Sunday, November 14

You say litchen and I say liken!

This week the garden and plot have had hardly any attention at all for a whole host of reasons/excuses.
  1. The weather has been horrible gales and rain.
  2. We had a lunch date
  3. The weather was awful
  4. We spent an afternoon trying to sort out a friend's laptop
  5. The weather was awful
  6. The final Formula 1 race was at the weekend (sadly Mark Webber didn't win!!)
  7. The weather was awful
  8. Visit to the dentist (happily only a check-up)
  9. Did I mention that the weather was awful
There's more detail about our awful weather on Martyn's weather diary blog here.

The garden wasn't completely forgotten as I spent a bit of time visiting a few nurseries, (not garden centres that look more like grottoes at this time of year!!), proper nurseries. 

I thought it was too late to add some bulbs to our perennial flower bed but after watching them plant tulips on last week's Gardeners' World I decided to go ahead and plant some. My sister also wanted a few more winter bedding plants for her tubs and troughs. As stocks were getting low we had to visit several nurseries before finding what we wanted. I found three colours of tulips that I think should compliment one another well - the creamy white ones have a slight purple tinge along the edge of the petals. My bet is that they will all flower at different times just to thwart my colour scheme.
The bulbs had just begun to produce shoots and are now safely planted so time will tell whether I get the planned display or not.

The cyclamen that I planted last week are standing up to the full force of the weather and are a highlight of the garden. The weather appears to have treated us kindly in the garden with no real damage done but as yet we still have to go and inspect the plot so fingers and everything else are crossed.

One type of plant that is thriving on our plot at the moment - is lichen. To be accurate I shouldn't say one plant as each lichen is a colony of at least two plants. The lichens are loving the conditions and are growing well on the branches of our plum trees. The damp weather has also made the lichen growing on the concrete paving flags in the garden stand out.
After taking a few photos and getting a close look I  was fascinated by them so decided to do a bit of research. If you would like to share what I found out then I have posted an article here on my website along with lots of photos of the lichen growing on our plot and in the garden. So which do you say 'litchen' or 'liken'?

I also have posted an article on how we grow our garlic on the website so again if you are interested it is here.

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11 comments:

  1. Litchen. The weather has truly been awful recently!

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  2. definitely 'litchen'!! Weather has calmed down a little here over the weekend so i got some work done on the plot...luckily I had no Damage from the winds/

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  3. Well it's been quite a nice weekend here! Great day yesterday, bit dull today, but brightened up later on and got quite a bit done. But you possibly didn't want to hear that ;>)

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  4. liquen (in spanish) Too bad to hear about your bad weather, here it had been quite sunny until this weekend when the clouds come
    Love how the flowers look on their little rock circle bed

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  5. Your cyclamens is gorgeous. I never plant any flower bulb yet in my whole life. Have not find the courage to grow them as yet. Good choice on the tulip colour, I like it too.

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  6. Too bad about your weather, we had a very sunny and warm weekend.
    I have been making a new flower bed and thinking about adding some tulips. Thanks for the inspiration.

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  7. I pronounce it litchen. The weather was horrendous last week, but it cleared up in time for a couple of walks over the weekend, and it's glorious weather today.

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  8. Mmm I nust be in the minority here as I say liken - apparently both are acceptable - I was a litchen girl once then for some reason I changed - can't remember why now.
    The problem with our soil is it becomes very muddy and calggy after lots of rain and needs a period of 'drying' before its workable.
    The bas weather has been far spread then Damo.
    Glad you have survived the gales Tanya
    It was better here at the weekend too Rob but then we had to watch the F1 final.
    The little rock circle is a stome tub ~fer. It looks like a bed how I took the photo though doesn't it?
    MKG I just could resist the cyclamen massed in the nursery they looked fantastic. Bulbs are really easy to grow - just pop them in and let them do the rest.
    Vrtlarica I'm envious of your warm sunny weather.
    JO - yes very much walking weather rather than weeding weather - it is nice and sunny today though.

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  9. Where I come from we say "liken". I love your cyclamens in that circular stone frame. Will take a look at your garlic instructions.

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  10. I'm glad someone else says liken Barbara

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  11. Nice information here today. I enjoyed taking in the post.

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