Love this #80: Mini seed tins

I shared a snippet of these on Monday, and told you how they played to my organisation obsession and my love of tins, which rivals that of notebooks.  And they're full of seeds too and while they're available from Suttons individually, it's better value if you're buying a few tins to opt for one of the two sets.  

Individual tins are £4.95 each, but the salad or root vegetable collection of six tins cost £24.  That sounds a lot, and you're right it is a lot for seeds, but each tin has three packets of seeds in, so that doesn't make it quite so bad.

And of course there's six tins which look like seed packets, that could be used for things other than seeds.

RARING TO GROW

I chose the salad collection and now have plenty of seeds for pak choi, spring onion, chard, lettuce, leaf salad and rocket.  Lucky that they're all things we eat plenty of, and the type of crop that I expect to grow more of once my new pots arrive (that's another story!)

The root vegetable collection contains two varieties of beetroot, two of carrot and two of radish, which might work better for you.  I suspect my tins will be around for a long time, and not necessarily always for seeds.

What would you use them for?

This isn't a collaborative post, I saw them, bought them and love them.  And that's without eating the evidence - yet!

Post Comment Love and Blogger Showcase 3-5 August

Hello there and welcome back to another #PoCoLo and welcome back to the sun!  If you were here last week, it was great to see you and if you're new here this week then welcome aboard, I'll know you'll find some great posts and blogs so do take some time to check some of them out.

Thank you to Nikki from Someplace Strange for guest co-hosting with me for the past two weeks, this week though, and for the rest of this month, I've a new guest co-host, Suzanne from Chicken Ruby so please do pop over and say hello.

It looks as if the higher temperatures are back doesn't it?  And while it was nice to have a break, and some rain, it's nice to have the sun back too.  We're never content are we?

I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend pleasing myself, getting my craft on and spending some time on the sun loungers, while MOH is away on a stag weekend.   

This week my photo is one of our redcurrant bush which arrived as a bare rooted plant.  It's come on loads and has since been potted up, and the birds are showing a little bit too much interest so it's also netted.  AT the same time I bought a blackcurrant bush which still looks the same as when it arrived - bare rooted. 

This week I remembered to get in touch with Suttons to say it wasn't growing as expected.  They immediately said they'd send another if I let them know the variety, but sadly they're out of them for this year and so they've refunded my money.  You can't say better than that can you, especially as it was part of a pack with the redcurrant bush.

I wish I could say the same for the new pots I ordered at the same time.  I'm still waiting for their one day delivery and rapidly losing my patience with them.  I'm not naming the company yet as I'm trying to be fair and give them the chance to work this out, but it's not going so well and it's  a real shame when a company gets it so wrong.

Blogger showcase: Kylie from Simple Little Secrets

1. Who are you?

My name is Kylie I am from the north of England but live near Brighton I have a 2 year old daughter and am absolutely mad about makeup.

2. How did you discover blogs/blogging and why did you start blogging

I discovered blogging when all my friends told me I should write a book about my tips and tricks for make up and how to do things yourself rather than pay a fortune.  This led me to create a blog where I could write about whatever was interesting me at the time or whatever new tip I could easily post. This is why I started blogging.

3. What do you find most challenging?

I find filming myself most challenging because I always doubt whether what I am recording is really of interest to anyone else, I can sometimes be self conscious and over critical of what I am talking about. It takes me a while to remember everyone is different and maybe not everyone will enjoy my videos, but there are people out there who do and like them enough to subscribe to my channel which makes me stop second guessing myself.

4. What is your favourite topic to write about?

My favourite topic to write about is finding deals and vouchers - anything that can save money and make you feel good.

5. Are you blogging for fun or do you have goals?

I am blogging for fun, but I do hope it may take me somewhere in the future. I’m not sure where, but as long as I’m enjoying what I’m doing that’s all that matters to me at the moment.

6. Have you ever attended a blogging conference and if so, what did you think?

I have never attended a bloggers conference.

7. What are your 3 best posts?

My 3 best posts are my I Sea Pasta, Desio Lens Review and MAC Rosegold and Purple Eyeshadow.

8. Describe yourself in three words

I am funny, girly and helpful.

9. Are you a tea and biscuits or coffee and cake person?

I am a tea and biscuits girl of course!

10. What's your idea of a perfect night out?

My perfect night out would be a really tasty meal in a cool restaurant with my close friends and then maybe go to a trendy bar where we can have a dance.

11. Your perfect night in?

My perfect night in is watching a good film with popcorn and lots of sweets possible a pizza with my partner and a good bottle of wine.

