leavesnbloom

Galanthus nivalis for Wildflower Wednesday

2012-02-22T21:58:00.034Z

Early one morning as the sun was burning off the thick mist I went down to the river bank to capture the first rays warming up the wildflowers. The first of the Perthshire natives are now in bloom with the carpets of white from the Galanthus nivalis. Even though there are many places on the Perthshire Snowdrop Festival Route to see spectacular drifts many grow wild and free along the banks of the River Almond.

sun shining through the mist and warming up the Galanthus nivalis

down by the river

Then as the temperature increased they slowly started to open their petals

Much later I went back along the riverbank to capture the flowers being illuminated by the sunset in amongst the sand and shingle (an area that does be under water frequently).

other photos from morning and evening

I doubt I'll ever find something similar to Galanthus woronowii 'Elizabeth Harrison' lurking along the river bank...........but I'll never give up looking! If you've never heard of the 'Elizabeth Harrison' snowdrop bulb before it was a newly discovered seedling in a Scottish garden a few years ago with very distinctive yellow ovaries and apical markings. It was given the title of the worlds highest price paid for a bulb as Thompson and Morgan bought it for £725.10 last week on ebay.............cheap at the price when you think of the worldwide publicity they've gained through their purchase!

My submission to Wildflower Wednesday

Related Posts on Leavesnbloom
Snowdrops on parade 2010
Antifreeze Plants for Wildflower Wednesday 2011
Related website

Galanthus ID website

© 2009- 2012 Leavesnbloom ~ All Rights Reserved.
"Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20

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The Greenhouse Space Saver

2012-02-18T18:16:00.001Z

This guest post is by my blogging friend Linda from Coach House Crafting on a Budget.

Gardening here in the Scottish Highlands is unlike any kind of gardening I experienced while at home down in England. I initially made so many mistakes and lost so many plants due to my stubbornness and naive determination to continue growing the plants I loved rather than discovering what would actually work up here in this part of Scotland. It was during those years of frustration that I sulked a tad where the gardening was concerned and turned my attention to building containers, obelisks and arbours from scrap wood. It kind of made me feel like I was achieving something despite having obliterated all my lovely plants plus containers meant I could move plants around according to our weather conditions.

That's the time I came up with this space saver idea. I needed something that would make use of height in my greenhouse and free up some space and at the same time it needed to be light enough to carry in and out as I needed.

This is the space saver:

It was really easy to make too with limited skills and tools and I used only scrap wood and plastic milk cartons that I had saved. I made this one in half a day but it could take even less time if you organise your tools and materials beforehand which I don't tend to do!

So here are the tools and materials you need:

Scrap wood. Any scrap wood can be used and adapted but I used batten, 3"x2" and ply board.
Wood to use as the milk container supports - I used 1.5"x 1/4" beading.
Screws and/or nails.
Hand saw or electric cutter.
Tape measure (always handy but I hardly ever use them)
Stain for protecting. (I used Cuprinol garden shades Natural Stone).
Plastic milk cartons. I used 30 on mine but you can make the frame and add the cartons as you collect them.

#1 The first stage is to make a rectangle frame using battens (or your chosen wood) and then add corner supports to the top of the frame only. (I didn't have any particular size of frame in mind I simply made it up as I went along - that's how I roll).

#2 Once we have the frame made we need to attach some feet to support it. I used batten and 3"x2" for mine.

Once the batten is cut screw or nail it to the bottom of the frame like this:

#3 Once those are attached to each side of the base end stand the frame up and cut 2 more pieces slightly larger from 3x2, or whatever wood you have. These are then screwed or nailed to the existing feet from the top down like this:

You can also see from the above photo that I then screwed the rectangle frame down into the first foot that was attached, this is just for extra stability.

#4 Next we need to make some supports for the lengths of wood that will hold the milk containers.

