When I had room for TWO ponds then tap water was used. Held the hose up in the air and let it come down like a fountain.. Heard it was a good way to do it..  

Just finished being a fruit grower for the day . Planted a mini orchard on the patio using columnar fruit trees .. All in large pots.. Hope they grow well.   Planter made from pallets now has to go 0ut front. Not growing raspberries in it looks like herbs are the next years thing...

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It only takes a few hours for the additives in tap water to dissipate into the air, so I'm not surprised the wildlife and pets like it.  Our cat always drinks from the pond, or she drinks rainwater.  I don't bother with a water dish for her unless the weather's really bad and she's indoors a lot but even then she'd rather brave the elements and drink from the pond than drink tap water, even though we have a filter tap.  She must know something we don't. 

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My hanging baskets were extremely slow to get off to a start this year because of the cool early summer weather but they did finally fill out and flourish and are now looking quite spectacular.  Just in time to be killed off by frosts no doubt. 

It's time to plant garlic now, so I must get that done at the weekend.

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Will get fresh Garlic this weekend. Might dig up the reminder in the pot to see how big they are... Need what toughs I have for any herbs.

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Yes, it seems such a shame that frosts will probably kill them off in their prime. 

I'll be up in the Cairngorms for a week from 17th October and I'm looking forward to it as the Larch trees there are a beautiful colour in October and there's usually some snow topped mountains along the way too.   

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Dug up some garlic yesterday as had run out of shop bought. One basket left of fuchsia with the solar latern. toughs of heathers are very nice at the moment.  

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Planted some garlic in the borders today, not as much as I'd like but there are still lots of plants that I can't move out yet.  Maybe I'll plant more garlic later in the year. 

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Busy in the shed painting up a planter base today.. Tomatoes are still green so will bring them in the weekend and hope the indoor warmth will speed things up or else it is going to be "Fried Green Tomatoes"  .   I have the DVD as well...

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A bit of tree colour down here on birch and ash, but still predominantly green,

In the garden, the nasturtiums are flowering wildly and trying to smother everything, but with a spectacular display of red/orange flower

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Back from the Cairngorms and the beautiful Autumn colours.  At home we have a lot more green leaf still in the trees than further North, although we do have some colour too.  We drove down the A1 and interestingly, I noticed there was quite a difference in the amount of leaf on trees when we reached South Yorkshire.

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Lots of green still on the hazels and willows and to an extent on the oaks. The garden itself is deceptively abundant still- nasturtiums a riot of reds and oranges, cyanothus back in bloom and the strawberries have pushed out pale blossoms and some small green fruits. Each year we map out the late flowering times like a floral calendar and the nasturtiums are the key for our frost days, although two flowering stems survived the first frost last year. I fear we may lose a few this weekend.

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Now this is truly worth noting: there is a clump of daffodils on the front lawn of the fire station here; each year they seem to have flowered earlier and earlier- January became a regular show by the mid-noughties and then around 2006 they were flowering in December. Since then, there has been at least one December bloom on a stem in every year but 2010. The earliest was 14th December which, in the run up to Christmas, didn't seem right. 

Yesterday I saw several stems up and one bud. Today the bud was partially opened. It's November! I wonder what the rest of the UK is doing- in your gardens. Although it doesn't feel right (it's not the same as the first snowdrop buds in the New Year) it must be worthy of note.

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Daffodil shoots up here too - no buds seen yet but can't be far off.

 

Also a bumble bee working the winter flowering honeysuckle, not usually seen until a mild spell in Feb

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That's interesting Dew. We've got honeysuckle flowering up through our walnut tree; I'll check for insect life if the sun comes out this weekend.

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I think we're talking about different species. It sounds as if you have a climbing honeysuckle, and that type usually has long trumpet-shaped flowers which attract moths, though some bumbles will bite through the base of the flower to get the nectar. Mine is a shrubby honeysuckle, probably Lonicera fragrantissima (not absolutely sure, it was in the garden when we moved here), with much shorter white flowers which suit the shorter tongues of bumble bees.

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That makes clear sense. The flowers we had two weeks ago, which gave my wife such glee, have disappeared anyway.

 

We have a winter-flowering jasmine; I wouldn't mind a winter-flowering honeysuckle. Although it'd have to go some way to beat the scent on the mahonia in weak February sunshine.

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Two days from December; in my gardens, the following are still flowering healthily:

choisya

wallflowers

bear's breeches (acanthus)- new blooms

ceanothus

lavender (yes, pushing out new blooms)

achillea

borage

masquerade and freedom roses

red- flowering salvia

cedum

primrose

Wouldn't be surprised if an early pulmonaria gets going soon

 

 

 

 

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Periwinkle (Vinca major) flowering in Selsey this morning - Spring has arrived!

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Dianthus.. Chrysanthemum.. Geranium.. Hebe.. Heather.. Patio roses are still flowering on the patio.  

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Now it has been a tradition of mine, after the Christmas fattening, to counterbalance the emotional slump I might feel after hours of sweat over the cooker with a wander in the garden; from Christmas afternoon onwards I check out the lawns, where, over the last 16 years I have planted crocuses every October.

It stirs me to see the first shoots. But this year it's silly- at least 5 are up (of the many hundreds, admittedly) and now I've got no surprise after Christmas. My fault for looking.

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6 daffodils in full bloom, in two separate clumps outside the fire station.

And yes- a solitary bee brushed past the new lavender. The ceanothus doesn't seem to bear much scent. I wonder if it's light dependent.

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Grass on lawns as much as 17cm long. Need to mow before the crocuses all start to shoot. Best mower advice, anyone? (Wet, of course)

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If you cut the lawn then use a grass rake or broom to get rid of excess moisture.

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Yes, but what to cut the lawn with, dear Henry, dear Henry?

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Best time to buy a mower as lots of offers at garden centres this time of year as they try to get rid of stock.

Anything rotary so you can get on and mow at any time, unless you're addicted to stripes. For width of cut, depends on size of lawn, most domestic lawns these days only need a narrow width of cut which is a lighter machine and easy to manipulate round corners. Personally, I hate 2-strokes as they never start up so would go for electric + extension cable unless you have an enormous lawn. Models which pick up grass cuttings as you go are useful, but heavier and more time-consuming.

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