Our Home and Garden

April 16th, 2011

2011-04-16T04:33:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung and now it starting to become the growing season here. Flowers keep blooming and we are seeing more and more bees and butterflies returning to the garden too.
The Rhubarb is doing really well and I think tomorrow I may well make a Rhubarb crumble. :) The plum and apple tree have blooms on them and I hope they will do something this year. The magnolia had lots of blooms of which now all the petals are on the ground. It has been a bit dry here this spring.
We put up the green house and I cleaned the raised beds. I even managed to get one of the beds planted with some sugar snap peas and some radish seeds. I have some lettuces sprouting and my tomato and pepper seedlings have been repotted once so far. And it looks like the currant bushes are going to be full again this year with lovely red fruit. :)
I think our lavender hedge will need digging up and replaced this year. It is looking a bit tired. The hard winter probably didn't do it much good. We lost a few plants from this past winter. So did some of the neighbors. Our next door neighbor had a cordyline plant that looked like a palm tree, it doesn't look so good now. All the leaves are gone from it and it looks a bit odd now with just the trunk and three branch like protrusions sticking in the air.
We have a plant under the rose bushes that we are keeping an eye on..... Not sure if it is a weed or a plant. I did plant some love in a mist under there and I think it could well be what this plant is. But not 100 percent certain. So time will tell.

March 22nd, 2011

2011-03-22T05:12:00.000-07:00

Yeah!!!!!!!!! Spring is coming or rather it is here. The Spring solstice was yesterday. :) We have lovely spring flowers blooming and popping up all over the place here. I am starting to get itchy gardening fingers again and have started my tomato and pepper seeds. Hopefully next week I can transplant the seedlings to a bigger pot. I also want to get started on some lettuce and radishes and other veg that can be planted at this time. We are still getting a few heavy frosts here so I won't be rushing it this year.
The new windows and doors have really made a big big difference this year on the heating. Along with the new boiler. Brian still has issues with the front door, but is improving. I have already cleaned the upstairs windows once so far. :) The birds aren't very appreciative of all the food we have supplied them with during the winter months. And hopefully soon the hedgehogs will be going back out where they belong. :) I hope to overhaul the craft room and sort alot of things out in there.
Unfortuantely we lost our blackbird over winter, and we will miss Hoppity very very much. A new pair of black birds have already moved in and claiming the garden for their territory. We also have a fox who has been visiting for the past week! Hope to put a stop to that. We also seem to have more mice than usual in the garden. Jingles keeps bringing them in for us to see. We have been pretty lucky and released them back to the garden, but this morning one didn't survive. Jingles has been grounded!
Happy Spring everyone!

October 24th, 2010

2010-10-24T05:24:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. The major bit of the DIY is done. New windows and doors and the new Boiler is in. Oh and I almost forgot the new Facias, soffits and gutters too, this means no more standing on ladders for painting them. It seemed like an eternity but actually went fairly quickly. And we were pretty lucky in the weather was only bad the first day they came to install the windows. But they were really great and it took three days instead of the four we thought it would take. Then in a few days time the boiler men arrived and installed our new boiler. It was a bit chilly that day and unfortunately the only way we could put the heat on until it was done was to use a little fan heater. I managed to catch a bit of a cold that day. But we are now all nice and snug now with our new double glazed windows and doors and the new boiler is much more efficient and quieter. Also we got a tip on covering up our water tank with another jacket of insulation from the builders and so Brian and I did that yesterday. And today Brian has installed the new Smoke detector. We also bought a new door bell and got one of these that you can take with you around the house so we have no excuse now to not hear the door bell... other than we aren't quite used to hearing it yet and it takes us a little time to register what that new sound is.
   Poor Jingles became a bit shell shocked during that week and really goes into a panic if someone comes to the house now that he doesn't know. But he is loving his new windows too. The casing sits a bit lower than the older windows did and so he can lay on the sills and look out easier or on the other side hide behind the casing that is a bit higher up. My nice new lovely clean windows are now starting to get little nose smudges on them.
   We still have a way to go with the house and lots yet to do, but we are getting there. Slowly but surely we will get there in the end. Next will be the stairs and landing carpeting to be replaced I hope. And we will be looking for new curtains in the sales to replace the ones we have now. I really did hate putting them back up and hiding the new lovely windows. We still aren't certain if we want to put curtains on a few of the windows they look so lovely with out them. I did try to take some photos, but unfortunately the back lighting doesn't do them any justice at all.
   Brian is still trying to adjust to our new front door. It took a bit of learning how to lock and unlock it as it is a secure type of door. And I opted for clear glass in the panels instead of frosted ones. I like the fact I can see who is at the door and whether I want to answer it or not. I don't care if it is someone I don't know that is there and they see that I am not interested in answering. Guess it is just something I was used to in the US. We have storm doors there and you could always see who was at the door. With the frosted panes you aren't able to see. I know we could have opted for a spy hole, but people can be tricky and not stand in the right place for you to see. This way there is no hiding. When you get to our age, different things start to come into importance and for me security is a big one along with being comfortable.

October 4th, 2010

2010-10-04T06:10:00.000-07:00

Hi all, sorry for being away for a long time. I got a bit busy with the hedgehogs. At the moment we have none inside being looked after because we are getting some much needed DIY done on the place. This week we will be getting new windows and doors. And then in about 10 days we will be getting a new boiler as our old one needed replacing. So hopefully we will be nice and warm this winter and the fuel bills won't be as high.
I will be changing my blogs around a bit..... This one will become the mostly everyday type and the other one I plan to dedicate to the hedgehogs as they have seemed to have taken it over anyway.
The garden is looking a bit messy at the moment as we had to move lots and get rid of a few plants in anticipation of the new windows going in. And the veg patch is now needing a good digging in and replanting with some over winter crops. We got so many tomatoes this year I still have 4 large bowls of them ripening in the kitchen now. Another crop besides the tomatoes and lettuces that did really well were our peppers. I grew several varieties this year and some I grew inside in the conservatory. I was really pleased with them. And they spiced up quite a few dishes. I have froze loads of them.
Unfortunately the apple tree and plum tree didn't do very well. The apple tree got some sort of fungus on the apples and they rotted right on the tree. That was so disheartening. The plums were attacked by ants and aphids. But our Currants and Rhubarb did very well indeed. And we even managed a few strawberries that Brian enjoyed eating on his breakfast.
Hopefully I can now start to keep up with my blogs again until we get swamped with more baby hedgehogs.

July 26th, 2009

2009-07-26T01:29:00.000-07:00

The garden has been taken over by hedgehogs!!! (giggle)
You can find out more here.
And the garden is growing like mad!!!! We have harvested peas and loads of lettuce so far along with herbs and strawberries. The red currant bushes have done extremely well this year and our main bush produced 4 lbs worth of fruit, which I made into jam. :)
The apples are getting bigger on the tree and we had two drop off during the June drop.
The weather has been a bit weird and we have just about had rain almost every day now. Which is a blessing as since I am looking after the babies, I don't have enough time or energy to do all the watering. :)
The courgette plants are a bit disappointing. They have mildew again and I have been diligently getting rid of any leaves that I spot that has it. I think next year I will plant them with a black plastic covering on the ground to see if this helps.
The tomatoes are starting to get loads of fruit, but no red ones yet.
The runner beans keep toppling over in the high winds.
The flowers are doing brilliant.
The purple Brussel sprouts are growing and have a few cabbage white eggs on them. We are wanting the caterpillars to feed to the hedgehogs. :)
Hope to get some photos soon, but the camera is full of hedgehog photos as of late. :) Baby hedgehogs are just sooooooo cute.

June 22nd, 2009

2009-06-22T05:22:00.000-07:00

The garden is growing and growing and.......

This is the veg patch. The new beds are growing like mad as are the veggie pots. And the tomatoes have shot up.

We have had quite a bit of lettuce so far and have enjoyed some of the mange Tout and sugar snap peas already. The corn is going to be knee high by the 4th of July.

I am keeping a really close eye on this little one!!! Can't wait for him to get just a little bit bigger.

I am battling with mildew again this year, but hopefully it won't be as bad as previous years. I pick off any leaves and have sprayed a few times with diluted milk. The plants are getting rather huge leaves on them now. :)

This is my pot of runner beans. My friend Linda said I didn't have a high enough support for them and she was right. I think it would go even higher if I had another cane to top it.

I think runner bean flowers are so beautiful!!

Here are the pepper plants that I started from seed. The flowers are just about to start blooming on them. And then it is wait and see what develops. :)

This is the red currants from the old bush. The new bushes have already turned red and I picked them all yesterday to make some jam. :)

This is an experimental pot. I have some extra tomato plants in it and along with those some beans and maybe some Aubergine(eggplants) too.

