Hello Monica! Glad to meet you! Your garden sure is looking good! It really has come a long way since this spring! Wow!!! Love the birdbath! How did you make it?
The weather here has taken a turn for the better, the wind died down and for the past 3 days we've had partly cloudy weather and temps. of up to 18°C which is something we're not used to in September! It's been raining today but no wind and 14°C so pretty nice!
If there's no wind - then the weather is fine by my books!!
I haven't quite finished my "sitting spot" by the pond - but I've started using it and it's a lovely spot to enjoy the afternoon sun and relax! I'm really happy with it - will be even happier when all the grass is gone - it'll be an ongoing project for next summer :-)
What's occuring in the backyard?
Hi Rann ;o))
Glad to meet you as well, and thanks for the comment on my garden. It was harder than I had imagine, lots and lots of weeds, the former recident just let them grow. Have removed about two sacs full of weeds!.
The bird bath is easy try this link
http://www.gardengatemagazine.com/extras/53birdbath.php
Could not find what they call concrete seller, so I just buried for two weeks to make it seem a bit older.
and the hypertufa and concrete forum.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/hypertufa/all/
Good thing you use the spot eventhough it is not finished, but it looks very pretty.
Thank you so much for the links Monica - I've been wanting to try this for ages - now I know how to go about it!
It is very easy. Good luck with the project :o)
I posted a message on here yesterday, but don't know where it went forgive me if I'm repeating myself.
I wanted to thank Dimitri for his suggestion to take cuttings of Basil. I took five before I went on holiday and they have all rooted well so I planted them all in a 7 inch pot and they look great and are already growing. So I may have Basil all winter too, if only I could keep the tomatoes going too. I have two late plants to follow on from the Cornu des Andes which have almost finished now. I planted two nice chunky side shoots that I took off the first one and they are now covered in fruit but haven't ripened yet so that will extend the season well.
The message that vanished was about the lovely rhubarb leaf bird bath. Thanks for the details and I am definately going to give it a try, what a great idea.
Good idea Pat, it really is lovely in the garden.
And if I can do it everybody can :o)))
Thought I'd share with you the view from my new sitting area by the pond ..... it really is a lovely spot to sit down and rest for a bit :-) I'm so happy with it!
That is lovely, isn't it rewarding when an idea is transformed into reality. I notice that most of your flowers are ones that have finished here about two months ago. Do you find things only just get going before the end of summer?
Our autumn flowers are all in full swing now with Michaelmas daisies, Crocosmia, heathers, Sedums and Japanese Anemones all looking splendid. Some Nicotinia which had planted very late have made a sudden burst and smothered everything else in the border, but look very colourful and smell lovely in the evenings. It is also a very good year for berries and fruit, the trees and bushes are weighted down with them.
Anyway, it is a beautiful warm day, so I'm going back to the garden.
Sigh….. oh what a tranquil and is beautiful spot.
Thanks Pat and Monica - I'm so happy with it! Yes, Pat the plants are much later here, but we have plants flowering from spring until fall - spring just starts later here. I think many of them flower over a longer period here and many overlap here that wouldn't in warmer climates. There is no such thing as a spring flowering rose here - the earliest start in early July! The autumn flowering plants grown in warmer climates don't have a chance here - like the Japanese anemones, phlox and probably more ...... the Astilbes usually just beat the first frost.
Looks lovely and tranquil, and still flowering well there.Is it two seperate ponds, or one?I love the bridge over it.I had something like that in the garden next door (when we lived there)
My poor garden is all dying from lack of water....I keep leaving it, thinking it's bound to rain soon...so this year my autumn display is lacking.
Rain? You want rain? It's pouring down here!
Oh pleace don`t send the rain here, were have a wonderful week end at the moment. A bit windy but not cold :o)))
Just back from our weekend trip to Copenhagen and the weather was really wonderful!! 20°C and sunny and the wind was very welcome for a change 'cause otherwise we'd have melted!!! ;-) It was sooo hot today (maybe less wind or a bit warmer than sat and sunday) that we'd had enough of sweat and heat - it was soooooo refreshing to come home to the 9°C! Home sweet home!!
Sueone thanks! It's one pond - I just made it narrow in the middle for the bridge. The fish have moved inside for the winter now - I had to move them inside in a hurry on thursday night because there was a forecast for night frost. Fortunatley it was light so not much damage to my plants yet :-)
A frost! Please not yet. I'm not finished yet.
