Rhododendrons in Pots (2)

Very nice garden Alan. I really like the stone path leading up to the gazebo. Is that rod ironwork? I bet you get a nice view up there. Did you do the masonry work yourself?

Looks lovely also peaceful.

Beautiful garden!

Hi Paul, thank you for your comment. The Gazebo was a treat for our wedding anniversary instead of a holiday. It is a cast metal, quite thick but hollow.,The good thing is it really heavy and withstands the high winds which we get near the coast. The designers call it a "Pavilion" ... we call it our Gazebo. It is well designed by gardeners at Kew Gardens and manufactured in China. It has a waterproof fabric roof and also six curtains. We tend not to leave these out in the winter so they don't rot and last longer. The stonework was designed by us and done by a couple of young landscape gardeners.

Thank you for commenting, Thrupennybit and Michaella2000.

Your welcome.

Those Rhodies are the stars of your show at the moment Alan! :)

They sure are Karen, thank you for taking a look....... Hopefully the strawbs, rasps. and tommy's will take over the show when they have finished.

Same here Alan, My veggie garden is booming.

Well done Paul, what is your most successful experience with the veggies?

Well so far my Detroit Red Beets. I love them. They are the size of baseballs. The cool Spring is very beneficial for beets. However, my sweet corn is really taking off. They need another month for harvest but they are so lush and vigorous. 3 kinds of tomatoes are really looking good.

What you planting this year?

Sounds lovely, any photos to share?

We don't have a veg patch as such, so tend to use pots around the gazebo. We have tomatoes, LOADS of strawberries, some rasps and figs. Also a few herbs, mint,
basil, parsley and coriander.

I've posted a few pics of my beets and corn; you will see them in my gallery. I will be posting more pics this week because they change so drastically as they grow. I have tomato plants in various locations to prevent the spread of blight (hopefully). We are now having optimal weather for veggies right now - plenty of sun, rain. Everything is doing very well.

Sounds like you have quite a productive garden Alan. Isn't it sweet when your plants reward you for your efforts? I mean besides a pretty flower.

I wish I had planted Strawberries but too late this season I think. The figs must be wonderful. I wish I had a bigger lot to grow more things. Figs would be at the top of my "wish-list" of things to grow. I have mint out there too someplace. It's not in the veggie garden though, it just grows rampantly wild and needs to be tamed. It tastes 100 x better then the cultivated kind.
I noticed my wild & rampant mint is a very effective pest repellent. So the whole garden benefits from the mint. LOL

Thanks Paul, interesting stuff. I will take a look at your gallery in a minute. I keep the mint in pots to contain it. It has become one of my favourite herbs. Fresh mint sauce on lamb .... great. Also nice on new potates with butter. Haven't got round to making the Majitoes yet!
Very envious beets and corn, sounds lovely. Does the corn finish up on a barbie?

Our figs by the way, because of our climate in the NW never get very big. Unfortunately we have grey squirrels nearby who see them off. That's one of my next projects, to build a cage around the fig tree.

Not meaning to rub it in but we've got a great crop of strawbs to look forward to. I will of course take a photo when ripe .... zooming in, so they look huge ... LOL

I've grown strawberries at one time and always had a bumper crop, but after one horrible winter, they never came back. That happens often. I love them drizzled with clover honey. It's too good for words, lol.

Have you ever made stuffed cabbage? It's one of my favorite dishes. Try adding chopped mint to the ground beef. It takes the dish to a wonderful place.

Corn must be blanched then frozen within 30 minutes of harvest to preserve the flavor. Then you can cook it any way you want including microwave. Boiling it, however, ruins the flavor. I love roasted on the barbie with butter.

Sorry about the grey squirrels eating your figs. Can you really blame them? lol. Dumping vacuum cleaner fluff around the base of the tree might repel them. It works for me. Looking forward to seeing your pics. Thanks

I'll certainly give the chopped mint in ground beef a go ?.

Unfortunately the fig tree is in a huge pot on the patio near were we sit. I could certainly try vacuum cleaner dust round the bottom of the bird feeder though.