Sunday 25 June 2017

Sunday Flower - Dracunculus vulgaris


                             I,m in the fern garden today , pulling weeds mostly !


Thrilled to find my Voodoo Lily is flowering for the first time ... I know with that name it is probably not the most appropriate flower to choose as my Sunday Flower  !
              It cant help its sinister looks !  I think it is gorgeous anyway !


            I bought the little corms from someone on Ebay a year or two ago .


                                             I love the markings on its stems.


                                I just have to go in and look at this close up ...


It is supposed to smell of rotting meat , to attract flies which pollenate the flower.....but I cant smell anything , maybe it is too soon . It has only just opened , so maybe the perfume develops after a few days ?  Anyone know ?


                                                Outrageous Sunday Flower !

Gete -Okosomin finally planted out !


The weather was warm , humid and mizzly rain late yesterday evening and so at around 10.30 pm I decided the time was right to get that precious Gete Okosomin Squash plant into the ground .  I aplogise for the dark pictures  but it was rapidly getting dark while I was doing all this .


 I wasn't sure if after only three weeks it would  have a good enough root system ,but as it turned out , those beautiful delicate roots had filled the pot all around .


                     Getting dark..got to work quick ! .....but also very carefully .
 A bag of grit and that bowl full of crushed eggshells to scatter around the plant to keep slugs off .

                     I gave it a little drink of rain water to settle the earth around it .


 ..and then had to quickly think about wind protection..it was getting breezy .
So I rigged up this old comost sack between grids and stuck in a few fir branches  .


              Fir branches pushed in to protect those delicate leaves from the wind .


                        Crushed eggshells and horticultural grit to deter slugs .
I noticed that it had two trendrills begining to reach out , so I pushed in a couple of sticks for them to grab onto .
  So I have done everything I can for now , I would like a little more gentle rain to get it really settled in . I am about three weeks behind with the plant having been broken and all this trying to save it ...but I think I am still o.k for time to get flowers set etc.
                                                  Romp away little fella !

Wednesday 21 June 2017

Days of Roses


 Aah ....I wish I could share with  you the perfume of this gorgeous rose growing in my hedgerow !
        It was already here when we moved house .
  Can anyone identify the name of this rose for me please ?


 It rambles through the ferns , primroses, foxgloves, clematis and lovely Johnson's Blue  Geraniums .

                                                   Geranium  Johnson's Blue .


 I also have Rosa " American Pillar " which I brought with me from An Grouse Cottage , when we moved from there . A rambling Wichurana rose bred by Dr Walter Van Fleet in 1862 . It is a very popular rose and can be seen in many of our prettiest gardens in and around Mullion village  .
 I never move house without taking cuttings and when they bloom , their flowers and scent bring back such happy memories .


                   

Tuesday 20 June 2017

Poppies and Cosmos


Very very hot today , but I managed to do a bit in the veg garden this morning . I got up at 4.30 am ,opened up the greenhouse windows , wearily hauled watering cans around  , pulled weeds , planted out the last of the Runner Beans and stood mesmerised by the beauty of it all .


Two years ago my church friends ( St Michael's Church Mullion )  Derrick and Moira gave me an envelope full of Poppy seeds from her garden before she moved away .
We do miss you Moira !
 I scattered them everywhere, I love Poppies !



                       Well , they didn't come up , not a single one , until this year !


                       Just so lovely, hopefully I will never be without them now !


 I always leave a few leeks to flower for the bees and try to save their seeds for next year .


 The veg beds are full of foxgloves white and pink , the strange leek buds and Poppies .


                When the sun comes up the bees will be dancing around them.


             I very soon had to go in , happy that I,d done a little bit in the veg garden .
The Gete okosomin Squash is still doing ok and spent the night outside to acclimatise .
I dont know how much the roots have grown and if they are established enough to be planted out  yet .I think I,ll wait untill the weather breaks and we get some rain .
 It is SO hot now ,as I,m writing this . We have all come in to get away from the heat .
We will walk the dog later on when it cools down a little .
 Birdie is busy feeding her young , but is still coming for her grapes...nice and cool from the fridge .

                Remember I said that I,d pinched out my Cosmos seedlings ?


Well I had put the tops into a vase of water , rather absent mindedly actually .
     .....but look !..........   roots  !  :)
So if you haven't pinched yours out yet , you might like to do this and get some more Cosmos plants for free !  

Sunday 18 June 2017

Gete okosomin --- Very hot days !


                                Do you ever get the feeling you're being watched ?


                                    He's waiting for me to plant out my Cosmos !
I haven't been able to plant them out as now the weather is just so unbearably hot and the ground too hard and dry . I'll plant them out during the next rain shower..for now , I have pinched the tops off to make them grow bushier and they are on the garden chair out of reach of cheeky Peter Rabbit !


Gete-okosomin Squash update ..The "cutting" was in the Solar shed , during the day the leaves drooped terribly in the heat even though I opened the window . It would then pick up over night . It looked to me that although the big leaves were drooping  , there was some new growth coming .

The weather has been getting hotter and  hotter here in Mullion ( lots of people getting sunburnt on the local beaches) So I brought it out of the Solar shed and put it on the picnic table .

                                    It really did not like the hot mid-day sun .


