Captain's Blog (1) "Burying some Treasures"

you did have a busy time...hope it all grows well for u me hearties.....;-)

What a constructive way to spend a dull day, interesting and amusing. I'm suffering from 'Cabin fever' as I've still got 'man flu'

What a great Treasure Hunt and a lovely variety, hope the childrens lily grows well they look as though they mean business, when planting

Impatiens named "Tempest" might be useful to you . . .
Very impressed with your pirate-themed plants : o ) )

What a "Treasure Trove" you're all going to have.

Wonderful buried treasure. The coffers and chest will be brimming over with all those 'Ruby' coloured Gems in the Summer.
Lily 'Black Pearl' is a beauty David. Have you seen 'Landini' as well? A fabulous deep plum colour.

I think it's wonderful the way you have made gardening so exciting for your chidren David , the themes make it such an enjoyable way to learn about so many things .. My son has taken on a very large allotment , his young boys love going up there with him .. .. I haven't seen it yet , we will at Easter .they have a hut and are getting a stove of some kind .. brilliant blog :o)

lovely way to banish winter blues :o)

its not pig flu is it Heron ~ ~ ~ hope you feel better soon :)

David its great the way you make gardening so interesting for the kids likke Amy says its a great way to learn so many new things and they are going to have such a wonderful display of colour to look forward to. I just ordered Dahalia plug plants which are supposed to be of the colour but best of all they apparently smell like chocolate abit late would have been good for your willy wonka theme last year ( you maybe had them?) but may be good for this theme too. Anyway they come in a pack of 10 plug plants at £13 from Van Meuen.com. Got stuff from these guys before and they have been of good quality so far. Looking forward to seeing it in the summer :-)

lovely blog David,and nice to see you involving the children you were all very busy what a nice day you had,hope everything comes up for you..:o)

Sounds like a good time was had by all aboard the Good Ship ????
Hope everything grows well for you and the children and you'll soon have a real treasure trove of gems :)

looks like you all had a good time on board .....

A rather good day you all had.

who's a pretty [clever] boy then?
kids love this type of thing dont they?

Thank you all for the comments!

Heron, hope you get over that 'flu soon.

Megan, many thanks for the Impatiens suggestion' Have added it to the "list".

Kensington - once again, we seem to be gaving a lot of fark colour this year, but am going to be "brave" and add in some zingy "hot" colour, too.

Amy, you are right, and I learn a lot, too, and not all directly related to "gardening" as such. Am still on 2 local waiting lists for an allotment. I'm sure that your grandsons "have a field day" when they're there.

Blah,Thank You, we did get tubers of "chocolate" dahlia last year - but none grew!! Have just ordered plug plants from Van Meuwen for the first time. Bidens "Pirate's Pearl" to go with B. "Pirate's Treasure" (suggested by GOY member Sewingkilla).

Sbg - Yes, especially if it involves muck, paint, woodstain or water!!

:-D)

This pirates theme is great idea, Black perl and, cannon balls great stuff ;)

Takk fyri, Gummib! I don't know any Icelandic, just Norwegian/Norsk. :-))

Glad to see you are getting ahead with your selection of plants, David. Looking forward to seeing some photos of them growing later in the year.

Thanks, Balcony, I just hope we we get some warm weather soon to help them along. No doubt, you will be busy now, too, preparing for another amazing balcony garden this year? :-))

I would be normally but this year I've lost over half my plants with this terrible winter we've had - still have!

Not even the plants on the table inside the plastic bag in the most sheltered corner of the balcony have come through unscathed this year! :'( I've lost most of the geraniums, both zonal & ivy leaf. Many of them had been with me for years!

The pot full of Pelargoniums, that put on their best show ever last year, is practically dead. Though the few backup plants I had in the greenhouse have survived, though they are not in very good shape. I hope that if I repot them in a few weeks time they will perk up & flower this year. It seems that the three plants differ in their tolerance to cold & one at least is completely dead, unless there are a few surviving buds below soil level, one other seems to be dead as well while one has survived & has a few branches with green leaves.

I hope the Fuchsias have survived. When we came back from Spain in January I cut all the plants back by at least 50%. I later "hid" them under the table in the most sheltered corner of the balcony & covered them with several sheets of newspaper. A couple of weeks ago I took them out & hung them back up & I've given them a little water so as to keep them alive but not enough to stimulate growth. Because of the cold wet, snowy weather I've not been out to investigate them any more but if the sunny weather persists during the coming week I will most certainly investigate each & every basket, cutting away dead wood & hopefully find some that is still alive.

So sorry to read all this, Balcony. Don't think anyone expected "the freeze" to last any time - certainly not this long!. It has been really quite Spring-like here this weekend, but the soil/compost in my raised beds/planters refuses to thaw out at all. Good Luck with the fuchsias, pelargoniums, and all else.

I used to love doing things like that with our son Tom
He would have loved all that treasure:)
He has grown out of it for now as its just not as exciting as basketball is right now!!!
You have to make it interesting for children
:))
We used to read a story and then follow along the same lines with an activity.
We read a book called the 'Railway cat' and this was a great way to get him to learn about trains
we went on a train ride, the museum at Crewe went to see santa on a train and even made a pom pom railway cat lol and of course lots of railway stories and pictures.
Every month we did a different theme.
Some went better than others!
It brought it all back to me
lol
Thanks

You are welcome, Vicky. Reading your memories above, especially re the outings/trips, shows perfectly how days out/etc can fit well into a theme. We do same, around our garden themes. :-))

This theme is really gathering steam (or should I say sail?) - looking forward to developments so long as there are no mutinies!

Aye, aye, Wagger, it be full sail ahead! And, I keeps "bounties" in the ol' biscuit barrel, to foil any signs o' mutiny, aharrr!!

Excellent as always David! You certainly know how to keep your crew on board with things........

Me crew an me is 'avin' an offally big adventure, Dan. :-D)

No walking the plank on your good ship yet then, with all that bounty??

Not yet, Vicky, lol! But we still 'as a "marathon" ahead of us, tho all be plain sailin' thus far! Still, doin' manys a "Twirl" "Twix" manys an idea - OMGoodness! I still 'as chocolate on me mind! An' no wonder, wi' Easter doubloon an' ducat hunts next weekend! :-)