Hinaing ni Pining

things to ponder on

the missing post.

I'm positively 100% sure I had a post  last Friday, but for some mysterious reason, it disappeared out of thin air, and flippin' heck, I'm not happy.

 "School talk"  is not there!

Has anyone of you read it? It was entitled " School talk" which is about my 6/y old's first day in school, breakfast and the state of education in this country among others. I'm not sure if I left my compose page open, which might have resulted  to my toddler accidentally deleting it when my friend came for a surprise visit  on the eve of Friday. Could have been that but  I'm sure I saw that post Saturday morning; well, unless I've accidentally deleted it myself when I was trying out typepad's how to's (and failed miserably I did, whataneejit!). I even thought typepad has deleted it because I rated them nought for their help  when I experimented with their how to's (unwise), so maybe they're exacting their revenge. I'm only kidding of course, I know they wouldn't do that. Or would they...? I have not got a back -up for that post and have no intention of rewriting it as this little brain of mine hasn't got enough memory space to revive what I have written there. I'm livid but it's just one of those things, so, I'll move on.

the idiot's guide to killing growing tomatoes

The prospect of picking, cooking and eating my own produce sounded very delectable indeed. Most definitely it will save us a bit of money; there's a shortage of fresh produce too,  so rather than growing pretty flowers, I'll grow some vegetable crop instead , make proper use of the garden.

I started taking the idea into fruition during the last week of May. I sow some tomato seeds in a propagator and put them in a mini greenhouse (a Christmas present from the mother-in-law). It only took a week to germinate so I was chuffed that all's going well. I also bought a pair of chilli peppers, at about 12 inches in height it's already well established, so no problem with that. On the second week of June, I sow some carrot seeds on the top of the garden  (which was previously covered in concrete, but was dugged up for me to  grow some crops on);most of the seeds came out but it took a bit of time  (3 to 4 weeks) to germinate.

Few weeks later, the tomato seedlings were re-planted, side by side with the carrots. The condition of the soil seemed good enough, the seedlings are turning into proper plants, and the peppers never looked so  healthy. When we came back from our holiday in Belfast, I was surprised how fast the tomatoes - about 12 of them - have grown; up to about 4 feet! I also noticed  the flowers have come out and that there are one or two little green tomatoes in display. However, it's not all it's cracked up to be.   

 

First, the awful weather didn't help, it was raining everyday and I found out later that tomatoes don't like the damp.  I was waiting for the green tomatoes to turn orange, instead it turned brown then it eventually rotted . There were also black discoloration spreading from the base of  the stem, it's really like a spreading cancer, it's awful! I doubt  it can stand on it's own without the bamboo canes, that's how sad this story is going.  

When I searched the internet for some answers, I found out that it was mostly my fault, (just like everything else), aside from the weather that is. I planted them only a few inches apart which traps in damp and prevents free circulation of air. I've also sown the seeds quite late, I should have done it two months in advance. That's it, that's what I did to effectively kill my tomato plants. Oh well, next time, I'll know better (so help me gawd).

Saying that my peppers are growing rather well indeed:

 

  

The carrots meanwhile half of them have been harvested, ready for my kids gnashers! Not as big as I expected them to be but, By Jove, they're sweet!

 

    

How does your garden grow?

It's that time of the year again, when every man's garden is his castle island paradise. Our garden meanwhile, is a bit bland; there are some spring flowers growing here and there, but that's about it. TH painted the top garden wall white to make it look a bit clean (and create an illusion of vastness); he also put up a new bamboo fence. I thought, hmmm, TH is turning a new leaf...I wonder if he does the weeding and all? But tough luck as the weeds are still there... I have to tackle it myself when I'm ready. It's not my favourite of jobs but someone's got to do it.

Once in a while, there would be some surprises in store. Like these little beauties here, I didn't plant these, just had a bit of help courtesy of my friends (ie, the birds). For some reason, every year 2 or 3 of these would come,  just right beside the fence. According to my garden book it's called a columbine. TH won't recognize a weed from a proper flower that he almost mowed one of these flowers down; lucky I caught him in time. Unlucky for the  poppy beside it though, as it bore the brunt. Didn't survive even if it was coloured orange... definitely not a weed...duh.
 

And then, this gorgeous one here, which is positioned against our bright and white sunny wall is called caenothus (California lilac). I bought it a year ago and so far has  only grown an additional 4 inches.  Is it on it's right track or am I doing something wrong here?  The last time I watered it was, er, when I planted it (and maybe a few days after that). I know it's got a lot of growing up to do to catch up with Julie's one and I can't wait until it cover the whole wide wall!

And this one is my personal favourite (next to the roses and fifis) as they always come out every year. Osteospermum (African daisy) is easy maintenance (needs plenty of sunshine though)  and cheap (less than a fiver when I bought it 3 years ago). It makes a lovely display when it's sunny. And they look rather  fetching  against the fifis (forget-me-nots ) aren't they?  I'm still trying to convince myself if I should invest in another variety of this ..

Now this one is a weed. It's a dandelion clock, pretty  in its yellow state but when it takes over the whole lawn then it becomes a pain in the @®$€ a bit of an eyesore. When there was just about 6 of these in the lawn, it's easy enough to dig and pull all the roots up. But now, they've taken over the lawn,  TH has to mow  (I don't do mowing too, did I mention?) it every week. And it gets worse in the summer. We did consider concreting the lawn instead but, it's not environmentally wise. I guess, for now, we just have to let them be 'til we get so fed up, then we'll decide what to do. 

And that's how my garden is growing at the moment. There's some mentionable ones like the one's below but I  can't be bothered this is getting to be a long post . Like the first picture, don't know what it is, so anyone knows? Just give us a shout. The second pic is a dianthus, of the carnation family and....

   

    

   

  

Should shut up now.

colours of spring

So, here are some photos from my back garden ( except the cherry tree in front of the house).  I told you I've been busy  taking pictures gardening, er, admiring the garden more like it!  I took advantage of the great weather we've been having - the lighting's ok, ain't it or is it ? Most of these flowers I've planted years ago and they just come up year after year (perennial plants). The hard thing is keeping it neat and tidy, so note that most shots are close up ones ( and what you don't see won't hurt you..).

I got this idea from Gina who made a slideshow before (thank you Gina :-) .

Enjoy!