Can Cargol

2018-04-15

Migration

I've moved to www.cancargol.innershelter.net
See you there.

2016-07-15

I haven't been posting much lately, since I'm not doing much in the garden this year. I was just planting out a few things I grew from seed (a bit late I think...) and took a lot of photos that will have to serve as an update. Uploaded at random, here comes:

This is quite impressive. A spider has been building an empire here on hazelnut branches,
some sort of trap and tunnel where she captures her prey. I leave her alone and after
a few months the structure gown larger and more complex. Spider is larger too!

From a few days ago, a tiny snail on a
Lark Ascending rose after the rain.

The Angelica I planted out last May has had an eventful few months. Basically it has
gotten munched into oblivion by slugs (aided and abetted by the constant rain). I tried to
save it by removing the mulch and replacing it by sand, but the one leaf left kept on getting
munched. A week ago I dug it out, gave it a good wash in case there were critters or eggs
lodged somewhere, and put it in a pot in the court. A week later, new vigorous leaves!
I put it in a very large pot and cut off the now leafless branches.

We got a few plants for the windowsill a few weeks ago. We went to a new garden centre
and truth be told it was very expensive... but these violets are superb. Lots of flowers all
the time and it has grown into a lush mass. We only got two due to the price and filled
the rest of the pots with balloon plants.

Ishikura onions

Grapes!!

A tomato plant just popped up on top of the rubble pile, lol

Balloon plant (platycodon)

The Bee Bar
Always frequented, they love this spontaneous
forest of borage, nasturtiums and some colza.

Borago and nasturtium

Bee on borago

I planted a few snapdragons, yarrows and catnip I had grown from seed.
I hope none of these is yum to slugs because then we're done. Also danger
might be coming from the roaming cats...

Some more love-in-a-mist soon!!

Savory flowers

Lemon vervain is getting huge :D a little yellow though.

Catnip

Balsam herb flowers :)

I finally went back to the garden centre where I got his one and wrote down the
name: Salvia nemorosa "schneehügel". It always has flower spikes
attractive to small insects.

Central bed

Sweet peas

The pot with the honeysuckle fell, the bamboo broke, and I planted it where
the Angelica used to be. There was a huge ant's nest in it, that are now
apparently doing well underground. It took them an entire day to move
the eggs that fell out when I took the plant out of the pot, but they got the job done.

Honeysuckle

The largest apple in the tree

Bumblebees love nasturtiums

The first gladiolus!

Gladiolus

Freesia

Among the grass, nasturtiums and lobelias

Second flush of Lark Ascending

Bit of a mess among the roses. Got a lot of cornflowers though.

After cutting the willow, the raspberry jungle is growing like crazy!
We got a few raspberries on last year's spindly canes (that's much more
than last year) so I am expecting a nice harvest next year.

This nasturtium is an incredibly deep crimson impossible to photograph.

Main bed.

2016-06-12

More path

Today I continued working on the path I started yesterday. I had to dig deep grass further to the right. It is slow work and my back is broken.
I had a lovage and a pineapple sage in pots for a while, since these get so big, I couldn't decide where to put them. Lying down paths makes decisions easier, as I can visualise better how things will go further from here.

I collected some muscari (grape hyacinth) seeds from the ripe pods.

The white muscari I planted some time ago have completely disappeared. I think the shredded branch mulch is serving as shelter for slugs. I collected 4 or 5 sugar snap peas and that's all the slugs and snails have left of the pea plants, and all the beans have disappeared as well (also mulched). So... I think I have to find another way. Perhaps grit. Sigh.
Well, the insane amount of rain we've been having is surreal as well.

At least not all strawberries have been munched:

We aren't having tomatoes in full ground this year, and perhaps in years to come. Mine were sown way too late and are very small still. We got these two from my in-laws. The redneck roof went back up again over the unfinished terrace to protect them from the rain.