Three Word Gardening - Slow To Start

 I am starting up my three word gardening posts again each month and this year I will start with Slow To Start. The weather has not been the greatest and living here on a high ridge has meant that it has been super windy. 

I will start with a little tour. This was the fruit cage after our snowfall, I just walked away from it with a very sad face but Bloke went out in the wind and put it all back together. Big Girl and I spent two hours weeding all of the strawberries. There is nothing worse than spotting a big red strawberry, then getting stung by a hidden nettle. I also moved a clump of raspberries from right in front of the entrance door. The fruit garden was planted up before I bought the cage so things were in a bit of a strange orientation once I realised where the door was going. Much better now.

First pick of the rhubarb will be this week too.

The front garden is raised and the soil in there is pretty weed free because it is new (3 years old) and I intend to keep it that way. The daffs have gone over now swiftly following are the orange hues of my tulips. The broom has flowered for the first time this year which compliments the border well.

I have lots of daffs but I like the later flowering ones like this white one Thalia which is beautifully fragranced which I place with the lighter foliage plants or pheasants eye which will be out soon.

I have all my veg seeds started off but it is still a bit too cold for them to really take off. Fingers crossed for the next few weeks.

My florist friend Beth grows her wedding flowers at our farm. It is such a bonus to look out on a piece of ground all neatly kept without me having to lift a finger.

The back garden is the one you see when I take a photo of the view. We have a 1.5m HaHa that makes the lawn seem infinite (but essentially stops the sheep getting on the patio!) This is a mix of shrubs and annual plants I grow from seed. This is more of a summer border in purple, blue and pink.

I will leave you with a few seasonal favourites: dwarf tulips in my belfast sinks and a new variety of grape hyacinth in my studio barrel.

What is your garden looking like? Slow to Start?

Joy

 

Hello there folks. I have been sewing for fun, not for work. My big girl is getting ready for her end of school prom. We didn't want to leave the dress shenanigans until the last minute hence a finished Prom dress in winter. Heidi chose a pattern where I gave the all clear but unfortunately I did not read the back of the packet properly and it turned out to be for stretch fabrics and we had already received a non-stretch satin. 

Oh dear!  Annnnyways... I made I work and we did a few adaptations. It already had an elasticated waist so we got away with the waist fit and simply cut two bodice pieces and lined the bodice to finish the armholes and neckline. The biggest hack was to add a slit to the back to enable her to get it over her head. Heidi made a lot of the main dress herself and I made the beaded overskirt. This is removable by a hook and eye with the bow covering the join so that she can wear the dress for different events. She absolutely loves it and of course so do I, especially the hem. Five hours of bead unpicking along the seams was not fun but I have almost forgotten that now!  We had a little photo session (in the snow!) because I was sponsored the fabric from Minerva where there is a full write up of the materials used. Here for you folks are simply some eye candy photos. Enjoy!

Thanks for dropping by. Jo xxx