How Our Gardens Grow 2020

Hi

Stunning. Simply stunning. Please do eat some radishes and spring onion. They look delicious 

xxx

Hi  Wow, your garden looks beautiful! It's terrific you can still manage your garden and especially your veggie plot, it is such hard work! Are you able to manage it yourself, or do you get some help these days? Keep it up please!

Hi Millie

What a wonderful garden and the Californian sunshine isn't bad either . Your roses are a lovely colour. Your poppy leaves are close to the ground whereas in a not so warm climate, we (I) have about 3 or 4 inches of stalk between each pairs of leaves because we don't have the sunshine (probably a different variety also). Just wondering, in the UK, we are sold poppy seed in packets listed as Californian Poppies. Are your packets the same?

I transplanted broad bean plants into a low bed last night but it was a little dark for a photo so I'll send one later. I did though take a photo of a couple of very colourful azaleas earlier so I'll put this on instead.

Have a lovely day everyone

Tvman xx

Lovely colour 

Hi anndanv,

Thanks for asking My primary problem is a side effect from bendamustine which attacks the bone, especially vertebrae and causes spontaneous vertebrae fractures (so far I have 2 maybe 3).  So my limit of lifting is 5-10 pounds, so my daughter and granddaughter helped me clear out last years garden (and I have saved the  daffodils and hyacinth bulbs for fall planting). Other than heavy lifting, I'm the gardener.  I've also started a small hydroponic setup in kitchen and will grown lettuce and cherry tomatoes year round when the outside is unavailable or I do not have the energy. The photo below is 6 days since seeds were planted.

 My scan is on the 19th and the garden keeps me busy.

Im hoping to see the progress of many other gardens.

xxx Millie

y.

Dear tvman,

Your Azaleas are wonderful, such a cheerful color! I have never bought poppy seeds, they just appear. One year  I let the entire bed go to poppies and the girls harvested the seeds and we made seed packets as Christmas gift another year we did it with giant sunflower seeds. I took a photo of them in the garden with the flowers saved it and put it on the label of the seed packet. Ill see if I can find one of the seed packets.    had some nice flowers that only lasted a day, I but I did not recognize them as the state flower California poppy shown below but they looked more like the Iceland poppy to me- those are the ones that I cannot grow here.

Hi

I have two types of orange poppy in my garden. The one I photographed is an opium poppy, papaver somniferum, and I mistakenly said it lasts only a day. The flowers last much longer than that. They burst from furry buds shaped like rugby balls and look like they are made of tissue paper. The seed heads will ripen into characteristic balls, each with a shaker at the tip for broadcasting seeds. 

The other is a California poppy  (Eschscholzia californica), pictured above. They grow at the front of my front garden and poke their bright orange heads through the black picket fence. I let them self seed and each year they come back. They usually hold true for the orange colour but sometimes a new colour will appear, cream with a pink centre or a dark pink. It’s a thrill every year to see what’s going to come up. 

I will take some garden photos to share tomorrow. Meanwhile I will post a photo from today when j visited a local wood. It was to have been the grounds of the home of a wealthy young couple. They died a tragic death but not before starting their garden. The wood has reclaimed it, absorbing with it some beautiful rhododendrons. It’s a magical place - and I walked there!!!!

See? Gorgeous 

Lovely flowers and good you are up and about xxx

Beautiful colour