Chelsea Flower Show Part 2

Please accept my apologies if this blog is rather photo heavy, but I wanted to cram in as many as possible!

The New Zealand Garden and the Cancer Research Garden both looked interesting from the back end, although not many people chose to view them from that aspect. From the front, the Cancer Research garden had a fairly brutal modernist look, with a rigid swimming pool as the central line. From the back, it looked far more gentle:















This garden sported some amazing hanging cylinders planted with primitive looking mosses and greenery:














At times of downpour, we were lucky enough to be just in the right place to duck into the main pavillion. The displays were many and varied, and some were simply eye-boggling.














I bought 7 packs of seeds from Jekka's Herb Farm: Red Orach, Golden Mustard, Painted Sage, Cardoon, Sweet Rocket, Bronze Fennel and Angelica. You can see the Cardoon in the picture below - the big grey-leaved plant to the left. Apparently you can eat the tips of the leaves in salad.
















We've got one of these on our kitchen windowsill:















There was so much more - the Alium Shubertii which looks like a sparkler, meeting the bloke from Fernatix, who carried on raving about ferns despite being obviously knackered, and the table in the Australian garden that had water flowing through it...

Chelsea Flower Show Part 1

Sorry this blog is a bit late, but I've been unwell for a few days. As a consequence this may seem a bit like old news, but nonetheless the Chelsea Flower Show was a great day out for Sue and I. We'd not been before, and it fully lived up to our expectations. I took just over 150 photos, so choosing which ones to put up here won't be easy. I'm a little short of time, so I've divided this blog into two parts.

The show gardens are what everybody thinks of when they think of Chelsea. I was surprised that I was actually more interested in what was in the big pavillion. I was fascinated by the amazing collections of interesting plants, and couldn't resist buying far more seeds than I should have.

Of the show gardens, the following pictures show some personal highlights:. This one was planted mainly with what are usually considered weeds:
















The Daily Telegraph Garden included the ubiquituous purple and blue colour scheme. Aliums were everywhere. I don't mind, I love aliums.















The 4Head garden was lovely, with very soft and natural looking planting, although most of the attention was on the centre piece:















For the second part of this blog I hope to cover some of the other gardens, and some of the fascinating displays that were in the pavillion. I hope to also write about my progress with recording a soundtrack for the BBC competition, as I am now making some progress with it.

Mud, Sweat and Beers

Well, mud and sweat. Two out of three ain't bad. It's been pouring with rain today (Sunday), the only day I've had free this week to do any work in the garden. The garden was parched, though, and I certainly don't begrudge the lawn having a bit of a drink. Will Squidling and I spent a happy half hour in the greenhouse while the rain poured relentlessly outside, pricking out delphiniums, wallflower, gazanias (one or two) and a lone dahlia.














It's a pity that we didn't get some time to continue work on the first of the new flowerbeds. We've been collecting plants from various garden centres to put in it, and I'm worried that some of them are becoming pot bound. Yesterday I went to a plant sale put on by the local horticultural society, and was charmed by the enthusiastic gardeners. I even joined the society, and might try to get to a meeting. We bought about 5 or 6 small perennials and a couple of lovely scented geraniums. Here you can see the pots awaiting planting in the gloom of the rain earlier:














The rain does look lovely on the leaves of a tree poking through from next door.













The sun has now come out, but it is too late, not to mention too muddy, to do any work out there. I might just go out and enjoy it for a while before I start to cook for this evening.













The next SquidBlog will be about a venture into film. Well, sort of. There is a BBC competition to compose a soundtrack to a three minute nature film clip.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newtalent/music/newcomposers/

I realise that I probably have no chance of winning, but it should be an interesting and informative process having a crack at it. I've not attempted any audio/video synching before, and I've been wanting to try some audio visual work.

Hopefully I'll give you a step-by-step review of my progress. Right, I'm off for that beer...

Here We Go Again

The first post to contain a recent recording was called "Here We Go", so here is the next in a continuing series. I hope to post a gardening update shortly, as we've been pretty busy.

This track was recorded a couple of weeks ago, and I was suffering from pops and crackles on my music PC at the time. With a little sleight of hand I have reduced the nastiness, but the quality isn't perfect. I do, however, like the spontaneous naivety of the performance. This is the second short simple melodic pop song on the trot, which is unusual for me. Sooner or later I will expose you to the Dark Side of the Squid...

(It Might As Well Be) Raining (mp3 1.4mb)

Just to brighten the page, here is a photo I took of some balloons that we saw float over during the Guildford Balloon Spectacular that took place last bank holiday weekend. A few days later I was suprised when a lone balloonist (or should that be ballooner, or ballooneer?) floated over the roof of our house, missing the TV aerial by only about 3m. He appeared to be trying to gain height but failing, and he landed a couple of fields away. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo.

Greenhouse

The title says it all really. The greenhouse went up on Friday. I'm really pleased with it, and very excited at the possibilities that it presents.



As you can see, the compost bin is now firmly in place, and is getting stuffed full of smelly bits.

I spent all day Saturday putting up the greenhouse staging, and on Sunday we pricked out lots of seeds. The Squidlings were reluctant to help at first, but soon got involved. It wasn't long before they were lost in concentration over their seedlings, being careful not to break the roots. We now have trays of wallflowers and dahlia. The delphiniums and nicotiana aren't quite big enough yet for pricking out.



I also planted two tomato plants, two courgettes, a capsicum and a cucumber in grow bags in the greenhouse. I don't remember grow bags being quite so smelly when my parents used them. A definite whiff of the farmyard! Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the greenhouse as it is now, with all this extra staging and greenery. I'll try to get one for next time. I do, however, have a photo of the new hedge, which is beginning to sprout and look less like a row of twigs.



What a lovely evening it was when I took those pictures. Next time I hope to bring you a bit more of my recent music. I think I may have even fixed my crackle/pop recording problem!

Composer or Composter? Part 2

Well, I finished the compost bin. Here it is in all its glory, with its proud creator for scale. Note that the slidey bits mentioned in Part 1 are firmly in position.



As you can see, I'm standing on the concrete base for the greenhouse, which is being erected tomorrow. The following picture shows the bases for both the shed and the greenhouse.



Notice the fine view of the graveyard over the willow hurdles we put up to protect the fledgling hedge we have planted at the end of the garden.

This next picture shows the new shed. Hoorah!



The vegetable patch will be between the shed and the greenhouse when we get around to it, which probably won't be until next year. The greenhouse goes up tomorrow, which I am very excited about! And we've got tickets for the Chelsea flower show, and I haven't been before, so the excitement is running to fever pitch!

Here's a last, more intimate, view of the shed: