Tumbling Toms

Well the day started off cold , dull and wet , but in the afternoon I went to see Christines Mum and planted up her Tomato plants , she wanted some hanging basket liners and a couple of Tumbling Toms , Christine and I went to several garden centres but couldnt get them , we eventually saw them in Torwood garden centre in Larbert but to be honest I wouldnt have taken them if they had been going for free ! they were horrible excuses for Tomato plants , so we bought a packet of seeds and im going to grow them for her . Ive never grown Tumbling Toms before but im thinking of trying one out .
Yesterday James ( my son ) and I made up flower boxes from old bits of garden fence , I gave them a lick of paint and they will look great once they are filled with flowers , very little goes to waste around here if I cant use it I usually find a good home for it somewhere .
I bought a Recycling Bin last year and filled it easily so im looking forward to getting into it the next dry day we get and seeing what the compost is like .

Oriental Lily , Peony Rose and Delphiniums

The past few mornings have started off really cold but by afternoon turned out really nice , all the plants seem happy and healthy .
Ive been hoeing the garden and getting rid of the weeds before they get a grip , its really nice to see all the spring plants bloom , the Delphiniums and Peony Roses are coming on well .
I was in the £1 shop this morning and came across a Lilium ( Oriental Pink ) the box contained a pot and compost , it says its highly scented , Ive never grown one before but as I always say " il give it a go " , anyone who has grown them please let me know .
Ive also started off the Autumn Beauty Sunflowers this afternoon .

Begonia - Plug Plants.

The Big day has arrived ! my lovely little Begonias were delivered by the postman , they look great little plants all 160 of them .

Thank you to my hubby Eddie who gave me money at Christmas so I could spend it on the garden .
Ive not been doing much over the past couple of days , just making sure the Greenhouse is staying frost free and that everything is continuing to grow because it been very cold here , last night the temp dropped to around - 6 in some parts of Scotland brrrrr !
My Athritis has been bad and my poor wee dog has an ear infection .
I wish the better weather would hurry up and arrive .

Germination by Fish Tank .

Germination by Fish Tank .

The fish tanks have been great to get the seeds going ,I think its because the heat is constant and coming from the bottom of the tray , my son has two larger tanks in his room so im going to put them to good use next year ( as long as he hasn't moved out by then ! ) it will allow me to wait a while longer before I start seeds off ( yeh right who am I kiddin ? Eddie will have to tie me to a chair for that to happen ) .

Anyway the forecast Snow has arrived , its quite heavy but not lying on the ground as we keep having sunny spells in between the snow showers , what a funny country this is , all the seasons in one day !

Trailing Begonia's, Hyacinth, And Snow. 17 March 2007

17/3/07
Well its another dull cold wet windy day ! Snow is forecast for tomorrow and Monday and its to drop to as low as - 4 , lovely , just what we need .
I went Garden centre crawlin with Christine and her Mum ( what a lovely lady May is ) on Thursday the sun came out for us and it was a great afternoon .

I was really good ! didnt spend much money at all . I bought a liner for my hanging basket , 5 trailing begoinia tubers and a Hyacinth , ive got it in the Greenhouse , the perfume whacks me in the face as soon as I open the Greenhouse door , wonderful !

The Dwarf Sunflower seeds that I planted on the 2nd of March have all appeared , I potted them on this morning , dont know if you are supposed to pot them up , wont be long in finding out !

My bestest friend Jan wants me to help her this year do "something" with her garden ,its all grass and slabs at the moment , she is going to do all the hard work il just stand and look as if I know what im talking about and hope it all turns out looking good , lol . Ive started off another lot of seeds for this project , em ,where am I going to find room for them ?, havent a clue , will face that problem when we come to it .

Sunflowers Autumn Beauty

14/3/07

Cold but bright morning .

Got the greenhouse tidied out at last , I was starting to panic at these Begonia arriving and having no room for them , while I was busy I was thinking just how blessed I am with having the neighbours I have , I have an elderly Irish couple next door who are just the best neighbours anyone could wish for , Christine and George live at the other side ( im going to a garden centre with Christine tomorrow , oh joy ! )they are kind and always willing to help out , and last but not least Dot and Dave who's back garden joins on to mine , Dot and Dave gave me the greenhouse ! as they no longer needed it ,WOW ! what kindness ! Im sure they know the pleasure I get from it but I just want you both to know im so very very grateful . Thank you !

Only days after me telling Christine I couldn't grow Lobelia up it has sprung ! I think ive always been too generous with the water before , kept them quite dry this year .

Im going to start off some Autumn Beauty Sunflowers next week , they look great , got a pkt of seeds from Lidl 29p says there are 15 seeds in the pkt but ive counted 20 , you always get extra seeds in the Lidl seed pkts , they are great value , anyone else tried them ?

