Zen or Zany #AtoZChallenge

You decide. Zen or Zany? After twenty six posts on how I garden, what would you say about my style?

These aren’t this years blackcurrants yet but a few of you didn’t know what they were so here’s a pic showing the size of them. I find my garden very meditative and relaxing when I’m pottering about in it.

 

While you ponder what my style is, I’ll go finish my reflections post and you will still have time to go visit as many other Z’s as you can find to wish them well done for finishing. If you’ve done the AtoZ this year, well done us both! After today we can find out what the rest of the world’s been up to during April.

Particular thanks to Arlee for setting the challenge up and the co-hosts for keeping it going and all of those who in the first year without the linky list have still shown up and participated. We did us proud!

Let’s catch up with each other again on reflection day. For now there’s a bit more pottering to do and breakfast to be had. It’s been a wonderful month, thanks for travelling with me.

My AtoZ Blogging Challenge is all about gardening, Lynne style.  Bye for now. I’ll be back for reflections and, if it’s anything like the last few years this blog will go quiet for the rest of the year.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post why not see what others did during 2017 AtoZ Blogging challenge, look in the comments on the letter of the day blog or like their facebook page. I look forward to seeing you back here when I reflect. Many thanks for joining me along the way, I nearly didn’t participate this year and am glad I did. Hope you are too!

Advertisement

Yes to yellow celandines #atozchallenge

I think all celandines are yellow so I’m sort of cheating calling them yellow celandines though their flowers are yellow and when I wrote this it hadn’t occurred to me to do Xanth for x. It could be yes to no mowing.. Celandines have a tendency to take over.. and, this year, I’m very glad they have. I’ve realised this picture is when the flowers hadn’t opened for the day, drat, I don’t think I took another one when the flowers were actually open, too busy enjoying them to get the camera probably. They looked stunning.

I have no lawn any more. I did ten years ago but as the hedge grew into a row of small trees and shaded out the lawn so the grass gave up for other more woodland plants. There must always have been a few celandines but now most of the *cough* lawn is full of them, apparently they have a tendency to take over. I’d rather them than the other plant which tried to take over and I have a constant battle with.

My AtoZ Blogging Challenge is all about gardening, Lynne style.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post why not see what others are doing too during 2017 AtoZ Blogging challenge, look in the comments on the letter of the day blog or like their facebook page. I look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow.

 

Xanth #atozchallenge

Xanth means yellow and as soon as I found that out I thought I’d have to move my Y post to X. Y was surely for yellow flowers, no, x is now that.

We’re talking yellow flowers in my garden. There’s a few.

Cow-slip, daffodil (not got any pretty pics, here’s what mine look like today).

Winter jasmine (see J), bay (I almost didn’t even notice the bay was in flower), dandelion (all gone over so here’s the wind blown version of seeds) and don’t forget…. Ahh, I’ve now remembered my Y was going to be for a specific yellow flower, I’ll leave that for tomorrow.

My AtoZ Blogging Challenge is all about gardening, Lynne style.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post why not see what others are doing too during 2017 AtoZ Blogging challenge, look in the comments on the letter of the day blog or like their facebook page. I look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow.

Wilderness #atozchallenge

My neighbour used to tell me ‘You could disappear in there and no-one would find you.’ He was referring to my preference of a more natural garden. That’s what I like to call it. Some would say untidy, well nature prefers life that way and even if that pile of sticks is very neat the animals have a way of moving it around and making it look less neat. Not that a pile of sticks in my garden would ever look neat.

I have a very narrow and long garden yet manage to keep it wild enough for lots of wildlife which I love. If you’ve seen this years AtoZ blogs I’ve already included pictures of many birds, the fox and lots of the plants and trees.

It’s occurred to me I’ve not shown you and may not have any pictures of my toad, the frog that occasionally visits, the hedgehog, squirrel and all the insects including some amazing dragonflies. Let me go see what pics I might have in addition to a few piles of sticks… Hope you like them, don’t get me started on how great it would be if this was a red squirrel. I only see it when the hazel nuts are plentiful.

My AtoZ Blogging Challenge is all about gardening, Lynne style.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post why not see what others are doing too during 2017 AtoZ Blogging challenge, look in the comments on the letter of the day blog or like their facebook page. I look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow.

Vegetables #AtoZChallenge

Last year my whole blog was about vegetables that I’d drawn. This year it’s been about my garden so vegetables appear again.

I’d always wanted an allotment, I’m not that disciplined and know I’d struggle to keep it up. Thankfully I don’t need one, my garden has it’s own vegetable beds and greenhouse to grow the plants in.

It’s 26 April and I would expect to have fully functioning veg beds by now. I’ve had a year or two off from growing any vegetables because the garden got a bit out of hand but I’m on top of it and thought I’d be able to show you all my hard work. Well I can, sort of. Some of these pics are of the vegetables I’ve grown here in previous years and some of my aspiring plants for this year.

There’s all the cuttings ready to go to the tip. I’ve not managed to get it there though and although we do have a brown bin collection for garden waste you have to pay for it and since I didn’t do any gardening last year I’d not paid for this years which doesn’t finish till week commencing 15 May. I would have paid for it for April but only realised after last years payments finished on 28 February. How confusing.