And this is my other experiment pot. More extra tomato plants. (I just can't bring myself to throw them out and don't know anyone other than Linda who would want them. Who I gave tons of plants to already.) In this one I have some cucumbers and aubergine plants also growing next to the toms. :)

And here are some of my main crop of tomatoes. :) They are now as tall as their canes.

These two little hiding toms are my first fruits and they are on the smallest plant I have. LOL I think they are ones that should have gone into hanging baskets.

Here are my brassicas..... shhhhhhh don't tell Brian, but some of them are Brussel Sprouts. :) Also lots of parsley and turnips in this bed.

The potatoes are doing super and are taking over and hiding my rhubarb plants.

Our apple tree is doing well this year and we have 6 apples on it!!! I can't wait till they are ready for going into a pie.

They are Bramlies by the way.

Now for some of Brian's flowers...

One of his fuchsias ready to burst forth in bloom.

Our peonies

They had some massive blooms this year.

And are flowering longer too. :)

Our new plants some Osteospernums. We hope to put this in the ground where they will spread and grow again next year.

Now for a few of Brian's Geraniums. :)

May 13th 2009

2009-05-13T01:33:00.000-07:00

The garden is growing!!! And changing!! We had apple blossom on the apple tree and hopefully we will get an apple or two this year. :) But the blossom was so lovely!

At the moment our Mexican Orange bush is blooming like mad. And is quite heady when we sit next to it enjoying a glass of wine after our work in the garden.

Our Rhododendron is blooming and is gorgeous this year.

The potato barrel is producing the next crop of potatoes. :)

And next to it we have a mini potato grow sack, some rhubarb, the plum tree and the currant bushes and in front is tomatoes!!! :) They were started back in February and are doing really well.

I have put out 9 tomato plants in grow bags so far. I have a few more plants in the mini green house which I think may go into pots. Although I do have another grow bag. Just need to find a place to put it.

We thought we had loads of red currants last year. Well I think this year is going to be our best yet!!!!

I may regret this if the weather turns cold, but I have courgettes(zucchini) in the raised bed already. :) And some patty pan and a few varieties of courgettes. Yellow, globe and Lebanese.

I am doing the square foot plan on this bed. I have some lettuce, beans, radishes and a few other things planted in with the squashes. :)

I also have my sweet corn planted in a trough. The wind lately has been beating it about, so I may loose two of them. But I have some others in reserve. I have been doing alot of succession planting this year.

We have the cut and come again lettuces that we are enjoying now!! We have had probably 5 or so salads already. from just these two troughs. :) I have more little ones on their way too.

And here you can see I am well on my way to the next lot of seedlings.

As long as the weather holds out and we do eventually get some rain we are going to have a good year I hope.

Brian's flowers are growing well and my next post hopefully you will see some of his beauties. :)

Hedgehog Awareness week May 3rd to the 9th

2009-04-29T01:42:00.000-07:00

May 3rd to the 9th is Hedgehog Awareness week.
Back last December when I was suffering with a bout of the flu, Brian says come quick there is a hedgehog in the garden. I lay there saying I am ill and can't get out to look..... did you say a hedgehog??? They aren't supposed to be out during the day...... it is the middle of winter.... it should be hibernating!!! So I go outside with a bowl of cat food..... and plop it down in front of him.... Hmmmmm he really shouldn't be out now. So even through coughing and feeling weak I bring him in.... we find a box for him and some papers. I use a cat food box inside the cardboard box for his home and put some papers inside. Some cat food and some water and I then go online to the internet.

I have always loved hedgehogs from the moment I arrived here in the UK and found that they lived here. Wishing to see one and to actually have one in my spare bedroom!!!! Wow!!! Anyway, off to the internet and a site I have booked marked The British Hedgehog Preservation Society I read page after page and found I had done the right thing in bringing him inside. He would have died otherwise. They have information about food and all sorts on there. I also contacted two internet friends who are as much into wildlife as I am and one was a hedgehog carer. She sent me some lovely books about hedgehogs and how to look after them. And the other friend told me they should be at least 600grams for hibernating. Well this little chap was only 400.

So Tiggy came to live with us over the winter. And I studied as much as I could about these little guys. I found a really super friendly forum that is soooo helpful if you find yourself with a hedgehog and don't know what to do. The Hedgehog forum which was started by Derek who runs the Epping Forest Hedgehog Rescue. This is in the same county where we live so I knew if I needed help I had somewhere to go.

It has been a big learning experience having an overwintering hedgehog. Did you know that the old wives tales of feeding them bread and milk is totally wrong. The milk will give the poor little things diarrhea which isn't at all good for them. You should supplement their diets with cat biscuits or dog or cat food that has no fish in them. You can also feed them a commercial hedgehog food usually called Spikes Dinner or Spikes Relish. But I followed the various guides and made up my own food for Tiggy. Iam's cat biscuits, mealworms, some muesli, raisins and a crushed digestive biscuit. And also gave him some wet chicken cat food. You can also feed them boiled chicken which he loved!!! I did worry abit about him not having his natural food, but since he was supposed to be hibernating his natural food wasn't around anyway. They eat beetles and caterpillars mainly and other insects. They really shouldn't eat slugs, snails and worms, because these can give the poor little guys lungworms. Like I said I have learnt alot in a short time.

Healthwise, the forum folks suggested I worm him for the lungworms just in case, so I used Panacur for kittens. And they advised me on the dosage too. Other than three ticks the only other problem I could foresee, is a weight issue. I did try to give him some exercise and to give him a few other foods to try, like apple and kale and some carrots. But he wasn't over keen on those things. But it did add some interest to his home for a bit. He got up to over 1kg in weight and I was afraid he was getting too fat, but kept checking that he could curl up properly and he could.

Then came time for his soft release..... and he decided to sorta hibernate for a bit.... He did loose a little weight during this time. We built him a nice outside house and a pen for him to get used to being outside again.... And then I marked him so I knew who he was if he came back to our garden...So far he hasn't. But it is good to know that we did help this lovely little creature back into the wild and hopefully he will father lots of little hoglets. Hedgehogs are starting to disappear and there are predictions that by the year 2025 they will be almost extinct from the UK. So we all need to do something about it.

1. Please make your garden hedgehog friendly..... put out a place for them to sleep that is safe from predators(badgers, foxes, dogs and humans).

2. Put out additional food and water for them every night. Cat biscuits, chicken, hedgehog food and wet cat and dog food(no fish or pork products and definitely don't put out any MILK and Bread). And don't rely on them to eat the snails and slugs, they carry lungworm and also can poison the hogs via them eating slug pellets.

3. Make sure any ponds or holes are either covered up or that they can get out of them.

4. When driving please slow down!!! Hedgehogs tend to rollup rather than run out of the way. And by doing this they are killed by cars and trucks.

5. This one is very very important!!!! When out doing gardening work. Be careful!!!! Look for hedgehogs please!!! So before strimming or mowing or forking, please check that a hedgehog isn't there.

6. If you see a hedgehog out during the day and especially if it is a baby, Do something!!! Call a hedgehog carer or take them to a veterinary straight away. Don't leave them and then call as they will go off and possibly die. There is an exception and that is females who are trying to find food. So I think I would check to see if her teats are full then I would keep a close eye on her and give her some food. Never approach a nest as the mother will kill the babies if it is disturbed. If you find a nest and the mother doesn't appear, please get in touch with a carer ASAP. The BHPS carer's list or Derek's carers search engine or look in the yellow pages for a wildlife hospital.

This little guy is a new visitor to my feeding station and is the first one in my new Hog Log. A record I plan to keep of all visiting hogs. I am also planning on doing a hedgehog survey and will keep you all posted as to how I get on with that.

So if you are interested in these lovely little creatures and would like to find out more, please visit the following:

British Hedgehog Preservation Society,
Hedgehog Forum,

Epping Forest Hedgehog rescue,

St. Tiggywinkles,
The Hoggery,
Soft Touch's blog,
The South Essex Wildlife Centre
Blyth Wildlife Rescue,

Hedge Hog Diary Update

2009-04-13T02:34:00.001-07:00

We haven't seen Tiggy since the night he was released. I really miss him. Here is his nest box under the conifers.

We rescued the old nest box and have cleaned it out and covered it in roofing felt and put a new floor in it and have filled it with straw. And the next night after Tiggy's release we had another boy show up and move in.

We have seen him off and on now for a few nights and Jingles will be outside during the evening and come running in and meow at us to let us know the Hogs are out in the garden. :)

This next photo is of another garden visitor we are happy to see visiting our garden.

