Mentha spicata

It will be lovely to have another Mint to add to my collection. This Spearmint plant will get well used I am sure in the future. It smells so refreshing.
I shall plant in into a pot soon for the garden and position along with the other herbs. I have all my herbs planted in pots due to the vigorous and invasive nature of their growth.

Clematis Flower

This is the clematis flower (Clematis Piilu) that I was so pleased to see when returning from the weekend away. It looks like there will be plenty of other flowers in the future as there are many buds growing. Considering the plant is in such a shaded place it has done very well.

Away from home

Yesterday, I returned home after a few days away and one of the first things I love to do now is go into the garden and see what, if anything, has happened. Any big amounts of growth are usually more noticeable when you have been away from the garden for a while.

Well, I had a lovely suprise: the clematis has flowered! I noticed it first from the back window and then went practically running out into the garden to see it close up. I will take a picture of it today.

I returned from away with a new plant for the garden too. A spearmint cutting from friends that we visited. It has a lovely refreshing smell and I can't wait to pot it up and add to the herb collection.

Acer update

It's about time for an 'acer update' and here is the plant that I thought was dead! It had budded and then some leaves have grown - lovely colours, but it still looks a little stunted and one branch has not seen any life - that I can tell.

Considering I thought it had died I am very pleased and can't wait until later in the year when it may grow some more... watch this space for the next 'acer update'... 

Vegetable Patch June 2006

The vegetables are coming along well. The sweetcorn aren't growing as quickly as I expected them to but they are getting bigger. The broad beans you can see have also done well. The courgette plant is flowering and the butternut squash is slowly following. The onions, leeks, and carrots are still quite small seedlings really and the second attempt at lettuce has proven a disappointment as nothing appears to have grown at all this time. Whether slugs or birds or some insect is eating them as they grow I don't know! Have I got time to try another row? 

Alpine Sink

I had a good go at tidying up the Alpine Sink the other day too as you can see. Cleaned all the old leaves and other debris from around the plants and then put some more gravel around them to help retain the moisture.

They have got some lovely flowers on them.

Herbs

I took lots of photos of the garden last evening and here are two of the herbs which I sorted out the day before yeterday. To the left is the basil I had from my parents, and then the thyme, rosemary, oregano, and the applemint and garden mint. The second picture shows a new parsley plant and two pots of chives which I halved from one plant.

Herbs

For over a year now I have been meaning to separate two mint plants and a rosemary plant into two pots. The rosemary plant has tended to simply grow upwards and little else while the mint I think have suffered from the small space remaining. At last, today, I have separated them - the garden mint and applemint plants are now in one pot and the rosemary is in another! Hopefully they will thrive now and their summer growth not be impaired due to the move. We will see...

Colour

Unfortunately, the hanging baskets that I did last Autumn have now finally finished looking their best. So, today, I have replanted one of them with some summer bedding plants; Lobelia Trailing 'white', Fuchsia 'Marinka' and Petunia Surfinia 'Blue Vein', in the hope that they will provide a little colour to the garden for the summer. I have also planted a pot with the remaining Lobelia and a lovely red coloured Dianthus 'Cherry Magic'. Not sure where to put this pot at the moment and will have a play with positions in the garden later!

Alpine Flowers

These are pictures of the flowers on the alpines. They were taken using my mobile phone so are a little out of focus in places. I have today put lots of gravel around the plants to help retain the moisture over the summer. Although they aren't in a very sunny spot in does tend to dry out easily.

Rain after the sunshine

We have had some very much needed rain overnight here in Conwy. The air smells fresher and glancing out the window this morning, all the plants look a little revived. I have been watering the vegetables and some of the pots from a watering can but a rain was desperately needed after all the sunshine and heat we have had for over a week now. I always feel guitly watering the plants but try to re-use dishwater wherever possible and since we use Ecover products I know there is nothing in it's contents which would harm the environment. I would like to get a water butt to collect water at some point although we don't actually have any downpipes on our house as they all drain over to the house next door. Maybe in the future, if and when I get a shed, a butt may be positioned to catch the water which runs off it.

Clematis.com

The name of the clematis is Clematis Piilu. Follow the link above for further information on Clemaits plants. I came across it when looking up the name of my plant and it gives a lot of detail about the care of the Clematis group of plants.

Clematis

Planted out a clematis in the shady border to see how it does. I have given it three canes to climb and it appears to be doing well at the moment. Will have to look up what sort of clematis it is. 

Tomato & Cucumber

Have at last planted out the tomato and cucumber plants that I brought at the Conwy Seed Fair earlier this year. I have planted them into medium sized pots so that I can keep them in the greenhouse for as long as possible to promote their growth. Last year I think we had two cucumbers and only about a dozen tomatoes so hopefully this year will be better. I am not sure if I said in the last entry about the tomato plant but apparently it doesn't require shoots pinching out which is handy as I didn't have a clue what I was doing last year!