Yes, but very mild - it's still amazingly warm during the day - so my roses are still flowering nicely!
This is a photo of 'Aloha' that opened it's first bud last week and it's second is just opening today :-)
Welcome home Rannveig ;o))
Hope you had a nice time, eventhough there were problems on the “island” this week-end
Yes it was actually terribly hot moday, it made it hard to concentrate at classes, so we got earlier free!!!!
What a trill, could spend more time in my little spot that day.
It is cooler now, but can still were a t-shirt.
Will have to get the greenhouse up soon, and get all my oxalis in there.
Thanks Monica! We had a great time!!! I absolutely LOVED the botanical gardens - could have spent the entire weekend there! So many beautiful plants - and the trees! Wow - I'm always amazed by how big trees get in warmer climates. There were huge Taxus baccata trees growing there - I thought it was a bush! LOL Actually Taxus baccata doesn't grow well here at all - doesn't even make it as a bush. T. baccata 'Summergold' (or something like that) however grows pretty well and makes a small bush. I was also very impressed by all the weeping willows - I love those trees! Unfortunately they don't grow here - there is something so wonderful about them. And they're so BIG!!!
I was also amazed to see all the pretty Dahlias - some species Dahlias I didn't even know existed growing like bushes! So very pretty flowers eventhough they're smaller than the showier cultivars.
We had smørrebrød in Nyhavn and went on a guided boat tour - both were great! And we did A LOT of walking - my feet are still hurting! And on Sunday we went to Tivoli in the afternoon. That's when all the commotion was - we did wonder why all these police cars were rushing by - they were so many - saw it in the newspaper the next day.
I have to admit that my High School danish teacher would not have been impressed by my danish skills - english comes more naturally -so I used that mostly. Otherwise my DH did most of the talking - his danish is pretty good - didn't need to speak much english. Except with the numbers - it's just something we can't get - it gets too complicated after 30, this treds and halvfjerds stuff! We always had to ask how much it was in english! ;-)
Do you overwinter all your oxalis in the greenhouse? Is it heated? I noticed that there were some oxalis grown in pots in a few places with deep burgundy leaves and lavender flowers - really pretty! My husband thought they were fake - he was amazed that they were real! Such an unusual color combination.
A very pretty rose rannveig! Your climate can grow those, I think you may stand a good chance of growing species dahlias. Your lows don't seem to be any worse than ours, and dahlia species like the cool weather. Mine start to flower best in September when it cools down a little, many are native to cool, misty Mexican mountains.
These have been in the ground for 3 years, they grow tall (5') and don't need staking. I bought the seed as a species 'old fashioned as the Victorians grew' mix. I much prefer them to the larger hybrids, flowers are single, lovely colours and actually are mostly quite large. I grow dwarf collarette dahlias around the edges. Not the best of pics, I will have to get a better one.
Yes!!! Isn`t just beautiful!!! Can stay for hours and hours, love the weeping willows as well.
DH is not that fun of plants, buts goes anyway LOL
Don`t blame you, danish is not a very easy or pretty, the treds and halvfjerds thing is very confusing as well LOL.
The greenhouse is heated, had problems last year and lots many of my darlings :o((
But I am spying at the greenhouse forum to get some inspiration there (sshhh don`t tell enyone LOL)
In the beginning they are all in there. But in about january the summer growing ones are put in the celler to go dorment, and then there is a bit more space.
The oxalis you are writing about is very sticking, and easy to take care of.
Wallaby, what a nice dahlias and serene spot that is. Never been to keen on the hybrids eighter. Are they easy to care? Did I get it rigth, you leave them out all winter?
Hi zest, yes I do leave them in the ground all winter. Most of them are semi-hardy, I have sandy soil and mulched the ground well with compost, I think it helps keep the soil open and free draining but they didn't have a mulch the first year.
That bed doesn't get any sun in the winter, and only in the afternoon in summer, now it gets dappled shade and sun. They do like fairly poor soils too. If you grow them from seed in a good organic mix with soil they are much healthier and will be more likely to survive than a nursery produced tuber. They are very easy to grow and flower in the first year, the second year they are fully mature.
The hardest frost we have had since they have been in is probably -9C, the ground has been frozen but perhaps not too deeply, and I think they can stand some frost if the soil is friable. They do seem to have placed themselves quite deep, I tried to plant them a little deeper than they were in the pot when I first put them in.
