The BIG fight! 🦔🦔🦔🦔🦔🦔🦔

This is probably the best hedgehog footage that we have to date! It made me smile!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t already discovered this website, then do click on this link…

Hedgehog Street

 

Inspiration!

One of my favourite, online nurseries is Proctors Nursery. I’ve been buying from this nursery for some time and I loved watching Barry Proctor on ‘Gardeners’ World’, a couple of months ago, when he was preparing for ‘The Chelsea Flower Show.’ I felt so inspired listening to him! And I was even more inspired when I saw the exhibit.

Barry is an ex dairy farmer, who set up his family run business, in 1999, with an aim to ‘put Stoke on Trent on the map’. His display in ‘The Great Pavilion’, at Chelsea, featured a ‘Potteries Tea Hut’ and his wonderful, colourful display, drew many people to the exhibit. He also created the tea hut from his daughter’s wendy house. The Gold-winning floral display included lupins, delphiniums, citronella, poppies and foxgloves. 

Barry and his nursery had been successful at other RHS shows but he entered Chelsea in order to raise the profile of his website sales in the south of England.

Proctors Nursery specialises in herbaceous perennials, shrubs and hedging together with new and unusual perennials. 

I’ve never been disappointed with the plants from Proctors and when I received an email at the weekend to say that it was FREE POSTAGE until Tuesday evening….well it was a ‘no brainer’, as they say. The normal postage cost is the cost of a plant, in effect! I jumped at the chance as I needed plants for another area that we were clearing. 

It didn’t take me too long to select the plants and this is what I chose:

Origanum 'Rosenkuppel'; Phlox paniculata 'Famous Pink'; Rudbeckia 'Summerdaisy Choco Sun'; Sidalcea 'Elsie Heugh'

Helenium 'Peach Sundae': Salvia microphylla 'Angel Wings'; Phlox paniculata Famous 'Light Purple'; Astrantia 'Claret'

Helianthemum 'Lawrenson's Pink'; Lamium maculatum 'Golden Anniversary'

You can find Proctors Nursery here

Meanwhile, I’ve been busy planting.

Finally, whilst we are on the subject of all things that inspire, if there is one thing that truly inspires me, it’s my set of these little books:

I was reminded of these, this week, when my son, who is moving house, was having a good clear out for the charity shops and that included these books, that I’d given to him few years ago! These were my ‘spares’, I hasten to add, But I grabbed them back anyway! I listed them on eBay…and sold eight, immediately; the proceeds going to his ‘new house fund’!

Great designs for 1953, I think!

Nature…

Just as Ocado rang the doorbell to deliver some groceries, at the same time, look what came visiting yesterday, early evening! Sadly, this means one less pigeon in the garden but that’s nature for you! And it’s another one to add to the bird list.

Meanwhile…on to something sweeter…

Yesterday morning, I was awake, very early, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. So rather than lie there, I got out of bed and, after a cuppa, I wandered to the greenhouse/ potting area and there were my five pyramids of Sweet Peas, soaking wet and very weighed down with the rain. However, there were plenty of blooms and so, giddy with the scent, I set to, picking. I came indoors with yet another, large bunch.

Over the last couple of months, my plants have produced an enormous amount of blooms; I really can’t complain at this lot, can I? However, I think I’m going to clear the Sweet Peas now, partly because I have other plants growing in the raised bed and they really need the room…and also my raised bed is going to be re - made and extended in the autumn…so I want to sit down with a cuppa on the bench and really think hard about how I’m going to use it the area.

As I was picking, I suddenly remembered my lovely book! How could I have forgotten it? It’s a charming, delightful book and for a moment I thought, ‘Hmmm..did I keep it?’  I got rid of so many books when we moved! I rushed into my library/ craft room…and phew…there it was in the ‘Gardening’ section!😁

Here are a few snippets….

Finally, the rain must’ve played havoc with many Hollyhocks, too, because as I walked to the post box, this beauty was blocking the pavement. A lovely colour and I far prefer the single varieties!

I think that the Nasturtium is a lovely plant and right at this moment it’s filling a gap in my July garden!  I always walk around the garden pots during May/ June and poke Nasturtium seeds into as many as I can, knowing that they will never let me down and will offer that extra colour during late July, August and even September.

Of course, Nasturtiums are really easy to grow and therefore they are probably a child’s favourite; the seeds are big enough for little hands to deal with, the seeds germinate quickly, the colours delight and the flowers are even edible. They certainly brighten the breakfast table!

Nasturtiums offer such a wide range of colours and not all of the plants are trailing. As well as this, they also offer variegated leaves. The variegated Nasturtium leaves are botanically classified as Tropaeolum majus. These are considered heirloom cultivars and popular varieties include Alaska and Troika. I just love the fact that there are so many varieties from which to choose…

Now to finish off, here’s some interesting info!

Did you know that the scientific name, ‘Tropaeolum’ was given by Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist, naturalist, zoologist, scientist, professor..and indeed he had various strings to his bow!

The Latin word for Tropaeolum is ‘trophy’ and Linnaeus decided on this name as he thought that the ‘trophy like’ flowers and the flat leaves reminded him of helmets and shields. It was actually traditional in the 1800s that helmets and shields were hung on trees after a victorious army came home from battle.

The English word for Tropaeolum, ‘Nasturtium’, came from the Latin words ‘nasus’ (nose) and ‘torque o’  (twist) and this originated from the reaction of people when they tasted the peppery, bittersweet taste of the plant.