It is a smooth newt. It was raining this evening and a well needed rain too. There were loads of slugs and snails out too. Well Jingles did his trick of sitting at the bottom of the stairs meowing at me. And I knew he wanted me to go look when he wouldn't come up the stairs. So off to look. I had to rush in and get Brian out of bed and in his PJs to come look. Inside our little feeding box there was a huge hedgehog in front and a smaller one behind trying to get at the food!!! I do apologize as in the excitement of the moment I didn't take out the camera.

This is our other feeding station. I have three lots of food out for them. One bowl is out in the open for any cat that might be hungry and will then leave the other two bowls alone. Or for the hedgehog that prefers not dining in fine accommodations.

And here is our new little visitor from last night. I have been thinking of doing a hog log and some how marking and checking and photographing our little visitors. But I don't want to put them off coming to the garden to eat. Will give this some more thought. The late nights are starting to tell on us too. Luckily there has been some new Red Dwarf shows to keep us going till late when these guys show up.

March 26th, 2009

2009-03-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Spring has definitely come to our garden again and it is a riot of colour. First to show up were the snowdrops and crocus then the daffs have started blooming like mad.

We even have a few primulas leftover from being planted last year that are blooming too.

And even the occasional tulip in bloom here too.

I am so happy to see spring arrive and not only have the flowers been showing well, but I have noticed a few bees in the garden already.

Well with the first sign of colour and the flowers blooming that is a sign for me to start my seedlings for the summer garden, as surely, summer will be right around the corner.

The top two tiers are Brian's flowers. :) But he has cheated and bought his. Mine on the bottom I started from seeds I saved from last year. Mainly Marigolds and calendulas and some nasturtiums. His are Fuscias and geraniums. Should be more colour this summer to follow the show from the spring flowers.

I also started my tomato plants and they are even bigger than this photo now. :) I did give a few to the plumber for installing my new mixer tap. I have been wanting a mixer tap almost from the moment I moved here. And thought a few tomato plants a worthwhile tip.

Peas are in the paper pots and lettuce is in the tray. And a few more flower seeds sprouting too.

And in the garden growing already is my Purple sprouting broccoli, that I over wintered under the poly tunnel. Nice looking leaves but only small heads so far.

And my Swiss Chard did well under the polly tunnels too. Nice to have some fresh greens already to eat when spring arrives.

This one is a red variety. I love chard not only for eating but it adds such lovely colours to the garden too.

Besides the chard and the broccoli, I pulled some beets and dug some potatoes and carrots that have overwintered too. And my fav veg the Caldo nero or black kale, has been going all winter too. The kohl rabi has been a bit disappointing, but it is all still a new learning curve of what I can and can't grow in my little garden. I also have a few herbs going well, both the flat and curled parsley are doing well as is the sage and rosemary and thyme. The oregano is just now starting as is the lemon balm and the mints.

The Plum tree, Apple tree, currants and gooseberries have new growth also and I can't wait for them to flower.

Besides the above in the last week I have some new seedlings sprouted, lots of summer squashes and more peas, and some sweet corn. The propagator is filled at the moment with some pepper and aubergine seedlings. Soon I hope to start my bean seedlings in a few weeks time. Also planted outside is a trough of carrots and lettuces. So it is all go here!!!! Now I just hope the slugs will leave my little plants alone!!!

Hedgehog Diary....

Well Tiggy is still here. And is now living outside in his new pen. And he has decided to go into semi-hibernation. The temps have become cool again, but he has a very well insulated nest box that is waterproof and filled with straw, paper and some towel bits. He will get deep in the middle of this bedding and is sound asleep when I check on him. Snug as a bug in a rug.

Brian and I go on hog watch to see if he comes out and is eating. For some reason he has decided his food box is also his litter box. One thing is I can tell for sure if he has been out at night and if he is eating. There have been a couple of nights where he hasn't been out at all. He has lost a bit of weight and is now down to 1200grams from 1345 pre -pen weight. So he is using up some of his stored fat while he hibernates and also he has a much bigger area for exercise too.

Here he is checking out the pen area behind his food box.

Besides his food box and nest box, he has a snuffle tray which is filled with dried leaves, rocks, bits of wood and soil. All sorts of goodies that hedgehogs like to snuffle.

If all goes well this Sunday and the weather report is favourable and Tiggy is awake and not hibernating, then we will open up the pen and he will be able to go or stay as he pleases. And just so that we are ready for his release. We painted a T on his bum. I used some water based acrylic paint so it isn't harmful to him and will eventually wear off. I wanted to make sure to know if it is him visiting our garden or not after his release.

And I think we might also have another hedgehog visiting the garden. We have just in case stuck out another feeding station just to be on the safe side. The first night or so I noticed something had eaten some of the food, but not seen anything the past few nights, but then again it has turned a little colder and wetter. I will let you all know when Tiggy is finally released. We will miss him, but hopefully he will go on and have lots of little Tiggys. :)

Hedgehog diary for March 11th

2009-03-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

Okay it has been a bit since I last caught up here with our Tiggy. Today is his big moving day. :) He is now up to 1345 grams in weight and is embarking on his next stage. The Soft release.

We have had him out in the conservatory for the last couple of weeks and the weather here has turned rather chilly. So I thought we would wait a bit till we put him outside. In the anticipation of puting him in a pen outside I ordered a pen from Ebay. Well..... that seller let me down big time and I have a claim in with Paypal now against them. Thing is when I ordered they had a very high feedback, but come to find out they had switched ids etc. So just be warned there are some very dodgy folks out there. But luckily I did get an honest person and we ordered another pen. And it arrived a few days ago. Thank goodness as the weather is now warming up and I wanted to make sure Tiggy had time to get used to outside before we released him for good.

In the meantime we thought he is going to need a waterproof nesting box and a food station too. Our old hedgehog box is in need of restoration and some damp proofing. So while at B & Q (our hardware store nearby) we saw a lovely little wooden hinged box for £10.00 So we picked that up thinking a little modification and we would have a nice nesting box. So Brian set about modifying this box into a nice Home for Tiggy. He had some roofing felt left from working on our shed last year so used it to surround the box and go over the box lid too. He also put it up on legs so that way the box wouldn't sit on the ground and become wet from a rainfall. And just incase our little friend has an accident he drilled a few holes in the bottom to drain any liquids that would happen to get inside. Next came the feeding station and one of the hedgehog sites we visited showed a plastic box with a hole cut in and a brick put ontop and tape around the doorway. So that is what we have now.

Yesterday, in the rain Brian and I put together the pen and assembled all the boxes. And last night after it turned dark Tiggy got his first viewing of his new home. He snuffled about a bit and did manage a look inside the nest box with alot of rolling about and self anoiting going on. But it was just too cold last night to leave him out there. So one more night in the conservatory for him.

His new pen!! Nest box, food box and snuffle tray

Another view of his new home

And his entrance hole.

Last night's viewing of the new pen.

Today the weather has turned and I couldn't wait till dusk. So we woke him up and put him out in his new pen.

Well the first thing he did was head for the nearest hole..... Being his food box. I thought he might be a bit hungry. So we sat patiently and watched him snuffle about a bit. But when he climbed ontop of his water bowl and food bowl and started to take a nap.... Well, I ended up moving him to the nice soft straw. (We don't have the smartest hedgehog in the UK here.) (You can just about see him inside the food box)

He then remembered the other hole and checked out the front entrance.

Going........

Going.......

Then he crawled inside his nice box that is filled with straw, paper and his fav blankets (some chopped up towels).
The pen states that it is supposed to be fox and cat proof... well Jingles has already got his paws inside the bars. Silly cat and was dipping them in the water bowl I placed outside. Good thing we have it on the patio so we can keep an eye on him.
Brian and I enjoyed a nice cup of coffee and a piece of cake on the patio watching over our little friend while he sleeps snuggly. But he has had visitors already and the neighbors have dropped in to see what is going on.....

Hedgehog diarires February 21st, 2009

2009-02-21T04:13:00.000-08:00

Tiggy is now in transition of heading back to the wild. We moved him back down to the Conservatory so he can start getting used to the cooler temps. By the way the last weigh in he was over 1200grams!!!! That is three times his size when he first arrived. I am so glad we took him in and looked after him and Brian and I are already thinking about next winters hedgehog. We ordered a transition pen for him the other day on Ebay and it should be here this next week. And we can get that all ready for him to go back outside. We bought one that has a side door so that when the time is ready we can just leave that door open and he can come and go as he pleases. And we will set up him a nest box and a feeding box there too. Here are a few photos a friend of ours took when he was visiting.

