Sharla

I went with a gardening theme for card 3. The font is Bubblegum sans. The sunflower sequence has been extracted from an image downloaded from Freepik. The background is as Carole showed in the video.

Hi Susan, I grow lots of things in raised beds and containers. The larger the container the least likely I am to change the soil but, in some cases, like with blueberries and the acer, I remove a couple of inches of the top layer of soil and add some fresh. If I don’t do this then I make sure that I give the plant a liquid feed during the growing season. Most of my annual plants like tomatoes, peas, and asters get planted into containers that still have some of last year’s soil within them – I just top up with fresh compost to give them a good start and feed them during the growing season. The old compost is added to borders or to the compost bin. The idea of changing the soil is just impossible for me with the number of containers that I use so I generally don’t. To be honest, I never found it very useful advice because it usually means that if the plant has a large root ball you need a bigger pot each year – and that’s just not practical as well as expensive. I just accept that some plants will thrive under my method and that some won’t. I never move pots around to catch the sun like you describe – once they have their spot that’s where they stay for the growing season. Out of the two you mention – if the conditions are good, rosemary really thrives (not in my garden!) but thyme always tends to get woody and needs to cut back drastically after each growing season or replaced. The best advice I can give you is to experiment, accept both the successes and the failures, and enjoy the process. And, if you don’t want to repot then start your young plants in a larger pot. You’ll always have some plants that thrive and others that don’t. I used to try follow gardening advice but I’m not very good at following rules so I just experiment. I celebrate the good results and accept the failures as part of the learning process which never ends.

I’ve had it for a few years now and it’s a healthy little tree. I think it would have been much bigger if it was in the ground but it has adapted to being in a container (quite a large one). I really like it because of the colours you get over the seasons.

Christmas again… The trees and reindeer are from a kit by Elif Sahin (a little sparkle elements template). The font is Courgette. The background is a solid colour fill with noise added.

They came together on one image. I have a subscription to Freepik and the creator is laogao. I'm not skilled enough to create a montage myself. Is this a possible masterclass topic?

Week 20 I have small acer tree in a container and just adore the bright colour of the leaves as they appear. I was pleased to catch this image with raindrops on the leaves.

I went with Christmas. The image is from Freepik. The font is Courgette. The snowflake is from Jessica Dunn’s Snow Baby Mini Kit.

Week 19 A quiet moment on a sunny May day.

I love your attention to detail and your creativity in making each card unique. I only joined this challenge because it meant I could get away with just putting a photo in a frame and it is strange how hard that can be some weeks 😊

I'm curious if you worked out why this was happening Susan. I read the order in which you were doing things and couldn't see a reason - I know that sometimes it seems to be caused by copying a duplicate.

I’ve got quite a collection of photos from the garden and local walks and have started to use some of them in layouts. My first one is ‘Wild Garlic Flowers’. I used the grid technique from the Masterclass ‘Scrap in Grid’ and a simple white background.

Week 18 We have bluebells everywhere. Spring has definitely sprung! I didn’t plan on photographing the insect – I was happily snapping away at bluebells but the little fella was so charming I had to choose this photo.

What an absolutely delightful little bird! It really is quite lovely that we get to see them when they visit garden feeders.

I = Inflatables

O = Ox Eye Daisy

K = Kolkwitzia Amabilis (Beauty Bush)

I've aways meant to but have never got round to it. I do, however, appreciate the smell. When it's flowering it gives of a light garlic scent - I love it but I know some people hate it. In the UK you tend to find it in woodlands.

Week 17 We have a small patch of wild garlic in the garden. The photo is of wild garlic flowers. I really like how bright the white came out on the photo.

I = Ixora

D = Daisy

A = Astrantia

Hi Carole, I hope you’ve had a wonderful day. May the year ahead be filled with joy and happiness and all you love.

U = Upright clematis

Week 16 All the conifers in the garden have new growth. The photo is of new cones on a fir tree - I just thought they were cute.

R = Rhododendron