Hot moggies, thunder and rain
A happy mid-week to you,
What a hot week it has been. Here's Wonder Beast claiming the only cool part of the garden. As our temperature gauge on the back patio tiles hit beyond 50 C, Monsieur wanted to crack out an egg to see how quickly it would cook. Shame we didn’t have any.
I did manage to get a few fun, colour coordinated washes
in though. (When we first moved in, my mam said she could see our washing line from the other side of town, but the trees have since obscured this view)As I type, it has just started spotting with rain here, and with thunder storm weather warnings issued, it is no surprise the local farmers been hurriedly bringing in the hay.
I’ve been enjoying my week off with the kids and in between mowing, mulching and weeding duties, Long Mizzle continues to reward us with ripened greenhouse tomatoes, French beans and more courgettes and cut flowers than we can keep up with.
[Courgetti and home grown tomatoes]
This is the first year I've tried to grow Dahlias. Over winter, I created a new bed for them, using the cut down conifer trunks as a border. I forked over the ground as it was quite compacted, then filled it will semi rotted, collected leaves (I am usually too impatient to reach the all illusive leaf mulch phase).
This was then covered with home-made compost and topped with collected
seaweed. Seaweed has miraculous powers. Not only does it condition and enrich
the soil, it appears the cat beasts and mutant slugs do not like it at all!
[Dahlias 'Heatwave' and 'Totally Tangerine']
With my 'posh' tubers arriving from Sarah Raven, the rest were a handful of Lidl’s cheap & cheerful finest. They were started off in the greenhouse in February, half sunk in pots of gritty compost. Despite them all having had the same treatment, one tuber rotted in the greenhouse. By the end of March they rest were looking like healthy plants and were ready to be moved on (I don’t have to worry about frost too much in these parts).
Then lockdown happened. With the panic buying and empty supermarket shelves that ensued, I thought this was maybe not the best year to devote a bed to flowers (although Dahlia tubers can technically be eaten). Maybe, I thought, I should use up all my stored veggie seeds…even the dreaded cabbage… just in case we had to live on green sludge water.
I am so glad I persevered with my original plans, as the joy Dahlias have given me has been immense. They’ve also been great as cut flower presents for family, friends and neighbours.
This time
last year, my sunflowers were in full, fat headed glory. By the time we came back
from our week away, they had staggered over into our neighbour’s garden like a
drunk uncle. This year, I was late planting them out, but here's hoping they'll soon look like the ones I spotted in RHS Rosemoor's kitchen garden, this time last year...
Finally, I just wanted to share with you a couple of pictures taken in Penryn’s old town. The eldest & I went on a pasty hunt yesterday and I could not believe the amount of houses and shops that had plants growing in their windows.
One shop had a great arch of runner beans covering the door (a nice way to say 'closed for now'!). Another had little oak trees growing in old curiosity bottles filled with water. The eldest was not interested at all, as she had smelt the pasties and suddenly the pasties were all that mattered.
Hope you are keeping well and speak soon.
Please let me know if you are blogging too, I'll enjoy taking a look!
Lulu x
Latest posts here - https://longmizzle.blogspot.com
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