Mercury and sap are rising
Hello m' giny tonics ,
Any moment now the emergency gin and tonic should be kicking in. Sloe berries collected from an autumn day's walk, steeped in gin, a Christmas present from my brother and sister-in-law- I have done well not to open it until now. It has just been one of THOSE weeks: corrupt iPhone, family sickness, broken washing machine (mid sloppy cycle). There's just three - no more please!
I had a glorious day in the garden yesterday. Miss Amaryllis joined me on the patio for an early morning cup of tea -
By midday the mercury was so high, I had to take shelter in in the cool of the house. All afternoon, I kept popping out in between ice cube laden drinks, doing little stints in my straw sun hat, some weeding here, planting there, timely tracking the shade across the garden. My water butt dried up weeks ago, so any plantings were watered in using grey water.
The succulents are out of the greenhouse
Drought tolerant sea thrift in the shallowest part of the pit (old pond - see here for the full story ).
This year I am trying to get the thirstier, hungry plants into the ground, such as the cannas and dahlias. Here they are planted in the veg bed (dahlias hiding under the glass cloches) -
To conserve water, I'm aiming for primarily succulents in pots, which are much more drought tolerant.
Though I am giving the dark blue strawberry / herb planter one more chance to prove its worth with edibles in the form of strawberries, chives and pansies -
The sap is rising strong and fast this May. Almost overnight, the trees are thickly green.
In the words of Ferris Bueller -
'Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while you could miss it'.
I hope that you are having a wonderful week. Please send gossip.
Lulu xXx
Thank you for visiting!
Most recent posts can be found here - https://longmizzle.blogspot.com/
Are you still here? From the music archives - the Pink G-R-EASE are gonna make you sweat!
G'day g'day G'day old chuck. That gin and tonic sounds gorgeous and I love your gardening style... Find a spot and bung it in. I start out with nice patches of this and that then discover a stray seedling.. No idea what it might be so bung it in anywhere. Could be sprouts and could be kale. I have self sown parsnips popping up all over the place. Don't listen when people tell you that they don't take kindly to transplanting. Mine love it and I'll do a video tomorrow when I get home from work.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cherie, glad you like 'seek and bung' gardening style ;) Interesting about the parsnip transplants. I look forward to your youtubery :) Sending you a pink G&T xXx
DeleteIt's all looking fabulous, Lulu. Sometimes only a good old G & T will hit the spot. I hope you have a slightly less fraught week. Extra rain butts are a good idea but it's finding room for things that's the problem. I had to donate a Trachycarpus to my sister in law as once I repotted it and another palm and a cherry and an apple tree, it was too big for my little space *sigh*. Oh well, it will be happy with her.
ReplyDeleteHave a good week
Best wishes
Ellie
That G& T the spot very quickly Ellie (I haven't had a drink since Christmas!). It is very annoying when space runs out, but good to hear your trees went to a good home AND you'll still be able to see them grow :) You have a goodun' xXx
DeleteMorning, Lulu! You deserved a G'n'T after all that hassle. Booze and a wander around the garden are the best balm anyone could ask for.
ReplyDeleteLong Mizzle is looking glorious. xxx
Thanks Vix, yes I was like a housebound, no technology slightly tipsy washer woman. Gods bless the garden and its bountiful dirt xXx
DeleteYou certainly deserved that G'n'T after the week you've had.
ReplyDeleteYour garden is looking glorious and wow, isn't Miss Amaryllis a stunner!
The mercury quickly rises to great heights in Dove Cottage as well, in fact, I can only do a spot of planting in the morning or late at night. We're so lucky here to have our own well, from which water can be pumped up in our bathroom. That does mean lugging around watering cans, but with our garden being handkerchief sized that's not much of a problem and I do need the exercise :-)
Here's to hoping this week doesn't bring any more problems! xxx
Wow, you have your own well Ann!!! That's amazing! Now I want one :0 :) That must save a lot on utility rates. I don't normally drink G& T but it did do the job and help put things into perspective ;) Thanks and happy hot gardening xXx
Deletethanx for the cool music! exactly what i needed today :-D
ReplyDeleteyour had a rough week indeed - thanx goodness there is gin with a bit of berry aroma..... now i´m eying up my strawberries in wodka from last year.......
long mizzle looks asolutely gorgeous!!!!!
its hot here too now - thankfully it rained a bit yesterday so no watering today. but i hear you. whats about a gravity driven system? install a big IBC tank (1000l) unter the downspout in front of the house and then let the water run via hose into strategically placed butts down the garden??? at least its what i do - and BWH garden is way flatter then long mizzle - the IBC tank stands in front of the house because reasons - and is covered in a reed mat for esthetics..... with this system i can store 1800l and have the water where i need it - in the backyard where the veggi beds are.
xxxxx
Oh yes, a good drink and some glam rock, takes me back X amount of years Beate ;) I am very impressed with your gravity driven water storage system. Unfortunately I don't have side access (terrace house) BUT this has given me an idea to possibly construct a covered area on the top patio and pipe the run off down to the bottom - so thanks for that :) :) :) xXx
Deletep.s. Pink Grease were an incredible band to watch live... they just absolutely went for it ! An old housemate was friends with a couple of them and insisted we go and watch them. Sometimes housemates know best.
