Poppy Propagation.

I'm attempting to propagate some more of these poppies. Its one I grew from seed at my dads house.

I think I found five little clumps around the main plant and I dug them all up and put them in this large pot.  I'll be very, very happy if I get one new plant. And I just hope that my garden is sunny enough. If I get more than one I'll take the rest to the allotment.  Good luck little guys. :) 

Panic stations?

So they say that the end of the world clock has moved 30 seconds closer to 'midnight' or to the end of the world. In all honesty I'd never heard about this end of the world clock until yesterday and I wish that I'd still never heard of it. I hate stuff like that. It plays on my mind and really upsets me. :/ Yes I know it's just guesswork, but still...

So this has obviously made me even more impatient to get the gardening year started, as, if the shit does hit the fan, it would be best to have a large collection of food growing.  
I've added quite a bit of compost to the allotment now. I've got four of the beds ready to plant up, five is you count the strawberry bed. Well, I will after maybe a couple more big bags of compost. Its up to the weather now.

I know my allotment improvements are happening slowly. Its very hard for me to get compost to the allotment when I can't drive and I'm at work a lot of the time that my boyfriend is off work. It will happen though. Hopefully due to all of the soil improvements, this year my allotment will be very fruitful.

I intended to plant some late garlic into the home garden this morning. Just around a dozen or so little bulbs as I've still got so many from last year. I intended to that is, until I went out to let the chickens out and I noticed that everything is very heavily frosted over and the soil is as hard as rock. I'll have to wait until the weather has warmed up.

The tomatoes have germinated.

Yes, I know that it's early. It's OK. I have plenty more seeds and I just couldn't resist. They're tomato tamina and they are a medium tom that grows well outside. They'll probably be going in the allotment. I'll be sowing some more of the same and some different sorts of tom at a more appropriate time.

I might sow some mini sweet peppers today though...

work, work work and cleaning.

Yep.

That has been the extent of what I've been doing.
Well, that and applying for new jobs, chicken/cat/dog/snake maintenance etc. Pretty boring really. I still can't really bare much weight on my foot, I've developed a chest infection and I've run out of money. :/

Hopefully things will be better soon so that I can get some gardening done.  

Brian's new home and potatoes.

I put the PlayStation thingy on top so that you can see the size of the Really Useful Box or RUB.

                   
    This is Brian's new home and its MASSIVE compared to his old home.
      This will be the box he'll have until he's ready for his proper vivarium. I don't know when that will be as it depends on how quickly he grows. And yes I need to add a load of plants and extra hides to the RUB. I also need to find a permanent home for it as its much bigger than I thought it would be.




 
I picked up the first batch of potatoes for this years growing. These are Wilja baking potatoes, apparently the best baking potato that you can grow. If I can find the space, these will be going in the home garden.

These are swift first early potatoes and they will also be going in the back garden. I do wonder if I'll manage to fit it all in the garden along with everything else I want to grow. 

Out of the greenhouse.

The chickens were so unhappy living in the greenhouse. They didn't like being ferried from their coop to the greenhouse everyday and I wasn't that keen on it either at six in the morning.

We managed to cover over a portion of their run which allows them to come in and out of their coop as they wish.

We covered the floor with bark chippings and straw to make things a little more interesting for them and they seem much, much happier now. And it only cost around £30. :) 

Injured.

Over Christmas I really hurt my foot. I did it wearing broken dog chewed shoes that had never been very comfortable in the first place (which stings as they weren't cheap) on long shifts at work with no opportunity to sit down apart from on breaks. And I'm sure you all know what retail at Christmas looks like. Well anyway, Its been two weeks now, and if anything, I'd say my foot is worse. I took the dogs out for a walk along the canal this morning and that seems to have been the death knell for my foot. It is excruciatingly painful. I almost didn't make it home with the dogs. I'm drowning my sorrows... And my feet in a foot bubble bath. 

Between arriving home with the dogs and getting in my foot bath I made myself this really lovely comforting stew with cous cous all on one foot.

Other than that and chicken maintenance, it looks like I'm not moving off the sofa. Work tomorrow is going to be interesting.

A very unpleasant but important Job done.

That's right guys... Pooh picking. Its not a nice job. No one likes to do it and I'm sure I'm not the only one that leaves it longer than I should and ends up spending a good long time on it, and horribly am often unable to remove the stuff that has tried to remove itself without me. *cough* I tell myself to do it a little and often but it never ends up happening. :/

Anyway, new topic. I got to christen one of my Christmas presents today. :) Isn't it lovely?

I finally got around to being brave enough to prune my roses. This is the standard yellow rose. The one that grows the most beautiful huge flowers.

I'm really not comfortable pruning stuff but I did my best. 

This is the climbing rose, its meant to be yellow but it's actually pink. I mostly just cut it down a bit and removed some branches that were rubbing each other. 

I've got some crocus's making an appearance. It's not all doom and gloom out there. 

 And I've also spotted some nice fat buds forming on my tiny lilac tree/shrub. I'll have to take some branches off of this too, but I didn't have the heart today.