I used ply board for this as it was all I had suitable that was lying around. I basically cut 6 rectangles (3 for each side) and each rectangle had 2 grooves cut out of it from the top of the longer side to roughly half way through. These cuts need to be a suitable depth to hold whatever wood you are using for the container supports like this:

#5 Once all the rectangles are cut and grooved they simply need attaching to the sides of the frame - I just spaced mine at equalish distances.

#6 Once this is a completed it's just a simple case of cutting 6 lengths of wood for the container supports (I used thin beading) making sure the lengths are cut long enough to extend further than the supports at each end.

#7 Finally give it all a coat of protective paint and start filling it with your pots by simply sliding the container supports through the handles of your milk containers.

Space Saver Uses

This space saver is ideal for veggie seedlings being hardened off because you simply lift it and place it outside in the morning and then bring it back in at night. There's no bending and schlepping around with plastic pot holders that always tend to split and crumble right when you don't need them to.

It's also fabulous for rooted flower cuttings that need similar hardening off treatment and if you use the containers for herbs it can be easily placed against a warm wall right near the house.

OR if you're a crafter like myself it would be fabulous for holding crafting goodies such as pens, paints, ribbons, stamps etc etc.

Pretty versatile huh!

How to Make the Containers into Useful Garden Helpers

Now lets talk about those milk containers and how you can use pretty much all of the container as useful garden helpers.

#1 First off take one of the plastic milk containers you've collected - all sizes are good but I personally would find the 2 pinters too small for this project but the bigger the container the bigger size pot it will hold. I used 4 pinters and 6 pinters.

#2 OK so we need to pierce the side of the container with scissors (leave the lid on to keep the air in otherwise the container will simply collapse) and then cut right round the container so you get this:

The top part with the lid is all finished and ready for your newly built space saver.

Personally I try to leave the lids on the containers that will go on the top 2 layers of the space saver to stop any water draining into the layer below (you can open the lid to let excess water out).

Wait.......don't throw out the rest of the container!

Now we're left with the bottom half of the container we cut so take your scissors and cut down the length of the container stopping where you see the next rigid line that goes all the way round the container. Turn at this point and cut round the circumference once again until it separates from the bottom of the container, then take this middle section and cut straight down the middle of it to produce this:

Now all you need to do is use the middle section to cut strips off at whatever width you would like your plant labels to be. Once you've done this you then cut points onto one end of the cut strips and use the container base to store them.

See, the whole container has a use - yay!

Here you can see the strips before having the points cut and then the pot contains some where the points have been cut.

I hope this tutorial made sense to you all and that you can replicate it in some way for your home and garden, I would love to hear from anyone that has made one.

Linda is a gardener and crafter who lives up in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands along with her family, 5 dogs, 3 cats, 4 hens and numerous Birds of Prey. Since moving to Caithness she has found that a polytunnel is an essential part of gardening due to the weather extremes and she loves to recycle bits and pieces to make them into useful things for the garden.

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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day February 2012

2012-02-15T07:56:00.001Z

No anomalies this month and no out of sync blooms as the plants have finally realised that it really is winter after all down at leavesnbloom. Here's what's in flower in our garden on 15th of February for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

The first of the Crocus are appearing

Hellebore x hybridus 'Picotee'

Cyclamen coum

Deweys White Seedling Hellebore

More Crocus - the yellow in the background is from the evergreen Ilex crenata "Golden Gem"

Double Snowdrops

Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena'

Callicarpa bodinieri var. giraldii 'Profusion'

Other plants in flower today include:

Erica carnea white and pink varieties .
1 flower on Hamamelis x intermedia 'Pallida'.
A few flowers opening on Hamamelis x intermedia 'Orange Beauty'.
About 20 blooms on Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane'.
A few Saracococa blooms.
Some Primula 'Emily'.
Some Pulmonaria.
and finally the Lenten Rose that has featured on GBBD since November which still has terrific blooms.

© 2009- 2012 Leavesnbloom ~ All Rights Reserved.
"Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20