Flowers in our home - A jar of geraniums

Summer maybe drawing to a close but there is still a little time left to enjoy a few home grown blooms. I picked these heads of flowers from my seed grown geraniums and the last sweet pea flower and popped them in a jam jar on our coffee table to enjoy and brighten our home.

The annual flowering of the clematis

I look forward to the month of May. It's the month that brings with it warmer days and sunshine that enable our clematis to grow and flower for a week or two. We are very lucky to have this clematis filling our courtyard with pink flowers every May. This weekend I got out in the sunshine to get some photos of the blooms I have the pleasure of looking for the next few weeks and I wanted to share them with you!

 

Flowers in our home

I love having flowers in our home, temporarily decorating the space with colour and filling the flat with a beautiful scent. These beautiful red tulips were a present from friends...

These pretty flowers were freshly cut from the containers in our courtyard garden. I grew them from bulbs I planted in the autumn last year. I love the pretty orange ruffle detail and the delicate white petals.

I grew these gorgeous purple and pink tulips too.

When I was in the garden this weekend I could see that the flowers I had grown in our containers only had a few days or so before then died. I wanted to enjoy them a little longer before they got battered by rain so I decided to I cut them and added them to a few vases to enjoy them inside. I love having my own freshly cut flowers from my garden. Hopefully in time I'll be able to grow more of my favourite flowers to bring inside and decorate our home. My favourite flowers are peonies, tulips, roses, sweet peas and gerberas.

What flowers do you love having in your home? What flowers are you growing at the moment?

Rainy summer days

Most places in England have been experiencing a very wet summer over the past few months. Grey clouds, heavy rain and blustery wind have outnumbered the dry sunny days where I live. The one thing that brightens the rainy days for me is the opportunity to use my favourite red and white Cath Kidston spotty brolly. I love the wooden handle and its cheery bright pattern, it cheers up a rainy walk to the train station.

The rain has been great for the garden as I've hardly needed to water the plants, however the downside has been the continual battle with the many slugs and snails. Here's an insight into how our courtyard garden is doing this summer...

I'm waiting patiently for the tomatoes to grow. Small flowers have started to form however with the combination of the lack of sunshine and warmth they haven't done very well so far.

The mixed lettuce bolted and the bumper crop has given us endless salad leaves perfect for creating quick tasty meals.

The lillies flowered for a few days but were very quickly battered by heavy rain and winds. After so much time waiting for them to flower we only got to enjoy them for a short time but they were worth the wait as there were so many flowers this year.

The hardy fuschia has flowered over the past few weeks and is elegantly displaying its pretty blooms.

The strawberry plants are flowering...

...their delicate flowers are so very beautiful.

There are pea pods forming on my patio pea plant! I've never grown peas before. They are so satisfying to pop open and see what has grown inside. We have managed to enjoy the small crop of peas from a few of the pods so far.

The herbs have done well and we have a huge supply of mint, chives and parsley.

The pepper plant on our sunny sheltered windowsill is growing a bountiful crop. I will need to keep a close eye on this plant as it was invaded by tiny snails this weekend.

I'm delighted with how the garden is growing, despite the unseasonal weather. It is the best year so far for growing plants in our courtyard. I hope that the summer will bring more sunshine and warmer weather so that the plants will continue to grow well.

New window boxes

We are having a very wet summer in England at the moment. At the end of May in my post about container gardening I mentioned that I’d been lusting after some lead look window boxes. My window box dreams have come true! Mr C and I were given two gorgeous window boxes as a gift from his parents with some plants to get us started! I love the detail of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew crest on each!

I haven’t given much thought to how to plant flowers together so it was quite fun working out how to arrange the window box. I decided to put three geraniums in the middle at the back of the window box, with the white petunias in front of them. I planted the purple daisies at the edges of the arrangement to make the edges a little softer. What do you think? This one has a third geranium but no flowers out just yet!

Our window boxes have given life to the window sills at the front of our basement flat. We have awkward shaped window sills so I propped one of the window boxes up with some old household bricks so we could balance it carefully.  

I love waking up, opening our blinds and seeing the flowers so close. The window boxes add a pretty burst of colour and definitely brighten up the very grey and rainy days that we have had continuously for a month or so. 