DeleteYou've been very busy in the garden and your photo's are lovely. We had heavy, prolonged rain today first "proper"rain for weeks.
ReplyDeleteI've been planting lots of things out now but up here there's still the risk of frost. My canal project is occupying a lot of time too. Enjoy this week, and your gin! 😮 🐢
Thank you David :) We had a very good douse of water this morning too! So much so that I stayed in and did my finances and house chores - which is completely unheard of! I'm coming over soon to see if there are any more canal updates - I have been enjoying your posts .... xXx
DeleteI could do with one of your sloe gins Lulu! I hope this week is going more smoothly for you. Miss Amaryllis is looking sublime, as is the rest of your garden! We have a similar issue in relation to water and a water butt isn't really the answer for us either. With the latest predictions of food shortages, you might well have hit upon something - dahlia mash could become a thing. The Pink G-R-EASE are definitely feeling the music in that video aren't they? :-D Fabulous! xxx
ReplyDeleteGlad you like Pink Grease Claire, they were such a good live band! Oh yes, I am eyeing up lots of things in the garden that I wouldn't normally try to eat - including baby hawthorn leaves! I may do a wee video series on eating the garden ;) Thank you, this week is running a bit smoother xXx
Deletep.s. sending you a sloe gin too :)
DeleteHi there Mrs Ice & Slice, bet that g&t went down well, I too like an occasional tipple in the garden. I didn't know you have no outside tap and no more than a water but and a bit of grey water to keep that fabulous garden going, I am suitably impressed. You have such an array - little beetroot seedling envy here as I just don't have the space to grow but love a raw beetroot in my salad. Sorry about the washing machine, iphone and family sickness - these things come in threes so they say. I have a streaming cold and luckily worked from home this week (I work in a call centre and they were only too happy to see me drive home on my break and take my germs with me!) amazingly I am doing a bucketload of overtime despite as I can just fall into bed after - come to think of it I could actually do my job sitting up in bed ha ha!! I planted a couple of dahlia, inspired by your previous success - can't remember where I put them. I llike that Pink G.r.Ease video, I love a bit of glam rock and posing popstars :) Gossip here is that we are about to fly off for a week of sunshine and leave cat, garden and house in the hands of youngest son and about 50 zillion of his friends no doubt :)
ReplyDeleteOooh Betty, you can't beat a tipple in the garden! All the better with some good tunes on the wireless. I do love beetroot - the root and leaves - delicious. iPhone fixed (I can't seem to organize my life without one :0), new washer dryer on the way, sickness over :) I hope your cold is better and that you have an absolutely wonderful time in the sun :) Plus I hope the house survives! ;) xXx
DeleteMiss Amaryllis looks wonderful company, with or without a G&T. As for water, unbeknown to us, we had a leakage just on our boundary and a very large bill was popped through our door. Quite scary but it appears that you don't have to pay for water lost, through a leakage, on your property, for the first time which was a relief. Anyway that's boring - thanks for the lovely post and wonderful photos, most uplifting - all good wishes.
ReplyDeleteShe's a bit of a glamour puss, that Miss Amaryllis. We too had a mutant water bill and were worried that we had a leak. After some investigations monitoring meter readings, we found there wasn't a leak but the water company had estimated the cost and overcharged us £585 on the quarterly bill!!! Good to know they didn't charge you for the leak Mike :) xXx
DeleteYour garden is spectacular. So many lovely plants. I hope those are good companion plants, I must admit that I don't know much about that. We planted strawberries last year but we didn't have luck with them....I'm not sure what we did wrong.
ReplyDeleteThank you Ivana :) :) :) I've since looked up companion plants for strawberries and whilst onions and chives are good, tomatoes are bad ! :0 :0 :0 Naughty me - they may have to be moved on. This is the last year I am growing strawberries in this old pond bed - they have been happier in other parts of the garden where there is richer, more moisture retentive soil. They are greedy but sun-loving plants! Sometimes it can take a year to establish strawberries, so if you still have them, it is certainly worth an other try xXx
DeleteI guess we all have a our local problems with trying to grow things in our gardens. You have drought, I have loads of rain but very cool temperatures and often not enough sunshine to ripen stuff. We all have to grow things that suit our local conditions! Your garden is looking wonderful.
ReplyDeleteYou're right SM, we have to pick our battles and inappropriate plants should never be one of them ! Now, if you could just pipe down a bit of your rain from up country, so I can refill my water butt, that would be lovely thank you. Sending you some sunshine :) xXx
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