Sharla

F = Finger Lime

C = Cranberries

Y = Yuzu (a citrus fruit)

W = White Currant

Week 24 We have a couple of broad based planters filled with water and pond plants. The birds like to drink from them and I get to enjoy the flowers. This year the Yellow Flag Irises have done really well – this photo is one of them in the rain.

D = Damson

X = Xigua which is apparently a type of watermelon

He is so cute...

A photo of a fully open campanula flower looking for the sun which is nowhere to be seen.

Canada geese are very common in Europe. In the UK they were introduced hundreds of years ago and you can find them in most places where there is inland water like ponds and lakes. In the winter the numbers increase as some migrate here but even without them we have many thousands. To us they are a common sight - its other types of geese that are interesting!

V = Victoria Plum

Q = Quince

D = Date

Week 22 I came across a few of these flowers in the woods where I often walk. I’d never seen them before so had to look them up. It is apparently a Lilium pyrenaicum / Pyrenean Lily.

Card 6. The image is from Freepik. The ribbon was created using a script. Font is called Handmade (from Creative Fabrica). The green border has a simple line added to it as a pattern.

My card 5. I’m trying to catch up so I’ve kept this one really simple. The vector image is from Freepik. The font is Cookie and the strip is a PSP Pattern.

This is my card 4. I went for easter just because the bunny looked so happy! The image is from Freepik. The font is New Easter (Creative Fabrica). And the little eggs are a precut shape made from a dingbat font called Easter Icon (Creative Fabrica).

As it so often is...

Week 21 Hawthorn flowers photographed at the start of the week. I walked past the tree again yesterday and all the flowers had been dislodged by the heavy rain of the last few days so I was glad to have caught this image when I did.

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.