Long Mizzle Garden

  Danger danger, my pots have erupted! I'm calling them Mount Vesuvius Pot #1 and Mount Vesuvius Pot #2. Both pots contain Cannas, which I removed from the greenhouse and split up in spring. This is the first year they have flowered for me and so they should, as I have spoiled them with with lashings of water and a weekly liquid tomato feed. I think they were too squished where they were previously. [Penstemon Volcano 'Etna', Canna lost label, Cosmos bipinnatus 'Sonata'] The Penstemon flower buds were ready to pop when I purchased them from Falmouth Garden Center in early summer. Being a thrifty tight arse, I sliced them clean in two and trimmed them right back.  It seems this rough treatment worked, as now I have two lovely plants as opposed to one, albeit flowering a bit later.    [Penstemon Volcano 'Etna', Canna lost label, Gypsophila muralis 'Tenny Deep Rose] Mount Vesuvius Pot #1 has pink Cosmos in it, purchased not long after the start of lockdown ...

It is that time of year where we would normally be on a road trip to our neighboring county of Devon, to meet up with friends. Last year we stayed in a vintage caravan on a hidden farm in Devon and the kids absolutely loved it. We even got to visit RHS Rosemoor, which was wonderful for both my plant fix, but it also had brilliant children’s play areas.  With concerns over Covid, we've decided to stay at home this year. We are lucky that whilst avoiding the most popular beaches and tourist hotspots on a hot weekend such as this, there are still plenty of things to do. My dad gives me the report on how busy the Falmouth beaches are following his daily bike ride. The general verdict: "bloody packed".   Enter this weekend’s entertainment ....A fifteen year old, 3 man music festival tent! After a bit of huffing by Monsieur and myself, re-threading the pinged elastic on one of the poles, then re-threading it AGAIN (just as Monsieur was about to tie a knot in it, it sprung b...

Good morning, and what a beautiful one it is too. As it looked to be another scorcher, I opened the greenhouse door before 8am (already at 30 C), spot checked the overnight slug damage to the sunflowers, brought down the big watering can full of last night’s shower water run-off and watered the patio plants. Then I got straight on to cutting flowers and deadheading spent ones.   The red and ‘totally tangerine’ dahlias are looking great, but all the white cactus ones are annoyingly being nibbled. I cut every single sweet pea flower I could find, being careful not to disturb the silvery spider webs.      [Sweet Peas]   For filler I picked fennel and feather top grass, but as the Oregano is past its best, I am today trying the evergreen foliage of Photinia red robin.    [Feather top grass and Fennel growing by the willow arch]   A total of six jam jars were filled and placed in our cool north facing kitchen, ready for arranging later....

Hello and welcome to Long Mizzle, [Pink cosmos, cannas, blue agapanthus] Our Cornish garden did not always have a name.  For seven years it had just been known as 'the garden'. Then towards the end of June 2020, our littlest sprog & I tipped out some potatoes that had been planted in bags on March 23rd, the start of lockdown. We rinsed and dried them, marvelled at the 'world's smallest potato' (this is a game we often like to play), popped the most sensible sized ones into a brown paper bag, labelled it 'new potatoes from Long Mizzle Garden - grown in seaweed from Swanpool' and handed them to my dad for his birthday.  [Pink cosmos, cannas, blue agapanthus] Well, my mam just loved how the name co-incidentally sounded like Monty Don's 'Long Meadow' ...because, you know, I hadn't thought of that name play at all, being a massive Gardener's World fan!!! ;) For those not familiar with the word 'mizzle' - it is a lovely light ra...