Everyone that sees him just thinks how lovely and cute he is, and then he does a huff and a Puff and frightens the daylights out of them. And then they endure the bit of hedgehog knowledge I have gained about how wonderful these little guys are, and how you shouldn't feed them slugs and snails but put food down for them and how if we aren't careful and look out for them that they will be extinct before we know it. And they are such dear sweet things really even when they are grumpy and pooing everywhere.

Hedgehog diaries, February 3rd, 2009

2009-02-03T03:41:00.001-08:00

Tiggy is still doing well.... 985 grams well in fact. He has now more than doubled his size since he came to winter with us. I am starting to worry that he won't want to leave. I did give him a little exercise outside the other day. But I think it wore him out as he hid in his little bedroom (which is now an a4 paper box with a door cut out of the side) all day. His little igloo bed room became too small too quick.
I don't know if you all know that Hedgehogs once you get to know them are quite noisy and not the quiet creatures I once thought. But they are pleasant noises and this morning I actually heard him chirp. It was just three small chirps, a bit like a bird makes or the purr of a cat. Then he proceeded to do his grunts and huffs and puffs. Hogs are also quite noisy when they eat with lots of slurps and crunches and smacks. And I love to hear him snuffle around sniffing the new bedding or when we put him out for some exercise and it is something new to him.
I am still very much enamored with my little prickly friend and it is probably a good thing he has prickles as otherwise I would be giving him a cuddle like I do Jingles.

The photo is one I took while he was sitting on Brian's lap while I cleaned his cage. He is usually quite sleepy when I do it and as you can tell all he wants to do is go back to bed.

Tiggy's new Accommodations.

Here he is doing his bit of exercise.

And another exercise photo.

Does my bum look big?

Actually he is longer than this, but it is hard to measure length when he is curled up in a ball.

January 23rd,2009 Hedgehog Diaries

2009-01-23T03:57:00.000-08:00

Okay lots has happened in the last week here, we have found a very very helpful website run by a lovely couple that actually are not to far from us.... And lots of very helpful people too. The Hedgehog Forum has been keeping Brian and I busy reading and learning all about hedgehogs. I finally got up the nerve to say hello and introduce myself on the forum. And they didn't bite and actually are very very helpful. And they have something in common with us already they care about Hedgehogs. Even if you don't have a Hedgehog in your care they are a great place to learn about our little friends and some really cool photos and videos too.

I found out that slugs and snails are actually dangerous to hedgehogs. Apparently they can pass along lungworms to them and then infest the poor little things, and end up killing them. So I have been talked into getting some worming meds to give to Tiggy. And although he will be released back in the wild, this may well give him the extra chance he needs to keep going a bit longer. :) Also they have a great idea for a feeding station that Brian and I hope to build soon out of a clear plastic box for our little friends. And ideas for making your/our gardens more hedgehog friendly. And all sorts of useful information. Like did you know that you really shouldn't give hedgehogs milk and bread? It is very bad for them. Instead you should feed them cat/dog food(not fishy ones) and some water.

Tiggy is still doing really well, and as of this morning is weighing in at 805grams. He has almost doubled his weight now. And he has a bedroom. But I am not really sure how long he is going to fit into it.

He took to it straight away and I find him all snuggled in there in the morning with almost all the newspaper in his cage stuffed inside along with him in the middle of it all. It is like a nest, and I would leave it be but he has a habit of pooing inside it too. If he didn't do that I wouldn't touch his little nest.

I guess if we had more room maybe he wouldn't poo inside his nest or around it. But we are limited on our space here. So I guess I will just keep giving him a good tidy up in the morning. But try to leave some of his bedding inside too. But he doesn't seem overly bothered by me cleaning it up for him.

Here he is having a bit of exercise on the landing. With Brian and I keeping a very close eye on him.

Brian has found out that he likes his nose rubbed. Sometimes he pushes Brian's fingers and sometimes he will bite too when he has had enough. He does like sitting on his towel.

At the moment we have him down in the conservatory trying to get him used to cooler temps. I put in plenty of shredded/torn/crumpled news papers for him to make a bed in his little room. And he seems really happy and is still gaining weight.

I have tried different foods for him too. Today we tried introducing some Cheddar cheese, but he didn't care for it. I also put a few pine nuts and sunflower seeds in his dish so we will see how that goes. He didn't eat any biscuits this morning for Brian so he may not be very hungry. They can go off their food if they start to go into hibernation. And Tiggy may well go into hibernation now he has his weight up. I will keep you all posted. Oh and it looks like he will be around until about mid April, according to one of the carers on the forum that is about the time to release them.

Hedgehog Diaries January 16th, 2009

2009-01-16T02:00:00.000-08:00

Hi again. Tiggy is still with us and getting bigger every day. And he is beginning to get just a little used to us. I think he prefers Brian to me. I must be the mum and the one that does things like pick him up and clean his cage and try to rid him of his ticks. So it is like good cop vs bad cop here. And I am the bad cop.

Brian holds him on his towel and chats to him while I am busy cleaning his cage.

And occasionally he is given a treat while sitting there patiently waiting for his nice clean bedding.... We found out one thing our little friend really enjoys.... Digestive biscuits. They are a bit like graham crackers in the US. And Brian being the good cop gives him a little treat while he is sitting there having a chat.

Usually he is curled up in a ball and we hardly get to see his cute face and little feet.

Now for the weigh in......... 655grams!!! Hmmmm wonder if we should cut back on the diggy biscuits.

My friend Jaqs sent me some books about Hedgehogs and I have been busily reading them here. I found out that hedgehogs in the wild don't have a discerning palate and will eat just about anything. Mostly their diet will consist of snails and slugs and beetles and earthworms. We have tried feeding some of these to our little friend, but he has decided he prefers cat food to those things. The book does say that hedgehogs that are taken in do become picky with what they eat. The book even goes on to explain about how hedgehogs have a bit of an immunity in their blood against adder(snake) bites. And if an adder would happen to come across a hedgehog it would have a very hard time biting it. And would eventually use up its store of venom and then become tired from trying to bite the hedgehog. And the hedgehog then has the upper hand and could well kill the snake at this time and decide that it looks like a good meal. This is something I didn't know at all about the little fellows. So with my dislike of snakes they really have moved up to being one of my favourite little animals.
Another fact the book points out is that Hedgehogs are an ancient animal. They have been around on Earth alot longer than us humans. Thanks Jaqs!!! I am really enjoying discovering all about our little friends.

Hedgehog diaries Monday 5th January 2009

2009-01-05T03:08:00.000-08:00

Happy New year all. And we have a boy. Tiggy opened up enough today for me to notice what sex he is. We have read a bit more on hedgehogs and their care. Once Tiggy reaches 600 grams and he isn't far off that now then he can start to do some hardening off, like you do with plants. So during the day we plan to possibly take him down to the conservatory where it is a little colder for him to start aclimatizing to the weather. They say that males at 800 grams will possibly strart to become a bit more anxious about getting out of their cages so this is a time to start getting them used to going back to the wild. So I think Tiggy will soon be starting his aclimation process and having a bit of getting used to the cold outside. He is at the moment at 550 grams and doing well. We did give him a bit of exercise the other night and let him wander about the bathroom where I kept an eye on him. Jingles was also very fascinated and was sitting with me watching Tiggy roam about. Then he curled up and went to sleep a few times. So I think we are doing all the right things here with our little friend. There was no sign of the other tick this morning either. So hopefully it has dropped off now.

Hedgehog Diary December 28th, 2008

2008-12-28T01:51:00.000-08:00

Well Tiggy is still doing very well and putting on weight. He/she is now at 500 grams. So is doing very well on the food we are feeding. We supply him/her with plenty of water, wet Chicken cat food and a special dry mix that consists of dry cat food mixed with meal worms, and unsweetened museli and some raisins and a crushed digestive biscuit.
Tiggy sleeps alot of the time, but must have a good old party in his cage as in the morning things are well and truly a bit of a mess. I am thinking he must be too big for the catfood box nest and is taking to hiding under some layers of newspaper and straw. We keep his cage covered slightly in a thick towel so he isn't frightened or the light doesn't bother him during the day time. Also I think it helps to regulate the temperature for him too.
He did have a tick that I painted with vegetable oil. And it looked rather shriveled up today so I gently pulled it and it came right loose from him/her and no parts were left inside. You have to be very very careful not to leave the mouth parts of the ticks attached or they will become infected. In the US we were pretty used to getting ticks if you walked out in the woods. And the dogs always had flea and tick collars to help protect them against ticks. They are such nasty creatures. We would take and light a match and then blow it out and hold it to the tick which would then usually back out and release it's hold. The trick was to make sure not to pull on the tick if it was good and attached, and to not kill it while still attached, or you would get an infection. The oil worked like a charm this time and I will remember that trick for the future. Since Ticks use their mouth to suck out the blood they need to get oxygen in another way and usually it is through their body. By covering them with oil it stops them from getting oxygen and so they soon release their hold and will usually suffocate and die. I think Vaseline would also work if you should happen to have any around too, but that is a bit trickery to put on a hedgehog.

