Flowers everywhere!

Spring has really taken hold on me!  This weekend (another beautifully sunny one), I cleared a little space in the greenhouse and started sowing seeds.  I must confess that I didn't clear the greenhouse out completely - just enough space for me to stand and to work.  Got to leave a little job for another weekend, yes?

I found these shallow pots to do the initial sowing of some snapdragons and rudbeckias.  They'll get individual little pots later, when they've germinated and are big enough to handle.

 These are the rest of this weekend's sowings - they don't look much like this...

 ... but this is going to be the end result, hopefully.  Sunflowers (short, multi-headed ones), stocks, begonias (seeds like dust!), ageratum, rudbeckias, sweet peas and snapdragons.  I have to keep these lovely pictures in mind while the seeds are germinating, because nothing's happening right now.  (Only sowed them yesterday, of course nothing's happening yet.  Even though I keep going to look...)

 In the meantime, pretty gardening gloves.  I'm not really a pink and white girl, but these are light enough for me to feel what I'm doing and waterproof enough to keep my hands clean.

 This is what I'm planning to plant the seedlings into when they sprout.  They're cardboard pots that can be planted out as they are, and rot in the soil without disturbing the plants.  Once I'd bought them, I remembered you can do the same thing with eggboxes, so I've saved some of those too.

 The seed trays are on the shelves in the extension, soaking up the light from the Velux window.  My little crochet hanging birds are watching over them.  No eating the seeds, birdies!

 So if my seeds aren't flowering yet, I can still have flowers!  I'm trying to choose light summer colours for these flower brooches, and I've used some slowly variegating yarns, so that each layer is different without changing the yarn.  I've borrowed a pattern from Lucy of Attic 24 for this bit - her beautiful Triple Layer Flower pattern - and then I add fabric, ribbons, beads and buttons to make them all unique.  Many thanks to Lucy for sharing her patterns!

And even more flowers, using the granny flower pattern this time.  These are for some bunting.  I have lots of different colours of Paton's 4 ply 100% Cotton, and I'm planning to make a few flowers in each of those colours, before mixing them up to make bright strings of flower bunting with randomly mixed colours.  I'm not very good at 'random', so that might be a bit of a challenge.  Maybe throwing them all in the air and seeing how they land will work for that...

Planting alpines

It's been a glorious weekend!  What a relief after such a wet winter!

We've brought spring indoors this year, with these three little plant pots.  We fill them with spring bulbs - miniature narcissus, and now some grape hyacinths.  

There's a trough of flowers in front of the porch, full of pansies all winter, and now the bulbs are doing their thing.  I know realise that I planted crocus bulbs along one side of the trough and daffs along the other, with the intention that the daffs would be at the back, and I put the trough down the wrong way round.  Crocuses at the back.  *sigh*  It's too heavy to turn around now, and in any case, the daffs would all be looking at the wall if I did turn it round.  The crocuses will just have to remain a little secret...

It must have been a bumper weekend at the garden centres, with the lovely weather.  We certainly did our share!  We got a lovely new rose to climb up our arch.  This one's got a great reputation for beautiful flowers and disease resistance.  

We got this lovely tub a few weeks ago.  It's wide and shallow, so I immediately thought of alpines.  I love alpines - they're like perfect little jewels.  We put the tub on bricks to make sure it can drain properly.  Remembered to do that before filling it - a small but important point!

Compost for alpines needs to be really free-draining.  It's almost half-and-half compost and grit.  I always think it looks like a fruit cake mix when it's right.  (Don't ask about my fruit cakes.  They're probably about as edible as the contents of the alpine pot!)

And here it is planted up!  Saxifrage, sedums, variegated aubretia and houseleeks.  Little jewels, set off by a covering of coarse grit to help the drainage.

We did have another little trough with houseleeks in it, that was falling to bits.  Himself made it from a recipe given out by Geoff Hamilton on Gardeners World years ago.  A pretend stone alpine trough.  It doesn't last as long as stone, but twenty years or so is reasonable, I suppose.  I took the houseleeks out and replanted them in a little pot.  They're so easy to grow that they'll soon fill out and take it over.  

And this is the results of our gardening afternoon.  A pretty alpine pot, a little pot of houseleeks, and the rose is planted next to the arch.  You can't really see it yet, but it should take off soon.  There's a big row of primroses in the background.  They come up every spring, and we're aiming to spread them right along the edge of that border.

I must confess, I have another alpine border.  Yes, I like these little plants.  I had a couple of plants left over from the pot (it was a special offer at the garden centre...) so I popped them in here to replace a couple that had gone tatty.  

These pots are waiting for some roses.  Himself is shopping around for some nice roses to be specimen plants.  Penny (who completely wore herself out with excitement that Mummy and Daddy were playing in the garden) thinks they're for her to play in.

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The Arch is up!

And it hasn't fallen down yet.

Seriously, with the amount of 'Postcrete' that went in round the legs, it'll survive a nuclear attack!  It looks really good.  Eventually, there'll be clematis and roses growing across it.  For now, I've parked a couple of pots of Nicotiana at the base.

In yesterday's lovely weather.  Today, it's cold and wet - a different season entirely.

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I have some new projects nearing completion and some old ones going to new homes.  Very exciting!

A shop that's setting up in Lincoln has been in touch, expressing interest in my Hoot Hats - see here - and they also want two of my Hippoos - Mudbath Mungo and CandyStripe Hippoo.  They want to buy them upfront for their shop, rather than taking them on sale or return, so that's lovely!  I've started a new Hippoo already to go on Little Lovely Stuff on Folksy.  Some of my older items have been relisted there too, so things that may have disappeared are back!

New items.  A heart dangly in three parts.  This uses the same colours as the cushion cover I made, and it's covered in buttons and sequins.  They'll be joined together to hang with the largest heart at the top and the smallest at the bottom.