12. What would your best friend/OH/mum or kids say is your best quality?

My mum would say my best quality is how I try to always see the positive out of any difficult situation and to try and see the good in people where it might be hard to.

Thanks Kylie for sharing more about you and your blog.  If you want to connect with Kylie, here's her social channels:  Twitter  -  Instagram  -  YouTube.  If you'd like to take part in a future Blogger Showcase feature then please take a look at our questions and get in touch.

An InLinkz Link-up

My garden in July (and a bit of June too!)

July in the garden has been pretty parched and practical, and as such not so pretty, so I'm going to sneak some pictures in from June at the end of this post, as somehow with everything going on I missed posting a June update.

The grass has been straw-like, and some of our plants are crispier than I'd like.  I resisted watering them for a while, because we were away for a week, and I didn't want them to get used to it.  As usual I had a massive potting on session in the greenhouse before we went and left upturned water bottles plunged into the soil to tide the plants in the greenhouse over.  

They survived and as it was so warm when we got back I decided to fill them up and keep them there. That is until I realised they emptied overnight, so I wasn't saving myself any watering time at all.  But it did make me doubly proud of the tomatoes and other greenhouse plants that soldiered on that week.

The tomatoes in the greenhouse are reaching the ceiling and looking quite lush.  I've been surprised that the tomatoes outside in pots are further advanced than those planted into the bed in the greenhouse but, there you go.

We spent some time a weekend or so ago preparing for the new trough pots - which still haven't arrived, despite being ordered over a week ago and being on a one day delivery, I'm not impressed.  Part of the preparations included sorting out the compost, which was a job I'd been keen to get done for a while now, and strictly wasn't essential but it was a good opportunity to get it done and it gave us both some mindless labour to do and letting our minds rest for a while.

I'd struck on the idea that the new small shed would be much nicer to look at than one of our dalek compost bins, and so the dalek needed to be moved - but of course, it was full.  With some persuasion and a bit of brute force, its plastic outer was removed and placed next to our second bin. 

Thankfully it just about fitted. It's now on a paving slab, and it will have to manage with that.

And so we set about moving the compost.  We've ended up with the good stuff at the top, which works for us as we'll be using a fair bit if my new pots ever arrive.  The second bin, which we've never emptied should also be ready, and if we need it we'll empty that one from the bottom in the more tradtional way.

And look what was left.  A small shed sized hole.  

Reassembling the part-assembled shed we brought home from the allotment is still on the to do list, but it will fit here, even if we have to make some adjustments to the surrounding area, but that's for another day.

I told you July in our garden wasn't pretty, didn't I? 

June was much more colourful...

In the cherry-less cherry tree we've been seeing some bird activity, and I'm sure I saw some tits disappearing into the yellow bird box.  On other branches in the same tree we've a sage green and pale blue bird box, so it's a bit like a housing estate for birds.  I'm curious to know if we do have residents, but will have to wait a while before checking the boxes out.  

And if we do, I wonder why they've gone for the yellow one.  Maybe it's the equivalent of a bird des-res, who knows?

With all the lovely weather I've moved some of the succulents outside, so they can enjoy it too. Although the aloe vera looks to be coping well, it took a turn for the worse and I've moved it back inside where it's flourishing again.  The other one though, which should have leaves up its stem, is relishing being outside.  

Not only has it grown more leaves than we've seen before, and more quickly, it's also starting to sprout new branches from the roots.  And where it's touching the pot, on the bend, it's starting to grow from there too.  It'll be interesting to see how far it gets.

We've been slow in keeping on top of our garden this year, partly the weather and partly as weekends have been taken up with family things, but there's still a fair bit to do.  With the hot weather continuing, we're continuing to take it slowly, but of course things are growing faster than we're pruning.  It's how gardening goes though, isn't it?

For the past four or five years we've been managed to see the stag beetle's annual visit.  This year we were treated to several fly pasts before on one occasion it crash landed into the agapanthus and posed for this photo.

It seems to be attracted to our sycamore tree, so even observing that is interesting and I was able to add that to the annual stag beetle survey which I also learnt of this year.  Around the garden there were the blues of the Canterbury bells, the whites of the dogwood flowers, the pinks of our Gertrude Jekyll rose and the scent of the honeysuckle as we've sat outside on the patio in the balmy evenings that we've come to take for granted.

As well as the scent of jasmine and honeysuckle on the patio, we've been surrounded by roses and clematis, which I've realised are the opposite of each other with their light and dark petals.

It's also one of my favourite photos from the garden this year, so any excuse to include it in a post!

How's your garden coping with the high temperatures?