Hedgehog Diary December 22nd, 2008

2008-12-22T04:36:00.000-08:00

Well Tiggy has now moved out of the Cardboard box and into a proper little cage..... Big cage actually. It has more room than the cardboard box did. We also have the added bonus of it being plastic bottomed so no leakages of Hedgehog wee. This is what his cage looks after a night of cage explorning and eating and drinking.

Tiggy is getting much braver.... and while Brian had the fun job of holding Tiggy while I cleaned his cage he decided to see what was going on.

I did find a tick on him and as the website suggested I tried brushing it with oil. Hopefully it will drop off soon. Tiggy didn't like this one bit and uncurled and started huffing and puffing at me. Silly little pig.

Now a nice clean cage to start the day. And by tomorrow morning we will go through it all again.
We did weigh our little friend as he seems to not eat on a regular basis, so Brian and I were a tiny bit worried. But we shouldn't have been.... Tiggy now weighs 460 grams. YEAH!!!!

Hedgehog Diary December 19th, 2008

2008-12-19T02:42:00.000-08:00

Well you can see that Tiggy is doing fine. Has plenty of food to eat and water to drink. Nice clean bedding too. The straw does tend to get everywhere, but he sure does love burying into it and making a nest with the straw. We are more or less using the paper now to absorb the wet and his bed is often changed during the day. I have given him a new nick name - Stinky pig. And the minute I can smell him through my bunged up nose his bedding is changed.

He seems to be doing fine. We were a bit worried about him not eating the other day, but it could have been maybe I am just so used to the boys eating all the time that I figured so should this little guy. His weight did drop down to 430grams and we haven't weighed him yet today. But we are keeping an eye on his intake of food. Brian has even gone out and found him a worm the other morning. Not sure he ate it though. I think personally I would prefer the cat food to the worm.
Brian has just come in and reported He is eating. :) Like I said we are like two proud parents of a new baby with this little chap.

Hedgehog Diary December 17th, 2008

2008-12-17T08:47:00.000-08:00

Well today Tiggy had his bedding changed. Now that my flu is easing off and I am getting some of my senses back, I am noticing how smelly hedgehogs can be. And they definitely don't mind at all where they happen to go to the bathroom either. In the water dish, in the food dish... in his bed on the cardboard tube in the straw and on the papers.... Maybe this is why he only weighed in at 430 grams today. I must have weighed him yesterday after he had a heavy meal. Well I also find that Hedgehog pooh isn't very nice to get on your hands either. ICK...So we now have gloves.
Something else I learnt today about Hedge Hogs is that they do a huffy puffy thing. I think it is something that they do when they are grumpy and want to be left alone. I have a feeling little Tiggy is definitely coming out of hibernation now and is most annoyed with me. He also didn't seem to eat as much yesterday as he did the day before.
Another thing I read about today on Hedge Hogs was about their Quills. Apparently they can loose them like we humans loose hairs from our head. And sometimes they can be a bit of an irritant when poked into your skin. Well when the Hedge hog poohs everywhere and then rolls in it then pokes you with it then you can get a nasty infection. So one needs to make sure and wash your hands after handling Hedgehogs. I also now have some leather garden gloves because I also learnt and luckily not the hard way that Hedge hogs can sometimes bite.
So although they are cute and lovely little creatures, they are still very much wild animals and as so should be treated as such with care and caution.

Hedgehog Diary December 16th, 2008

2008-12-16T01:45:00.000-08:00

I am still battling with the flu here, but getting better. Our little friend Tiggy is doing really well. Brian went to town and picked up a bag of straw yesterday and Tiggy just loves snuggling up in that. But we are going to have to figure a way to keep it out of the food and water dishes. My little friend is starting to trust me I think as when I went to pick him/her up this morning she/he didn't immediately roll up into a ball. This worried me just a little about getting bitten, but after raising a few inches she/he curled right up. Tiggy has put on some weight from the first time I weighed her/him and is now 450 grams. I added a bit of a treat to the dried food today a bit of a crushed digestive biscuit. But at the moment Tiggy is sleeping and not eating. I find Tiggy wakes up about 6.00pm and has a snack and then does his/her business and then naps again until about 9.00pm and then has another snack and a bit of business. I did get up last night about 2.30 am and put some fresh food in, but it wasn't touched when I got up this morning at 6.00am. So maybe we have a piggle that sleeps during the night.
I can see why some folks keep them as pets as they are cute and fascinating creatures, but they aren't cuddly like cats and dogs or rabbits or the other little furry critters for that matter. And I liken it to having an animated pet rock. Most of the time it stays curled up or asleep conserving energy. And boy do they make alot of noise when they eat.
I ordered a cage today off ebay so hopefully that will be better than the cardboard box we have at the moment. Now I have to sort out my craft/tidy room so I can put the cage ontop of a dresser in there. My friend who has rescued Hedgehogs before says I am doing all the right things and feeding it right so hopefully this little pig will be around for some time and will hopefully eat a few of the beastly snails and slugs in my garden next spring!!!

The Hedgehog Diaries

2008-12-14T22:38:00.000-08:00

Hedgehog DiaryDecember 13th, 2008
Tiggy was found out wandering in our garden on 13th December 2008. We think he woke up from hibernation as he immediately started eating some chicken cat food I put down for him. He was out during daylight hours too.We brought him in and put him inside our large cat box with some food and water and newspaper bedding and an old towel. Well he isn't house trained so I got to hold him while we changed his bedding again and threw away the towel. He ate two saucers of cat food and then another during the night. He just looked too small to me to finish his hibernation outside in the cold.

December 14th, 2008
Okay we have slept on this matter and in the meantime I have read up on Hedgehogs on the internet British Hedgehogs Preservation and chatted to a few internet friends. One who works for the wildlife trust on Brownsea Island. He said that I shouldn't let him go back into hibernation as he won't wake up from it. So I feel a bit better about waking him up to clean his bedding. We weighed him and he weighs in at 412 grams. This is too small for spending the winter trying to hibernate. So we will keep him inside and warm and food and water and dry bedding down for him until he is big enough to look after himself next spring. At the moment we are feeding him some wet Chicken cat food. No gravy. And some dry catfood mixed with some muselix, raisins and some meal worms that we had bought for our little robin and Black bird. Also plenty of fresh water for him too. He woke up at 6.pm this evening and had a bite to eat and drink and then crawled into the catfood box we made into a little hut. :) I think he is happy as he left us a nice little parcel or two to clean up again and we must think of what to do for keeping the card board box dry. During the time we are up with him we will keep him in it as it is large enough for him to get some exercise. And then put him in the cat box at night when we go to bed. That will keep him and the cats safe. Brian had to actually go out and buy a Sunday paper today just so we could have some bedding. If I were feeling up to it I would have driven over to the pet shop, but I have the flu at the moment and with all the cold meds don't think that is very wise. So for the moment we are getting by on things around here. I did notice Tiggy was active around 9.00pm for a bit and then he settled down again for some more sleep. Right before bed we placed him in the cat carrier for the night.

December 15th, 2008 6.36am

Took Tiggy from the cat carrier and put him in his palatial estate this morning. And gave him some more chicken Cat food, Fresh water and his dried food mix. He is a bit more livelier this morning and checking out his surroundings a bit more. A few more little pressies and a bit of wee so cleaned his bedding and now he is sound asleep again. I can't get over how noisy they are when they eat. LOL I remember my mom always telling me not to chew food with my mouth open. Maybe his mom forgot to tell him.

October 5th, 2008

2008-10-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

I have a gardening/recycling tip for you all.... I know the weather is now turning and the thought of little seedlings in this weather is probably not a good idea. But it will help you come spring when you have little seedlings to plant out.
I used this for my fall seedlings that I wanted to plant for my winter crops. I planted in large pots fairly close together some chard, spinach, carrots, beets, kohl rabi and some purple sprouting broccoli. On one of the gardening forums there was someone there making some pots out of newspaper with a wooden gadget. I got to thinking about this and thought I could do this and I don't really need any wooden gadgets to do it.
So here is how I made my recycled newspaper plant pots. These work in two ways, one you are recycling.... and two the newspaper will slowly rot down..... after you have planted your little seedlings in the ground. You get less root disturbance this way. If you have taller type of plants just make the pots bigger.

