Nice pics! It looks like everything is doing just fine. We have had a very slow growing season even in the greenhouse for annuals this year, until a couple of weeks ago. Still, there's nothing quite so satisfying as nurturing some tiny plants along, or growing from them from seed.
However, I didn't get my usual success rate with seeds this year. Maybe COVID caused supplier issues, but the seeds do not seem to be as high quality as usual. I usually use the seeds that I capture, but decided to purge and start afresh this year, which I'm now thinking was a mistake. Older seeds have done better than some more recent purchases. Oh well.
FYI, here's a few pics of the yards from our old home in Mission, BC, Canada today (40 miles inland, east of Vancouver on the Fraser River). The weather has warmed this past week to high 20s and into the mid-30s, thankfully with one wonderful day of rain!
Today, it was overcast in the morning, but the heat set in during the afternoon, well into the 30s. Next week is forecast to be high 30s, bordering low 40s. The patio will be into the 40s for sure. I have to empty out the greenhouse tomorrow and plant the remaining plants, as it hits over 50C in there mid-summer.
FWIW, the Dusty Miller shown below is typically treated as an annual here, although it is technically a perennial. They usually get tall, straggly and die off if it gets down below freezing too much, but this little fella's survived over 5 years and -10C multiple times and even -20C and a move to this more sheltered spot. It's been hacked off, flattened by snow and taken a beating, but refuses to give up! Maybe its because I grew it from seed, but its the only survivor!
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Below, everything in the front needs a good watering, since a heavy trimming earlier this week. My wife is out there with the hose somewhere. The grass goes brown rapidly at this time of the year.
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Below, two of the four "window" boxes, re-grown with whatever was in them last year, except for a couple of Begonias and a fresh sprinkling of Lobelia seeds. I usually give them a good working over, but was lazy this year and it's still doing okay.
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Below, our yard has a lot of spring colour each year with the perennials usually making up the bulk of the perimeter plantings in the spring. Their colour has gone now, so we await the annuals to strut their stuff. The Clematis and Honeysuckles are finally taking off, a bit further down out of view. The Hostas and Sedums grow huge.
The resident skunks love to crawl under the fence and stay close to the Hostas and plants along the back fence. Stinky they are when they are larger adults, but not as scary as a visit from a black bear.
Two full-sized cubs were up in the Cherry tree in our neighbour's front yard last year, when my wife took our dogs out before bedtime. It's quite a sight to see them clambering around on the foliage without falling off! A racoon joined them and we expected a ruckus, but he stayed for a few minutes, ate some cherries and moved on!
We're in "Bear Country", because newer subdivision developments to our north, have forced the bears and wildlife closer into town. There are a series of ravines which the bears travel along, running north to south. One ended up in our back yard early one morning around 3:45 am. I was just heading out the back door and spooked the bear enough for him to jump off a dirt pile at the end of the yard to clear the 7' fence and startled our next door neighbour who was out having a smoke on his back porch, before leaving for work!
The annuals are finally beginning to grow and bloom. The little Marigold in the border, is one of about 40 grown in my greenhouse and has been that about size for almost a month, never really grew, but did reach the bud stage. BTW, I'd say "our" greenhouse, but my wife doesn't go in there. She prefers to be the "gopher". She's my plant installation engineer! By November, that tiny marigold will be about 16" around. There's about 40 of them dotted around the front and back yards.
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Below, growing lettuce, spinach, spring onions, kale, carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers in this pair of 150 gallon stock tanks (Rubbermaid animal feed tanks) sure beats the heck out of crawling around on our knees, or replacing rotting wooden raised beds.
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Below, it's time to empty out the last few straggler plants before the greenhouse gets too hot around 50C! The cucumbers will do just fine with frequent watering. The old English wash board behind the cucumbers, is well-traveled!
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Below, we've had a toad or two visit over the years, but a couple of months ago, a frog arrived from somewhere and stayed. When the dog next door barks, the frog barks back! He seems to enjoy the pond with the more than 100 gold fish. He lives under a Marsh Marigold on the rocks, but sun bathes on the lily pads during the daytime. I'm not sure where he came from, but the closest wetlands and our friends trout farm are 3/4 mile away!
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View below to to the west down the yard towards our grand daughter Levi's playhouse by the greenhouse and bird "sanctuary". This back yard has been through several phases in our past 38 years here. The retirement homes behind the fence occupy acreage that was once full of nut trees and was built on when the land owner passed away. It is quiet, so we call it the "Morgue".
We've gone from having wood shack and shed out there, to a large play area with 10' x10' play house when my wife ran a licensed daycare from home when our children were young. The photo below this one shows the previous state, before reclaiming our back garden. BTW, "garden" is North American for vegetable garden, while front and back yards are the typical British garden equivalencies.
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Back yard circa 2000 when it served as a daycare. My wife won the 10' x10' Victorian play house in a raffle so I put it on an 11' square concrete pad and ran power out to it. Our youngest daughter and her friends played and slept out there.
We donated it to a pre-school in 2001.
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Anyway, that's a little FYI look at some plants doing okay 7,935 (~5000 miles) away from Brum.
Martin