I use half treble crochet a lot, because it grows quickly and it's effortlessly decorative in a subtle way.

Another heart dangly - a single one this time.  I was experimenting with ways of increasing from the bottom to the top and this was the result of increasing in the middle instead of the edges.  It makes a nice chevron effect!  All these heart will be lightly stuffed to make them soft and three-dimensional.  I haven't decided how to decorate this one yet.  I'm thinking of threading a thin white ribbon through the holes down the centre and tying a bow at the bottom.

This is the Thistledown Scarf.  I'm using Rowan's Fine Lace, and it really feels as light as thistledown!  It may have a toning colour added to it soon, as I finish this ball, but I'm making it up as I go a bit.

Close-up of the granny stitch.  Really simple, but very pretty in such a fine yarn.

And the other project in these busy new-term days.  A new arch for the garden!  I painted the legs that go in the ground in five coats of fence preserver, and gave the top bit a coat too.  Better painting it on the ground than when it's up in the air, I thought.  The sides will get their coat when they're standing in the ground.  It's going to go beside the greenhouse to make a lovely separate garden room behind the greenhouse where we've got newly sown grass.  Clematis and other climbers will be planted to grow up the side.  Hopefully, that's going up this weekend.

And this is the cat that was at death's door on Tuesday.  Hattie was throwing up, squirting diarrhoea, and generally being very distressed.  Himself took her to the vet, got her an antibiotic jab, and she's back to her mischievous little self.  It's much more important to make love to the old buddleia stems than it is to pose for Mummy's camera, apparently.  She's got a few more days of antibiotics, but she's doing well, thank goodness!

Okay, time to go to work.  Bye for now!

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Jolies fleurs!

They're not in my garden, but I so wish they were.  They're in the garden of a farm shop near us, and I just remembered I'd got them on my phone.  They're far too pretty to languish on there, so I thought I'd share them.

A sea of purple alliums, gorgeous on their own, but go to a slightly different angle...

...and these fantastic orange poppies make them even more knock-out!

Spring!

You can tell spring's finally arrived - I've managed to ditch my opaque black tights!  I was beginning to feel surgically attached to them.  Look - legs!  Pasty white ones, admittedly.

 And the garden has taken off.  Everything's burgeoning (isn't that a lovely word?).  I wish I could take a more close-up picture of this London Pride, because the little spotty design on the individual petals is beautifully intricate.

A cluster of purple alliums around my pink ceanothus bush.  That's going to flower later in the year, but it's nice to see the alliums getting some room.  Ignore the compost bin and the incinerator behind them - I didn't even register them when I took the picture.  That area of the garden needs some serious attention this year.

Gorgeous yellow poppies!  They self-seed.  Well, with a little help.  I scatter the seeds when the seed head ripens, and they just get on with it on their own.  My favourite kind of gardening!

The pulmonarias are in full flower right now too.  They've also seeded themselves, so we might need to consider taking some out before they take over.  Pretty lilac pink flowers - they open as a clear blue and fade to pink.  Lovely leaf patterns too.

Our Japanese Acers.  They don't seem to be at all concerned about their confinement in pots.  They just flourish year after year.  We've had them ten years or so now, and when we see similar trees in garden centres, they cost an absolute fortune!  Maybe Acers are a good investment?

Himself dug a new border yesterday.  He says he can't mow up to the fence and round the little trees.  Fair enough - I told him that when he put the trees in to start with.  Now, though, it's his idea, so it needs sorting out.  (Is not cynical at all).  He's done a nice job, and there are some pretty plants in there - bluebells, marigolds and some I don't know.  It'll be interesting to see what happens there, because it gets baked in summer and freezes in shadow in winter.

A visitor.  Not one of ours - he lives down the road, but pays us frequent visits.  He's a happy cat.

So is this one.  She is one of ours - Hattie.  She has a talent for finding the most inconvenient place to sleep. This is where the lawnmower should have gone back.

And our greenhouse.  It's probably not that visible here until you click for a bigger view, but I've got a bit artistic with the shading on the back wall.  I was taking last year's shading off, but got a bit bored by the time I reached the back, so I started drawing...

And a quick bag update - it's taking shape!  The crochet panels are sewn together and they're getting a border around the top to neaten it.  The lining is all cut out and I'm in the process of sewing in the pocket.  I chickened out and sewed in the zip by hand, but it looks neat.  Pictures soon!

It's Spring!

In fact, this may be summer, so we'd better make the most of it.  My garden is getting going big-time.

My daffodils are bright and cheery, and in the background, there are my hellebores.  First time they've ever flowered!

 These are Ranunculus.  The name is Brazen Hussy, and the flowers open up in the sun and close up at night.  I love to watch them.

 This is my little Kojo-no-mai Japanese Cherry, flowering fit to burst.

 This cherry is just starting to flower - it's called Ruby.

 This bit of the garden is the bit I don't usually own up to.  We've got to think of something to do with it this year.  In previous years, we've grown veggies on it, but they either don't do anything or produce way more than we can eat.  We're thinking of a nice seating area to make it easy.  It's a good sheltered space.

 The best bit of gardening is sitting looking at it.  And we've had just the right weather to do that this weekend!

 Our bird-feeding station.  We put out all sorts of stuff for the birds, but all they want is the mealworms.  They chuck all the seeds out in search of the yummy worms.  The coconuts full of yummy fat and seeds they ignore.  Spoilt birds!

I love being able to put the washing outside to dry.  It smells so much better.  And I get to use my home-made peg-bag...

This is the reason we have fussy birds.  All the little pretty birds go next door for their dinners, and we get the big ones that can take care of themselves.

Best friends for once, having worn themselves out stalking birds.  Rascals!