Cosmic Sassyness

 There's heaps of sassyness going on at Tidy Gardens HQ. 

Last year's Streptocarpus cuttings are rocking it in the ol' greenhouse, while outside...

... the Cosmos are continuing to give a late autumn cosmic display.

It doesn't get much better than this.

Have a groovy weekend everyone!!

Cabbages n' Kale

Grrrrrrr!

One word ... Blight!

Nuff said.

The veg beds have been stripped and a decision made... give up growing tomatoes. 

I've grown them successfully for years, enjoying a daily supply throughout summer, but for the past few years summer weather has been rubbish for toms, they've taken forever to ripen, there's been a glut of semi-ripe fruit in autumn followed by blight...Ugh!!!

So let's not mention the 'T' word again...ay?

This autumn I'm going to have a go at growing cabbages in the greenhouse, but eating them as greens. The variety I've bought is 'Spring Duchy', which can be eaten earlier as greens or left to develop longer into hearty cabbages. I got a pack of 9 plantlets for £3.99 from Wyevale.

It's still too warm in the ol' greenhouse during the day so I've planted 3 plants into each of these veg' growing bags (reduced last week in The Range from £3.99 to £1.99 for 2) and will leave them growing outside for a while longer. I've put them up on this bench so hopefully the pigeons & slugs won't see them.

I'll eventually move them into the greenhouse and leave them them to grow on in these bags.

 I'm super excited about this experiment.

Something else I've not grown before is Kale.

This is a mixed variety 'starter pack', again from Wyevale, they were £5.99 for 20 plants (4 x 5 varieties).

Excuse the mud.
These have gone straight into one of the raised veg beds that has been beefed up with some fresh compost, well rotted manure and a sprinkle of fertiliser.

My anti'-kitty/pigeon sticks in place, job done.

Posing Penstemons

An uber-quick post from moi today. I'm super busy but I wanted to share some images of the fabulous Penstemons doing their 'thang' in the Tidy Garden at the mo'.

This is a picture heavy post & I apologise that I don't have the names of all the varieties but enjoy anyway.

Strawberries & Cream

Amelia Jane ?

Before I go, I thought I'd also share my method for propagating these beauties. I've tried the method of taking cuttings and popping into compost but I've had greater success simply taking a cutting and popping it into water. I find they root far quicker, the roots are stronger and almost every cutting 'takes'. I reckon my success rate is 90% with this method, compared to 50% popping them into compost first.

These are just a 'few' (cough!) of my 1yr old cuttings.

Why not give it a go... it's dead easy!