I plan to plant up the window boxes each season with different flowers to improve my knowledge of different flowers and arranging plants in a small space. I hope to have flowers in the window boxes all year round if I can to keep our windows looking cheery! 

Container Gardening - potting up and planting out

I can honestly say that I have a new found love of gardening! I spent Saturday enjoying the dappled sunlight and warm weather, potting up new plants and rearranging our courtyard garden with the hope that some plants will grow well this year! Being out in the fresh air, getting mud under my fingernails and handling little plants made me appreciate the joy that gardening brings to your life and it made me really happy...gardening is a great chance to escape and think...

Having spent last week looking longingly at the plants I bought the previous weekend...Saturday finally arrived and I got up super early to start gardening!! I started the gardening by getting things tidy...I swept up the clematis petals and pollen stamens that have now all dropped into our courtyard...

I arranged all the empty pots in one space so I could work out what I should plant in which pot. With lots of plants it was like a jigsaw getting them all potted...I'm sure some will need to go in to bigger pots in a few weeks according to the planting advice!

To add to our collection of plants I bought a range of herbs, vegetables, fruit and a few flowers to grow in our courtyard garden, these included - sage, chives, fennel, curled parsley and rosemary. I planted these into a wooden container...

To start the 'edible' summer garden I bought a few vegetables and fruit to grow in our containers, including a few different tomato plants, strawberry plants, a chilli pepper, a pepper, patio peas, french beans, mixed lettuce, little gem lettuces and a small rocket plant.

The courgettes I grew from seed in March, were moved into the greenhouse a few weeks ago and survived! I had six courgette plants that I had grown from seed and have planted them out in a temporary container to see how they get on. I know that courgettes can grow quite large so I may need to re-pot them in a month or so depending how they have got on.

I love having flowers in the garden (I'm still waiting for my lillies to bloom!)...so for some instant colour I bought an osteospermum (daisy type flower), a lavender plant and some red and yellow nasturtiums that will flower over the next few months.

One of my favourite containers didn't have a drainage hole at the bottom so I drilled a few holes...the perfect container for my new lavender! Doesn't it look so lovely next to the bay tree and one of our willow planters!

With the planting done I spent time a lot of time moving the containers into their new homes. I spent time over the past few weekends observing where the sunlight falls in our space so I could plan where the plants could get the best light. I realised that I hadn't been utilising the space near our back door in the most productive way. I have a huge willow vegetable planter that I haven't got anything growing in at the moment, so I moved this out of the way, moved the metal garden seating further along the wall and had space to create an arrangement of pots and containers near our back door.

I've started to use the window sill for one of the pepper plants in the hope that the sunlight will help it grow really well.

I have a mixture of containers and pots as you can see, they all look quite nice next to each other. I have a bit of an obsession with pots...my bright blue pot is a new favourite! I'm already eyeing up my next purchases to add to the collection and also have a few lead-look window boxes on my wish list too! Back to the gardening...

Using some decking squares we had and some bricks I elevated a space in the corner so that I could stagger the plants to make the best use of the light and space.

I'm thrilled at what I achieved and our new look space. I just hope that things will grow and not get eaten by slugs, snails and other bugs! I will really try hard to care for the plants and the space as much as I care about the inside of our home.  I vow to water the plants and not forget about them and to keep an eye out for slugs!

Now that the space is more sorted I will try and add a few things to the courtyard over the summer months, get some more flowers growing in window boxes and pots. I'm thinking about planting red and white geraniums in lead-style window boxes and maybe creating a container with some wild flowers...I need to do a bit of planning first but I'll let you know how I get on and keep you posted on how my garden grows over the summer. Keep checking back for updates!

Container planting - my gardening inspirations

Gardening is something that I have been itching to learn more about. I dream of owning a house in the country with a garden where I can grow wild flowers, have a little herb garden, grow vegetables all year round and maybe a fruit tree or two. I'd love to have borders of flowers and a tree to sit under just like those lovely gardens you see in Country Living magazine and gardening books. A big dream but perhaps I can do something on a smaller scale within our courtyard and grow similar plants in containers...

