Where is my broadband

Gardeningtipbooks,  (Hey where has my broadband gone?) I had thought to myself I would spend my day off on Saturday just pottering around after a hectic week at work. Just have a tidy up and relax and catch up with my internet stuff that seems to have got itself in a bit of a tangle. You know catch up with emails Facebook and the other bits floating about that you ought to have dealt with days ago.

So there I am doing the tidy up bit on my computer when a message arrives that I have run out out of data allowance on my broadband, not to worry just use my other dongle that should have plenty of allowance on it, a quick swop around and that should be it (what) no data for 11 days,(you are joking me right) That is when the panic sets in eleven whole days no Internet I cannot really! Then trying to compose myself and thinking logically just reload the dongle it must have got it all wrong. No it seems like life has come to a shuddering halt and I am back in the dark ages no broadband. Agrrrrr. I sit and look at all the icons on my desktop mmm what can I use here music right let’s have that on. Anything else, hardly a damn thing let me tell you, calculator perhaps. So the idea now is off out to town and visit the shop where I was sold this broadband so I would become hooked on it just like a drug, and if they cannot give me my allowance of broadband that they have gotten me hooked on I may have to torch the place so no others can be induced to purchase this life changing drug called broadband.

After a few hours later having explained my predicament to the shop keeper I left £10 lighter clutching a top up for my dongle and life seemed a little more bearable, I made it more so by having a look around some second hand book shops and purchasing two books, one on Victorian Gardens the other about herbal remedies. After collecting some food provisions I hastened home to apply my top up and restore my internet connection (at last.) What do you mean no sim card detected. Another frantic battle ensued getting the thing to work but I won over in the end. While I had some time with no internet I also managed to get my phone set up for taking photographs uploaded some apps for it and also changed the wiper blades on my car none of which I had found time to do prior to the fact that I realize I do not have enough time to do the things that I need to do let alone the many things I would like to do. Maybe it is time to evaluate what is really needed in my life and what is not. Is all this technology improving my life at all I don’t know! Right I am switching off my computer and going to read my new book on  Victorian gardens while I have a cup off tea and some ginger nut biscuits, Bah who needs technology.

Happy surfing M.J

Herbaceous Border

Gardening tip books, Victorian Flower Gardens. Since the introduction of various new plants from around the world brought by Victorian adventurers and botanists alike , the gardens of the  gentry evolved to encompass these new findings that would complement their already vast collections of  flowers, vegetables, trees, and shrubs to use around their large homes and to decorate inside them. The Victorians were also very fond of ferns and a great variety of them where grown and displayed around the home, even to the extent of having large glass houses built to contain these wondrous plants. Of course the responsibility of cultivation of so many varieties of plant came under the auspices of the head gardener. With the introduction of bedding out plants that could only stand the more mild months of the British climate but provided a great show of colour during the summer months needed to be grown on a garden market scale to provide the amount of plants to fill the need of a large estate. Although beds had been used in the past these more colourful additions from the likes of America were displayed in intricate interwoven circles and had to take account of  blending the right plants to the best effect. Often you may still see the like of  these beds in public parks and gardens and are by no means an easy  task and the people who are lucky enough to posses the knowledge how to make these borders so wonderful are very blessed.

I am very lucky to live near such a park that contains, a large mansion house and the remains of a walled garden that is still maintained by the local council and is a valuable reminder of gardens from the late 18th early 19th century. As you walk down the wide drive toward the house you find large trees lining the route planted during these earlier times and where common place in the planning to the entrance to these fine homes. Near to the house there is a collection of buildings that would have been used as what looks like to be a farm which would be essential to make the land pay for itself on these large estates. Further on nearer the house you follow a smaller path to a large open space with  large beds of  the earlier mentioned plants that give an amazing picture of properly planned out walkways in between the most colourful displays of plants. To the rear of this space is a long herbaceous border running the full length of the  garden space, behind that is a huge greenhouse that contains many of the the plants grown as they would have been in the earlier centuries and is like taking a step back in time. Having left the warmth of the heated greenhouse you may enter the walled section of the once heart of the head gardeners world. Unfortunately vegetables are no longer in production there but there are many plants trees shrubs and beds full of herbaceous perennial that remind one of yesteryear and the many men who had striven so hard to cultivate this place. On leaving the walled garden and walking away from the house along the driveway one comes across a huge herbaceous border some 150ft in length backed by a tall beech hedge, the array of plants is a wonderful sight, the front of the the border showing small bedding plants and the further you look back the taller the plants some up to 8ft in height, and just a mass of colours and textures. There are even small twigs placed in the ground to assist the larger plants to stay upright as they grow.  I visit this place often to see how it looks at different times of the year and to borrow some Ideas for my own garden. Toward the latter end of the year sometimes you can be left alone to walk around the gardens and almost believe you have gone back in time some hundred or so years and realize what a different world it was.