They need no special attention, fertilising will only make them soft, and if you give a mulch of compost they get food anyway. I have only mulched once, they were put in the ground in 2003, although I had grown them the year before and kept them in 6" pots in the shed over the first winter until I was prepared to plant them.
I still had a few in pots that I put in another bed this year, believe it or not they were outside all winter in 6" pots and we had many quite hard frosts (to -9C), and a very long 6 months of winter. They all lived!
I love those purple foliage oxalis, I have one in a tub outside that manages to make a small appearance, perhaps I should put it under cover.
One of the Dahlia species
A very nice flower, love the color!
I have very sandy soil in my little spot, so that wouldn`t be a problem.
The sun bakes down all day, so that is a plus in the winter as well.
Amazing that they survided in a pot at that temperature!
Can you recommend a nursery that has 'old fashioned as the Victorians grew' seed?
Have only seen them in books and here in DG, will have to try some now (as well as glads and crocosmia, will have to find a bigger place soon LOL)
There is a gentleman in London that has that oxalis growing outside year round. The amazing thing is that his mom does it as well, and she lives were it is much colder. Don`t know were in England though. Will let a few stay outside this year.
I got my seed from Thompson & Morgan, but I did keep seed last year. It should still be OK, although I couldn't guarantee it. I grew some in spring of one colour, a bright pink semi-double which I got very few seed from, it's later to flower than the rest. I have about 9 plants from it. Seed mixed I have plenty and I think I put in some pink, I don't know if it will have crossed at all with other dahlias, that is a possibility. If you would like some dmail me your address.
Wallaby, those dahlias are so pretty! I actually got the T&M catalog in the mail today (temptation, temptation ...... arghhh! I have no space ....... but I've already marked too many plants that I'd like to try ....... ) I'll look for those dahlias. I have had no luck with the big showy ones, maybe I'll give these a try!
Monica - that's the oxalis we saw - what's it's name?? It's a beauty! The only Oxalis that are hardy here are O. adenophylla and O. enneaphylla (Rosea) and I have both. Real beauties as well, but not as showy.
The Botanisk Have is a gem - actually my husband didn't complain at all - I think he enjoyed it more than he was willing to admit ;-) LOL Managed to smuggle some berries from a Sorbus aucuparia cultivar with orange berries and a Crataegus spec. with dark red berries and greyish foliage (have to look up the name - took a photo of the label). It was a really nice looking tree - probably won't grow here but I'll give it a shot. I'd settle for a small shrub! LOL I thought they were cherries at first before I noticed the foliage.
Catalogs are so delightfully dangerous LOL
The name of the oxalis is known by some as O. triangularis.
But has “chanced” to Triangularis Atropurpurea, would you like some?
Rannveig I am goin to tell on you LOL. Good thing you din`t eat the "cherries"
Did the same some years ago, seeds of some sort, can`remember what.
Did you see the mango tree, and were the fruit ripe? That, is a real temptation LOL
No I didn't see the mango tree ..... wouldn't have recognized it if I'd seen it either without reading the label. Was it in the greenhouses? It was so hot in the greenhouses that we did rush a bit through them .......
Yeah those temptations can be hard to resist - I need to work up more resistance - any ideas on how to do that? I've tried and tried with no luck yet! Just everything overflowing with pots of seedlings and young plants I have no idea where to put .... sound familiar??
I'd love some of the Oxalis triangularis if you have it - it needs to be overwintered in the greenhouse doesn't it? Can it tolerate any frost? D-mail me, maybe we can work out a swap on the off chance I have something you'd like to try :-)
The mango tree is as soon as you are up the stairs and go in, to the rigth.
It is hot in there, a little sauna. Did you like the succulent and cactuses?
Not my kind of plat, but like to see the diffent ones.
Temptation cure? Sorry not jet, have the same problem LOL.
The oxalis can overwinter in your window, this one is one of the few that can. I just put mine in the greenhouse as I don`t have space inside. And I have a crazy feline that likes attacking them :o((
No need to swap, will gladly send you some :o))
rannveig, if I can send you some seed I will happily do that! I have decided it may be best to take seed pods of each colour and make a manageable size mix, or separate colours, so you would end up with a good mix of colours. dmail me your address and I will send them when they are ready, that may be another month or so.
