Dividing Phormiums And Giving Them A Haircut.

Rather like vegetables. So many of our garden plants come from overseas.  I often spend time on Google looking up the etymology of our plants and vegetables.  

West Cork seaside gardens often have griselina (New Zealand Privet) Hebes and Phormiums or flax.  All  of which originate down under in Australia and New Zealand.

I have several Phormiums growing in my gardens.  Every year I always divide some and make new plants and give them an haircut so they don't need lots of watering after being cut back.

Usually  I divide and cut back my Phormiums in April but it was too wet this year so I waited until Bank Holiday Monday and made eleven new plants:

New plants all potted up and they will make me 55 Euros when they grow their foliage back. Deferred plant gratification?  

My plants are not middle class and sink or swim with their regeneration.  Just a drink of water and old Mother Nature's  propagation magic!  

If you have Phormiums and they are getting tall and ragged looking.  Cutting them back hard and dividing them gives you a rejuvenated plant and new plants to sell, swap or give away.

Do you divide your Phormiums or other grasses like Pampas?

"Whiskers On Kittens."

 Do you remember the small black and white cat we Christened: Muzz Muss?

Taken a few weeks ago when she decided to rest in a cardboard box.

She is a very small 🐈 but seemingly fearless and she walks among the dogs without a care in the world.

We noticed recently she'd developed a big belly.   She had obviously been courting and we knew that new arrivals would soon be putting in a appearance.

At night we placed her in one of the dog cages in the small bedroom or "Chitting Room".

On Saturday morning we saw Muzz Muss licking four beautiful kittens:

Isn't nature wonderful?

She's a clever mum.

More Carboot Plant Selling And I Bought Two Plants.

 

Some of my shrubs and perennials and bric-a-brac and tomato plants and we also took books and pictures and two double glazed windows which nobody made one enquiry about.  

We set off about six on Sunday morning.   We loaded up the vehicle the night before.

We got diverted on the Cork road after a serious car accident had happened the night before but the road was still blocked.  

Thankfully we know a lot of alternative lesser roads and snaked our way back to a junction on the Cork road.

Two hours later we got to our carboot venue.  Google maps took us along the Bandon river and into Kinsale and eventually to a townland not that far away from the town.

We paid the man on the gate ten euros for a pitch fee and found a space and we began emptying the vehicle.

Half an hour later we had not sold a thing.  Another car booter told us the last time he did this sale he made 2 Euros.  "Oh dear".

Eventually plant sales began to trickle and we sold some books and tools..

We took turns to walk around and look what was for sale?  One of us came back with two plants:

A Rugosa rose which is the perfect rose in the countryside next to the sea.  We also bought an old garden favourite a Peony.  They are one plant that does not like being moved.  So I won't be propagating that plant. 

We coppered up and counted all the money from our takings.  We took ninety Euros minus our ten Euros pitch fee.

We loaded up the vehicle and it seemed like we had brought back more than we sold. Including the 2 white UPVC windows which I had carried and nobody enquired about.  

But it wasn't too bad a morning and we have had days when we made far less money.  Can you make eighty Euros on a Sunday morning?  I wouldn't  make nothing at home in the countryside next to the sea.

Have you sold at a carboot sale recently?  

Latest Polytunnel Veggie Pictures.

 I took some photos of what's growing in the polytunnel at the moment:

Potatoes 🥔 nearly ready to flower.

Runner beans.  I sowed far too many.  So I will sell some of them at a carboot sale for ten bob each or 50 Cents if you have the Euro like most European countries have.

Above cabbages grown in mini digger tracks raised beds.  We ate some last week and it was very good.

Onions 🌰.  Is there a vegetable family you can not give enough praise for?  Alliums are brilliant and be it my Japanese winter onions onions,  leeks, or  spring or summer onions.  I can not praise  them enough.

I will write and post a blog about what's  going on outside in the veg plot next time.👍

Perennials Planting Next To The Polytunnel.

 The weather must be slowly but surely drying up.  I am finally getting on top of my gardening tasks.  

Having a garden in the countryside next to the sea gives you a beautiful  vista to look at.  

Only last night we watched a massive cruise ship sail up the bay from our conservatory window.  Who else has a view like that?

Outside of the polytunnel it's  been very wet and muddy and I finally managed to plant it up for free:

Not an amazing photograph but the plants cost me nothing just my work propagating them, nurturing, watering and weeding and potting on. 

 I have hundreds of them perhaps I should have a 🪴  plants sale?  I get tired of loading up the jalopy and going to a carboot sale and coming home with more than half of them.  Such is life.🙂

Making A Heath Robinson Style Cold Frame In 5 Minutes For Free.

 The leek seedlings were starting to burn up in the polytunnel.  So I decided to repurpose the shower surround that been leaning against the pallets of my compost and fym piles:

Four upturned buckets and the shower surround/ door placed on top and "Bob's your uncle" we had our very own cold frame.

I have considered filling the gaps in between the buckets with off cuts of old timber but it's easier to slide your arm under and pull out the leeks in plastic  modules  to water and push back in.

You don't need to rush to B & Q if you look in skips and ask at recycling centres if they have any old shower surrounds or buckets they don't want?

Regular readers will remember I made my cold frame with the shower screen resting on old bricks and pieces of old timber a few years ago.

Perhaps I should advertise my repurposed garden products in one of those posh gardening magazines?🙂

 I once sent a humorous article to a smallholding magazine in England.  They emailed and said: "We don't  do humour". Oh the irony!😊

More repurposing things for growing stuff for nowt or nuffink soon.

Policeman Catches Young Children In A Pond Print.

 Another old Victorian advert poster print.

Apparently it was an American advert for a fishing tackle and it was painted 🎨 by GF Gilman.  You can buy the said poster on Amazon.  I would says our framed one is an original.

Any American or Canadian blog readers and writers like Debby (Life's Funny Like That) familiar with the artist or the poster?

I am going to keep it and hang it close to Pears soap framed poster I showed you the other day.