Chilli potting and er... a pond!

I spent a chunk of yesterday, and a fair lump of today decorating my lawn with pots....

With 40 plants on the go, I had some serious sorting to do!
I now have 30 chilli plants in the greenhouse, all cuddled up in their final buckets:


I had 40 before I started, but just didn't have the room! I ended up giving 7 to my sister and killed 3 stragglers.

I feel a lot better now that is done. Now I can carry on with the pond that I decided to start digging!!

It all started when I picked up a copy of the RHS Encyclopedia of Gardening; I got to a page showing how to make a pond and thought "I could do that!" Moments later I was on freecycle and found a lady advertising natural stone - just what I wanted to edge the pond that half an hour previously I'd never even considered.......

We picked them up a day or so later and busted out a funky shape on the lawn:


Then I roped poor ole Rob digging:


While I began bashing up the leftovers........ FOR A WISHING WELL!!



All I have to do now is learn how to cement........

Firewalking For The Furries!!

I did it!
Not that there was any chance of me backing out after raising a grand total of £268 for the furries :-)

I also knitted them a kitty hat for their raffle:


Whilst I was in training, Rob took some pics of the fire being started:













And then I was off!!!





One of the best experiences ever - not just for the walk; in the grand scheme of it, the walk itself was a passing moment, even though a very awesome passing moment; what I really got something out of was the talk beforehand. I learned so much - dare I say (at the risk of sounding like I've gone all weird) I may have even learned a bit about myself!

Go on.... laugh!

Anyway, my feet were disgusting afterwards - lovely!:


And here I am with my certificate:


I couldn't recommend it highly enough, it was truly uplifting.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped me by sponsoring and geeing me on. Kat xxx

NOT ALL GREENS ARE GOOD FOR YOU!

A mixed bag of news from the little Welsh chilli conservatory;

Here is the brood as of 5 minutes ago:



GOOD GREEN THINGS:

My Cap 253C is pushing out it's first pods already!!

BAD GREEN THINGS:

At least 7 of my plants are INFESTED with greenfly. They've been swiftly relegated to the black towel of doom....



I've got some plants that have been treated with Bayer ultimate bug killer previously, and some that haven't.... the ones that haven't are far bigger and healthier looking, if possible, I'd like to keep them that way - so I'm trying the fairy liquid method as an experiment. If I don't get any joy, I'll be getting the bayer out again!!

After googling around for the correct ratio of fairy liquid to water, I've decided there isn't one.
Therefore, I settled on the following recipe:

1 GOOD SQUIRT PER LITRE.

Before spraying, I placed the pots onto their side in an effort to prevent masses of soapy suds going into the compost - I've no idea what effect it would have, but I'd rather play it safe. Then I blasted the buggers to heck:



I'll leave them like this until they dry; I don't imagine it will do them any harm to be on their sides for an hour.

After 15 mins, if you look closely, you can see there are already little green dots on the black towel:



Scores on the door so far -

KAT 1 - GREEN GITS 0......

Taking cuttings :-)

Today found me making my first serious attempt at taking cuttings from my shrubs. I say mine, the yellow Euonymus Fortunei 'Emerald 'n' Gold' came from my neighbour as a thank you for helping her to dig out her dandelions! Both the Euonymus Fortunei 'Silver Queen' and Pieris japonica "Flaming Silver" came from the raised bed in my front garden. My hope is that at least 2 or 3 of each variety manage to root so that I have free shrubs to plant in the back garden; a garden that up until fairly recently, has been devoid of anything; and therefore didn't really deserve the description "garden"....

Fingers crossed the little buggers make it!

My cat wants to be a drummer.......

......so all we need now, is a bassist!!