You guys are too kind! Thanks wallaby that is so sweet of you! Any color would be fine! I'll D-mail you my adress :-)
Well, I'm in gardening mode again. I read in a magazine that grape vine prunings are good for making Xmas wreaths from, and that vines should be pruned before the end of the year. So I pruned the vines and accidentally cut off a bit I was training for next year as I hadn't put my specs. on. Anyway the prunings are about 4 foot long and do bend nicely round and tuck in to make the base for decorative wreaths. I've made two by tucking conifer, variegated ivy and ivy flowers and some cotoneaster waterii with loads of berries and plenty of leaves on into the vine base. It only took a few minutes and looks brilliant, so I've coiled the rest up and fixed them before they dry out and become less pliable to use next year.
I've even put my first seed order in to Real Seeds and last week I bought six new hens - 17 week old hybrids, two Speckledy, two Black Rock and two Warrens (a present from one of my sons). There are hen wars at the moment, the old ones are establishing their pecking order and rights to have their fill from the food dish before the newcomers get a look in. I've put a separate dish behind a bush for the babies so they can eat without being hassled. They are already showing their individual characters and the Black Rocks are rather good flyers, especially when being chased. They seem to be settling down a bit now and there are fewer skirmishes at bed time now the new ones don't try to get on the top perch. The old ones have even laid an egg today, so must be feeling calmer.
Pat - your wreath sounds lovely - do you have a photo?? Sounds like it's been lively in the henhouse - it's always exciting to get new friends - guess it's a bit of a strain on the older ones :-) We actually got a feathered friend this Christmas, our Christmas present to our older daughter was a cockatiel. She's been wanting one for over a year and was saving up her birthday money and allowances to buy one - so we decided to help her with the cage and the bit she was missing. She was so happy she almost cried! He's only 9 weeks old and has been named Kiki (a name that should be familiar to anyone who's read Enid Blyton's Adventure books ;-)) He's eating out of our hands already so it won't be long until he's "finger trained". He was hand-fed - so it should be easier to train him .....
It's strange isn't it Pat, even though it's been quite cold there's this feeling of spring somewhere not far away, last winter it just seemed cold cold cold. Perhaps the ground soaked up a lot of extra warmth this hot summer! The sun broke out briefly at 1pm today, I have the feeling I may be popping out to get on with some seed sowing if rain doesn't stop play with this warm 4 days we are forecast at 10C.
I would love to see a pic of your wreath, it sounds professional! I have already got and sown a few lots of seeds from different places this autumn, plenty to do yet. I'm waiting on some Clivia seed I got on ebay from a Chinese grower, I don't know where I will keep them when they are growing!
Lovely cockatiel rannveig, I have often thought it would be a nice bird to have, they always seem so friendly when I see them in a pet shop. You were lucky to get one personally handled, it should provide a lot of entertainment!
Baby cockatiels are sweet - once they have their feathers - they are ugly little things when they have just hatched. I'm afraid I haven't handled ours much recently and they have gone a bit wild. Beany will sometimes stand on my finger, but the others won't any more, so you do have to keep handling them. The boys do talk and copy tunes if you whistle to them, and they love the William Tell Overture and rush all over the cage. Nemo is the most talkative now and also copies funny noises that appeal to him like the squeaky fridge door and the microwave "ping" and the telephone. You should have lots of fun with Kiki.
Here are a couple of photos of the wreaths:
and:
It's been "warm" here too over the holidays - well above freezing anyway! When the girls went outside on Christmas Eve they both exclaimed it's like spring! ...... or fall! lol Something other than winter at least. I actually went outside and raked leaves today - don't think I've been out in the garden in December before ...... think it was around 7°C.
Thanks Janet - the girls love him (or her ..... won't know for a few months ;-))!!
Pat - the wreath is beautiful!! The ivy and the red berries are a really nice touch :-)
Your cockatiels sound like fun - Selma is hoping that Kiki will learn to "speak" someday - that's why she's hoping it's a boy, they're more talkative .........
This message was edited Dec 27, 2006 11:15 PM
and here are the cockatiels but I'm afraid there are only three now, Ellie escaped and a cat frightened Teddy to death (sorry):
I've picked a very blurred photo, it doesn't look bad until you enlarge it. They like sitting on the curtain rail and eating the wallpaper. It gives me an excuse not to bother decorating.