Long Mizzle Garden

 Hello m' cherubs, The seed sowing season is upon us. Much like my coordinated washing, I like to sow in themes of colour. Please don't be fooled into thinking I do all the garden jobs by myself. It is important to delegate. I've actually been actively training up the littlest one. Hopefully I'll be able to get some extra feet up time, with an endless supply of hot tea. The biggest one is currently chief tea making apprentice.  That's all for today folks. The sofa, granny blanket and a good book are calling. Please send gossip via courier pigeon. Lulu x   More recent blog posts can be founds here -  https://longmizzle.blogspot.com/

 Hello m' foxtrots, Do come in, I've got t' kettle on and I'm raiding the biscuit bunker.... I wonder if those in the northern hemisphere are missing garden programs on TV? It is always a sad moment once I've watched the very last Gardeners World and Beechgrove Garden of the year on BBC iPlayer. Monsieur, on the contrary, does a celebratory dance. He feels like he has his TV back for wrestling, horror flicks and guitar shreds. Oh how I dream of a straight forward 'job for the weekend', such as simply planting bulbs in pre-prepared pots full of  fresh crumbly compost. My version of planting bulbs involves a big shuffle of many steps. 1) Make room in the greenhouse for the overwintered cannas:  Old pots are tidied away into the storage box (this hides behind the greenhouse).    Some plants come into the house, such as the ginger and the chilies.   On a side note - I am feeling pretty smug that my ginger tuber, brought from Wilkos for just a couple of pounds b...

 Hello m' fiery crusts, With each growing season, it is fun to try something different at Long Mizzle. This year I thought I'd have a dabble with dry flowers. Technically all flowers can be dried, but some fare better than others. If hung upside down, nicely spaced in a warm, dimly lit place, they are more likely to retain their colour and shape.  As I am yet to erect a proper drying rack (or slung twig more like), some have started to festoon the living room druid tree - turned skeletor lamp shade.  Above: Statice (Limonium sinuatum) The Statice was very easy to grow, with lovely sturdy fluted stems and indigo flowers. The mutant molluscs seemed to leave it alone. I wish the same could be said of the Strawflowers - many young plants succumbed to the munching marauders. Aren't the papery flowers wonderful though !? Above: Strawflowers (Limonium sinuatum) In addition to the Cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus) and Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena), which self seed freely here, ...

Alreet m' glossy dahlias,   Well I've been eagerly waiting for them to all pop out so I can give you a proper update on this year's Dahlia patch....Do you have your preferred tipple ready??? The sun is shining and I've started early on a classy Buck's Piss, with plenty of ice cubes to crunch when no one's looking. Back in March, the idea was to plant a small cut flower patch inspired by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (original post here -  Flowers for Frida ).   Frida vase (a birthday pressie from Ol' Glass Eyed Mumrah) The small rooted cuttings that arrived in the post (from Halls of Heddon) all grew strongly and I just had to then battle with the slugs and snails. Twice they were completely gnawed down to the ground. I persisted and luckily they re-sprouted.     Yet again, my overwintered tubers were not a complete success. A couple of tubers didn't sprout at all and ended up rotting. Sadly, this meant loosing my favourite  'Totally Tangerine'....

Hello m' sunnies, Well I wasn't going to do a post this week, but the weekends don't quite feel right without a little blogging. So here's my first venture in to making a wee garden video: one take - no posh kit, retakes or editing allowed. That eats into revision time, plus more importantly, tea drinking and biscuit dunking time. I just wanted to show you the Sweet Williams, 'Crystal Lemon' cucumbers and Dahlia bed.   I meant to say in the video that the little pot was for collecting white beach pebbles tangled up in the seaweed. Also that 'Love Lies Bleeding' (Amaranthus caudatus) is an annual flower, adored by some florists and it has velvety, deep red, long tasseled flowers, hence its very dramatic name.               Above: 'Love Lies Bleeding' and Tagetes being planted out     Above: Frida's  Dahlia bed    Below: 'Hadrian's Midnight'   In between bashing my daft bonce with revision notes and pacing round the ...