Queen Mary's Bower.

I've sort of not stopped all day today yet the day has only really been partly productive. The first part of this morning was spent watering and feeding the greenhouse plants, I also had to spray against white fly using Vitax Organic spray. I'd rather not spray at all but if I didn't the darn things would wreck everything and I only sprayed the Fuchsias and the Pelergoniums which seem to be their favourites. If they start to get on the tomato plants I'm going to try the 'Natural Born Killers' remedy which is where they send you cards with the parasitic wasp Encarsia formosa on them. You hang the cards up amongst the plants and thats it apparently. The Vitax Organic is supposed to be okay to use on food crops but it would be better to go with the wasp thing if it works. I think you have to get the timing right though as it only works when the temperature can be kept at a minimum of 16C, also I would have thought you need to have a certain amount of infestation to start with.

The second part of the morning was taken up at B&Q, I went to buy some paint to finish off the earns I started at the back end of last year. Vicki came with me as she wanted some paint for the sitting room so by the time we got that done it was time for a spot of lunch.

After which I spent the rest of the day planting up the memorial beds in the walled garden. I used the Border Princess Dahlia's at the front with some Nicotiana's for scent at the back. The Nicotiana's didn't do well at all last year, they came down with what looked like blight to me although it was the first time I ever saw them fail in this way, they always seem a reliable plant to grow. Anyway I will see how they go on this time, hopefully this year won't be as wet because I don't think that did them any favours.

Below are a few more pictures from the walk the other Saturday. They are taken in Chatsworth Park and I kept them back because I wanted to show you this seperately. The stone structure is whats knows as Queen Mary's Bower and if you click on the picture below it should enlarge enough for you to read all about it, if not let me know and I will copy out the writing so you can read it properly.

This is the view from the Bower looking towards the cricket ground.

Inside the bower there is this flight of stone steps leading down in to it, wouldn't you like to go exploing down there? I would but unfortunately there is a big iron grill over the hole.

Well thats all for today, Vicki wrote quite a bit of stuff on her blog yesterday so if you want something else to read go and see what she put, there is a link to her blog in my sidebar.

ATB BoB