You may have noticed over the past few weeks I've been writing a number of gardening posts...well, as part of my goals for the year I wanted to start gardening again. I know that I need to learn the basics to make it a success and have spent a bit of time trying to learn from books, asking friends and family for advice, and looking at gardenersworld.com.

Last year Mr C and I had a delivery from the wonderful organic garden company called Rocket Gardens. We were given a generous gift of a Patio Container Garden...ooh it was so lovely getting the delivery of lots of baby plants, carefully placed on a bed of hay in a huge box. We planted the plug plants in our containers and watched them grow...however shortly after they arrived we had an unwanted visitor that managed to dig up lots of the plants. Following this many of the plants died as they didn't have chance to establish themselves...our little visitor put me off our garden space a little! However after the visitor was no longer able to dig up our remaining crops, many plants did grow thanks to the dedication of Mr C who took it upon himself to tend the tomatoes! We had a constant supply of rocket and mixed lettuce as they grew really well in our containers. We had one huge courgette, some green tomatoes and we had a few French beans!

I vowed that this year would be the time to try hard and learn more about growing plants and how we can make the most of our urban garden space. With the sun finally arriving and the weather warming I have a real desire to make it work. I'm keen to make our space tranquil, a place to grow things we can eat and admire and also improve our space to entertain friends. To get started I looked through a number of books that I have for some inspiration.

I especially like Organic Crops in Pots - How to grow your own vegetables, fruit and herbs. The lovely photos of bountiful crops, querky containers and achieveable projects really inspired me. Then there are the more practical books by the 'gardening god', Alan Titchmarsh, and his 'How to Garden' series. I have the Vegetables and Herbs and Container Gardening books and found them packed with practical details.

After looking at the books I set about making a list of plants that I thought would grow well based on a few years of experience, what may be suited to our environment and space, but also what I was keen to tend and eat over the next few months!

I also had a think through the many gardening mistakes that I have made over the past few years, I don't want to let these happen again this year! I tend to forget about my plants and not regularly tend to them, this means that they get attacked by bugs, shrivel and die, and are therefore beyond rescue. I told myself that if I am going to invest in new plants that I must go on a slug hunt each day and remove the nasties, find good locations for the plants with plenty of sunlight and water regularly...

Inspired and raring to go, I took a trip to our stunning little garden centre a few minutes drive from our flat. The Riverside Garden Centre in Bristol is tucked away near the river and some old industrial buildings. The Riverside Garden Centre have such a lovely collection of everything you need for an 'urban' garden and plenty of healthy looking plants tended by their helpful staff.

I was armed with my list, as I knew I would be in danger of getting carried away. I treated myself to two big blue pots to make our space more cheerful, and bought a new Burgon and Ball trowel which blew a hole in my budget...I know I will use them year on year so it is worth the investment. I selected a range of herbs, vegetables, fruits and plants suitable for container gardening.

I saw so many beautiful flowers and little plants that I wanted but I will wait until next month to make a few more purchases as buying new plants can be expensive! I definitely need to try and grow more from seed! I'm hope to grow some red and white geraniums in window boxes and have some more flowers in pots to attract some bees!

Take a look at how I got on with the gardening in my next post where I kick start the summer by getting our courtyard looking tidy and a little bit more summery!

Little achievements and inspirations

You may have noticed that I’ve had a few weeks where I haven’t posted on my blog. Outside of blog land I’ve been super busy with my day job...For 8 months I’ve been working on a variety of projects to help the team that I’m part of deliver a better job and improve what we do day to day. The final stages of the projects have been particularly tough as each project interlinked. We have had some big highs, as things worked, and huge lows when things weren't going to plan…However seeing the pieces of a huge puzzle fitting together and each day for the past few weeks making little achievements was really satisfying.

Many months of planning and decision making came to a head last week when we launched the projects. I’m very pleased, relieved and so very proud of what our project team have achieved and I hope that our hard work will make a difference. I work with some incredibly talented and creative people who have been a real inspiration to me and they've kept me going during one of the hardest and biggest projects I’ve ever been part of. At the end of our busy launch week I was greeted with this fantastic sunset on my walk home, it made me smile...the calm after the storm...