First start with your sheet of newspaper. Cut it in half so you have two sheets.
Then fold and cut these in half again.....

You now have two pieces that you need to then fold in half one more time....

Now take an empty paper/kitchen towel cardboard tube or you could use a toilet tissue tube.

And with your folded half of newspaper.....

Lay your tube on top of the paper like so...

Tucking in the bottom as you go roll the paper around the tube.

Just before you get to the end roll then tuck in the corner and then the last bit of the bottom.

It should look like this when you are done....

Now tap it down on a flat surface....

I give it a little circular motion...... and then take the tube out of the paper pot.

With your fingers push down the inside of the pot...

And it should sit up like this....

You can cut a little tab too to help hold it together at the seam.

And here they are all planted up with their little seedlings. Keep them moist and try not to let them dry out. When ready to plant just tear off the top part and plant directly into the ground. The paper will rot down in time and the roots will find their way out of the paper.
These little seedlings are all now planted out and doing well so far. Now if I can just keep the slugs off them. I have been saving all my egg shells and crumbling them up and putting them around the plants to help keep them off. But they are very determined creatures.

This is my chard bed that is now quite full of lovely leaves and stems for stir fries. Amazing how quickly it grows.

Well I didn't think my tomatoes were ever going to turn red..... we had loads and loads of green ones on the plants. I resisted picking them and making loads of fried green tomatoes.... I figure all that frying isn't good for us. But I did make one batch and they were lovely.

The one above is my biggest tomato.... It was delicious!!!

And the seeds were from a tomato that I bought in Bourough market. I had saved the seed and planted them last February. You just never know what you may get so try planting the seeds of tomatoes you buy.

The aubergine plants that I bought were a little disappointing, although I did get some. They were very long thin fruits. Not the big thick fruits you buy in the market. Although they tasted really nice in the curry dish I made. The slugs also thought them delicious.

Our garden is more than just vegetables. Above is my fav fuchsia called Thalia. I love the dark purplish green leaves and the bright orange red trumpet like flowers. We bought a little plant and this is now quite big and has produced a little plant for us to keep over winter for a good start next spring.

Brian and I had a chuckle after Brian read an article in the Radio times about gardening. In this article Alan Titchmarsh(a big gardening celebrity) said at this time of the year there really isn't alot of colour in British gardens. We would like to invite him to come and see our little garden.

Although the rain and cold temps have taken their toll on alot of the plants. There is still plenty of colour. The fuchsias are still blooming as are the penstamens and how about the colour of this coleus!!!

And before long we will be planting some winter blooming pansies and the primulas are already starting to bloom again. And before you know it spring will be here.... and the excitement of new veggies and fruit and flowers and leaves!!

September 8th, 2008

2008-09-08T10:31:00.001-07:00

Well it is now feeling like fall here and I am not too sure we had a summer this year. August was rather chilly and wet. My courgettes/zucchinis succumbed to mildew. But I did get a few that did make it and that the slugs didn't eat. The tomatoes have been really late this year too. I think that possibly because we haven't had the warm nights to help them grow. But I am not doing too badly with tomatoes now. I have one that is still out on the vine and it is huge!!!! This is just some of the goodies I got out of the garden today. We still have carrots, potatoes and Swiss Chard in the ground, besides more beets.

The green house is full at the moment with my little paper pots of seedlings to be going in this fall for a hopeful winter crop. I will try growing these under the poly tunnel and in our cold frame. The lettuces have been really super and since growing them we haven't bought any in the supermarkets at all. The variety too has been really good by growing our own. Some you can't find at the local grocery store at all.
I am already looking forward to next spring and summer and to try more veg and a few things differently. And have decided not to grow certain ones again. But this is all apart of gardening finding out what works and what doesn't. Some years you have good crops and some you just don't. This was a pretty good year.

August 18th, 2008

2008-08-18T08:28:00.000-07:00

Garden Update
It is amazing how quick and how slow things grow. We have been spending as much time as possible in our garden this summer weather permitting. The flowers have really outdone themselves this year and I think we have had more blooms than ever before.

And what is lovely is the blooms are staggered. They don't flower all at once so that you have a burst of colour and then nothing. Alan Ticthmarsh said in the Radio Times something about this being the time of the year where you don't have alot of colour in the garden. He hasn't been to our tiny garden.

The veg patch is going strong. We have had some successes this year and some failures. We got a cold rainy snap so some of my plants came down with mildew. And that really stresses them. So my courgettes and squashes didn't do all that great. I have had to battle slugs and snails all year and every morning just about go on a slug hunt and then put them in the bin for removal. I hope they can't find their way back from the landfill site. I just can't bring myself to personally kill them so they are banished to a bin and I even throw food in for them until they are collected.
We have had a pair of frogs in the garden this summer and off and on they hop out and scare me. One was taking up residence in the grow bag next to my tomatoes.

We did get a nice little crop of peas, but not as many as I would have liked. They didn't come on until late and have just now finished. I have lettuces in the bed now. The tomatoes are late this year and everyone I speak to is also late. I grew some from seeds this year that I saved and we have a load of volunteers this year too. Since we started the recycling some of our waste food goes into the compost bin. Brian sifted some of the nice compost to use in planters this year and we have had tomatoes popping up all over the place. I believe in letting volunteers grow!!! They seem to always do better. We have also had a few borage plant volunteers and the bees who finally showed up this summer love them.

I even grew a few stalks of corn in our planter with the broad beans. Hopefully we will have it for supper tonight.

The lettuces have been going great!!! And we have salads most days or lettuce on our sarnies. I seem to be doing well growing Swiss Chard too and Rainbow chard. Turnips did okay and so did some black kale. I have some beets growing and getting bigger. And the last 5 drawf French bean plants are finally producing. The slugs didn't get them all. I did surround them with lots of broken up egg shells to protect them. We also got a nice crop of potatoes and red currants from the garden this year. Brian has cut down one of the large bushes by the veg patch and hopefully I can get some Raspberry canes to put in there. Or maybe fix up an asparagus bed.

The fushias are growing well and showing off as usual.

And our new rose had a beautiful bunch of flowers for us too. I bet next year it will have even more. It is growing along the fence on the patio and is already spreading quite a bit.

This basket of Busy Lizzies has done really spectacular this year. And the stray volunteer lettuce plant. We did try to grow a basket of sweet peas, but unfortunately the birds have mangled worzzled them to bits. Though we did get a few flowers. There is a sunflower at the moment in that basket that is about ready to start blooming. Again another volunteer, but I think it had some help from the birds.

We did have one or two really hot days where the cats just couldn't be bothered. Honest we don't spoil them!!!!

June 11th, 2008

2008-06-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

Well it seems some of the garden is in full swing and other parts are now on a wait and see... The rose bush in the front was covered with loads of lovely blooms and then the rains hit.... Poor things are all battered and drooping. It had the most blooms I think I have ever seen on it before the rain hit. Same with the pink rose beside it. The smell of these two heritage roses is out of this world. My friend says the pink one smells like turkish delight. Slightly lemony with the rose sent. The other is a strong rose sent with a bit of spice.

Brian is on painting duty.... I have offered to help, but he won't hear of it. And I am trying not to say " you missed a spot...." too many times. He is doing a fantastic job and our old fence looks alot better with what he has done so far....

This lovely rose is one that Brian had planted before I moved here. It is doing super this year and has more blooms than before. We must be doing something right. This one is lovely and has a delicate scent and a big bonus, no thorns.

This pale peachy yellow rose is a patio rose that my friend Marc gave me for my birthday a few years back. There are two of them on our patio and are doing well.

This is a calendula that has over wintered and is so bright and sunny looking.

These are the geraniums Brian has planted along the wall of the conservatory. They are full of blooms.

This lovely flower is our pink Peony. We have this one a white one and....

This firey bright hot pinkish red one.

Another shot of the pink one.

This lovely rose is the one around our front door. Again another delicately scented one.

This is the pink one that smells of Turkish delight.

I can almost smell it just sitting here.

May 25th 2008

2008-05-24T23:23:00.001-07:00

Well we are now into the start of British summertime and the garden is well on it's way. The red currant bushes are full of little green pearls that are fattening up with each watering they receive.

I think we are going to be having another bumper crop of red currants. So any good red currant recipes are appreciated.

The Herb patch is over growing it's little border and flourishing.

These green pots contain the Cucumber, Courgette, and Pepper plants that I started from seed. I broke down and bought two Aubergine plants for the other pot. I hope they all do very well this summer. And in the fancy pots Brian has planted up some Busy Lizzies and some begonias.

