My Little Nursery

 I have written before about the little nursery I have in my garden now, the planters of crocus, giant allium and, er, not-so-giant allium I planted as bulbs in November in a bid to attract more pollinators to my yard.

As we now reach the last days of January, I thought I would give you a little progress update. 

It didn't take long for the first crocus spears to make their way above the surface of the planting compost, but things seemed to have slowed down a bit, although more of them are now starting to peak through. Certainly they will be rather later than the wild crocuses in the cemetery, the earliest of which have now come into flower. 

The giant alliums have also slowed after a strong start, and once again there certainly aren't as many of them as I planted. The not-so-giant alliums have virtually all emerged in one planter, so we will see how they go. These won't come into flower until rather later, May-June time.

It's hardly been labour intensive, but I have found this process, my first ever attempt to grow something from scratch, very rewarding not only from the rubbish gardener perspective, but also from a mental one, even if it does smack incredibly hardly of middle-aged-ness. 

Well I'm still very active, often child like with Tourettes and Autism, and I've been listening to Radio 4 for years.

I'm not sure I'm that bothered.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 25.01.22

Gardening Funs

 So this autumn, I have got hold of some planters, two big bags of potting compost, and have planted my first ever bulbs, the first time I can say I've ever done any "proper" garden.

Of course, I have made sure they are pollinator friendly, and so have put in two planters and a pot of crocuses, and two planters and a pot of various forms of allium. I'm hoping for some vibrant colour and bees and butterflies in my gravel postage stamp of a garden next year!

In spring, I intend to try the same with some wildflower meadow seeds, as apparently that is the best time to plant them. I might even try some food plants too, I've never eaten anything I've grown. Tomatoes maybe. 

My sonetti has decided to make a valiant attempt to come back into flower, but is very slow at it in this cold weather, and I'm wondering if this first cold snap of winter will stop it dead, although we didn't get any snow here. 

The last few days I've been really lazy, especially today where I haven't left the house, so have yet to test my new monocular bought from Millets - I can't go in there without coming out with some silly gadget or other!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 28.11.21

Allium Season

All of a sudden, these big purple flower heads have sprung up everywhere - the council gardeners seem to really like them and along with geraniums they have appeared in most public garden spaces in towns.

I watched a brave early bumblebee feeding in the rain today, it didn't seem interested in the allium, only the geranium.

Not much else was seen. I am so exhausted again after my cricket weekend double header I could barely move for three hours after doing my shopping in the morning. No run either!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 15.05.17