Apart from the cultivation of bedding plants the head gardener and his companions would be required to produce cut flowers for the house and as there where no market gardens as such all the flowers for weddings and funerals alike. This would need large flower beds as well as greenhouses to produce vast amounts of plants for use right through the year for all the special events as well as daily requirements  for flower displays in the house. If you watch period dramas like Downton Abbey or the like take note of the flower displays shown, and the dining tables that have large displays of fruit, vegetables and flowers and you realize what a task the provision of all these plants would mean to a head gardener and the need for these Victorian flower gardens.

Fortunately many books and prints hold vital information about the growing of all these plants for us to attempt in are own gardens and are an enjoyable read. Take time to look around where you live and you will always find evidence of the Victorian flower gardens influence. There is a place called Port Sunlight where the Lever brothers built a whole village for the people they employed in the factories. The Village is well planned out for the times (not the usual back to back houses) the layout has large green open spaces, the houses have gardens and is very picturesque, maybe you have something similar  where you live so go and take a look.

During Victorian times all plants had meaning and one had to be careful when presenting them to someone in case you should offend them, the ladies and gentlemen of the times would know this but alas these meanings are almost lost. Again we have some insight to these meanings in the books left us by our ancestors, it is most unfortunate we forget such things and the loss detrimental to our being.

Auricula (scarlet) Avarice                                               Pansy  You occupy my thoughts

Bluebell   Constance                                                            Phlox Our souls are united

Carnation   Womans Love                                                 Rose  (deep red)  Bashful love

Chrysanthemum (red)  I love                                          Rose (white bud) Ignorance of love

Chrysanthemum (white)  Truth                                      Rose (yellow) Declining love

Crocus  Gladness                                                                   Sweetpea  Departure

Daisy  I share your sentiments                                        Tulip  (red) Declaration of love

Geranium (ivy) I engage you for the next dance     Violet (blue)  Faithfulness in love

Lilac   purity                                                                            Violet (white) Innocence, modesty

Lilly of the valley  Promise of happiness                     Zinnia Thoughts

So take care my friends when presenting such flowers to the person in your life. MJ.

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Regards MJ. Gardeningtipbooks.com   Famousstores.net    Enjoy your free stuff.

Enjoy the Christmas holidays.

Wonderful Herbs

Gardeningtip books (review) I was lucky enough to stumble across a book recently while browsing through a second hand book shop, (another of my favourite pastimes) Brevertons Complete Herbal based on Culpepers, The English Physitian and Complete Herbal of 1653.

The book has been very well written indeed and is just short of four hundred pages of excellently formatted material, which Terry Breverton has put together to give a very informative book  of plants and their uses through the centuries. I very much like the format and well researched material. The a to z contents section promises interest for some of the plants I have not heard of before despite all my readings of the subject. The Introduction again informs us of the extensive material gained over many centuries regarding the uses of plants and herbs during times when there where no such thing as painkillers. There follows an a to z of plants and there uses, Terry has split this up into sections, 1  Title the names family and Latin name. 2 Other names the plant maybe known by. 3 A full description. 4 Properties and uses. 5 History of the plant. and 6 A hint from the past useful  tip. This altogether informs and interests the reader, thank you Terry for a wonderful informative read.

Should you wish to make a love potion to attract a man, Jim Long suggests, mix equal parts of dried lavender, bachelors buttons and clary sage, with a pinch of valerian and sassafras leaf place in a small sachet and wear close to the person. I hope this helps should you want a man, if you are not sure of some of the ingredients you should have to buy this excellent book printed by Querus in hard back. Or a least we now have the internet to find out, How did they find these things out such a long time ago, must have been trial and error I suppose. Please take care should you use some of the recipes in this book some sound rather terrible and the complaint being less to bare than cure.

Gardeningtip books review hope to add some more good reads soon. Regards MJ. Gardeningtipbooks.com

The main duties would be to provide large amounts of food, flowers fruit, and vegetables and to maintain the grounds to a very high standard. To help him achieve his endevours he would have numerous men and boys employed for this purpose as this was a most serious of duties. The main purpose was to grow fruit and vegetables for his employers large extensive home including a large family, servants and most important guests. Not to hard a task you may think, but it was not just a staple diet of the masses but fruit and vegetables that may not be in season or more exotic fruits not normally grown in this country this all had to be catered for on demand It went rather like this, the lady of the house would supply the cook with a large menu for some special occasion to which numberless visitors had been invited, then the cook would inform the head gardener what would be required and he would have to make sure everything was to hand at the correct time and be of the best condition possible. For an instance, if plums and necterines where required they would have to arrive at table as though they had just been picked from the tree the look and texture would have to be perfect as with  all else placed on the dining table in front of important guests.

