Ivy Leaf Geraniums and Coleus

Overflowing with healthy plants Paul !

All the bedding(I only grow it in containers now) has done very well this year!

Yes Paul, the containers have been very colourful this year. The geraniums especially. I feed my pots and borders once a fortnight with the powdered feed that you mix with water and it keeps them flowering well. We are so lucky nowadays to have so many different varieties of geraniums to choose from, and they are so easy to take cuttings from.

Yes, even supermarkets sell them Linday.These came as plugs from Morrisons....so cheap and very healthy.I got 8 big stron plants(after growing on in potting shed and cold frame for £3. Superb value.

Morrison's do tend to look after their plants don't they. They are very reasonable too and I buy some of my plants from them. In Belper sometime in May the small gardens down the road called Beaurepaire has a weekend event and they have a few people who sell their craftwork and there is a group of people with disabilities, who grow plants and I buy from them. They are good strong healthy plants.

And it's nice to help a good cause,Linda. Ha ha...but I don't think Morisons count as one, although their shareholders would probably like to think they did!

We're sorting out the garden now Paul as some of the plants are looking 'tired' and so we're getting the flowerbeds ready for the spring plants. I like to get some compost into the beds first.

I find it very difficult to dig compost I to my border these days as they are so full with perennials, I'm frightened of smothering them or damaging the roots!but they had plent over the years!

I sprinkle the compost where I can and just hoe lightly in and I leave the worms in the flowerbeds to do the rest Paul. We have a wooden compost bin that really works well for us and there are thousands of worms living in there too doing a good job. In fact Gerry has recently emptied the compost from the bin and it's good stuff too. We sometimes get horse riders along here so I go out there with my bucket and spade and gather any manure from the horses that they sometimes do, and put it into the bin.

Yes I put manure in my compost too.I have a wooden slatted compost heap and a plastic bin so I swap it over between the two to turn it.It's lovely stuff........I use it all on the vegetable patch nowadays!

The soil here was poor when we came a few years ago, but now it's quite good with putting the compost in. We only have a small veggie plot but we pack the veg in and move what we grow in it over a three year cycle.

Exactly the same as me Linda.....my veg patch is only fairly small but I get a lot in and I use a 3 year rotation.just finished 3rd year so back to how it started next year!