Charlie,. 11 March 2007

11/3/07
Its cloudy , cold and wet !! having to burn the heater all the time .
The Dahlia , Dwarf Sunflower, Morning Glory and Antirrhinum( Snapdragons) seeds have germinated, all looking good, I bought some Trailing Lobelia plugs from the supermarket yesterday £1.99 for 40 plug plants, used about half of them for the hanging baskets . A Fucshia that I was given by my neighbour Charlie Easton last year has started to show signs of growth, Charlie has been great at giving me advice, he grows the best Cucumber plants in the land, he wont let me into his secret of the mixture of his compost but he always has great looking plants, power to your green fingers Charlie for 2007 !!

Hanging Flower Bags/Pouches March 2007

7/3/07

Its a lovely morning , I worked in the Greenhouse most of the day , I started filling Jan ( my best friend ) and her Mums hanging baskets they look a bit scabbie just now but ive packed them with wee plants , Fucshia , Geranium Aristo lavender ,Geranium, Pansies and Ivy . Ive got water retaining gel and Miracle- Gro tablets ( 3 in each basket ) that feed the plants for 6 months in there so hopefully they should look good in a couple of months time . Still got to do my own one !! Filling up the baskets certainly freed up a lot of space on the bench im quite relieved because ive got 160 Begonia plug plants arriving from Jersey shortly and I didnt know where I was going to put them ! I was wanting to put the Begonia's in the hanging bag/pouches that I hang on the hut and clothes poles but ive been advised not to do that as it get too hot inside the bags and can sweat the roots ,has anyone else tried them in hanging bags ? Everyone seems to use Impatiens ! I would like to try something different, I had Petunias in the bags last year but they got so leggy and it can be quite windy here so they got broken and damaged and looked awful.
Just discovered today ( in Garden Answers ) that if your little tomato plants look a bit leggy you can plant them nearly right up to the lower leaf as they root from the stem , that gives them more stability , Wow ! I love learning new things .

Christine Walkden-Greenhouse.5 March 2007

5/3/07

Filled up the Paraffin Heater today It might well have lasted another couple of days but I didnt want to take the chance , the tank was quite low .It has lasted 12 days and has been on nearly all the time , its cost me about 32p a day to heat the Greenhouse .Im quite happy with that considering the amount of plants I have in there . People have been visiting my Blog AND im delighted to say my hero Christine Walkden has had a look at it , WOW did that make my day !!! she has a new book coming out on April 5th and her new TV Series starts on March 22nd on BBC 2 at 8pm, il be there , glued to the TV !

Sweetpeas 4 March 2007

Chillis, Tomatoes and Fuschias 4 March 2007

Spring Bulbs-1 March 2007

4/3/07
Last night was very cold and frosty ,I havent been able to put off the paraffin heater at all today , I got up early and put a bit more heating on in the greenhouse , I use tealight candles during the day its surprising how much heat these little candles give off they can really boost the heat , they burn safely in the lanterns for just over 4 hours and I buy a bag of 100 of them from Asda for £1.20 so they are nice and cheap to use .I nipped the top off the sweetpeas to make them bush up a bit , they have came on really well , maybe a bit too well , I didnt think they would grow so fast , they will be climbing up the greenhouse frame if they continue at this speed . lol.Yesterday I chose 10 Fushia cuttings to grow into standards , I had a go at this last year, started it off from a bit of Fushia that had fallen from a plant , it was a bit late in the year so it didnt manage to come into flower , I kept it in the cold greenhouse and it looks as if its starting to come back to life , its 46 inches in height and im hoping it will look good in a large pot with maybe bizzie lizzies round the base and maybe trailing lobelia ? Im just a beginner so everything is so new and exciting to me , I hope I never loose this buzz I feel everytime I go into the greenhouse , I just love it ! Have you ever seen Christine Walkden on TV ? I think she is brill and I just love the enthusiasm she has for growing things. I can so relate to that , she really has been my inspiration to give it a go .Please if you are reading this and liking at least some of it , let me know , Id love to hear from someone .



2/3/07
There was a frost last night but its a beautiful sunny morning .Started off some Dahlia's ( disco dancer ) Thunbergia ( salmon shades ) and some Dwarf Sunflowers ( Torch ) , haven't grown the dwarf sunflowers before but saw them in the garden centres last year and thought they looked nice so i'll give them a go .



1/3/07
Its a lovely day and the sun is shining , ive been out weeding and hoed in Growmore , its nice to be giving the garden its first feed of the year , most of the bulbs are starting to flower now and I just love the tete tate .
The greenhouse is looking good everything is growing well , I got Verbascum seeds free yesterday with the Amatuer Gardening magazine so I have sown a few seeds this morning to see how they grow in the garden .