My Glasshouse Needs Me...
My Glasshouse
Aargh! My glasshouse needs me. My garden needs three times as many flowering annuals as I'm growing. Three times as many gaps in the borders? Or perhaps my expectations are tripling each year? Whichever it is, the mathematics is of some concern.
Saturday 10th November
Oops - I haven't had time to do any seedling work yet. I've been to a country fair. Non-Gardening Partner kindly gave me a cash float so I bought three tomato plants (golden cherry, black cherry, and tommy toe) for the vegetable garden. So restrained! When you think of the temptations of all those country craft stalls, I reckon a strictly-gardening partner is fairly cheap to run!
More Nursery Time
I need to spend more time on my nursery production, that's for sure! My seedling output has been rather odd this year. I have over three hundred verbascum seedlings (both white and strawberry pink hybrids). OK. I promise to try not to commit too much verbascicide! I'll eventually plant them en masse (en big masse) in the Hen House Garden. Will they flower this season, though? Who knows. And only two tomato seeds germinated, which is not a good return at all.
To balance this, the pansies have been particularly sluggish. I collect my own seeds, and I enjoy the hybridising that my resident bees do. It's all yellow, white, and blue - nice! But I do wonder - where have all the seedlings gone?
And my one packet of seeds, purchased from a reputable supplier, called 'Historic Pansies'? They haven't make any contribution to the history of my flower garden!
Duck Issues
It's now early evening the cottage, and a mallard duck has turned up on the pond with six ducklings. Foolish, foolish duck! It's a hopeless situation - the duck squawks, various cats cruise by to see what the noise is all about, so the duck keeps squawking, and then another cat appears... Please, mother ducky, keep those ducklings safe in the middle of the pond.
Verbascum Hybrid
Sunday 11th November
Aha! Today I've spent the whole day (six hours!) 'doing' seeds and seedlings. I've planted trays and trays of Cosmos and Salvia. I've shifted other flowers outside to harden off. I have been in serious production mode.
204 Verbascum Plants!
I've pricked out cornflowers, strawflowers, and verbascums - lots and lots of verbascums. Two hundred and four Verbascums, actually, and I did cheat a bit, throwing away the little ones. Mad! I've also sown lots more seeds (nicotianas, basil, and lettuces). My glasshouse has seen quite a lot of me!
My zucchini and tomato plants (and more peas and beans) have been planted in the vegetable garden. It's peaceful working near my brick herb spiral, which dominates the vegetable garden space nicely, in the most approachable, gentle way (this sort of makes sense). I just can't resist checking it out and taking yet more photographs, each from slightly different angles. Of course at this early stage of its planting my pictures all tend to look the same...
Herb Brick Spiral and Roses
+3
+3Minimus my grey cat considers the glasshouse part of 'her' garden. She's been popping in and out to check up on me. Big Fluff-Fluff has also been lurking nearby, quietly attentive. Whenever I've moved to another garden location, he's moved too. Silly cats! I remind myself that Fluff-Fluff's paws were responsible for giant craters all over my (blue) Lobelia and (lemon yellow) Antirrhinum seedlings - luckily their need to grow has proved stronger than his crushing bulk.
View From Pond Cottage
+5
Now I'm sitting in the cottage armchair, fairy lights twinkling outside in the darkness, listening to the rain on the roof. Thankfully my pond is mother-duckless. Minimus is curled up in her cat basket, while ginger Percy is sitting hunched up, ever-cautious, on the window sill. Thank you, lovely Percy, for visiting me here in the cottage again, but not presenting me with a deceased duckling...
Perfect Timing
It's raining gently but steadily, with minimal wind. This is wonderful for all my vegetable seeds and my newly planted flowers. Yippee! I'm so glad I've done my glasshouse work. Sometimes, just sometimes, I have perfect timing.