Long Mizzle Garden

 Hello m' slim shadies, After a two day heatwave shattered UK records, my trusty Glass Storm Barometer warned me that a storm was imminent. The next morning I woke to a drastic drop in temperature, thunder and lightening. Climate change has officially arrived, just as the scientists said it would all those years ago. Sadly environmental scientists don't rule the world, knobbers do.  Above left - barometer in fine weather | Above right - rapid ascension of blue liquid in snozzle means approaching storm (see monkey blog post here for more detail). If it pees, batten the hatches! Below: Down by the morning cool, Penryn Marina  Whilst the holiday makers were rollicking in the sun on the beach, I was crunching on ice cubes, taking shade where I could. Obviously all the parasols had sold out, so a little improvisation was required for the top patio -    Approaching storm after the heat -  Very little gardening happened during the heat . Contrary to what Monsieur...

Hello, hope you had a good weekend. Aren't zinnias just lovely, especially with croissants and home made jam. What you can't see, just out of shot, is the most important element...a big pot of drinkable tea! I love to put Zinnias in a simple tin can (as below), but I've been a bit keen with the recycling.   So into the posh teapot they went: Zinnias, Calendula, Verbena Bonariensis, Cosmo, Californian Poppies, Verbena Bonariensis and the possibly the last of the Anemones. Plus, a new flush of self-seeded Cerinth Major 'Purpurascens' has magically appeared in the cutting patch. Having battened down the hatches for some wild, stormy days, we awoke this morning to light wind and sunshine. Wearing our very best rabbit teeth, we ventured out into the garden as today's mission was carrots. Previously, my best attempt at growing baby carrots was in an old toddler's sandpit. As our vegie beds are predominantly no-dig, I am reluctant to sow carrots in the ground as...

Hello there, well that thunder and rain we were warned about didn't happen here. We just got a couple of mizzly mornings and today has been a tropical blaze again.     [ Morning mizzle over Penryn River] I hadn't yet finished my Saturday morning cuppa, when the kids ventured out brandishing scissors (o-oh!), playing a 'let's go to the garden centre' game. This kicked me into action, as I wanted some flowers for my mam and already they had started to dead head the best blooms.       I ran out and picked all the best ones before they could! They each cut and arranged a jar for Monsieur, upstairs still in bed. I said they could have the pick of the Californian Poppies, Calendula and Sweet Peas.   One thing all this heat and humidity has brought us this week... the dreaded tomato blight. This is absolutely the last time I try tomotoes outdoors! The ones inside the greenhouse are doing fine, fingers crossed. Here you can see the blight on the stem and ...

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....