Wild & Wonky Blooms

02/10/2026

Today's antics. First task of the day before we got grubby - baking for the school bake sale, if you also have a multi allergy babe like us, a well known box brand and some fizzy does the trick! Egg and dairy free 🥳 and only contains soya lecithins if your CMPA child also struggles with soya proteins like ours. As per the box may contain nut.

Whilst we were at it, more homemade fresh bread rolls for the Wild Bloomers homemade bread addiction. Our eldest has told Mrs Wild over the summer she has become "very bakey" 🤣. While waiting for them to bake we threw some dead headed dahlia into our favourite cream jug vase to brighten up the kitchen, they won't give us long, but will give some short lived cheer before heading to the compost!

Once the oven was off, onto sorting the greenhouse, outdoor shelving and table. Perennials, propogated and seed sown and biennials were loaded up and taken to RC to pop in the tunnel, we will do another trip over the weekend. This freed up another shelving to whip into the greenhouse for the ever growing stock of hardy annual and perennial seedlings and ranunculus. Soon to be added will be sweet peas once we get them sown.

Surprisingly all in good time, we then managed to clear more tunnel beds quickly before collecting the Wild Bloomers from school and having a brief wander and assess.

All that remains in the tunnel beds are our chrysanthemum, alstro, some basil, a mess we need to tidy, uh hum, a mouse or two that keep digging the alstro, and some spindly snaps still flowering - left for the 🐝.

The chrysanths are over a foot taller than last year?! We have had to tie blue rope to the crop bars to hold the tops up, but they're still a little....wonky. We will move these next year to the beds infront and make a better support system, we didn't have this problem last Autumn 🫣. We also have some alstromeria which will stay put and propogations planted in next year once the chrysanths are moved!

01/10/2026

We've done some planting of perennials today that we've been holding off for months and some new logan berries. Perennials have just been put in the mish mash area. Deadheaded the dahlia, watered the tunnel beds and started clearing down in there ready for overwinter planting! The ranunculus are doing well and will be bumped up before planting to help with rodent damage/expensive buffet, because come on, its inevitable 🤣.

Watering the greenhouse, checking root growth and we are so happy to see these happy strong roots 🥳.

Mrs Wild has been under the weather since Sunday morning, so slowly slowly. She actually got some housework and seed sowing done today too!!

30/09/2026

We are looking forward to being here in just over a week, raising money for such an important cause 🎀. We've been busy creating some new items with our dried flowers that we can't wait to showcase 🥰.

Anyone who has followed us a while knows we have co organised a Breast Cancer Now fundraising event annually for a few years now in different shapes and forms.

Not only will we have a stall again this year, but you'll find Mrs Wild taking your tea and coffee orders too! - Please ensure you bring cash for this.

If you're free, please do come and say hello, browse the lovely stalls - all local small businesses and maybe even book in a treatment and buy a raffle ticket!

Afternoon teas MUST be booked by 3rd October, Claire makes the most delicious sweet and savoury treats 😋.

All event info is on the poster, but if you have any questions just give us a shout 😊

(We are still on the look out for more raffle prizes if you feel you're able to donate.)

26/09/2026

Phew, long day, w**d mountains gone, eucalyptus freed from their swamped bramble shackles and I can now access the tunnel from the other end, woops 🤣🫣.

Mrs Wild vows to never let it get that out of control again...she will be laying membrane between the shrub rows and the narrow pathways through the mish mash garden. We will grass seed around the tunnel and the big square area in the middle. We will research adding things like clover etc to the grass seed mix for wildlife/pollinator friendliness of course 💕.

Yes this is a working flower farm, but we want our space to be dynamic and family friendly for us. It then gives the Wild Bloomers a place to play and chill while Mrs Wild works during half terms and the summer. The next family project in this area is the pallet bug hotel we have been meaning to make for quite some time! Yay!

The Wild Bloomers went their separate ways, the youngest on digger work and the eldest decided my pots and cell tray organisation in the tunnel wasn't to her satisfaction so she got busy doing that and some art work with paint and leaf stamping. She truly does take craft supplies everywhere!!

25/09/2026

Before, 8:55.
After, 1:15.

Then we moved onto dead heading the dahlia!

Another productive morning.

The initial goal for this area was to create a "cutting style garden" at little to no cost. Just a mish mash of plants to create somewhere calm and peaceful for Mrs Wild when she takes breaks. A simple central bed and a U- shape. We will ignore the giant patch of mint, that needed a home and got thrown in 2 years ago and is on the relocate list.

We started this in May 2025, propogating from our own perennials - root cuttings, softwood cuttings, seed sown and relocation of self setters. Plus any surplus annual seedlings were bunged in. Of course, mother nature had other plans and we have had 2 years of drought, this area doesn't see any hand watering - stored water has become too precious and is prioritised for the cutting beds!

Despite not a drop of water from us, a number of plants have survived just fine. Of course bare soil isn't ideal, but this is a project of pure patience and the important bit; little to no cost.

Mr Wonky and the Wild Bloomers have agreed to help me get the massive piles of w**ds cleared tomorrow and tackle some other areas with a digger 🥳 which will be an amazing help and will make such a difference to how this area and the shrub area will look.

After this weekend, Mrs Wild will be able to mostly forget about this area for a while and turn her attention back to the cutting beds at the top.

24/09/2026

While the kettle boils, because a decent cup of tea is more important than a shower as we walk in the door 🤣.

Last Autumn we planted up a shrub area, the shrubs were only small as large ones are costly. Patience, as always, is needed.

