Sometimes words just fail me........

and then as soon as I put it down...



He's just lucky he's such a cutie.

I might also add he has a bit of a fetish for plant labels too, I end up with countless seed trays of unknown plants because someones pulled out the labels.

Thursdays favourite plant

Choosing just 1 plant is proving to be difficult so at times I might be indulgent and have a few.
So I have a bit of a woodland feel here today.

First up I have the gorgeous English bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)



I'm really lucky to live near woods that are absolutely carpeted with bluebells in the spring, to me they epitomise an english spring. I don't think I need to say how lovely they are. Obviously they are protected by law in the wild but you can buy seed and nursery grown bulbs here and here
One thing with bluebells is to watch out for the Spanish ones (Hyacinthoides hispanica). These invaders cross pollinate with the natives and take over. It's quite easy to tell the difference the spanish bluebell is larger with a straight stem, bigger paler flowers, and no scent.

Solomon seal (polygonatum x hybridum)



I adore these plants, they're so graceful with their aching stems and green tipped white bells dangling under the leaves. It related to lily-of-the-valley and grows in woodlands (another native wood lander). There are a few different varieties of these(the "multiflorum" being the native)such as a variegated one and a bronze one that I saw at the chelsea flower show last year called "bethberg" that I'd love but have never been able to find. The name Solomon seal comes from notion that if you slice the rhizomes (thick root stock) you can see shapes and markings that resemble Hebrew script.
Polygonatums are really easy to grow but watch out for Solomon seal sawfly.These little swines will strip the leaves bare if they can, I pick the caterpillars of as soon as I see them and feed them to the chickens.

Bleeding hearts / dutchmens breeches (Dicentra spectabilis)



These babies originate from china and like a bit of shade and nice rich soil. They have such pretty heart shaped flowers, I love the pink ones but there's also a white variety as well.

All three of these plants look really good all planted together, and as a bonus they all like the same conditions.


One last thing don't forget to keep feeding the birds, It used to be said that birds only needed feeding in the winter months when food is scarce, but with all the rushing around they're doing catching bugs and flys for the babies, having a nice fat ball to grab a quick snack from will keep their energy up, but don't put whole peanuts out in case they try to feed them to the little ones, it'll make them choke.

jess x

More seed sowing

So I'm busy busy busy in the garden right now, I'm pleased to say that I've pricked out and potted on all the baby seedlings, only for the flipping slugs (or snails) to come along and nibble all the lettuce and basil seedlings, thankfully that's all they seem to have eaten so far (fingers crossed x).
So I've sown more of the above and started on the may seed sowing. I try to be organised with my seeds I have an old small drawer that they live in with dividers for each month, anything that needs repeat sowing like beetroot or rocket can be moved up the drawer for it's next sowing.
Today I've sown courgette seeds I've chosen a yellow and a green one, a small tricolor ball shaped one, and a climber called black forest. I've also sown some pumpkin (jack be little), Marrow (not quite sure why I've sown that) and some gherkins. On the flower front I've sown some nasturtiums and moulin rouge sunflowers.
Because of lack of space and the fact that the courtyard looks like a seedlings waiting room I tend not to worry about later sowings, they all seem to catch up.
Next week I'll start on beans.

Talking of beans (and peas) so far I seem to having bad luck with them, first all the broad beans I did last autumn all rotted off at the base in February, then my spring sowing got eaten my mice so I've succumbed to buying baby beans from the garden centre, something I don't like to do but they were only 20p each I also had to buy some peas for my raised bed only a few though as only 6 have germinated and I need to plug the gaps.

I'm also getting excited for two of my favourite events coming up in a few weeks, firstly It's the chelsea flower show , and for something closer to home, the wonderful Devon county show, I love the county show can't wait.

Ohh some breaking news, so the swallows arrived about a month ago (summers here almost?!)and yesterday not only did I see a swift but I also heard a cuckoo.
And an update on the sparrows, well as I type I can hear the chicks squeaking in the wall behind me.

love jess xx

I want to live in this house

How much do I love this advert.

Thursdays favourite plant

So I want to do a weekly show of love for some of my favourite plants, I'll add some tips and advice too if i can. Todays is.....

Snakes head fritillary (Fritillaria melagris)

Love love love this gorgeous little gem.

This little baby is a quite rare native of damp meadow and chalk soils (I've sadly never seen it in the wild). I grow mine in a container (and I've also got a small clump in my wild patch) that way I can enjoy it close up whilst it's flowering. You can buy it as dry bulbs in the autumn but like snowdrops I find it grows better if you get it ready growing or after flowering ("in the green"), check out the alpine section of the garden centre, they sometimes reduce them when they've finished flowering. Although in the wild they like damp soil I plant mine up with gravel mixed in the compost to improve drainage, and to prevent the bulbs rotting in the winter.