Again to assist in these tasks their would be a large walled garden, this running to a couple of acres so as to encompass all the buildings greenhouses , hot houses, and rows and rows of vegetable and flower beds. The list goes on and on plus many gadgets of new and old invention all in the employment of growing thousands of plants in the best conditions possible.

Of course all was governed by the head gardener from his estate office which I am sure was a hive of activity from dawn to the last remnants of light that  filtered away and gave respite to all who had to toil many a long hour in this secret world that very few  people would ever get to see. It is most unfortunate that many of these gardens are no longer used and have filled with brambles and nettles, all need for them drained away and the loss of the skills of the men who cultivated them are far and few between. I think now that things are getting strained even in the once better off countries we may return to cultivating our own food even if on a smaller scale and maybe a few more of us will relearn some of the skills once mastered by these great gardeners of the late 1800s and early 1900s who cared for these great Victorian gardens.

Learn something every day then master it. Regards MJ. Gardeningtipbooks.com

Wealth bought education which in turn brought about exploration of the known world and beyond, Physics, chemistry, Geology, biology, no subject was left out. Charles Darwin concluded his Origin of species papers in the latter part of the 1800s. Many people like him where pushing the boundaries of known thought on so many subjects. They went out into every part of this world to gain as much knowledge about everything, what they found was indexed experimented on categorized and published, they collected specimens of every creature that was unfortunate to cross their path, they where stuffed, pressed, pinned and collected to be shipped back and shown to people who would have no way of ever seeing these once living creatures, some I am sure where collected to extinction, but vast amounts of knowledge where gained.

Luckily for us, these men also collected thousands of species of plants some of which although not native to this country we grow as if they had always been here. Botany gained a vast amount from these explorations. And the Victorian wealthy built large gardens with the purpose of growing large amounts of food for their large families and to show of to their visitors the exotic plants fruit and flowers that were grown there. These gentlemen would not work in the gardens other than for recreational purposes but would employ a head gardener who would have gained many years experience at various gardens growing all manner of fruit vegetables and flowers. This would be a very long affair probably starting off as a young boy and taking him into his middle years. Good head gardeners were much sought after and was a job of great responsibility. The place of work for these men and boys working with him would be provided with a large walled space, this would house many large greenhouses, cold frames, buildings  for storage of tools or produce plus other sundry items. Buildings to contain clay pots of every size and shape. A darkened room for the like of mushroom growing, nothing would be too much for the owner to supply all the requirements of food and plant production his status depended on it. There would also be heated greenhouses for growing exotic fruits, or items that would be out of season but required by the cook at the big house to fulfill the lady of the houses menu for any particular day. Large flower beds would be used to grow many varieties of cut flowers , again for the house where a certain colour scheme may needed to compliment the table furnishings at some elaborate dinner.

Some of the techniques for growing these items are now lost but there are still places where one can find really good methods employed at these times in some of the books written during the 1800s. Trust the Victorians to document such in depth matters as these, and thankfully we can still find them in these wonderful books. I will be revealing some of these wise Gardening tips books Victorian Gardens  techniques in my next article hope you can join me  then.

Take time to reflect  the knowledge our ancestors left behind. MJ. Gardeningtipbooks.com

Victorian Kitchen Garden

A common question that I shall explain over again as these items are important but simple to deal with, First lawns, I am not one to promote the perfect lawn here, one that could be used to play bowls on cannot take the punishment of young children running around on it and getting worn by constant use. So personally I can live with a lawn with imperfections such as a few weeds and a bit of moss, when cut and tidied up it will look just fine. First if not having done so cut the edges with an edging spade, this will only be required once per season and then just the edges cut with edging shears before you mow the lawn. When working as a gardener I found it difficult to understand why some customers would insist I apply weed and feed to their lawn and then comment on the brown patches, (a result of the weed and moss killer in the application) and how quickly the grass grows!  I did not mind just raking over the brown patches to remove the dead weeds, adding some grass seed and watering soon brought it back to be green again. And cutting the grass on a fortnightly regime assured the grass did not get overlong. Getting paid to make the grass grow and again to cut it was a good idea as far as I  was concerned. Believe me grass has a habit of growing no matter what, it has been around a long time and will still be here long after you mow your last lawn. So I say let it be just give it a trim now and then and don’t complicate the matter, I never use the stuff on my lawn as I dislike using chemicals near any plants or soil. The only purpose found to use weed killer has been on pathways where it is difficult to weed between the gaps in a path, then I use sodium chlorate mixed with water (sparingly) Make sure you never use the same container to then water your plants for obvious reasons, I have  two watering cans one red one green, red for chemicals the other not. If finding larger weeds in the lawn you can just dig them out with reasonable ease. There are special tools for doing this but a long knife does the trick just as well.

