Survival of the fittest!

I mentioned in a previous post that some some of the plants from last year's summer bedding had survived an Orkney winter in my old wheelbarrow ~ and here they are!  I really was amazed that the wet and cold winter didn't kill them off; despite supposedly being tender perennials, those argyranthemums are a tad tougher than it would appear.

I'm so glad that I decided to "rescue" them from the wheelbarrow and pot them up.  I think they appreciated a little spell in the greenhouse to recuperate before going back outside again!

They are a variety called Lemon and Pink and are very pretty.  This year I will take them into the greenhouse in the autumn and hopefully overwinter them.

All six of the argyranthemums survived so I put the other three in a large terracotta pot along with three dianthus deltoides Alba.  They had been sitting in their little nursery pots for a rather long time as I didn't get round to planting them in the garden ~ they were looking like they were on the brink of death if I'm honest!

But all three have greened up beautifully and are actually growing now they have better living conditions 😄  The marigolds are rather bold and brash, I know, but I really like them and the scent of their leaves is lovely.

In the autumn I will put the argyranthemums into individual pots to overwinter them in the greenhouse and plant the dianthus in one of the garden borders.

This year's summer bedding is osteospermum Berries & Cream.  I confess that I was rather lazy and instead of putting fresh compost in the old wheelbarrow, I just mixed in a couple of good handfuls of chicken manure pellets.

They seem happy and are growing well.  I believe they are also tender perennials, so I may try to overwinter at least some of them too.

My makeshift coldframe has worked really well.  The wind doesn't normally blow into this side of the house too much, so the arbour seat been the ideal spot to protect the plants whilst they adjust to life in the great outdoors after being cossetted in the greenhouse!

Oh dear, these are my "pots of shame".  I ordered spring bulbs for planting in containers last autumn, left them in the front porch ready to do so.....then completely forgot all about them 😕  I came across them when I was looking for something else and couldn't bring myself to just throw them away.  I put them into pots of compost to tide them over until the autumn when I will plant them in the garden ~ hopefully at least some will pull through despite my neglect!

We've had some high winds again recently but even so the dahlias are all doing well.

I like to have something pretty to look at on the kitchen windowsill ~ the marigolds are very bright and cheerful.

The tomatoes are almost to the tops of the canes in this photo ~ they have reached the greenhouse roof now!  Next year's tomatoes will be much shorter varieties methinks 😉

Froggie has moved down from the window as he doesn't want to fall out now that it's open all the time.  The peppers are growing nicely.

The three geranium survivors are also doing well.....

.....as are the cucumbers.

And look at that, a dolls' house sized cucumber already😍 

Another slow year...

...again in the kitchen garden.  Last year, what with one thing and another, not a lot was done out there ~ this year is much the same!  I have finally managed to tidy most of the raised beds but the borders are a different matter entirely ~ hence the lack of photos of said borders as I'm a tad embarrassed to show them to you 😉

The onion sets, Red Winter, should have been planted last autumn but I just didn't get round to it until March.  

They took off quickly but, of course, now I'm on constant alert for them bolting so every time a flower appears I chop it off in an effort to keep them going.  Hopefully this year I'll get the sets planted in the autumn!

The potatoes were also planted in March, a little early perhaps for up here, but better to be out in the soil than hanging around after they'd chitted in our rather less-than-suitable porch.

The plants at the far side are Red Duke of York and the rest are Picasso.

The Red Duke of York should be ready for harvest from June, so I will have a dig around in there soon to see how things are going.  Picasso should be ready from September.  I grew this variety last year and it was very tasty.

I shan't be growing potatoes in the raised beds, though, after these have been harvested.  I've decided to try them in large tubs instead as I've had so many stray plants coming up from the tiny little potatoes that get missed.  It's a bit of a nuisance when they start forcing themselves up through whatever new crop has been planted there ~ this year, the strays have been coming up through my lettuces and sweetcorn!  No doubt I shall have the same issue next year with the bed above 😕

The lettuces, Cos...

...and Little Gem are doing well although some were pulled out when they were first planted.  I suspect it's birds, perhaps the Collared Doves, or one of the local cats who like to dig in the beds.  In an effort to discourage the latter, we've now made mesh panels to surround each bed.  Hopefully the little buggers will be too lazy to make the effort to jump over the panels!

The strawberry bed was a terrible tangle of self-rooted runners and the Funberry plants sending up shoots all over the place!  The latter have now been (hopefully) confined to large pots 😉 I decided to let the strawberries have the whole bed to themselves; I started with 12 plants, I now have 24 plus a handful in pots 😄

In the interests of honesty, I decided to share this photo of my poor blackberries being overtaken by the weeds ~ oh, the shame of it 😲  Never fear, clearing up the bed is on my never-ending list of garden jobs to be done 😉

This is just about the only section of kitchen garden border that hasn't been swamped by weeds, perhaps because it's so densely planted with ornamentals.

I'm absolutely delighted with this Weigela Rosea, it's so full of blooms this year.

It's spilling onto the path somewhat too much, so I will have to cut it back a little later in the year.

After a rather slow start where I thought it wasn't going to survive, the Weigela Florida Nana Variegata now seems to have settled down well.  It too has a mass of flowers this year.  They are both very pretty shrubs.

