Gardening projects | Rosie Amber

Happy Easter! We have a few warm days this weekend to get us all outside.

First photo shows my sunflower seedlings. This was taken after I read (on twitter) about the #SunflowerChallenge2022 It is being run from April 1st to September 30th. There are 30 categories and lots of prizes, but more importantly it is about having fun. I have several varieties all under way. 🌻

Second photo goes to this lovely Iris. I was given these two years ago. Last year they didn’t flower, so I dried them out and re-potted them. It looks like I will get another flower from the group soon. I don’t know the variety, but they seem to be very late flowering.

Third photo goes to the first flower from my Red Campion which is part of my wild flowers for pollinators scheme. 🐝

Next photo is of the dark pink Tulips which are coming into flower. Such a lovely shade of colour.

Fifth photo is this blue Hydrangea, which I secretly bought this week. It’s my husband’s birthday 🎁 this weekend and guess what he’s getting? Just what he always wanted! 👇

Last photo goes to my onion sets which I planted out this week. I actually remembered to log on for #GardensHour (Twitter: Mondays 9-10pm GMT) where this was first posted. I met another great bunch of gardeners via the hashtag.

Club cricket season starts here this weekend, with a friendly match for my son’s home team, so Saturday’s will now be a little busier for a few months.

Thank you for joining me for this #SixOnSaturday post. I hope that you enjoyed it. If you would like to know more about this hashtag, read founder Mr Propagator’s post here also find him on Twitter here.

Happy gardening

Rosie

Links:

Pádraig has very important information for those about to plant their cucumbers.
Lots going on in Rogue’s garden.
It’s Splish Splash in Chris’ Ontario graden
Plenty of colour in Mr P’s garden this week.
Tip-toe through Graeme’s Tulip, if you dare!
Fred’s got more plants to inspire us all.
Easter is in Autumn in NZ, but Thistles And Kiwis has Camellia in flower.
Sel has an Ajuga which the slugs don’t eat.
The Quilted gardener has a lovely Maurandya.
Granny’s Clematis is flowering.

Last week on #SixOnSaturday I had snowdrop envy and as mine are still not ready to photograph I have been hunting around the garden for some inspiration. We have been in our current house for two and a half years and it’s the first garden that we’ve had which is large enough to flex our gardening muscles in. Since Covid, our time in the garden has completely changed and my husband has been building things.

The first major project was to replace the original rotting garden shed. He used recycled wood from heavy duty pallets for much of the frame, only buying the wall feather board, timber for the corner uprights and roof felt. We were given the window and found the door in our loft. Eventually the door will be repainted.

Second project were wooden obelisks. I used these last summer for my tomatoes which I grew in the conservatory and later to hold up the dahlias in the autumn. He also made the bird box which is one of a pair. I am happy to say that the birds nested in both but the magpies were clever and sat on the roof of each box at fledgling time and we saw one being taken. So a plan to deter this is needed this year.

The third project was the replacement of the rotten dove cote which we inherited with the garden. He used recycled wood for this one too. It is now a fancy blue-tit des-res and they have been investigating it already. Each hole has its own apartment. I hope that they don’t mind high-rise flats!

Fourth project is my greenhouse. This was a surprise Christmas gift for me which my husband then realised he’d have to add to his building project list. It’s a budget clear Polycarbonate design bought from Amazon and something to start my greenhouse future with. I am aware that in greenhouse etiquette this may feature near the bottom, but it’s mine and I am very excited with it. The instructions said we could build it in three hours. I think it took two of us five days. Now I’m muttering about wanting a wheel barrow to trundle soil, manure and plants up and down to my greenhouse.

Project five is a recently finished cold frame. Again this is made from recycled wood and has a clear plastic lid. Our lawn is covered in Astroturf, which I am slowing removing with my projects, so I have put a double layer of Astroturf under the cold frame for extra warmth.

My sixth photo is from my own small projects. Some of my readers know that I’m a very keen reader, so last year I was inspired to have a go at painting bricks to look like much loved books. This year I got excited by some woodland folk (Becorns) that I saw on David M Birds’s Instagram and wanted to try something similar myself. Check out this post which shows his best from 2021.