Garden Haul #2

I have been uhming and ahing about whether to write this post. I personally enjoy reading/watching hauls, but I am aware that it can come across as arrogant. This is not my intention at all today. I received the most generous gift from my department last Wednesday; it was my last week at the workplace and I was spoilt rotten by my colleagues. As they are very aware of my new-found-passion, there was a theme which was, quite obviously, gardening.

I have used a couple of the tools already, which work really well. I am thinking of showcasing the gardening books I have and talk about my favourite/most reached for. I was inspired by Katie over at Lavenders&Leeks.

All the gardening tools are from this brand. I myself also have a trowel from this brand and I am very happy with the result. The tools are sturdy and comfortable to handle.

The tools below are (from top to bottom) a weeder (officially a daisy grubber), a dandelion weeder (very specific!), a diber and a hoe. I was very grateful for all of these, one of my colleagues commented "Trust you to get that excited to get a dibber!" I had been putting off buying one for ages, so I am a delighted to finally have one.

I am very happy that I have an extra trowel and fork. Sometimes boyfriend's brother comes to do some weeding for me, and I don't want to disturb him if he is using my tools, so having 2 is extremely useful. Also, given a couple of friends have asked me to help with their garden, I might just need to take both of them along! I have used the smaller trowel so far. It is extremely useful; I have used it to dig holes to transplant plants from a pot to the ground. The end is more pointy than the average trowel, making it easier to dig into the ground.

I have also used the weeder. It works wonderfully. Until now I was using a widger I got from Sutton Seeds. which is great.I still use it to take weeds out in between pavement slabs - I might do a post on that at a later date.  If course its official use has nothing to do with weeds but rather wih transplanting, but objects need to be versatile in this day and age. Its what society wants from us too!

This is the brand of the bag to carry tools around in the garden. It's a great little contraption to store all my new equipment. The photos on the packaging show that you can have it on the earth, but the bottom is not waterproof, and id of the same material as the photo you can see below. I am thus unsure as to whether I will take it to the garden. Perhaps if you had an allotment or a big garden it would be something useful to take with you.

Finally, a couple of books. The slug one is particularly relevant as I seem to spot slugs everywhere. I lifted the tulip bulbs yesterday and there were baby slugs chilling in one of them! I have only flicked through them and The Gardener's Pocket Bible does look very useful. 

Gardening Haul #1

We went to our local nursery today (gardening, not children, mind). The one that is nearest to us is Brookside Garden Centre in Poynton.

I was only going to get some compost and some bamboo sticks and string for my wigwam (or teepee, as I like to call it) for my sweet peas. However, I got sucked in by terracotta and plants. So, here is a minihaul!

I bought a couple of terracotta planters and pots. I think they'll be put to use with salad leaves or herbs. The pots, I'm thinking of using for the tulips - and get some nice photos for the blog! I also bought some terracotta saucers for my indoor plants.

As I mentioned before, I wanted to build a wigwam for my sweet peas I sowed back in January. I was a little anxious to pot them out, but they have been in the greenhouse for about 3 weeks now and it can be rather cold in there! So, here is the result of my first attempt.

The flowers I have bought are some gorgeous pinky/purpley ones. I have to research how to care for them, but I will share what they are in case you get inspired. 

This is an Anemone called Harmony Pearl; I got two of these.

This is an amazing plant which is a Fritillary with the interesting name Snake's Head. Also got 2 of those.

I also bought 4 Dianthus of the Doris variety.

Finally, I got some Double Tulips

All in all a very productive day. I also got some sowing compost and general potting compost. Didn't think that was particularly interesting to photograph at this stage - unless I get amazing flowers and veg! Then I will definitely talk about it!