My garden rubbish is piling up and will keep doing so till the end of May unless I manage to get to the tip. If there wasn’t so much bramble and buddleigh seed in it I’d have tried to compost it. Oh we’ve not even talked about the demise of my wormery or my composting attempts and we’re nearly at Z. Those can wait for another year if I ever blog about the garden again.

This year I might have to improvise and put my veg somewhere else. It’s ready to go out but, given the chill of this week I’m glad it will be delayed. Who knows what I’ll be able to pick fresh from my garden this year. Oh the trials and tribulations of gardening..

My AtoZ Blogging Challenge is all about gardening, Lynne style.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post why not see what others are doing too during 2017 AtoZ Blogging challenge, look in the comments on the letter of the day blog or like their facebook page. I look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow.

Updates #atozchallenge

How are you doing? Not long to go now. Starting a week late and catching up in a week seemed like a good idea but I’m flagging. And just when we get to yet more hard letters. What was I thinking?

 

Well, I’m constantly heading outside each morning to update myself on life in my  garden. Things change all the time. Above is what this years blackcurrants currently look like. My beans are doing well. The tulip’s have gone over but the aquilegia’s out.

And while we’ve all been enjoying everyone’s amazing blogs I didn’t quite manage to clear everything off my veg plot, more about that tomorrow, gripping I know. Here’s what the bluebells look like today.

My AtoZ Blogging Challenge is all about gardening, Lynne style.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post why not see what others are doing too during 2017 AtoZ Blogging challenge, look in the comments on the letter of the day blog or like their facebook page. I look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow.

Thermometer #atozchallenge

Most of the winter I’m not that interested in the temperature, other than, is the water frozen or not? Then we get to spring and, if I’ve grown some plants from seed, I want to know what the night and day temperatures have been and spend each morning checking my thermometer in the greenhouse. I love seeing what the overnight temperature was then being shocked at yesterdays day temperature particularly this year when the early April day temperature in my greenhouse nearly reached the top.

 

When there’s little chance of frost overnight I move my seedlings into the greenhouse and begin my annual ritual of checking each morning and evening to see how they’re getting on. It’s very therapeutic. I’m not sure if it feels the same if you’re a farmer and doing this with fields of seed but I don’t see why not. There’s something in humans that we like to grow things and feel great when it works. Mind you nature’s been pretty good at growing from seen without us for millennia. 

My AtoZ Blogging Challenge is all about gardening, Lynne style. 

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post why not see what others are doing too during 2017 AtoZ Blogging challenge, look in the comments on the letter of the day blog or like their facebook page. I look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow.

Such serious S’s to choose from #AtoZchallenge

Snow, shed, Snake’s head fritillary, seedlings, sparrows, starlings, sprouts and saplings were the first to come to mind. Others included sacrifice, sense and see then there’s snowdrops, suckers and sanity.

As we head towards the final week of this blogging challenge, I’ll let you peruse some of the images I’d post if I wrote about some of these. Many of which are already used for other letters so I’m only posting three here.

Since I’m beginning to come to a stop I’m assuming you’ll be able to work out which pictures would go with which letters.

Sometimes it’s easier when you have less choice, no?

Thanks for popping by.

My AtoZ Blogging Challenge is all about gardening, Lynne style.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post why not see what others are doing too during 2017 AtoZ Blogging challenge, look in the comments on the letter of the day blog or like their facebook page. I look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow.

Redcurrants and robins #AtoZchallenge

My freezer is getting full of frozen redcurrants. The blackcurrants don’t last long but I seem to have less things I bake with redcurrants.

Redcurrant sauce is about it and putting a sprig of them on the place when I eat certain meats. Hmm, yeah that’s about it. Any recipe ideas let me know. Looks like it will be another bumper crop of redcurrants this year.

Now onto another favourite in the garden, this here robin or two or three.. There’s always robins in my garden. Many of you will have a different type. Here’s a few pics of mine.

Much bolder than the starlings who fly at the slightest of movements. As soon as I step onto my patio the/a robin comes to see what I’m up to.

When I’m inside they enjoy having a bath in peace.

I’ve started putting things around the garden in the hope that I can get some fab pictures of them sitting on different objects. Not much luck yet, I’ll have to get a better camera first. Here’s as far as I’ve got.

My AtoZ Blogging Challenge is all about gardening, Lynne style. 

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post why not see what others are doing too during 2017 AtoZ Blogging challenge, look in the comments on the letter of the day blog or like their facebook page. I look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow.

 

Quaint #AtoZChallenge

I was going to try to be clever and do q is for Quercus but then remembered I have no oak in my garden. I thought of using the green man I made but that fell to pieces and the other one I’ve got wasn’t made by me then I remembered the other things I’ve made recently and thought ‘they’re quaint’ I had my Q.

I’ve made garden furniture in the past, long gone and has since become the dead wood pile for insects and other creatures.

This year, after doing a short workshop using modelling clay I remembered I had lots somewhere in the house and went and created many quaint bits of garden ornaments. Oh, I’m sure they won’t survive next years frost but, for now, they’re making me smile. Lots of miniature fungi, plant pots and doors.  

My AtoZ Blogging Challenge is all about gardening, Lynne style. 

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post why not see what others are doing too during 2017 AtoZ Blogging challenge, look in the comments on the letter of the day blog or like their facebook page. I look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow.