Archive for July, 2009

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Goldfish

Thursday, July 30th, 2009
my old water feature

my old water feature

This is my “pond” in the front garden, I’ve had this old water feature for many years, it’s half an oak barrel. I always like to have goldfish in it, but I thought that my remaining single goldfish had not over-wintered because I’d not seen him for many months, so I purchased a bag of ten goldfish today from Pets R Wright, Hull. On checking the bag later, I had eleven!

a bag of 10 goldfish

a bag of 10 goldfish

I always like to quarantine any fish I introduce, and if you check the water feature picture above, you’ll notice that my single goldfish did survive the winter! So the gold fish remained in this small tank for a week before I introduced them into the “pond”.

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Angus has a catnap!

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

whilst I cut the hedge…..

Angus has a catnap!

Angus has a catnap!

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Potatoe Harvest Time

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

I’ve harvested the last of the First Earlies I planted out in March this year and dug up the last plant, it revealed much better potatoes, the variety I grew was Epicure. But I don’t think I’ll be selecting this variety next year.

First Earlies Epicure

First Earlies Epicure

But the Second Earlies Edzell Blue I also planted out in March, have done extremely well, and I thought the tubers, when planted were all shrivelled up and rubbish when I planted them out. It just goes to show, looks can be deceptive.

Second Earlies Edzell Blue

Second Earlies Edzell Blue

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Water Lilies

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

We spent some time out yesterday at Burnby Hall Gardens, home to a National Collection of Hardy Water Lilies – the biggest such collection to be found in a natural setting in Europe. Here are a few pictures of some of the collection.

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Magic plant clips

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

I’m always having trouble supporting plants with canes in the garden, I usually use garden twine to tie plants to canes or sometimes the metal tie clips, I don’t like either of these options, because you have to be careful, especially when the tomatoe plant stems grow, that they don’t bruise the stems. Whilst I was in Poundstretchers or Poundland the other week (well times are hard!), I found these very handy plant clip supports for a £1.00. There are two different sizes in the pack, and you get a total of six of the smaller, and six of the larger clips, they are like a modified clothes peg, spring loaded, and clip onto the cane, supporting the plant, as the plant grows, you just move the clip up the stem. A bargain – and if you purchased in a garden centre would be more than a £1.00!

plant clip photo

plant clip photo

closeup of plant clip

closeup of plant clip

plantclip3

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July 2009 Tomatoe update

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

Since planting out into the grow bags, my tomatoe plants have done very well with the hot summer days, followed by the thundery showers.

tomatoe plants in July 2009 next to shed

tomatoe plants in July 2009 next to shed

tomatoe plants in July 2009 next to greenhouse

tomatoe plants in July 2009 next to greenhouse

potted tomatoe plants

potted tomatoe plants

Even the potted tomatoe plants – Tombling Tom Red, which were damaged and wilted by the sun, have come back, after I chopped them back, and been watering twice a day since. So I live in hope that I’ll have some tomatoes this year!

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Horaah! My brown bin has arrived!

Thursday, July 16th, 2009
brown compost bin for roadside collection and recycling

brown compost bin for roadside collection and recycling

I’ve been waiting years for East Riding of Yorkshire Council to include us in the roadside composting scheme, and today my brown bin has finally arrived. I do already compost at home, and have 1000l compost bins, but I don’t have a shredder to shred the hedge clippings to include in my compost bins, so I have to drive to the local recycling depot and deposit in the green compost bins, it just makes a mess of our new car, and with 300-400 foot of hedge, which consists of hawthorn, blackthorn, bramble, elder and privet there are alot of hedge clippings.

Thank you East Riding of Yorkshire Council, this is part of their Target 45+ recycling scheme. See here

I’m so excited, I’ll go and cut the hedge now, and fill up my brown bin for the first roadside collection. (yes, I don’t get much excitement in my life!)

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Virgin balloon passes the front garden

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

Lindsey spots the Virgin balloon passing the front of the garden/house from the lounge. So here’s a quick and dirty video clip.

and I didn’t get to watch Dragon’s Den last night after all!

Check out the other Balloon related posts.

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July 2009 Chilli plants update

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
Chilli plants in July in the porch

Chilli plants in July in the porch

These chilli plants have been grown from seed, I did think I would lose them all at one time, but since transplanting into larger pots, they started to do very well, and signs of flowers haved started to appear in the last few days.

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Front lawn

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Lindsey cuts the front lawn…(whilst I cut the hedge)

Front lawn with clover for bumble bees

Front lawn with clover for bumble bees

our little bit for biodiversity for the bumble bees, because the bumble bees swarm over the clover in the front lawn, so it would be a shame to cut it all.

Clover in the front lawn

Clover in the front lawn

Closeup of clover in the front lawn

Closeup of clover in the front lawn

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