Alice's Garden

12/05/2023

Replying to

23/02/2023

14/02/2023

Happy Valentines Day!
I made a wreath at the weekend using ivy foraged from my local park and flowers bought from my local shops.
I definitely needed more gypsophila for this arrangement but for a first solo try without any supervision I think it turned out okay

09/07/2021

I had a little break during my walk today and managed to get the bird songs today.

27/09/2020

Earlier this year I had a go at growing bell peppers from the seeds of some I bought from the supermarket. I was not sure if anything would grow or if any peppers would develop but they did! I was rewarded with this titchy tiny pepper 😀

24/09/2020

I bought this lily from at last years Hampton Court flower show, it is absolutely gorgeous! I also managed to keep on top of the lily beetles this year whilst they were growing and developing!

19/09/2020

I honestly did not expect this but my passiflora seeds have sprouted 😀 I found the fruit about a month ago, got the seeds out of the fruit and thought I'd give it a go. Hopefully they will continue to grow and get stronger!

05/09/2020

I've just realised how long it has been since I posted anything since the lovely pandemic started 🤦🏼‍♀️ how are we in September already?

16/05/2020

My organic insecticide was running low the other day (which makes the leaves tacky so the scarlet lily beetle don't settle on the leaves) so I did a bit of research and came across 's recipe for a garlic solution:

1) Crush garlic (a whole bulb) in boiling water, strain and store in a (250ml) bottle in the fridge.
2) Dilute 3 parts water to 1 part garlic solution and spray plants every few days.

I didn't have any whole garlic bulbs but I had crushed garlic in the cupboard and used that instead 😊

I've been ensuring that any insecticides I use on the plants are organic / chemical free for the bees as most insecticides have chemicals in them which are harmful to the bees and in most cases kill them and their colony.

@ London, United Kingdom

04/05/2020

I have started an experiment whilst working from home, DYI mini compost.

I've used a few bits and bobs from around the garden as I read online a balamce between "brown" and "green" materials are needed. So for the "brown" materials we have sticks at the bottom and between the layers cardboard and dried leaves. For the "green" got some tea leaves, cut daffodils and strands of hair from my hairbrush... Let's see how this goes, if it does.

13/04/2020

Got me a willow tree last month and I've done a bit of research 🧐 this willow is a white willow, salix alba.

Since putting the willow in a bigger pot the foxes struck again and enjoyed a bit of digging so I came up with a cunning plan... I placed some planks of old wood over the top. Somehow this seems to have worked fine so far!

Pre-planting of the willow I had some left over floral foam from my floristry course last year and I have been thinking of ways to reuse it rather than throw it into landfill as floral foam is not biodegradable. So I chopped up the foam, popped it in the bottom of the pot then placed a pot reservoir on top to try and plug the holes of the pot to retain as much water as possible in the pot.

In the future I'm hoping to harvest willow rods to make wreaths and create foam free Christmas / spring / autumn / winter / summer wreaths 😊

@ London, United Kingdom