Moth Orchid

I have not had much luck with nurturing moth orchids (Phalenopsis). I suspect the position has been the problem. Ironically, I have given several as presents and been told that these are all thriving.
The common problems tend to be: over-watering; too direct sunlight and using usual plant compost.
Any advice would be welcome!

Magnolia

Last year, because of the snow and frost, this barely flowered. As you can see, it's made up for it this time.

Growing some ourselves

Foxgloves have seeded everywhere in the garden, but I still like them so most are allowed to stay. It's just a shame that the majority are plain old pink.

Now Les has built some staging I can lift the planter of tumbler tomatoes off the ground...I think there's two red ones and a yellow. Can't wait till we're picking these.

The salad leaves recovered since Milly decided to scramble in them...so we do have just a little bit of pick your own.

Project...stage 4

Well. it's up and running at last...and stuffed so full there's only just room to stand in one spot. Some glass came with the greenhouse, but most Les was able to cut from pieces he's been given or we'd already got. A lot of it was all green and covered with gunge...such a fun job cleaning that off!

I've rigged up a makeshift bench on a couple of old trestles so I could start potting up but eventually, we'll have some proper staging. This weekend I'm moving most of the pots outside so there'll be loads more room for the tomato plants.

One problem with having stuff on the floor is from that little Milly (see previous post)...she had a great time digging in the trays of salad leaves. I guess some will survive the onslaught!

Project...stage 3

At last the greenhouse is almost together. A friend built the bricks round for the base (thanks Pete!) and we've started putting some glass in place. Who needs glass? Started using it already!

A project...stage 2

We had a busy weekend for this part of the project...demolishing the old greenhouse that Les made a long time ago.  I was very fond of it, but it had gone completely rotten.  It won't be wasted though as the timber will be cut up and burnt on our fire.

Once that was removed there were just the brick walls to knock down...needed doing, because guess what, the new greenhouse is a very similar size, but not exactly the same.   Wouldn't you just know!

 

This is my job.  I so like using a lump hammer...I do have to be a bit careful though...we're saving the bricks as they're lovely Victorian ones, same as our house.

 

Still had time to admire developments in the garden.  The chaenomeles has just come into flower and is looking especially pretty.

A project...stage 1

Well, I suppose the first stage really was getting all the bits from a friend's garage loft.  And what a lot of bits there are!

Just a few of the million pieces.

Can you tell what it is yet?

After much heated debate (argument) and several hours, it began to take shape, not helped by the fact that there were no written instructions (not that, being male, they would have read them...ha!) 

The Krypton Factor's got nothing on this.

It may be some while before I can reveal stage 2.

So how about some flowers to keep us going. 

Now we know it's spring because...

...Gardener's World's back on TV.  I must admit, I'd almost stopped watching it. I never thought in a million years that I'd get bored with the programme, but to me it seemed to lose its way somehow.

But now yeh! We have Monty Don presenting from his own garden...I can see I'll be hooked again.

And I was quite pleased to see I'm not too late with the potatoes.  These are in the conservatory, chitting nicely.  Maybe I'll have a bit of time for digging this weekend.  Hope yours goes well!

The joys of March

 

In like a lamb this last couple of days...can you believe, blue skies!  Some of our pots are starting to look a bit more cheerful, with pansies coming into flower.

It's heartening to see the crocus opening up - I like these purple ones most I think.

But even more I love the old piece of stone that Noreen's husband Brian made into an interesting garden feature for us.  It's only been in place since late last year and is beginning to settle and look like it's always been there, which is the effect I want.  If we keep on like this, we'll end up with a mini Stonehenge.
Just had to make sure it's buried fairly deep as I can imagine the more adventurous little ones trying to crawl through the hole...great game! 

 

Happy gardening!

Soup and sunshine

Carrot and coriander soup

I finally peeled some carrots to make soup.  I'm just giving an estimated guess of measurements here as I didn't bother to weigh anything at the time...that's slapdash for you!

1 large onion, finely chopped
2 oz butter
1 and a half lbs carrots, peeled and sliced
2 pints chicken stock
handful fresh coriander, chopped or 2 tsp dried

Melt the butter in a large pan.  Add the chopped onion and soften gently for a five minutes.  Add the carrots and cook for a further five minutes.  Add chicken stock and coriander and cook for about half an hour until softened.
Liquidise in food processor in batches.  Return to the pan, season and heat through to serve. 

 

Meanwhile in the garden the winter jasmine is flowering away cheerfully.  A summer jasmine grows on this same trellis, but isn't quite so pretty right now...that's because I took the secateurs to it for a major prune, something I'd been putting off for several years...and broke my secateurs in the process. 

It'd got to the stage where it had wrapped aroung the guttering and threatened to take over the garage roof.  Hope the poor plant recovers because it looks in a very sorry state...just a few bare sticks!