying mixed bulbs in the future as all I keep getting is yellow ones and the odd 'other' colour one!
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| New yellow ones |
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| Yellow ones |
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| The three year old ones |
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| Late ones just about to bloom |
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| More yellow ones |
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| Some white ones mixed with daffodils |
The gooseberry bush is becoming more than a thorny bush, it's becoming a thorn in my side! For almost 4 years now, I've been waiting for it to fruit. Last year I had flowers and was jumping for joy... Alas, I was celebrating too early as the flowers did not set and rapidly dropped off! This year again I'm seeing flowers, this time more than last year and it's looking different as well (maybe I'm just trying to convince myself it will be different this year). I have seen bees buzzing around, hopefully helping to pollinate the flowers and maybe finally giving me some fruit? Here's to hoping!
This morning I woke missing my garden...it's a dull morning but there is a sense of readiness in the garden. It's still early spring so frost is still knocking on the door and it's still not time to start working in the garden. Little spots are coming to life, making the wait harder to bear and I have had enough of waiting, probably a side effect of the longer days that we are getting...patience is the gardener's virtue hence patient I must be!
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| Muscari bulbs |
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| Some other bulbs! |
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| The pink alpine one! |
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| Names are escaping me this morning! |
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| Not even going to try naming it |
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| Lastly the layered flower pot...looking good! |
Work has been a little crazy recently and I've lost my mojo for cooking/baking and the garden in not quite ready for working in so I turned to sewing as my destress option. Over winter when kept indoors, I got quite hooked on watching uTube videos of people making little sewing projects. Now it's my turn! I was out in the shops (refer to top WORK BAD+BAKING NO NO =SHOPPING THERAPHY) and saw these sweet looking fat quarters. They were of complimenting shades of pastels, so out comes the sewing machine and some frustrated rummaging around to find the zipper foot, a lot of snip snip snip plus my usual finger in the air measuring... I was set to get machining! I really missed the soothing hum drum of the sewing machine, why have I waited so long...oh oh, I think I've caught the sewing bug!
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| Lined, zippered and adorned with dangly beads |
After completing the first, I had to make another so see what it looked like in another colour then it became an obsession...suddenly there were 3!
Lucky for me I had some girlfriends who had birthdays coming up, so birthday presents sorted! Then I wanted one for myself! So more measuring, snipping and sewing....soon it might be time to lock the machine away else my garden will be barren and my family will be living on takeaways!
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| Making the pleats |
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| Securing the pleats |
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| Zipper time! |
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| Shaping the corners |
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| One for me.. |
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| Then I had to make one without boxed corners! |
