FrogPrincess

Calling all winners!  Lottery winners especially welcome :) A short questionnaire follows: 1) how big did you win 2) how did you choose your numbers 3) have you won before 4) do you use a system which can be replicated 5) are you willing or able to share the above 6) can you tell me pleeeeeez ok so today was crappy, but it is time to sleep and start it all over again tomorrow - back to the mad house

Since my last post - in the year 2009...?  I've moved house, got a non-garden and made it into a garden :) Took lots of trips to the skip and many hours soaking away tired and overworked muscles in a hot shower.  Final trip to the skip with the last bootload of granite boulders was satisfying. The garden is at the back of the house, looking out of french doors, onto the first small herbaceous border, spring time is lovely with grape hyacinths, tullips, the iris, peonie rose, main rose and poppies, along with geramiums, hebe and lavender.  The rockery is the real stunner - full length of the garden, I built a granite retaining wall, filled with the mound of topsoil the last owners left (outside the frnch doors) and planted with as many tiny specimins as I could afford.  The 3 years we have been here has let the rockery mature until it is a tapestry of colour.  The 3 cats also appreciate its sheltering nature in sumertime, although the plants have been squashed,...

Another surprise at no5 King Street when I saw all the strawberry fruits that have set on the plants this year. Laden is not descriptive enough as I will have enough fruit to keep Asda supplied for a while - as long as the birds and the slugs don't eat them all. The globe artichokes I grew from seed 2 years ago are also looking the best this year - I had to move some as they had outgrown the space so I extended the bed. The transplanted ones are slightly behind the others but I can still see some large heads starting. I will have to keep a close eye on them as I don't want them to go to waste, waited 3 years now, so I better get a taste of them this year! The petrol trimmer is still going strong although I had a problem starting it this week - probably a flat battery but the pull cord got it going and with a little help from Bob got the cutting wire the right length. I saved lots of leaves from my last garden last autumn and have spread them around the black currant bushes. ...

Ryobi Petrol Trimmer Why did I not buy one of these sooner? This must be one of the best buys around and it is so easy to use. Got it delivered to my work and the security guards now think I'm a bit mad...I felt like a minor celebrity the next day with the amount of people asking me if I'd managed to use it yet! The trimmer cut through the 3 months worth of weed growth easily and I was left with an hour tidy up job. The plot once again looks like it is being used and the new "grassy" area looks the biz (to me at least). It was starting to look very neglected but I am glad it is looking good again. The alliums I got from Ebay last year are all open, dark, mid and light purple with a couple of white ones and one green one that is supposed to be a hairy allium, just looks like it has hardly any petals so maybe the hairs appear with the seeds? The chives have spread into substancial clumps and look good round the roses and the apple tree, now the weeds have been cleared a...

We have been in the new house all of one month now, the anniversary passed un-noticedby the cats who, since we let them explore outside, have become very seldom seen (except when they know food is on the go). Witnessed one of the little darlings having an animated discussion with a neighbouring cat - oops think they both got a bit of a wallop when they fell off the shed roof, onto a timber fence then onto the granite boulders at the bottom of the garden... Need to get down to basics in the new garden though - nothing there execpt 3 large trees and lots of dandelions, dockens and couch grass. I started by de-stoning the small border at the side of the house and have discovered granite boulders about 6 - 2 inches down...only thing I can think of planting there are apline flowers?

Happy belated New Year Well it has been several months since I have typed into this blog...and not much to say today either! Been digging up potatoes, letting the brussel sprouts go to waste (oops) and collecting fruit and pretty much finished everything this year. A bit of tidying up to do - the new shed has lasted very well considering it is an old filing cabinet - slight rust starting at the base and hinges think it has one more year from it until it will be turned into a raised bed? I bought heaps of plants and small trees to make into a fruiting hedge down the right of the plot - from Hedgehog Nurseries. Sent to my work (and kindly placed into the car boot by the helpful security man Mike). Kept me busy planting them half a day as I studiously measured the planting spaces for the first 10 then gave up and dug holes and squished them in any old way hahaha. The trees are a mixture of hazel, beech and hawthorn while the bush type ones are dogwood, dog rose, wild rose and blackth...

I must have been doing most things right this year - been digging up lots of goodies recently! Potatoes - Edzel Blue - very nice tatties - bright purple skin and pure white inside, purple colour disappears on cooking though, bit of a disappointment there). Pink Fir Apples - so knobbly they look like Jerusalem artichokes, but lovely salad potato. (And still to dig up the main crop of Maris Pier.) Onions - all the over wintered onions are now dug up, white, red and yellow (as I can't remember their names) Garlic - got a mix of elephant and normal (welsh?) this year - all dug up also Broccoli - not much left of this either now, but been a good crop, small but very tasty (my nephew Liam says) Cauliflower - forgot I planted two small rows of this - the broccoli and Brussels sprouts covered them totally. Small but perfectly formed heads and no slug/snail or other beastie attacks to be seen! Strawberries - lots of greenery and a few tasty fruits but left them too late to pick so slugs ...