GrowGirl August 2018

Wednesday 8th August 2018

A splendid morning at my flower site where I water and weed for an hour followed by a tying-up session with my flower support canes for the borage and ox-eye daisies.  The canes were mostly all in place, thankfully, although I had to search for two full-length ones for a huge clump of borage.  Once you grow this bee-popular plant you have it for ever.  Seedlings spring up everywhere and they are very easily transportable to other sites.  Use the young leaves for a cucumber addition to squidges or salads or freeze the brilliant blue flowers for adding to your summer drinks.  You must stake them however, or else your growing plants will flop over everywhere and knock-out other favourites.  They also require a great deal of water to do well..

My marrows, courgettes and tomatoes are thriving - brilliant xxx

GrowGirl.com 

1 hr 

10 August 2018· 

After all this morning’s rain can you imagine how thrilled I am to have gathered in all our wild flower seeds growing in Adderbury on areas I manage. All that rain would have washed out the remaining harvest and
I should have Missed out on the next stage of my leisurely learning curve ie getting good with plants, cuttings and seeds and all those other gardening joys x

I mean , just like passing ones driving test, then finding out you begin learning how to drive the next day well....completing your gardening course does not guarantee your abilities as a highly knowledgeable gardener.

You have to get your gloved hands onto a pair of secateurs, recognise a plant or two or double-dig even single-dig a plot, before you may begin to think of yourself as a gardener !

Just get going and enjoy the ride.
Gardening is absolutely wonderful.

You may even eliminate much of the digging if you follow Charles Downing who believes that digging just upsets all those friendly micro-organisms, your in-House help-mates just waiting for your input!

Last night I worked on my harvest completing 10 individual seed collections - all dated, ID and locationed - so now there are just two remaining seed collections to work on. My winnowing is done by foot - like grape pressing - or hand agitation, rolling-pin crushing, even finger-squidgy pressing and squashing, as I sneeze my way thru’ the whole process. It’s my best-yet ever harvest work-out and it’s very thrilling to be right here, right now xx

Happy gardening folks xxx

A bouquet of knapweed, Achillea and cornflower picked when seed gathering this week xxx

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Margaret Halstead  © Copyright Margaret Halstead 2018

GrowGirl in the July garden xxx

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26 July at 22:11 · 

My compost is cooking really well . Just added apple peelings - I’m making rhubarb, marrow and apple jam with port infused sultanas - hence the peelings. And I Added a good handful of comfrey to maintain compost combustion xxx

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12 July at 07:37 · 

Early garden work yesterday morning - watering, planting my two Munstead lavender plants in my flower site. Masses of bindweed throughout all my plants which I'm slowly pulling out!

My new comfrey plants, marrow and courgettes are all doing well with new compost added . Also adding small amounts of compost to my flower site.

My evening primrose plants have done very well but should these also be cut back to promote lat e summer flowering?

...Cucumbers ready to pick and first pickings of new kale leaves for salads and sauteing....  But my veg site is still rather empty so what else could I add?
photos here of my Artemisia or Wormwood xxx

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8 July at 15:16 · 

With my new scythe to hand and thinking of the beastly crop of weeds, grasses, bolted spinach plants plus a few poppy plants and corn chamomile, imagine my disappointment at its poor handling. Could it be my poor handling of this new tool Oh Noooooo! Well probably ! So reverting back to my trusty shears, I spend the ensuing 10 minutes bent in half, attacking said crop. Discussing this whole subject with my son in Australia, by Skype, he tells me about soil solarization wh...

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1 July · 

I’ve seen masses of butterflies recently in my allotment herb border - on the lavender, Nepeta and sage. Bees were thickly gathered on my sage flowers two weeks ago but now that much of the flowers have gone over, the bees have largely deserted us. But we have butterflies in the blooming lavender ! Therefore it’s time to prune out the faded flowering stalks and hope for more flowers soon. Deadheading is not just removing faded blooms but also cutting out while stalks of faded flowers; cutting herbs down to the ground - particularly parsley - for new growth to burst into life.  Even venturing into your flower garden to cut down to ground level poppies, Marguerite and other fav. plants to encourage extended growth throughout summer's 2nd half.

The first-flush of summer blooms has now ended but don't end up with a half-dead garden for season's ending...get busy with your secateurs to keep summer alive and well for as  long as possible !  Long live summer blooms.  Hip hip hooray for. summer 2018 - long may she reign over  our daily lives xxx.

My Artemisia came down with an awful attack of black fly so I washed it over with a weak solution of water and washing-up liquid and then a good watering and now....well the black fly has all gone.

 Margaret for GrowGirl






























































































































































































































































Margaret ....© Margaret Halstead 2018Gro