And finally, a little look at the purposely "wild" section of garden!  Even though I decided to let the plants pretty much do their own thing, I think I shall have to have a wee bit of a tidy up/thinning out exercise in there at some point!  I'm hoping I can bribe someone with food and alcohol to help me.....I'm looking at you, Beverly and Lyndi 😄

Little words of wisdom

 

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)         

Guest bedroom...part five

As promised, here is the more-or-less final post on the guest bedroom.  There are a few little things yet to be tweaked but the room is now ready for our family and friends.  The photos above the chest of drawers are of our parents on their wedding days, and Adrian and I with our sisters.  I think Elaine and I would have been similar ages (we're both the big sisters!), as would Adrian and Amanda when the photos were taken 😍

Moving round the room...

...it's not easy to take good photos in here!  The wicker chair was in our bedroom previously but I swapped it with the little nursing chair that Jane now sits on.  I will be asking Doris of Orkney Upholstery to recover the seat cushion for me in due course.  I bought some rather nice blue fabric for this as well as the ottoman and the little chair between the wardrobe and bed.  Of course, I totally forgot to take a photo of said fabric, so you'll have to wait until I have the work done 😄

My cousin, Michelle, who is a fabulous seamstress very kindly made the curtain (and macrame tie-back) for me ~ it looks lovely!

I was very impressed with the little pocket for tucking the curtain-tape strings in, something I've never come across before 😊

The sun was shining very brightly when I took the photo!

There was fabric leftover so Michelle made me a little cushion.  Hopefully I'll be able to get round to repairing and painting this chair soon, then I can take it to Doris for her to recover the seat.

I shall also repaint the ottoman, then it too can go to be reupholstered.  It belonged to my Grandma; both the Lloyd Loom-type chairs came from her sister, Aunt Mary.

And here's the bed, ready for our first guests.  It's certainly not been a quick-fix job (let's face it, none of the work here at St Abbs is!) but I think it's been worth the long haul, and we're very pleased with the end result 😊 

Come into my greenhouse.....

.....says Froggie! He was a gift from a friend and used to live in my craft room ~ she thought he was hilarious because of his solar-powered eyes 😵  I rather think he likes living in the greenhouse much better than the craft room 😉 

Of course, much like the kitchen garden, having a greenhouse is all new to me so I'm on a learning-curve.  I decided to go with baby plants from Marshalls again this time but I shall have a go at growing from seed next year.

For some reason I bought cordon tomatoes ~ I was convinced that I'd gone for bush varieties!  I don't have a lot of headroom above my staging, so I will pinch out the top of the plants once they get to the height of the bamboo canes in due course.  I went a little mad with the tomatoes, buying Marshalls' "buy any 3 packs for £15" offer LOL  There were more than three little plugs of the varieties, as well, so I ended up with rather a lot of plants just for the two of us ~ well, three I suppose as I like to send Beverly home with produce when I can 😍  I gave some of the extra plants to friends.  I've got: Paruche, an orange-coloured cherry tomato; Chocolate Cherry ~ self-explanatory, although I don't think they actually taste like chocolate!; and Buffalosun, a yellow/red beefsteak variety. 

I also went mad and ordered 15 dahlia tubers which Marshalls had on special offer.  I wasn't expecting them all to send up shoots, if I'm honest, but 14 of the 15 eventually came through so I'm really pleased.

I had a mega-tidy up in the kitchen garden, including the strawberry bed where I also had three Funberry plants.  It hadn't occurred to me that since these are a cross between a strawberry and raspberry, they would send out lots of shoots!  I've now replanted the original plants in large pots in an attempt to keep them from taking over, and potted up some of the babies I pulled out of the bed.  Hopefully they will survive as I didn't decide to save any of them until sometime after I had actually pulled them out!

The tomatoes seem very happy and it wasn't long before they got to a size to be repotted.  As you can see, when I tidied up the strawberry bed I also had a lot of runners to contend with that had planted themselves all over the place.  I should have kept more on top of things last year, but with one thing and another, the garden was somewhat neglected.  These are the smallest ones that I removed; the bed itself now has 24 plants ~ I started with 12 😄

Garden-ready plugs for my summer bedding this year: osteospermum Berries & Cream, and marigold Durango Select Mixed.  Although they are "garden-ready", I thought it would be better to grow them on in the greenhouse for a little while before planting them outside.

Sweet pepper Redskin, which came as a pack of three.  I've since given one of the plants to our neighbour.

The tomatoes are going from strength-to-strength, and I thought it was time to put in some bamboo canes.  

The peppers are growing more slowly but are making progress, unlike when I tried to grow them in our front porch.

Sweetcorn Swift, which should only grow to about 45cm (18").  I thought I'd try growing sweetcorn again, even though I was unsuccessful last year ~ despite cobs forming, I just ran out of summer.  I'm hoping that giving the plants a tad longer inside will move them on a little more quickly when I plant them outside.

Cucumber Mini Muncher.  This grows to 2m (80") but I'm afraid, like the tomatoes, they too will have to have their tops pinched out when they get to the ceiling of the greenhouse!

These three little geraniums, Apple Blossom, are from last year's summer bedding ~ they managed to survive the winter in the old wheelbarrow I planted them in!  I found them when I was clearing it out ready for this year's bedding, along with six argyranthemums which had also survived.  I didn't take photos of those, but brought them into the greenhouse for a little while, too.  They are now in pots in the garden and will be brought in for the winter this year 😉

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I've been with the growth of my precious little dahlias!  I've been playing "musical chairs" with them, moving those with shoots further along the staging until I felt confident that I could move them into larger pots and start putting them outside.....

.....albeit giving them some time in my makeshift coldframe first!  I put the pots right to the back, gradually moving them forward as I brought more outside until finally.....

.....I was brave enough to put them in the garden with no shelter at all 😊