The projects at work have been a key focus of my time, especially for the past few weeks, and this has meant that I haven't felt like doing any projects of my own. My weekends have been precious, using the time to catch up with friends and to relax. I found myself documenting things that have inspired me or made me smile while I've been out and about...

I’ve enjoyed being outside on a super sunny Saturday sitting next to the river eating a yummy ploughmans lunch with my amazing man, Mr C, and seeing our fab friends.

I caught up with a very special friend from uni who lives nearby and had some fantastic home-made ice cream from Swinky Sweets we then sat in the park soaking up the sun, enjoying spring and chatting for hours…

I laughed so hard at a comedy night I went to this week that my cheeks and jaw ached!

…I met a friend in London who very kindly treated me to a coffee and delicious cake while we caught up on news and talked about how life is changing...

...I celebrated with friends who are expecting the arrival of a little bundle in a few weeks time...we ate yummy cupcakes and sipped champagne…

I love taking photos and capturing the little details...whether it's food I'd like to try and make myself, moments that make me happy, or things that have inspired me to think about creating new things...I've felt inspired in many different ways over the past few weeks...I'm looking forward to getting back onto the projects I've had to put to one side...I can't wait to put my energy back into what I really love doing... creating, making, baking, getting inspired and learning new things.

One of the most important things I’ve learnt during the past few months is to enjoy the little achievements and inspirations that happen everyday, they really do count towards an end goal…I hope that for the rest of the year and going forwards I will share with you more of my little achievements and inspirations and get to finish some projects of my own...What little achievements have you made this week? What has inspired you to do something new?

Brighten up your home with flowers

I love flowers. Whether it’s giving them to friends, receiving them, or just browsing flower stalls, there is something about seeing flowers that makes me smile. Flowers instantly add natural beauty and brighten any space. They need to be placed somewhere people can enjoy them so you can get the most of their blooms while they last.

Whenever you see photos of home interiors in magazines, on websites and discussed on blogs, there are nearly always flowers added into the styling of the space. Flowers may be placed on a mantel piece above a fire as a focal point, or used as a centre piece to a beautifully dressed dinner table, or even a single stem placed in pretty vintage jar on a bedside table. Flowers seem to be the one thing that adds the finishing touch to a space, however big or small.

With so many varieties of flower, in different colours and size, there is hopefully a flower out there that you love. Have a think, are there any that come to mind? I have a few favourites which include pink gerberas, white and pink peonies, lilies and vintage-pink roses to name but a few. As well as their beauty seen from a distance, I love the tiny details of flowers when you look at them up close. I dream of owning a macro lens for my Nikon camera so I can capture all the small details of flowers you wouldn’t normally see. Plus wouldn’t you just love to be able to arrange flowers like a florist and to know what flowers look good together? Learning about this is definitely on my list of to-do’s.

If we had more space and natural light in our little home I'd probably buy a lot more flowers than I do. A few times a year I may get flowers given to me or I may even treat myself to a few stems.

This week my home felt like it was full of flowers and it was such a treat! The bunch of daffodils I bought last weekend opened up bringing cheer and a hopeful spring vibe to our kitchen.

I had a lovely bunch of tulips given to me for Valentine’s Day from my special man. Don't you just love the way the petals have two contrasting colours?

Plus some of my orchids are in flower....Orchids are great plants to have at home as they can flower for weeks at a time. They die and grow back overtime with a new original display. I love it when their little buds form and burst open overnight to reveal a beautifully crafted flower. Look closely and you will see what I mean. 

Moving from flowers inside the house to flowers growing outside...I'm starting to think about what I'm going to grow in the garden this year. There's always so much choice and I get a bit overwhelmed reading books about what flower I could plant. I just don't know what will grow in our little courtyard but I want flowers to be a big part of the growing I do this year so I can enjoy flowers inside and outside our home.

February is an odd month. It is so close to spring but is still winter, with cold overcast days and the odd occasion a bit of sunshine. So why not get some natural brightness into your home...go on, treat yourself to a lovely bright bunch of daffodils this week and see what a great feeling flowers can bring to your space, however big or small it may be.