This is my bean beds. The front container is my broad beans and the back houses my peas and soon to be runner beans. I am yet to see any beans or peas. I have also planted some sweet corn in both containers. I know wishful thinking. But it is all good fun seeing what I can get to grow.

The raised beds are doing well. We have been feasting on Spinach and Swiss Chard for a few months now. And the parsley is growing like mad!!!!! The onions don't seem to be doing very well at all. I think they might be too moist for their likes. Oh well. The lettuces and other plants are just starting to come up now. Soon I will take out the remaining spinach and plant French dwarf beans in that bed.

The growbags contain my tomato plants that are doing really well!!! And in the grow bag against the fence are some butternut squash plants. I hope I get some squases this year.

Cheeky definately approves of the garden and the weather finally warming up for them to enjoy the garden.

Lots of little nooks and crannies for him and Jingles to hide in. The Daffs and tulips are now gone and this is a green period right before the other plants start to bloom. It won't be long and the peonies will be open.

Brian has done a fantastic job again growing geraniums. My alpine beds are in need of some attention before too long.

Our colour this year is pink.

I think this is scabiosa, but not sure. Very pretty any way.

Some pansies Brian has growing in a wall basket.

And some more of his geraniums.

Our old hover mower has finally cut it's last blade of grass and we now have a brand new mower. It is a bit bigger and more powerful than the last and so takes even less time cutting the grass. I think we spend more time actually moving pots around than doing the cutting.

First Brian has to put it together.....

And he is doing a super job. I get to supervise and lend the extra hands if needed. Mainly I just go around taking the photos....

Now what cat can resist an open box????

He thinks he looks really cool inside there......LOL

Mower is coming right along!!!

Ohhhhhh silly cat eyes!!!

See I can get out in a single bound!!!!

Here goes the electrical cord on.....

And we have it!!! Our new mower ready to do some cutting!!!

Okay just doing a test cut as the garden was cut just the other day. I think this is going to be a super new friendship..... Man and Mower!!!

Well since all these photos have been taken the garden has come along again and the plants are growing bigger. And we are spending more and more time out in the garden. Luckily today it is raining and getting a much needed soaking. It is amazing how quickly things grow and a garden can change in a few days time.

Latest from the garden!!!!

2008-03-23T02:04:00.001-07:00

We have snow!!!!

March 23rd, 2008

2008-03-23T00:27:00.000-07:00

Well spring has sprung here and a few weeks back we did a bit of gardening..... The tidying up sort and the covering the veg beds with netting....Not to keep the birds out mind you, but the cats!!!!!! The boys think it is great fun to dig around in my veg beds. It seems to be working as they are staying out of them. YEAH!!!!

The flat leaf parsley and the curly parsley are both doing well...

And it seems I have a few imposters in my onion bed..... I was told he had all the bulbs out of the compost...

The spinach and Chard are both doing really well and we have enjoyed them both in a few dishes already this year.

The Tomato plants are now growing well and have been transplanted to their own little pots, as have the pepper plants. The peppers are still in the heated propagator. Some black kale has been sewn into the beds with the onions and the pea/bean bed has been put together and planted out with peas. I must go see if they are sprouting yet. But the weather has turned rather cold and damp these past few days. I may have to start some inside and then plant out. Some lettuces have also been started, but seem to be suffereing from dampening off. I may end up having to have another go at the lettuce.

The Rhubarb is sprouting up too!!!!

Cheeky having a well earned rest on the old garden bench.

Now for Brian's side of the Garden.....

Some of his starter plants......

He is in charge of the flowers..... And I think he has done an excellent job again this year...

With lots of Daffodils.. Of all shapes, sizes and colours.....

Some lovely hyacinths....

The little fishing Gnome even has his own little bouquet of crocus

A few winter pansies stuck in with the daffs...

Primulas and croscus dotted here and there....

And some tulips now starting to open up....

My corkscrew hazel nut (cob nut) tree is full of catkins!!!

I think it has passed the cat inspection for a really lovely garden.

January 27th, 2008

2008-01-27T03:04:00.000-08:00

Well it is still winter time here and not too much going on in the garden yet...... Well I say that but there really is quite a bit going on. We have ordered our vegetable seeds and now waiting for those to arrive and we can get busy planting and starting things inside to go out when the time is right. No doubt that Brian and I will be arguing when this is.
The onion sets I put in are growing and there are green shoots up in the one bed. The chard and spinach are doing well as is the parsley too. There are baby carrots sprouted and waiting I think for the warmth they need to get going full steam ahead. There are also one or two lettuce seedlings growing.
I put in some rhubarb along the front fence this past week and also some shallots scattered in among the onion shoots. The trick now is going to be keeping the boys out of my boxes!!!! I think I need to invest in some sticks when Brian does his next pruning of the shrubs.
The spring blubs have all sprouted up and this spring looks to be a very colourful one. We have daffodils, snow drops, primulas and some crocus up and blooming already!!!!

October 5th, 2007

2007-10-05T02:28:00.000-07:00

Garden Update....
Everything seems to be going well and not much changes in the plants I put in. Some of the seeds have sprouted and are growing. I did have a bit of a disaster, some of the new seedlings all of a sudden have disappeared!!!! I don't see traces of slugs or snails, so i don't think it was them that have eaten the plants. I did find some poor littles seedlings that look like they were cut just above ground level. Possibly a mouse??? I am not sure what is eating them.... If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate you leaving a comment. They were radish seedlings. I guess maybe I should start them inside and then transplant out.... not too sure now what to do...

September 25th, 2007

2007-09-25T09:03:00.000-07:00

Okay the poly tunnel bits are up on the new beds. Brian and I went to the garden centre today. We bought some new plants, seeds and bulbs along with more compost to finish up the beds. And some of the plastic sheeting to cover the beds up.

We did struggle just a bit until we figured out what we were doing with the poles and had to take the 2nd tier apart, but we got there in the end. And none too soon.... As we were finishing up and I was starting to put the plants in the beds. It started pouring down here!!!!

But I didn't let that stop me. I did manage to get some radicio, broadbeans and spinach planted and some more seeds of winter spinach, radish, carrots and lettuce. And I am now almost dry.

I have also planted a few new herbs. Parsley, both the curly and flat in either corner of the bed and some spearmint out in the herb garden.

Then after it stopped raining I poked some onion sets into the big bed and planted one tiny row of carrots. They won't be covered up just yet. So everything seems to be going well so far!!! And I am ahead on some seeds for next spring!!

September 23rd, 2007

2007-09-23T09:34:00.001-07:00

Day two of the Leggo garden.......Brian is hard at it emptying old pots of compost into our new beds. Cheeky is on inspection duty.

That pot housed my runner beans so the soil should have loads of nitrogen in it.

We usually have quite a display of pots with flowers in them. And Brian has decided this year to repot up his flower bulbs so the old compost is going into the new beds.

It was all I could do to stop him from planting the bulbs in my new veg garden!!! I really like these beds as they are just right in size for you to plant up and take care of without much strain. We also have the covers that go with the long bed and the short bed so can make poly tunnels with them so we can extend our growing seasons. I may be soon looking for the plastic to cover the small one as it is now planted up with some lettuces, carrots, radishes and more chard and today we transplanted a lettuce plant and some tiny carrots. If they grow they grow if they don't no problem.

You know that potato barrel I was telling you about..... well these are some of the potatoes we have gotten this year.

I wasn't really trying to grow them either. I may end up getting another barrel as it is really easy to grow them in it. You put your potatoes in the bottome and as they sprout you cover in dirt. When the vines die back you lift up the outside and dig out the potatoes through the holes.

They are really looking quite good now!!!

Brian has really worked hard at filling them up for me. While he was busy clearing out his bulb pots, I spent the morning tackling the neighbors honeysuckle that was taking over the Hazelnut tree and the magnolia. I also pruned those back to give the apple tree a bit more light.

This is the bounty of nuts our decorative corkscrew hazelnut tree produced. Hope it does better next year, now that honeysuckle is cut back.

September 22nd, 2007

2007-09-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

Okay I have now taken the plunge and bought a garden in a box. I will blog about how well my little project is doing. I am endeavoring to grow some of our own veg and to cut down on the food miles. Will let you know how it all goes.... First off our garden is really small. We live in the middle of a housing estate and have 6ft tall fences surounding our little patch of earth. My husband and his first wife did the landscaping for this garden along time ago. The shrubs have more or less matured now so have made the garden even smaller with their size. Hubby and I are slowly starting to grow more food producing plants to help benefit both us and the wildlife. One of our first changes was to take out a couple of shrubs that had humongus thorns on them. Those I felt were totally dangerous to us and the cats. So one of the areas now houses our compost bin and the other is where I am growing some red currants and gooseberries. The currants did really well this year and I have some put by in the freezer. Anyway on to our new project..... Our garden in a box.... Or the Lego garden which ever you choose to call it.