                                                So I found a shadier spot for it .
The stump with the three cotyldon leaves as withered away , it is still in the ground and I'll leave it for a bit longer in case it sends up a shoot from below , but I doubt it .
 But I think I might have saved the cutting ..so feeling a bit happier today  .


Tuesday 6 June 2017

Gete okosomin - Rainbow days


 We're having severe gales , torrential rain showers and in between the showers  scorching sunshine . Oh my poor little veggie seedlings ! Will they all survive ? Will the beanpole frames tumble in the wind ?


 The remaining cotyledon leaves on the Gete okosomin Squash plant still got slightly scorched in the strong sun , even though I had gently mopped up the rain drops .
 I found this old lampshade to cover it over with just temporarily .


                   I will have to keep a close eye on it over the next few days .


 I had been worried about the snapped stem . It needs to heal and callous over .


 I moved the broken stem into the cooler Solar shed , it is now potted up and being treated as a cutting .Last night those big leaves drooped alarmingly ..I was too upset to take a photo of it !
      I am happy to report that it is looking good this morning , after a cooler night .

Sunday 4 June 2017

Sunday and I am not giving up ! Gete - Okosomin Squash update :(


Well I,ve  been very sad ever since last Friday ...and my husband  has gone very quiet too ..... I have lots of flower seedlings to plant out and at last we,ve had some torrential rain which the garden so badly needed .


 I watch the rain thundering down on the extension roof  and think about my poor little seedlings . Why cant it just rain gently  ? .... tomorrow the forecast is for even more destructive windy weather ... I staked my newly planted out , baby Giant Sunflowers  .
They were in 4" plastic pots and have grown to about 4 foot tall , too tall really and already have a flower bud at the top . I,m thinking maybe to cut the flower buds off and prune them down ....maybe they will bush out and  have more flowers ...can you do that  ?


The rain stops , the sun comes out and I dash out to the greenhouse to open the windows and check on the Gete-okosomin cutting .

                                                        Waiting for roots .
It did seriously droop that first evening after the accident ,then looked better again next morning, then seriously drooped in the hot sun yesterday .
 This morning it has perked up again ...so I think it needs to be in a cooler place ...or cover with newspaper from the hot sun during the day . I might put it back into the Solar shed , it's a bit cooler in there .

                                                        Waiting for shoots .
Back outside in the new Gete - okosomin , Three Sisters , Keyhole  vegetable garden bed , I check to see how the bottom of the broken plant is doing . It had been in a big pot and had a massive root system going..alas..it was broken down to it's three cotyledon leaves and the one at the back is snapped too , but not completely and so I,m leaving it .
 The hot sun is shining down again and I gently mop up the rain drops on the surface of the leaves so prevent them from sun scorch .
 I,ve never done this before .
My recording of it here might help someone else too . So , I am not giving up !

Today I,m offering up prayers for all those caught up in last night's terrorist attack in London . My heart goes out to you . We are a beautiful happy and peace loving country and will continue to be .      Blessed are the peacemakers .

Friday 2 June 2017

Gete Okosomin sad news


 Devastated ! While I was putting the last post on , my husband went into the Solar shed and began watering the tomatoes....and knocked the stem of the Gete okosomin squash plant ...right down to the bottom  , snapped  .... there are only two leaves still attached , that third one fell off too .
 So fighting back tears ..I have tried to rescue it as best I can .


I have planted out the base of the plant..it has a really good  root system . I,m praying it will put out new shoots . ..but even if it does , we have been set back by a whole month  really .

The stem was really long and had about six buds . I decided to treat it as a cutting and immediately   used a little rooting powder in several places along the stem . Took off the flowers to hopefully put it's energy into making roots...I was going to lay the stem on the earth to trail about and sometimes pumpkins , squashes and courgettes will put down roots along the stem ..please please please put down roots !!!! .......... so sad ..fed up ....tears...

The New Key hole vegetable bed / Three Sisters Bed / Pumpkin Bed


 So last evening  I worked hard to get the chicken wire  fixed up around my new veg bed .
Not sure what to call this ...I originally called it the new Pumpkin Bed , I am growing a Squash  .
 I have been very inspired by Key hole Vegetable beds as people in drought stricken areas of Africa are being encouraged to make . Mine hasn't really got a key hole entrance as such , although there is a place for me to step in..it is very similar . I didn't need to build a wall around it , my main concern is to keep rabbits out .
  It could be called a "Three Sisters Bed " I suppose...it having Sweetcorn , Beans and Squashes , but I have planted a few other things in there with them though .


                             I made the woven basket watering hole in the middle .
I didn't have time to do the woven hurdle around the outer edge ,maybe I'll do that another day . I,m keen to get planting now .


 Difficult to see but here it is planted up with Sweetcorn in a large block around the back , nicotiana /tobacco plants  and  5 tall sunflowers for the bees . Cherokee purple tomato plants 3 ...a few Scarlet Kale ...Amish Onions ..some red onion sets..Daubenton's perential kale ..parsley ...Lavender , nasturtiums ,cosmos .


                  Picture of the other side where the sweetcorn is ...they are very small .


                                      This is how it looked last Autumn .


                                                    I,m as happy as can be !
So now , all there is left to do is  , sow a few dwarf French beans and plant out the  amazing Gete okosomin Squash waiting in the Solar Shed .