What have you done today in the Garden?

Sjoerd, a few years ago "mesclun" was all the rage, and a small packet of seeds was outrageously expensive. I looked at the ingredients, and found that I could mix up my own. We plant the mixed seeds in a small patch in one of the raised beds, and plant the different kinds of lettuces, separated, in rows in another raised bed.
We eat a lot of salads, and what we don't eat, the hens enjoy!

 

That is really interesting to read. I had no idea that it wad a trendy fad. You guys can get a lot of eating out of that. But what I like the most is how you discovered the contents of a pack and then made your own. Now mate, that is clever. Yep, once again you have shown us your quality credentials.

 

Those daffodils I said weren't far behind yesterday, bloomed today! I thought they'd have another couple of days haha

 

Sjoerd, you give me too much credit. "once again you have shown us your quality credentials" when actually I'm just very frugal!
Husband says I toss nickles around like manhole covers . . . .

 

Chortle—your partner is a real card.
Frugal is good, but I still like the way you went about being frugal.
I hope that you guys will get a string of good days and you can make a really good beginning.

 

Mesclun bought in France a few left from last year but not sure I would be able to buy the separates, like marlingardener has done....I am looking to save money after receiving(My husband not me this time) two speeding fines and a unfounded health care summons. The speeding was minor but if you saw how they keep (almost feels like a set up to make some easy extra Euros) by changing from 100km/hr to 90 km/hr just for a few metres here and there..miss the sign and you are clocked....Anyway so we cutting back for a few weeks by various ways...Here is what my packet says...clear as mud some of it ...

Mixture of species allowing the harvest of coloured salads
fried chiciree, chicory scarole, wild chicoree, apple lettuce, romaine lettuce, cut lettuce, arugula...English translated from French...

Mélange d'espèces permettant la récolte de salades colorées,
chicirée frite, scarole de chicorée, chicorée sauvage, laitue pomme, laitue romaine, laitue coupée, roquette....French

 

I brushed the loose sand off the patio.
I pointed up the path on two sides of the tea house and the path down to it from the small patio behind the shed. then I ran out of sand, yellow cement dye, plasticiser and.... energy well.... it keeps threatening rain. So the small patio will have to wait.
I'll let the pointing on the main patio dry out for a couple of days before I put any pots back and I'll give it a hose down if it hasn't rained.
Some jobs to do. I'll re-pot the six hebes ready for when they go in the new troughs when they arrive.

 

My mix results in a multi-colored salad, too. It is Black Seeded Simpson, Red Sails, Red Oakleaf, Green Oakleaf, and Red Ruffles, which has a green center and red on the leaf tips. All are leaf lettuces, no heading types. I'm so anxious to have a crisp, crunchy, fresh lettuce salad!

 

Some photos of cuttings from recent years now starting to really bloom..1st one is
Forsythia, taken from and old shrub that had seen better days....

One of the new cuttings is a Virburnum Tree with flowers like the example below
not sure now what the other one is.....a.surprise one...now looking at and decided it a cherry tree...



Mahonia in Full Bloom was here when we moved in...


New area with Hardy Geranium's Lavender and A Dianthus just ny the daffs that
have finished now...around a Lilac Tree, kept small and a Rose Bush that has
hundreds of tiny rose buds....
New Strawberries..tad slow at the moment..Note how stoney the ground is..mixed
stones everywhere here in the ground and lots actually rise to the top.....weird


One of the two Honeysuckle Bushes I pruned the other day, taking an hour each...

no idea what the other shrub cutting is below..so long since I planted it without a label...
Just now adding... the patch of soil at the back was a huge Pampas Grass, there were 5 in a circle near to the dip pool..guessing privacy..but they caused so much work keeping them smallish, as much as one in the right place is fine these where near trees so you could not set fire to the middles which is the normal way of 'pruning them'..they had to go. they all did...
and the shrub in the small view is likely to be a Buddleja

 

That sounds better than my list..they do other mixes under the same name but various whole lettuces that I have never tried to grow...often this happens to your fresh grown seeds..they take the tops...creatures that are unwelcome....

 

Today was really quite cold and there was a stiff wind, Beaufort 5. I finished-off the pruning and grass path aeration. I fed the birds and chatted with a couple of neighbour ladies. We had procured some seeds for one and the other was telling more about her plans for a courgette rack and the coming strawberry plants.
After a while the water-cold began to penetrate the wax coat and I began to fantasise about hot cocoa and dark chocolate balls at home.
Off we went then, and we are now sitting here at home enjoying what was a fantasy in the allotment.

 

Hubby bought 5 pots of hyacinths and I planted them also 2 more hellebores
The border that I'm doing has a lot of sand in it, sometimes just sand. It's when these houses were built, they dumped it all on our garden because it was on the end of the row.

 

Loggy, there are a number of plants that like poor and well drained soil, so this could turn out to be a big plus for you.
We had a “philosopher” who once said, “ Every downside has an upside”.

 

Thank you and yes they'll be fine, perhaps if I mix it with the clay that i dig up from the other parts of the garden it will be better. Go down a spade and there it is grey lumps of it. Back in the days before the Romans this part used to be marsh land.

 

Been pricking out the pot marigold seedlings and going to do some more.