Busy-Lizzie

Seeds

Violas are hardy, they are used for winter planting. Sweet peas and lettuces are hardy, but if they've been used to being warm then get them used to outside slowly, just day time to start with.

What's the weather like in your area?

Raining today, oh well, can't have it all.

MOB rants

Carrot cake is a lot nicer than "pain d'epices" which is dry and hard with a strange flavour. And you should try "andouillette"  - offal sausage - yuk!

Now a rant.  My hotmail has been changed to Outlook.com and now I can't download attachments, which is essential as I'm a church warden of the C of E here. (If you're anti-religion, please don't say anything, each to his own).

Success and Failures ...

Strange, Artjak, I can grow peas, but not Sweet Peas. I think it's too hot here in summer. Can grow coriander, but it goes to seed quite quickly. Last year it seeded itself all over the herb bed and part of the potato area.

Can grow eremurus, but when it's finished there is a bit of a bare patch. It's huge spidery roots take up quite a bit of space. I'd probably forget to water it if I put something in a pot there. Pots need watering every day in the summer and I have lots on the terraces. Including a dwarf rhododendron in acid compost that I can't grow in the alkali soil.

I thought last year's delphiniums hadn't survived so I bought more and now the others are all coming up!

Fork Handles

Morning all. Raining.

My Hotmail has changed to Outlook.com and now I can't download attachments. Don't know what to do. Apart from go to the GH and prick out seedlings.

What's the weather like in your area?

It's been a lovely day today, blue sky, sunshine 16°, it was like that on Friday too. Sunday was a bit chillier and greyer, but the last few days have been definitely springlike. 

Lavatera

They bloom on new growth. I cut mine down each spring.

MOB rants

Parts of France are beautiful, but the public loos leave a lot to be desired - if you can find one. They are gradually changing them from holes in the ground to proper loos. Rare to find loo paper. French people always have a roll of pink loo paper in their cars. The French are much less inhibited than the English and don't mind men and women sharing loos. They look on the human body as a normal thing that everyone has - which I think is quite sensible. The public loos in my local town, Périgueux, are now those self cleaning stainless steel ones, push a button to enter - but they are often out of order!

Success and Failures ...

I can't grow acid loving plants or plants that are borderline hardy. Can't grow evergreen ceonothus. Lavender and rosemary grows well. Heleniums wouldn't grow in one bed then I tried them in another and they grew well. Cyclamen hederofolium have taken off under a tree.

is will you use the extra hour next weekend

Caz showed me a useful tip when you aren't getting emails. You go to "latest posts" and on the right it says "view followed threads" or something like that and you can see the threads you've been following.

Gardens we have visited 2013

no emails as well as small text

Cleaning greenhouses

Rose pruning and frost

reviews

Why did you all start gardening?

uploading photos