Getting ready

Hubby needed to pop to B&Q this week, so I had a look at their plants, I always look at the reduced section, these plants were half price, I paid £6 for the hellebore and £2 each for the geums, I always look closely to see if there is new growth, a good indicator the plant is not dead. The geums are inside my greenhouse to let them dry out, they both will go into my side bed, I have a lovely spot for the hellebore once the rain stops. 

My main purchase was seed potatoes, these bags are much smaller than bags sold at our local garden centre, perfect size for just the two of us, the first early are already in an old egg carton tray on the kitchen window sill. I will grow these in bags again, three potatoes in each bag. 

The second necessary purchase was John Innes potting compost, this will be required soon, seedlings and seeds will be started in a few weeks. Whilst I was there I got two boxes of fertilizer, both natural products, which I have used before with great results. 

Soon I will dig out both my composters and hopefully have two bags of compost, enough to see me through to the summer, in previous years I have purchased different compost and mix them, I am confident my compost will be good quality and give my plants a great start. I could sift my own compost for seedlings, but in truth I can't be bothered, maybe next year. 

Most of my flowering plants in the greenhouse are doing well, I have now only 2 guara plants, I have 3 in the garden, I will have less gaps this year. I also have a bucket of carrots which are growing well, would be nice to have an early crop.

We had intended to pop to our favourite garden centre, but decided it wasn't necessary, the café has lovely cakes but is expensive, so we came home and enjoyed hubby's homecooked brownies. Everything above was much cheaper than from any garden centre, often the reduced plants are over watered or just finishing their growing cycle for the season, the shelves were full of different plants, most can be revived. 

Note to myself, the garden is full, no more new bigger plants, will I listen to my own advice, probably not.

Tiny starts

Soon it will be seed sowing time, these are new variety to me, I always like to try new things, most of my seeds are started from February onwards, as are these. I have always had great results with Wilko's seeds and roots, I haven't the space for too many plants. 

I have to start my sweet peas, I had a great success last year for the first time, so again I will soak the seeds for 24 hours and then leave them on wet kitchen roll until I see shoots, then they will go into long root holders in the greenhouse.

I have taken 10 cuttings from my fleabane daises, I need plants for daughters garden, hubby made a raised bed along her side fence, she wants to fill the bed to look the same as mine, I did scatter loads of flower heads over soil in a covered propagator last autumn, there are tiny shoots forming. If I have plants left over I want to pop them along the base of our back fence.  

I have left most of my seeds in the garage, putting off getting them out as it is far too early, most packs came with my subscription Kitchen Garden, which I won't renew next month, I have kept the magazines for reference, they go into more detail than gardening books. I have 26 issues here in this drawer, plus a few other magazines. Most of the unwanted seeds I gifted to our local junior school.

This is my least favourite time of the year, everywhere is dull, grey and dismal, I do get outside in the garden for short periods, and I pop to the greenhouse a couple times a week, I want to be doing things but it is far too early, so I sit and wait, no plans to keep me occupied. Normally I craft, cross stitching or knitting, but neither is calling, I have been reading, my latest book is slow, I really need to decide if I want to know who are the bodies and why they were murdered, it's a good old police based plot, or start another book. I was hoping for a needle felting class, sadly the tutors mum is poorly so the classes are suspended for now. 

I'm so bored I have done all my housework, not my favourite task, I do love to see everywhere clean, we are not untidy, we live in a hard water area, so bathroom gets a wipe down after use to stop the build up of limescale, making it easy to keep clean. Hubby made two soups, carrots and coriander, pea and ham, which is this weeks lunches, and chocolate brownies for our treat.

We have not been out much, rain in January is cold and uninviting, we wrap up to walk to the village trying to avoid getting wet, drive to our local Lidl's for a bigger shop. There is nothing we need or want, so I see no point to going out, our town has shrunk, just a few nice shops, our local outlet is all outside so no fun on wet days, as is Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth. It was nice to have some sunshine on Tuesday,  still really cold.

Whatcha doing?

