Saturday 8 February 2020

GangBusters

Six on Saturday is a weekly diary hosted by The Propagator & contributed to by gardeners all over the world.  For links to other SoS blogs, check out Mr P's comment section & the Twitter hashtag, #SixOnSaturday.



Monk DoodleFace dressed for the weather.



It's not only snowdrops & hellebores that come alive in cold weather.

Temps've been in single digits all week, but I've been going like GangBusters (in my usual 10 minute increments).

Take a look at what I've been up to.





1.  Visited by Night Demons.

The tar paper came off the shed during a calm night.  Evidence of supernatural forces at work. 


Our attempts to fix this revealed our ladder too short & the garden wall in the wrong place.  Unfortunately, I'm too old to leap tall buildings anymore.  The tar paper's currently being held in place with several bricks until someone more agile can reattach or replace it.


2.  A problem I can solve.

My pots of aconite & Russian snowdrops didn't come up, possibly because it's been too wet.  The replacements were bought in the green, but are still a little wobbly.

I also got single snowdrops in the green at the same time, which look just fine.


The snowdrop bulbs that I planted last autumn look fine, too, but aren't as far along.



3.  Edging.

After putting in the green snowdrops, I decided to edge the beds.


Unfortunately, the ground's so wet, it was like edging taffy.  There's now 2' of ratty looking ditch right near the front door, & there it'll stay until things dry up a bit.


4.  Crocus surprise.

I planted crocus in the lawn last autumn.  Every time we come home from the BigNose Walk, I check out the grass, get disappointed.  The bulbs must've gone the same way of the aconite & Russian snowdrops, thinks me.

After one such walk & a there's-no-crocus check, I was upstairs when MlleDoodleFace sounded the alarm.  I opened the window to see if the bird seed guy was at the front door.  He wasn't, but seeing the lawn from above, there they were, dozens of little neon flowers.


Not sure what DoodleFace was upset about or how I missed these on my daily check.  There are cream ones, too, but they get washed out in the photos.


5.  Flower boxes.

These boxes were planted with daffs & tulips last autumn; the time'd come for them to be mounted.  The brackets exhausted my DIY skills, the boxes aren't quite straight nor evenly spaced.  There's still quite a gap between them & the goldenrod below, which hopefully trailers'll close later this summer.


Even so, I'm embarrassingly proud of myself, being able to lift a full flower box over my head, slip it into place.  Granted, I could only do one a day, but considering that 4 short years ago, I was bed ridden, I am officially amazing.


6.  Seeds!

And when I wasn't being amazing, I sorted seeds.


Some of which came from kind & generous SoSers in places far away.





Enjoy these violets, cuz that's all she wrote.  For this week, at least.

Thanks for stopping by!








18 comments:

  1. Lovely crocus. Most of mine have vanished, unless they're biding their time. Well done regarding the flower box lifting.

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    1. Thanks! The council areas always have great crocus displays but in private gardens, they tend to disappear. I wonder if councils refurbish theirs & rodents eat ours?

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  2. Those troughs look perfectly straight to me.....you should see some of my attempts at symmetry or straight lines in the garden! Lovely violas.

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    1. The trough on the right is a bit wonky when viewed from a different angle. There must be a bump on the wall that doesn't let the bracket sit straight - several attempts couldn't get it straight. The violets are in the communal green space in front of the house. All the council green areas in this neighbourhood have various small flowers planted in the grass - violets, daisies, geranium, etc. It's so nice.

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  3. I guess that next week you can show us the photos of your open crocuses. Those troughs will be beautiful soon. I can't wait to see them !!

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    1. I'll ask my son to take a photo. Both the yellow & white blanch out when I do it. I hope the troughs survive the coming storm!

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  4. I do that lawn check every time I come back from a dog walk. Bent double looking for signs of life. Right now I'm looking to see if my fritillarias are going to return and if the narcissus bulbocodium will have flowers as well as bountiful leaves...

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    1. O, do post photos of the narcissus bulbocodium & fritillaria when they bloom - & they will!

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  5. I planted fritillarias and camassia in a bit of my lawn last autumn. I think some of the camassias are coming through, but nothing else yet and I have to keep reminding myself not to walk on that area! Good job with the window boxes. I managed to put my back out yet again simply by stretching forward! Grr... I need a new body.

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    1. I hadn't thought to put camassia in the lawn. Hopefully you'll give us some photos when they bloom.

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  6. Loving the wall boxes. They look fine to me. Mind you everything looks to be straight to me. Good to see the crocuses have been a success.

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    1. Thanks, Paul. Once foliage takes over, I won't see the imperfections in the boxes. Yes, am loving the crocus!

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  7. The flower boxes look great. I'm doing the crocus in the grass check too. No luck for me yet, but yours are lovely.

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    1. They were a wonderful surprise. Hope yours appear soon.

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