Back to the office cake

First go at a layer cake ...

... despite appearances: not chocolate and orange

but, in fact, chocolate and rose!

(with raspberry jam in between 

and lashing of choco butter icing)

Moneymakers pricked out

sewn over a month ago in toilet rolls,
which work well for beans and peas
but, in retrospect, not great for fine seeds

and, the first gooseberries peeking out

Greenhouse a-go-go

Broad beans ... with a twist

Albino broad bean plant?!!!

Comfrey tea

Liquid fertilizer, high in potash and nitrogen:

comfrey leaves from the allotment steeped in water over the winter,

bottled and ready to dilute with water (c. 1:10 ratio);

dredges in the compost bin as an 'activant'

Next to try: 'nettle tea', similarly high in potassium, nitrogen, etc.

Plus, Comfrey is a perennial, so this years' stenchy brew is effectively *free*

free plants

St. John's Wort, cutting taken back in November 

... patience has paid off: first roots appearing;

very satisfying! 

avocado pear stone - worth a go

honey suckle cuttings taken last year, see here

and now residing in Wales

Backyard colour

How does my garden grow ...

with purple sage

with rainbow swiss chard (year 2!)

with variegated sage 

with St. John's Wort (that perked up after the frost damage)

with Japanese red maple (acer) ...
and bamboo in the background

with Pieris 'Forest Flame'

(only £2.99 from the grocer's and ... 

dividing has given me two plants!)

with 'red robin' (reduced to £1.50 at Morrisons: super!)
perhaps a theme here: evergreens with a touch of red

with hardy succulent 'hen and chicks' (Sempervivum tectorumice) 

that divide really well and I use in terrariums

with ice plants (one of several, 

which I divide and multiple each year)

with two rather sad looking fuchsias (that I over-wintered indoors)

and an orange pyracantha (bought from Morrisons, 

only £2 and already divided into two plants)

with one stray purple sprouting broccoli

that survived from last year

... and the ubiquitous clematis 

vertical planting