The Knebworth Garden Show

Walnut trees - yum!

Pepe wooden furniture

High quality South African pine furniture was also a spot of luxury for any garden...

    

29th April, 2017

What a fabulous Show!

We made a family day out of the first day of the Garden Show and had a great 'daunder' looking at things I really love. It did, however, involve a bit of juggling with two small children and three adults with divergent interests. It was seamlessly organised, and we flashed a Blue Badge to get parked near the entrance, which appealed to my mother-in-law who is currently waiting for a knee op (rather than obviously to me, who knew how many thousand steps I would be doing on a day like this...)

Walking around the show area

I talked to lots of people today and it is incredible what info you can pick up! In Wanstead, a council allotment has a whole section that has been built with raised beds and wheelchair paths to enable people with disabilities to use the allotments. The lady who I was talking to did say she found it an area which always seemed really quiet and I countered that with the possibility that there was perhaps a shortage of able-bodied people to help others get to the allotment to which she agreed.

Many stands were offering show discounts...

Trying out a rocker at Pepe Garden Furniture

Other things we looked at was garden furniture, and we talked to the chap (I didn't get his name!) at Pepe Garden Furniture who told me that a lot of his products are used in sensory gardens at facilities used by people with mobility issues and autism. I sat on one of his chairs that rocked and could have stayed all day... lots of the stalls were offering Show discounts for pieces and part of me was wondering if it could be a birthday present? (Not until June though!)

A wooden swing at Pepe furniture.

Another personal issue we have in our house is flies! I worry about the use of fly spray so The Fly Trap Plants has provided us with an experimental purchase of a sarracenia pitcher plant, which will create fly trapping pitchers when the flowers have bloomed. I will watch that with bated breath!

We finished off our day at Knebworth with a visit to the children's area, where the girls spent ages on the steep (almost vertical) drop slides. I manage to cry off watching this as I get severe vertigo. Our ticket price can offset the price of Knebworth season tickets and we are tempted to do this...

I have some serious planting to do now as I knew that I would not resist the beautiful specimens, so I have brought home some luxurious hostas, sambucus Black Lace and phormiums... getting up early tomorrow!

Loads of plants to covet...

Weather Extremes in the UK

26th April, 2017

Snowing in April?

I've spent time living in Scotland, England, and the United States. Each have shown me weather extremes but having settled in Hertfordshire for seventeen years, I have enjoyed the best of English weather (mostly). However, the last few days have shown me examples of the extremes of living in the UK (and some similarities to the madness of MidWest America) and, to be honest, its a bit like being back in Scotland again.

Some of the things available in Poundland...

I bought some bargain plants this morning and I was thinking about writing about the cheapest places to buy them if you're willing to start small and treat them gently. There's a silver birch and a buddleia  I mentioned earlier, growing well in the back garden and I came back today from Wilkinson's, Morrisons, and Poundland with some hostas, an acer, wildlife seeds, heavy-duty gloves and a green bag for weeding. Excited, muchly.

and the plants in Wilko's aren't bad either. 

And then the skies opened and let rip with all nature of downfall; rain only being one version. And my inclination for planting disappeared... and then the sun came out and I thought the earth will be soft, so I got myself ready to go out... only to find the rain on again and heavier! To say nothing of the school phoning to ask why I hadn't (don't tell my other half!) picked up Squeaky...

Lightweight outdoor tubs.

Some of the bargains that made it home with me.

Weedkillers in Poundland.

Hoping, all my fingers and toes crossed that it gets a bit nicer again tomorrow or Friday for... Knebworth, here we come!

Knebworth Garden Show

Daffs and tulips at Ascott House, nr Leighton Buzzard

We have booked tickets and I am excited to see what information or new gadgets I can pick up! Buying plants is always something I want to do, but I must plan and not come home laden with plants that look lovely at the show but need an appropriate location dug out before they come home!

I could always look out for a new gadget to cut the grass (envisions riding home in a mower vehicle!) as I have got the name of someone who does do it occasionally but it's not cost-effective... I just wish that there wasn't restrictions on how much of my front lawn must be retained (living on the borders of protected properties, and in the original Garden City, means I have to maintain 50% of the front garden's grass... I don't like artificial grass so please don't suggest this!

I will also look out for a garden design program; the one I saw in Cambridge turned out to be a game! 😝 But with my new home office I could while away plenty of days between school pick-ups/drop offs, planning around what weeding needs doing.

I was excited when I first saw this in the bookshop but it is a gardening game!

Weeds, weeds, good for the heart!

23 April, 2017

Something always needing purged in either front or back gardens of this house...

Another April Sunday afternoon, and I kid you not, the damned dandelions are still taunting me! I pick these yellow perils and discover slimy snails hiding underneath the leaves or find the pendants of Mares Tail sprouting through the dying daffodils... Now that really is a terror in this front garden. I wish that I could compost these weeds but I fear putting them into a compost heap just establishes them even more but the green waste bin is only collected fortnightly and I can fill it easily in a few days.

There doesn't seem to be much we can do but grab each Mare's Tail spear as it shows and pull! I just hope they don't start appearing through the mossy grass (which isn't being cut because the lawnmower's cord was severed the last time I used it!) which also needs scarifying to keep the moss under control. Another job to fob off on the kids???

An incredibly invasive weed is Mare's Tail which has green spires. It's incredibly invasive...

Cutting out extra moss

Front grass is getting longer and hiding the moss. According to local rules, we should keep 50% of the front as grass. It's hard to keep under control while the lawn mower is broken... 

It's also been the time of year when Tick warnings start to appear, which can be the cause of Lyme Disease, a close MS-type disease. And I was bitten by a HUGE tick the summer I came back from the States when I also had lots of chigger or chagga bites when sitting on the grass in Kansas (I didn't follow the yellow bricks...). Oh, there are lots of things to contemplate while gardening these days!

Spot the fake flowers?

I was also featured on the MS Trust website to promote National Gardening Week and if I can work out how to post the link I will add it here but its called 

Gardening and MS: 'Gardening helps me to unwind'

April has been busy!

20 April, 2017

Recycling and hoping

It has been a busy old month of April, and despite being sunny, it has not warmed up over Easter like we had hoped. Now there is a rogue forecast of snow in the next week! Do I need to panic and cover the delicates? I seriously hope not! 

We have reused an old shed in our garden and unpacked things we've had in storage boxes. There is the hope amongst my little ones that it can be slept in overnight: watch this space! Two little clematis were planted by that shed and now they'll be bookmarked by the sea-green painted shed. D located proper locks and handles on other sheds which could be repurposed and reused.

  

The garden section of the DIY centre had a deal on with two pots of coloured shed/fence paint so it meant we had a little left over to allow my girls to paint the slightly tired wooden furniture around the garden. 

Still working on moving the old concrete bin, but it really has been neglected so it has some really good leaf mould and some really rotten twigs that seem to be impossible to break down. I will have to get some kind of compost tumbler machine. 

  

After the early Easter Holidays, I feel I need a rest to recover, so it might be a bit of reflection for the next couple of posts while I watch the weather forecasts! Happy gardening!

Dandelions: a post for the weed

https://www.facebook.com/lovethelawofattraction/videos/1327219617398174/

April, 2017: April Fool's Purging

April 1st/2nd, 2017

Dandelion cull day!

If there's one thing I hate with a vengeance it's dandelions! If a word could be my go-to word for an alternative swear word it is my nemesis of the garden, dandelion!

So I decided to avenge myself of the yellow perils on April Fools Day!

It's not quite as simple as pulling off the flowers, I know, as they can rejuvenate themselves from tiny fragments of the entire plant and they have the longest tap roots which can also regrow from the smallest chunk. Anyone with a foolproof recipe for a dandelion killer that doesn't involve glyphosate chemicals, please let me know. My parents drank dandelion coffee substitute for years and my brother also told me dandelion root tea is a marvellous healer - not for me, thanks!

I filled several bucketfuls today with dandelions and other weeds with similar tenacious natures and feel quite good for taking out several chunks including parts of the roots.  

Children's Sections 

My girls have decided that they want to have their own sections of the garden, so we are looking at developing little areas for them and taking up some of the football pitch we have is an easy choice for me. We got some new plants today so we have to make areas fit for planting in a few days or they might lose interest. 🙂

We might not agree on the colour schemes I would choose but again, if I want them to remain interested, I am going to have to compromise.

We have done some sweet little curved beds for the girls and planted them up with ceonothus and echinacea, agapanthus, and anemones as well as a couple of plants the girls chose whose names escape me... cone flowers? Again that  I was watching Monty Don extolling the bee friendliness of these particular plants last night makes me feel sure that my quotient of bee friendly plants v dandelion purging is at a happy medium, after another friend on Facebook directed me to a Guardian article that said we should try and keep dandelions for the amount of wildlife that rely on them.

PPS: A day has passed. A day! Already there are at least 10 dandelions in their glorious goldenness winking at me around the front and back gardens, so much for a purge. I will retreat to my chair, take off my glasses and be quite unable to see any while I rest my weary bones...