Friday, 4 May 2018

Flowers

These are stunning
 Lovely just outside our back door
 I moved my Peony last year, it's come back great
 I removed some of the tubers, and they are doing well in this pot
 Sweet peas planted last year, they did not flower, 
so I am hoping this year I get loads of flowers 
Plus my new Clematis, this is much slower growth.
 This summers project, I got this birdcage and did not use it.
So inside are two corks from Prosecco,
 our aim is to see how many we collect this summer. 
 My Tulips are still doing well. I love the colours. 
Lettuce seeds grown on used tea bags, I am now saving teabags, the only difference I would do next time is cut the bags and use only the tea, plus I think next time I would mix tea with soil. 
I took these photo's yesterday, I was feeling calm and relaxed in our garden, the sunshine has arrived, and everywhere is full of hope.
Later we noticed Purdy (cat) was sat back in the corner watching, we took a look and the rats are digging through our raised flower bed again. Oh I was so foolish to think we had stopped them, we have never had to deal with rats before. Our raised bed has no bottom, it sits in front of our greenhouse, but about a third is on compact soil raised to the level of the concrete base. So later I am going to dig all the soil out of this raised bed, hubby will add chicken wire to the bottom and then some rubble from a neighbours garden (the bed is knee high), I can then fill and replace the plants, I am hoping this early in the season, I can dig out the flowers and pop them back giving them time to recover. It is not what we had planned to do, but it's the only way to keep them out of the flower bed.
We know they will find another route, and will have to deal with it as we see them, we are placing poison in proper boxes, which our cats and our local hedgehogs can't get into.
If you have any suggestions on this issue, please leave them in comments, we could do with any help you have.

7 comments:

  1. Rats are an absolute pain in the bum and so hard to get rid of completely, as they're always breeding. A couple of years ago we were inundated with them - fortunately only in the garden, they never attempted to come indoors. The neighbour 2 doors away (who has since moved out, thank goodness) had about 2 dozen chickens (despite our tenancy agreement specifying a maximum of 6), plus ferrets and puppies (he bred and sold them all, unbeknown to our landlord), so there were loads of rats about. Husband caught 17 in traps over a fortnight. Thankfully, we only see 1 or 2 a month now.

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  2. Love the tulips, i have the same ones and every time I look out my kitchen window they make me smile.
    Sorry I have no tips on getting rid of rats but I hope you can solve the problem.

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  3. Those purple and lilac tulips are gorgeous. I've got some really dark ones which I grew in a container one year and then planted in the garden afterwards, they're just coming into flower now. What a palaver with the rats. Finding out where they're nesting and treating the area would be best but that's easier said than done. I hope you get it sorted out.

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  4. Such beautiful flowers. What a nuisance about the rats, I really do hope you manage to get a solution for getting rid of them. Enjoy the predicted fine weather this weekend x

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  5. Oh those beautiful flowers just make my day!

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  6. Beautiful tulips.
    Have a lovely sunny weekend, I wonder if your cork birdcage will have more added if you sit outside this bank holiday weekend?
    No idea about the rat problem, sorry.

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  7. The flowers in those first photos are indeed stunning! Such gorgeous colours, Marlene. I think I'd have to walk in and out of the book door often just so I could look at them. Meg:)

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