This is the before photo that everyone always takes before starting a project. So you can see the difference after you are done. These are some rather leggy penstamens which Brian has now transplanted elsewhere in the garden. And my wormwood or artemisia. I am really rubbish at the latin names of plants so forgive me.

The kit - Link A Boards boasted of being so simple a child could put it together, but a cat??? Hee hee Jingles is already wondering what on earth is going on in his garden.

Okay this is the 2 meter by 1 meter section done!!! Man was it ever hot!!!!! The sun has decided to come out of hiding and shine on my project and me too!!! Oh notice the brown thing in the back ground. That is our potatoe barrel. When my potatoes start sprouting I put them inside and before long we have new potatoes. But you must keep topping it up with soil.

Next comes the second tier. I liked this and thought I could grow my root crop in the really deep end. And the shallow I could grow things like lettuces and beans and courgettes.

Ohhhhhh a brief interlude into putting the garden up.... The cats weren't the only ones curious as to what I was doing. A little frog decided to inspect the potential garden. Brian stuck him in the pond out of harms way. We love having wildlife in the garden... That is as long as it isn't snakes. I don't like snakes.

Well it is my right to change my mind. So I have decided to switch the end around. Thougt I didn't want thing that grow tall shading my root crop. I may end up changing it all back again. But that is the beauty of this system. You can!!!

Now for the single meter square.... So now my little veg plot is going to be L shaped. Thought this would still leave plenty of room for Brians flower pots and also give me plenty of room to grow my veg.

To help kill the weeds and grass I put down a layer of news papers then put the dirt on top. We have taken alot of old plant pots and emptied them and some home made compost to fill the beds up....

My first bed is done!!! Now to start planting!!!!

I had some chard in a pot growing and it was looking a bit sad. I hope hit likes it's new home. The white around the edges are broken egg shells. My friend Linda at Crafty Gardener suggested them for keeping slugs out of the garden. We will see how well it works. I do have some rather ingenious slugs in our garden. They would probably dig a tunnel knowing them.

June 22nd 2007

2007-06-22T06:45:00.001-07:00

Well the garden is in a lull at the moment. Just growing and some things are in flower and some things have now finished.... One thing I am really excited about is this!!!

My courgette/zucchini flowers!!! I have seen some recipes for cooking the flowers and the small courgette that is attached to the flower, but if I do that then I won't be getting a very big courgette. So I think I will let them develope a bit more and see if I can get a bigger vegetable to eat. I have already made up my mind for the first courgette. I am going to turn it into a souffle. That is once I translate the recipe from French. I can honestly say I am sorely tempted though to pick it now and have the flower stuffed with some cheese mixture and coated in bread crumbs and fried to a golden colour. The yellow just looks so fresh and summery!!!

The lavendar is going great in the front garden too!!! It smells heavenly!!

And I have started filling my vases with some of the fresh flowers to dry out for dried flowers for the rest of the year. I try not to take too many as the bees love it so.
I also did a first this year and used some of the flower buds in a cake. You can check out the recipe over on the food blog.
The beans are growing and getting bigger, still no beans yet and the currants are just starting to turn colours. The basil is getting their first set of real leaves and we have been having some of the new lettuces.
So the garden at the moment is ticking away and growing rather nicely.

June 9th 2007

2007-06-09T00:10:00.000-07:00

Well the garden is in a stage of waiting for things to grow and bloom at the moment. I went out last night to check on the plants as I hadn't gone out all day to see them, and to my horror there were slugs pigging out on my beans... It is no wonder I can't get them to grow very well. I will be saving my egg shells and drying them out and crushing and putting all around my beans now. My friend the Crafty Gardener gave me that tip. Thanks Linda. Problem is we don't eat that many eggs. Hmmm guess I need to bake a cake or something.
Well we have had one nice day where it wasn't raining or dark and gray outside so we took advantage of that and had a bbq out on the patio. That was lovely and I can't wait to have a few more. New seedlings are sprouting and others are growing. I have had my first few handfuls of red currants off the bushes so far. And using the fresh herbs in my cooking. The zucchini/courgette plants are still looking good. And I have 5 baby tomatoes on the vines. I will keep you posted as to how it is going...

June 3rd, 2007

2007-06-03T04:15:00.000-07:00

In the summer if I can't find Brian around the house, I know where he will be.... Sitting in his favourite spot in the garden reading a book. Usually with a cat sat next to him. I love this arch we put in a few years ago and the rose that is climbing up on it. The White Wedding rose.... which really isn't white we bought after seeing one growing on the side of the barn at Hyde Hall. It starts out with creamy yellow flowers and towards the end of the flowers life they turn pink. This year I have noticed a lovely heady smell of roses coming from it.... A really nice place to sit and enjoy a book and a glass of wine.

One thing that has fascinated me with plants is their variety.... colours,textures, flavours and scents. And how even the same species can be so different from each other, much like family members being so different in us humans. This might be some of the fascination that Brian has with the Geraniums and I have with the fuschias.Even our roses have different scents, each the same scent that everyone recognizes as a rose and yet subtle differences if you stop and really take a long sniff of them. Just becareful you don't sniff up a bug!And the herbs such as basil, even though they are all in the basil family they have different flavours. You have your classic large leaf basil and then the Thai basil, cinnamon, licorice, and lemon to just name a few. And their leaves can vary.... by size and colour, or even by their shape... flat or ruffled. Isn't nature wonderful! And again the same goes for the mint family.

Talking of textures, my stepson thinks I torture this plant as it's branches are all curled up as if it is in pain. It is our ornamental corkscrew hazlenut. It is a lovely thing to view in winter when the leaves aren't hiding the curly branches of this amazing plant. And an added bonus is it produces... nuts! I can't wait to try them with some apples from our new apple tree when it starts producing.

June 2nd, 2007

2007-06-02T02:20:00.000-07:00

First blog about the garden.... Hubby and I may have a very small garden, but it is bursting forth with life.... We love to garden!!!And it is always and ever changing from season to season, day to day.... So first off is some photos of our little patch of land we call a garden....

the garden

If you click on the photo of the happy gardener it will take you to our magical garden....

As I said in my profile I come from America where land is in plentiful supply. Since moving here I have found that it is small and very precious. So I along with my Hubby try to pack as much as we can into our garden. He tends to do the hard work and also tends the flowers. I on the other hand try to grow food....... and do the managing bit. That pot doesn't look good there so it needs moving... that sort of thing. Most times we seem to work well together, but we do have our occasional spats. He likes to prune and I don't. LOL I am more of a natural gardener. If the plant wants to grow that way, let it. And if that plant decides it likes it better there then fine..

Well so far this year, hubby has given in to me and let me take over the etage(I think that is what it is called) to grow some of my lettuces. The only reason I wanted to put them there is the slugs and snails seem to enjoy them too. And with them being here they have a tougher time finding them being up off the ground. We don't like using pesticides or chemicals in our garden if we can help it. So my way of getting rid of the slugs and snails is to bin them. I go around and collect them up and put them in the bin to be collected with the garbage. I feel it is a sort of human way to deal with them. Chucking them over the neighbors fence doesn't work, they just find their way back and sometimes bring their new found friends with them.

My courgettes(actually I call them Zucchinis). I love this veg and it is soooo expensive at the supermarkets. I remember throwing them away in the US, cause I couldn't keep up with them. Next to Onions and tomatoes I think this is probably one of my favourite veggies. You can do so many different things with it. If they do well watch the food blog and I will post some recipes for you to try. My food blog

Next comes my beans and lettuce... Well, for the past few years I have tried to grow beans. I still have the fond memory of picking and canning green beans back in the US. I would pick them and clean one day and then can the next. I would can enough that we didn't have to buy any beans the whole year. It would be bushels and bushels of them. Here I am really lucky if I get a few beans for a meal. I really don't know what I am doing wrong or not doing. I have moved them from spot to spot around the garden. The best we ever had was behind the shed. But we kept forgetting to water them there. And it was a bit of a tight squeeze getting behind there. So again I have chosen a new spot in the garden to try growing them in.... I will keep you posted..

And lastly for this post, our apple tree!!!! I convinced Brian of planting an apple tree. The next door neighbors have two trees and they are just on the other side of the fence. So I thought great they can cross pollinate each other. And so far touching wood, the tree seems to be growing!!! I know it will be a few years before any apples show up. But hey, if I get some in a few years I will be one very happy bunny!!!!