Bamboo R.I.P

A few weeks ago,while on my weekly shop in Tesco, I found myself drawn to a rather luscious bamboo. This had been planted into an equally lovely white pot. Both items soon found their way into my shopping basket with the usual host of impulse purchases. Once I got back home I scanned the instructions card. The care instructions were pretty basic:

• Keep plant watered.
  
• Shelter from the cold.

Unfortunately something went horribly wrong (see picture). I found the soil to be always dry, so I watered the bamboo daily. Maybe my over-watering has been the cause of its demise. Or perhaps the soil’s reluctance to hold on to any water has caused its death.

If anyone could advise me where I went wrong I would love to hear from you. Sadly I think that it’s too late for my current plant. It would probably be more suited to its final resting place, which is going to be the compost bin.

However on a lighter note one of my cacti now has inherited a new home - the bamboo’s old one! I think it looks lovely, what do you think?

Update – my husband has stolen the bamboo. He thinks he may be able to snatch it from the jaws of death. He still isn’t having the cactus’ old home back though!

Seedlings Appear

In a little under a week a selection of the seeds that I planted popped to say hello!

The first to make the entrance into the world were the sweet peas, cosmos, geraniums, sunflowers and onions. The photograph shows the sweet peas - aw, aren't they cute!

I can imagine the seedlings probably wish they could curl back into the soil. The cold weather has come creeping back across the UK. Let's hope this chilly spell isn't around for long as it is a lot nicer having a bit of spring sunshine in the house and out in the garden!

Sewing my Seeds

With the sun out last Friday I decided it would be the perfect day to get my collection of seeds sown.

To recap, I am starting out with these flowers:

• Mixed Cosmos
• Sunflowers 'Harlequin'
• Pansy 'Padaradja'
• Mixed sweet pea
• Lobelia 'String of pearls'
• Geranium 'Moulin Rogue'
• Pansy seeds from last year

...and these vegetables:

• Pumpkins 'One too many'
• Tomatoes 'Moneymaker'
• Onion seeds 'Long de florence Simiane'
• Lemon grass
• Chilli pepper 'Black Hungarian
• Scotch Bonnett peppers

I potted everything in a Miracle Grow compost and sprinkled the tops of the trays and pots with vermiculite. I then placed all the pots in unheated propagators. I was bit disappointed to find I only had six seeds in my packet of Moulin Rouge Geranium, which were from Thompson & Morgan, so I guess I will have to be extra nice to them. Hopefully they will grow big and healthy and reward me with plenty of seeds for next year!

The propagators are now on various windowsills around the house, so hopefully it won’t be long before I get some seedlings peeking through the compost!

Welcome to Mew Gardens

Hi. Welcome to Mew Gardens!

I am Betty Mew, a novice home gardener living in the north of England. I am planning to grow a varied seed collection of flowers and vegetables this gardening year and at the same time I thought I would create my first ever blog!

The flowers I have started to grow are Mixed Cosmos, Sunflowers 'Harlequin', Pansy 'Padaradja', mixed sweet pea, Lobelia 'String of pearls', Geranium 'Moulin Rogue' and Pansy seeds of which I saved from some of the plants I grew last year.

The Vegetables will be Pumpkins 'One too many', Tomatoes 'Moneymaker', Onion seeds 'Long de florence Simiane', Lemon grass, Chilli pepper 'Black Hungarian and Scotch Bonnett peppers the seeds are from a pepper I bought from the local market.

The Cosmos, Lobelia and pansy are the only things I have grown before so it's going to be interesting to see what I get from these seeds as well as tasting the veg I hopefully going to grow (yum can't wait!)

Wish me luck in both my endeavours!