Long Mizzle Garden

 Hello m' cocks, Well, there's been a proper gale blowing here today at Long Mizzle. Gusts from the sea have been chasing up the tidal river, howling round the creek and whipping my poor plants in the face. Last week we had three Tree Echium spikes (Echium Pininana), now we are down to just one. This is a shame as I have been waiting three years for it to flower! Amusingly I  have been left with the more unusually shaped spire ;) Poor stem! Will the remaining spire survive the weekend? In the safety of the greenhouse, our of-of-date seed experiments have surprising results. The parsnip seeds, known for only having a two year viability, were sown haphazardly by our littlest and amazingly have sprouted.   The Globe Artichoke seeds were seven years old. The little plants are bound for my brother's allotment, but need to get a bit bigger and tougher. The red carnations are for my flower cutting patch. Unlike the stale, imported tosh you can buy in the supermarket - these ones...

 Hello m' dry Aprils, How are you doing? I shall keep my Long Mizzle correspondence relatively short and sweet this week. Less talking, more cuppa drinking, that's the way. I am worryingly behind on cuppa drinking and biscuit dunking. So have you got your cuppa? Brill. Let's see how the garden's growing today -  Forget-me-nots, 'Spring Green' tulips and apple blossom   Tree Echium Flowers Photinia 'Red Robin' in flower Forget-me-nots and Fennel Narcissus 'Rose of May' - beautifully scented! 'Green Wave' Parrot' Tulip Narcissus 'Smooth Sails' Last Friday I received a cardboard box through the post from Halls of Heddon, filled with little dahlia plugs. I loved the way they were wrapped in paper and sphagnum moss, as opposed to nasty plastic. The next day I potted them up and popped them on a window ledge. All of them perked up pretty quickly. Later on today, they will be graduating to the greenhouse.   What of the dahlia tubers ...