Two word Tuesday

 

Pumpkins, smashing!

Getting seedy...

With my dinner cooking away in the oven, I decided to nip out a throw a few seeds about the place.  I started with Virginian stock.  I made a couple of lines at the end of a bed and disrupted the seeds, there not to far from were a lone stock that is there due to a broadcast two years previous.

In another flower bed, and once I'd performed the unsavoury task of removing cat droppings,  I made a uneven cross shape and scattered my Californian poppy seeds.  I've tried to grow poppies from seed before without success.  I am sure the black birds have them when my backs turned, either way I've kept some back to scatter over pots of compost at a later date.  Jobs done, I went back in to the house, thoroughly wash my hands and sat down to enjoy my slice of pizza :).

Two word Tuesday

Flowered, Hooray!

The fault in my garden

Hope everyone's having a great Easter, the weather here in East Yorkshire has ranged from sunny, cloudy to rain.  Either way I've been outside, done a bit of weeding and taken a snapshot of what's looking good at the mo.

My cowslip has grown very well, considering I bought it last year as 'miniature' rockery plant.  The pansies are the winter variety and have survived the frosts in one piece.  The only thing I am slightly disappointed in is the tulips.  The packet had promised me orange, so I was hoping for a more bright shade of tangerine.  Then again I think the colour I was after only exist in the mind of writer John Green.

If you wondering what I' am going on about I'll explain.  John Green is the author of 'The Fault in our Stars', a very moving novel about two teenagers with cancer who met at a support group and fall in love.  I won't give away the plot, but at one point the boy, Gus, gives Hazel a bunch of violently bright orange tulips as a gift. 

At 39 I am probably older than John Green's target market, however as a cancer survivor I found myself drawn to this book.  I had treatment for non- Hodgkin Lymphoma at 21, and fingers crossed I have been fit and well for sixteen years.  With that humbling thought in mind, I shouldn't be so hard on my tulips.  I should take a step back and admire all the red/yellow beauty they have to offer. :)

Breaking bad (or how not to split a canna)

Last year I bought a selection of red canna rhizomes from ebay.  I found only one flowered, but it put a lovely couple of displays in my boiling hot conservatory.

 

I am hopping this year for a repeat performance, and as there is a couple of new rhizomes in the pot, I've got my fingers crossed for twice the show.  So with that in mind I decided to set about the splitting the dormant plant.

 

Using an old bread knife was probably the best tool for the job.  The blade was blunt, my arm ached and with every sawing action I couldn't help but wonder that I was going to slip and catch my fingers.  Anyway I carried on cutting through the tough bulb, then at last I was left with two new plants and floor splattered with compost.

 

 

With them now potted up, there in my airing cupboard until I see the first signs of life.  With any luck I should have two for the price of one, either way I've got a knife that's not fit for cutting a bloomer loaf anymore!

More leggyness

What with the smoggy pollution misery in the first week of April, sun was somewhat limited and I definitely saw the side effects :-

My Cosmos has grown thin and my sunflowers are stretching themselves to the limit too.  I was probably a little premature growing these plants so soon, either way there here now and I'll look after them.  I've supported the sunflowers with small sticks and little butterfly clips used to support orchids.

The cosmos I'll re-pot when the husband out in the office, this is so he won't catch me when I eventually spill potting compost on the kitchen floor (it's only ever a smidgen so don't worry if your reading dear ;)

Freebies and my love of sunflowers

With a smidgen of space of my windowsill, I have decided to make a start on growing some seeds I have acquired through buying a certain magazine (You don't have to be Sherlock to guess which one ;D).

The viola seeds I've had for about a year, I was going to grow them last year for Autumn, but in the end I opted for wallflowers instead.

The red sunflowers are from last months magazine, I find I am like a magpie regarding sunflowers and pumpkins (which I tell you about at a later date.)  I love the different varieties and think this might stem from my childhood and my Sindy greenhouse.  The flimsy toy came with a collection of seeds including sunflowers.  The bigger the plant grew, the more I was fascinated.  How could such a small seed grow into something as tall as my Dad's garage?  From then on I grew them every year, courtesy of a seed or two from my hamsters food.  This however waned in my moody teenage years, but my love of sunflowers came back once I had a garden of my own.  The seeds are now courtesy of the garden bird's gru, as I longer have a hamster to steal from.  So along with these plus a smaller variety in my pot luck selection, I now have a red stunner to add to my borders this Summer.

 

It's all your fault Sindy...

Onions and Lettuce are big leggy...

A week on from planting my seeds and there is definitely signs of life, unfortunately sun shine has been limited so a few seedlings have been straining themselves to seek out some light.

My lettuce and onion plants have grown very leggy, so I decided to move them on into individual cells.  I have buried them deep in new compost in a bid to help them grow big and strong.

If anyone is wondering about my strange post title, it is a reference to an eighties song 'John Wayne is big leggy' by Haysi Fantayzee.

I don't know that much about them, I was about six or seven when they were on the go.  One thing I do know is that I was probably jumping round my parents living room to 'The Top of the Pops' performance I have posted a link to below. :D 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXu8hd49ZZM&feature=kp