Torrential rain for the last two days - we've had over 60mm in 24hrs and still have another nine or ten hours of heavy rain to come. It is no wonder we are on Red Alert for rain and flooding, plus avalanches in the mountains.

This has followed two weeks of dry weather and is forcast to be followed by another fortnight of calm weather. 
Is this the new normal?

Sorry, me again  I'm reading up on mint for cut flowers.

Now I've always got peppermint on the go, I've had the furry leaf one? But that died as the pot got neglected...had a few over the years and it's only peppermint that had survived. 
But I would like to try a couple for cut flowers, maybe just start a new one in a pot on my new patio....
Now chocolate mint didn't live for very long, I've never heard of buddlea mint? Any mints you think will grow a reasonable stem?

A bit of a long story but in the autumn I emptied the 2 maybe even 3 yr old kitchen waste compost bin and distributed the contents around and about but mostly on the gh borders.

The sun shined (finally) today so I started digging over the gh borders incorporating the kitchen compost.  There were loads of unrotted teabag casings which leads me to think they may be plastic. Thinking to determine whether the teabags I use these days (typhoo decaf for P if I can find it, Aldi summat for me) I was quite surprised to find that my current Aldi decaf claims  to be 100% biodegradable but Typhoo say nothing  either on the pkt or website.  I've asked Typhoo for clarification,  I wonder what the answer will be.

Hope you’re having a great birthday. Have a slice of cake  

   

Ok, I'm going to try to log everything I do - see how each flower grows and whether it's worth cutting.
I've started a FB page for the same but it's good to have it in a couple of places!

This week I've planted up some of by the ranunculas in my old greenhouse borders. I wrapped with fleece last night and the night before but they are already getting hammered with mice.

I caught 3 last night
2 the night before
Just seen one diving for cover when he saw me!

This came up on my fb . It’s mildly amusing but it’s all wrong   .

   

What would your pie chart look like?

Just for JJB

I've just read that you can eat hostas. 

https://www.foodforest.garden/2012/05/07/hostas/

https://www.ruralsprout.com/eat-hostas/

Has anyone tried them? Do they taste good enough to be worth while? My garden is shady most of the time so hostas would be very happy here if I could keep slugs away from them (and I've heard that wood chip mulch keeps slugs down around them). If they taste good, I'd give it a go. In fact I may try growing them anyway.

I came across this article on my internet travels about increasing use of cover crops in farming in the US. Looking at local farms, I can see the same sort of activity though in the US, it look like glyphosate is used to kill off the crop before planting afresh. Buying cover crop seeds can be quite expensive but, may be, just go shopping for a packet of barley or such like would do.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodit...022-01-04/

"CHICAGO, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Illinois farmer Jack McCormick planted 350 acres of barley and radishes last fall as part of an off-season crop that he does not intend to harvest. Instead, the crops will be killed off with a weed killer next spring before McCormick plants soybeans in the same dirt.
The barley and radishes will not be used for food, but Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE) will pay McCormick for planting them as the so-called cover crops will generate carbon offset credits for the seeds and chemicals maker."

and later in the article:

"Cover crops can be a really important part of organic and regenerative farming systems," said Amanda Starbuck, research director with Food and Water Watch. "But it all depends on how they're being implemented."

Seeing buds on daffodils. Should be in flower by March1st, St Davids Day - my target date.