Admittedly, the soil is not the best here, unless you count w**ds thriving. We managed to keep on top of the thugs, until the heat and drought hit and it just was not manageable. This is the same area our beautiful sea of poppies were this year.

First pic, 9am. Second pic 12.20pm. How can we describe it - in a word; punishing. BUT satisfying. This is about all Mrs Wild's body can manage for today, she did stop for rehydration breaks but otherwise ploughed on, the list has lists!

We have at an estimate of total plants here, including the rasperries - 25% death give or take, some are trying to cling on with the teeniest new green emerging and some ropey looking to be watched. Over the summer we told ourselves the w**ds were at least giving our shrubs much needed shade.

The w**d piles were giants around the perimeter, its hard to capture. The rest will be cleared likely over the weekend when Mrs Wild should be able to rope Mr Wonky in to help get the w**d piles relocated. She can then continue to remove the smaller w**ds and grasses, which is a reminder to locate the hoe - the fork is missing under a w**d pile somewhere 🤦‍♀️.

23/09/2026

The Autumn Equinox has arrived. This marks the end of Summer, and beginning of Astronomical Autumn 🍂. The days will be shorter and nights longer until the Winter Solstice.

The nights really have been drawing in, it seems to happen so quickly doesn't it?

As Autumn hits, it is a great time to lift and divide some perennials, just dont forget to give them a good watering in after re-planting if rain isn't in the forecast!

Its also a great time to get planting anything you have held off getting in the ground due to the heat and drought so they can settle and roots establish before Winter arrives. We have invested in more fruit trees and soft fruits which will be going in the ground as soon as we have had a good w**ding and clearing session to give them a good start.

We may also attempt to move some of our surviving shrubs once we are happy temperatures aren't going to be too high.

There are some seeds and bulbs that require a period of cold before they will germinate, larkspur is an example, we keep those seeds in the fridge so we can get a head start! Tulips we usually wait until late November, however, we have made the difficult decision to scale those back or not do them next year, they are a very expensive outlay for us - with bulb prices increasing yearly and the difficulty with milder Springs is they flush too short and too fast and in this climate is too much of a risk for our small business, especially after this years Spring tulip disaster.

Although we have started clearing, we are also being mindful of leaving things for wildlife, some seed heads for the birds and hollow stems for overwintering/hibernating insects.

We do not rush to clear fallen leaves from RC or HQ. These provide shelter for insects too and will eventually break down and be taken into the soil by worms, improving the soil as nature intended. Hedgehogs also like to collect them for their nests!

What does Autumn look like for your space?

22/09/2026

Where do we begin?

What a year, how have you all held up? For us - despite increasing our water harvesting and storing capacity after 2025s drought, we still ran empty in early July and had been sparing in that time frame also.

Mrs Wild had 2 choices to make - source water, pour more input for little output and push her auto immune back into thyrotoxicosis like she did in last summers drought and heat OR choose her health and a summer with her Wild Bloomers who are growing up way too quickly. I am sure you can guess which she chose.

Let's revisit the input for output statement, for clarity. Rubble Corner seems to have some kind of dome over it, you know, if you ever watched The Simpsons, what we mean. Rain around it but not on it. Boundary trees and hedges but no real shade.

Knowing our land, soil and how our space and plants behave, even watering (expense and time expense) would not yield the quality we strive to provide. Coupled with drying and warm scorching winds, the plants were just under too much stress above ground including scorch, for any beneficial below the surface limping along.

Has it been incredibly heartbreaking to see months, and in some cases years (shrubs and perennials) of hard graft and financial outlay be completely consumed by what the weather has done? Absobloodylutely. Do we fear next summer, to our absolute core. But we are not giving up yet. Has our mojo and mental health taken a knock, yes, but we either fight or step back.

We have been working away behind the scenes. We haven't given up yet. We aren't ready to step back yet. What have we been doing?
🌸 Drying what we can
🌸 Further increasing capacity to store water
🌸 Monitoring and identifying what has coped and what hasn't
🌸 Researching into our soil health, agroforestry and how we can further improve our plants chances of survival
🌸 Propogating perennials
🌸 Seed sowing perennials, grasses, our hardy annuals and pricking out and potting on
🌸 Bed clearing and mulching
🌸 Seed harvesting
🌸 Direct sowing (read - taking seed heads off and chaos sprinkling like a garden pixie with anger issues)

We'd like to also acknowledge gratitude to those who have still thought about us, messaged in solidarity, understanding and empathy, who still message to enquire about your bouquets and events with a little "I know its been a hard growing year but are you able to do..." despite our lack of online engagement. This shows that British seasonality is being better understood, that our climate is being more recognised and importantly - you still chose us before enquiring else where. Thank you. Truly. Its never easy to turn away orders, it hurts each time. But it does not detract from our gratitude.

05/08/2026

This one is a new one on us, anyone seen one of these before?

Checking the gauge after the rain this morning, (which we are sure the sun and wind has dried up sufficiently 🙄) swiftly rescued of course and straight to photographing, watching and then identifying online, we were quite amazed at what it was.

Any guesses without using an app or lens?

Our first, unreasonably long giggle with the Wild Bloomers - how its almost ninja mask mixed with an hmm it kind of looks a little like the face of a Colin the Caterpillar cake, angry winged nature edition 🤣🙈.

24/07/2026

If anyone is stuck for something to do tomorrow, this is such a lovely place to go!

We are looking forward to seeing how the gardens have evolved, filling our tummies, family time and a woodland walk and play of course!

Tomorrow is the day - we can't wait to see you and for you to see the gardens we have all been working so hard on!!