There such beautiful delicate flowers like Tiffany lamps.

I'd love to know what your favourite plants are, or if you've seen fritillary's growing wild.

cherry blossom

Ok so it's been in flower for a week or two now, but isn't is pretty. (it's just starting to gently rain blossom confetti whenever the wind blows)

£20 is not enough

So at the weekend I convinced husband to take me bedding plant shopping, now I love bedding plants I get all excited at the beginning of April planning containers and colour schemes for the window boxes and baskets (hey it keeps me out of trouble) so off we went to (nearly) all the little local nurseries. One of my favourite places is hill house nursery. Its a fairly small place tucked away in the south hams with old greenhouse's stuffed with their own grown plants, total plant heaven. Anyway husband set me a budget of £20 to spent which was a nightmare because i could spend a fortune there. So i got my mix of bedding plants but sadly had to leave behind a Melianthus major that i really wanted and a clematis viticella "purpurea plena elegens" that i also really wanted to replace the clematis that the naughty puppy decided to chew through. So a return journey is on the cards.

so here's my stash of bedding plants

Now there are still a few more I need like some white and purple geraniums and some trailing plants for the window box and basket at the front door

this year I'm going to have yellow, pink and blue at the front. The sun disappears at lunch time so the yellow with brighten it up. In the back garden I'm going for pinks and purples mixed with lime greens and orange. I like a bit of clashing

I love these Nemesias aren't they gorgeous, berries and cream on the left and blue buttons on the right, and they smell lovely.

Rain

Finally it's raining, ok so I've been loving the sunshine we've had these past few weeks everything in the garden has been loving these warm sunny days but I've noticed a few plants looking a bit droopy so hooray rain, no need to lug the watering can around.

But boo, because now I have no excuse not to catch up on all the housework I've neglected. Also double boo because I'd planned on sowing more veg and doing some much needed pricking out of the veg seedlings fighting for space in my little plastic greenhouse.

This year I'm starting a new veg garden in a stolen part of my mothers garden, the area she's kindly donated to me used to hold a swimming pool (one of those giant upright inflatable things) so digging the ground is seriously hard work and incredibly hard soil so hopefully this rain will soften it up a bit too. Hopefully I can post some before and after photos soon (and hopefully the baby seedling will have a home soon as well).

So I'm off to do some boring housework and then plan my summer bedding schemes after having an exciting day yesterday buying bedding plants. Hopefully the rain will stop later or all my tulips will fall over.

more birds

following on from my last post I thought I' write a list of the birds I get in the garden or I can see from the garden

in the garden

blackbirds

song thrushs

robins

blue tits

great tits

coal tits

long tailed tits (cute little fluffy lollipops)

marsh tits

goldfinchs

greenfinchs

bullfinchs

chaffinchs

dunnocks

wrens

nut hatch

pied wagtails

a single male pheasant ( i think he fancies my chickens)

jays

spotted woodpeckers

wood pigeons

tawny owls (only at night though)

sparrows (very exciting)

from the garden

buzzards

barn owls (sometimes, ok heard rather than seen but still)

canada geese

coots

moorhens

ducks

dippers

kingfishers (only if you point the binoculars at a certain point on the river)

goosander

phew I think that's it, bill oddie would be proud.

happiness is a noisy little brown bird

I got woken up really early today by my puppy, (somebody didn't shut the door properly last night) after sorting him out and then getting back into bed I was then kept awake by bird tweeting outside the bedroom window, really noisy birds who wouldn't stop tweeting so I got up.
whilst making a cup of tea the flipping scratching in the wall started up
(ok so I live in an old cottage with eaves and beams and old brickwork and over the winter we've had cheeky little wood mice coming in and living in the walls)
So fast forward half and hour or so and I'm siting in the kitchen watching the birds feeding in the garden and i see this unusual brown and grey bird hanging of the peanuts, then another and another .
Sparrows in my garden
ok so to most people that wouldn't be that exciting but in the two years I've lived here I've never seen a sparrow, ducks yes, barn owls sometimes, a family of buzzards that sit on the fence posts all the time (and many other birds that you don't often see in most gardens), but never sparrows. Anyway they were the culprits tweeting outside the window and hopefully making the noise in the wall under the eaves.

If your wondering why I' so excited it's because in the last few years the once common sparrow has been on the decline, I only ever see them in towns and villages never this far out in the sticks. Also it makes me happy to think that this little troop of birds likes the look of my garden and wants to make their home in my brickwork