Weeds in the border can be dealt with as mentioned before in Gardeningtipbooks hints and tips by using rakes a spade or trowel and just digging lightly just below the weeds and teasing them from the soil to remove them just a small portion of the border at a time. For larger rooted weeds use the trowel to remove all of the weed as small pieces left in the soil will only grow again. Do not be discouraged little and often is the key. Some weeds of course are more difficult to remove such as mares tail or the dreaded Japanese knot weed the latter requiring specialist removal at great expense and the thought of possibly moving home may be considered. Nettles do not like being cut down so do this often and they will reduce in growth over time. Dig out as many of the large roots as you can and they will not be so invasive then. The majority of weeds can be removed just be as perssistant as they are and you will learn how to control them.

Time for a break after that weeding, Regards MJ. and Thanks for all your recent  comments. Gardeningtipbooks.com

Tool collection

First place some compost in your container and water in, then just place the bulbs on the surface of the compost, as a rule with any plants or bulbs you would put in odd numbers, one three five etc, it just looks better. Then top up with compost to cover only half  the bulb and water again topping up the compost until half the bulb is showing and the compost becomes damp surrounding the bulbs. I would also suggest putting all the same colour bulbs in each container for best results and effect.

Now pop them on a windowsill to receive plenty of light and watch them grow and produce some flowers for you to enjoy. Really you could do this with various types of bulb of choice but in most cases those bulbs should be  covered with compost. Try tulips of different types or daffodills, there are lot’s to choose from, all will give plenty of colour for some time. You could do the same with pots to place outside if you wish they will look good too. Now when these plants die down after their display, just remove the dead leaves and let them dry out , you can then reuse them at the right time of year for another display or they can be planted outside in the garden where they will be happy to live for some years. You do not need to throw them away and of course the gardeningtipbooks way is to recycle as much as possible.

A really nice site I read recently and well worth a visit can be found at Garden flowers plants .com they have great articles tips and information on all sorts of plants for your garden.

Keep on gardening and keep healthy MJ. Gardeningtipbooks.com

Grow Hyacinths

Pretty plants

Gardeningtipbooks easy gardens. Here is another easy to grow plant that provides food for the table quickly and over a long growing  period. I grow courgettes every year as they are simple to start off and only require watering to produce a large amount of food that is very flexible in its use once arriving in the kitchen. The little yellow trumpet like flowers are nice to look at too, and make a colouful addition to the vegetable patch.

To start the seeds off in the spring once the weather is reasonably warm, I put one seed to each small pot, just putting the little white seed flat just below the surface of the compost filled pot. Water and place indoors or somewhere warm to get them to germinate, putting a plastic cover over them helps, an old see through food container works well in keeping in moisture and raising the temperature a couple of degrees. Also keep them somewhere light to promote growth once they get going, remove the cover once the green shoot appears and just keep warm and moist until they become more sturdy. Normally the last week in May is warm enough to put seedlings out side in England but be aware frost can still be a problem so put only half the amount out and leave the remainder another couple of weeks before planting outside. Pot up as many plants as you think you may need, it is probably best to do a few extra in case of any loses. Once big enough they can be planted where required in a prepared spot in the garden, they even look good and grow well in among the flower beds given a reasonable place to spread about as they do.

As with most seedlings  plant them with as much of the compost as you can gently placing in the small hole dug to contain them and firm down the surrounding soil and water in. Now the main part is done and just water as needed to keep the soil moist, more so as the fruits grow which contain allot of water and get rather greedy. First the yellow flowers arrive and just behind that the courgette appears, just let them grow to about four inches long before cutting them from the plant for the best taste and firmness. If you have planted quite a few of these plants you may need to employ a cookery book to find some ways to use up your supply of courgettes as they grow over the next couple of months. Hope you enjoy your Gardeningtipbooks hints and tips to help you grow healthy food for your family and save some money at the same time. The price of a packet of seeds is minimal for what you get in return, plus allot of enjoyment in looking after and producing your own food.

Regards MJ.  ( I like my courgettes steamed with lots of butter on them) Try it out. Gardeningtipbooks.com

I think most gardeners would think all of the above to be true, but the potting shed is the place of industry in the preperation of plants before they ever get out into the garden, pots and compost and dibbers and labels and packets of seeds collected in tins of different shapes and sizes all for the production of next years plants. It matters not that it may be torrential rain or snow outside, total darkness all these events do not stop the industrious gardener from his task. Most gardeners will not think it a task at all but tell you that time in the real world travels much faster and time spent in the potting shed goes by in an instant although many hours have in fact gone by.

Then as a warm tiredness or a shout from the house that it is late  brings the gardener to his bed with a warm sense that much has been completed and a return to the potting shed is not so far away, as he drifts off too sleep with thoughts  his safely growing plants a gardeners life is a good life after all.

May you all enjoy your gardening. M.J. Gardeningtipbooks.com