These socks have been in my kitting work bag for over a year unfinished, pure laziness, they were not alone I had two other pairs there, all three pairs are now finished and these this week will be winging their way to a new home. The design is mine, I have used left over yarn from other hand made socks, using 4 different shades and the multi coloured

Another good book, a simple task leads to a discovery, you know you are adopted, but now you have a huge new family, with secrets, should you dig deeper. A plot with a double time line which worked well. Book 6 read this year.

I have often said the buds on an amaryllis when opening look alien, this bloom is dark red, I can't wait for these loud blooms to show themselves, my hyacinth is in circle photo, I do not know what colour these blooms will be, they are forming. January is a good month for inside bulbs, I do love to watch their growth, the hyacinth bulbs will go outside in garden once finished. 

I spent some time outside, my main job was to cutback the fleabane daisies in this bed, I did the same last year, keeps them at a tidy size, you can see lots green new growth at the base of the plants. Now I can see the spring bulbs shooting, I also removed 3 clumps of primroses, which were completely hidden, they are now in new spots, they fell apart so I had 5 plants.

Saturday was dry, sunny and not too cold, an hour in the garden pleased me, I managed to weed my side bed, the weeds are tiny and easier to pull, soon spring bulbs will cover the bed. The bed above is looking a bit ragged, my two snowberry plants are doing well, I will cut back the right hand side to allow the other newer plant to grow so they match size. Hubby renewed the wooden perch on my fork handle, I've never seen a bird on it, but I do like to see it. It's a bit like Triggers broom (Only Fools and Horses), the handle was replace a while ago and now a new perch, it belonged to my mum, so it is years old. 

Molly brought home a reading book with words in on Friday, already she knows them, she was very excited to read to us, all three children have a love of books, just like their mummy and me, Will has been unwell this week, he rarely has time off school sick, so they had a lazy weekend at home, George is happy to be together with them all. 

Not forgotten

I do like this author, another great book, just a mum collecting her daughter from university, only she is not there, she has dropped out and told no-one. Mum tries to track her down with surprising results, a brilliant read, Book 3 read this year. 

A new author to me, this was set in USA, two girls are taken, one escapes quickly, it's a year later, one girl is still getting to much attention, the other is forgotten. A series of events sends the older sister of the missing girl on a path, she is collecting information, can she find what happened to her little sister, this book kept me in the dark until almost the end, brilliant read. Book 4 read this year.

I enjoyed the previous book so I stuck with the same author, as a documentary creator you help innocent people to be freed from jail, its noble to go through evidence and have experts find errors in court cases. This book walks you through a perfect case, it's all going great until it isn't, what next. Book 5 read this year. 

A while ago I had this pebble painted, it's my Grace, the artist has made a perfect image of her, just a small simple thing placed beside my desk, I smile every time I see it. I recently asked the same artist if she would create Frankie for daughter, again it's a perfect image, daughter loves hers as much as I love mine. Oh to have the talent to paint such beautiful lifelike images. 

My 1st amaryllis bud is about to open, the second bud on the same bulb has started to grow taller, the 2nd bulb has a tiny shoot forming, as does one of last years I have back inside, so these huge blooms will give me joy, the red one should open first. 

We did pop out once this week to daughters side of town, met her in Dunelm for a coffee, nice treat, hubby got the couple of bits he wanted, then on to B&M, not my favourite shop but a few bits we needed including cat food. In both shops we saw, Christmas items on sale, January sale items, Valentines day bits and Easter eggs, what a mixture, we walked by it all, I did get a pair of wire brushes, which I can use for my needle felting, I am planning a new project. 

Once again I have asked hubby for smaller portions, they were creeping up again, he is now cutting back on what he cooks, in our last food shop I did not get any treats, chocolate, biscuits or crisp, hubby has made his first homemade cake of the year, this time a lemon drizzle using the lemons we already had. I have already shifted the few pounds I put on in the final weeks of December. I hope to be able to walk more, but at this time it's just so wet and I really don't want to be out getting cold and wet.