Redoak's off-grid life.

[mrs boodles]

They are sooooo pretty Marc, you really have got green fingers, sorry to hear your plans for boot sale scuppered by weather, it`s meant to be clearing out later but unless your get to car boot early it`s not really worth it is it. Please keep up posting, it`s great reading about your life.

[HappyBob]

Hi Marc, sweet peas look great, seems the boot sale was a bit of a so and so, but thats life. Thanks again for the update Marc

[ChrisG]

The weather has a lot to answer for this year! Those sweet peas are gorgeous. My uncle's garage wall bordered his back garden and every year he grew sweet peas up a trellis there - happy memories. He's in his 80s now, so doesnt do them any more :( It was a lovely reminder to see yours looking so pretty.

[Linda S]

They are beautiful Marc the pink one is particularly gorgeous.Hope the weather soon farirs up for you to get on,its bad for anybody but when youre livlihood is affected it must be even more frustraing.Thanks for the update and hopefully youre head is feeling better ,enjoy youre day Marc Linda

[rhubarb93]

Glorious sweet peas! Bet they are very popular.Are they scented? It seems so many of the newer varieties look lovely but sadly smell of nothing.

[Americanlady]

I've never seen a variegated sweet pea before. Did you do some grafting to come up with that? It's beautiful.

[MissEllie]

Lovely sweet peas Marc. I guess the joys of being a gardener include having to be fairly flexible when it comes to planning your days. Hope your planting can take off soon, I think it's meant to be better weather this week

[MissEllie]

hi Mark, how's things growing?

[LittleBrownFrog]

I was just coming to ask the same thing Ellie Hope all is well Marc - we haven't seen you for a while.

[redoak]

Hi MissEllie and LBF - and everyone else too of course
Things are not bad, I've been extremely busy and feeling too exhausted most of the time to have much enthusiasm for typing (it doesn't come naturally to me lol)

I did my back in last week breaking concrete and have been suffering but it's gradually recovering now. Last Wednesday I could barely stand or walk.

Have done 3 boot sales, one each weekend and despite some grotty weather they've all been quite good. In fact on Sunday, although forecast wasn't good, and there were only about a tenth of the usual number of stalls, I took the most of any so far this year.
Have loads of sweet williams at the moment, sold 12 bunches of those. Lots of different types of plants, the mints in 3 litre pots continue to sell really well. Anything with flowers on always sells quickly. I've had a few lupins that I raised from seed last year. They sell like hot cakes. Also had a 3 tubs sown with a wild flower mixture just starting to open and they all sold.

The garden's looking a bit sad as not been able to plant half the stuff I'd have liked and weeds'n grass are growing like mad. I'm trying not to stress about it though, the weather is just one of the problems which always seem to queue up around me. I think I can survive most of what nature throws at me, it people that are the real problem

Thanks for your interest,

Marc

[Spreckly]

Good to read your post, Marc. Hope your back gains strength.

[MissEllie]

Thanks for the update Marc, sorry to hear about your back.
The car boot sales sound great, your customers must be so pleased to have come across such lovely plants for sale, we were at one recently hoping for something nice to put in the garden but no luck.
Hope the weather improves for you soon

[Americanlady]

Wish we had "boot sales" here in the states. If there are any, I've never heard about them. I go to Home Depot or Walmart to buy my plants, and I'm sure the quality is less than what you are selling, and the prices are pretty high too. Good luck to you Marc. Hope your business flourishes like those beautiful flowers.

[redoak]

Hi Americanlady, do you not have 'flea markets' near you, which I understand are similar to our 'car boot sales'? - maybe they don't have any plant sellers at them?
My son lives in upstate NY and we went to one when I was over there 3 years ago.

I forgot to reply to your question about the variegated sweet peas. We have some speciality sweet pea breeders over here and they produce lots of interesting forms, including those. I don't know if it's legal to send seeds to the US but you might be able to buy them online. If you'd like to pursue the idea I could look up the companies for you.


Marc

[Americanlady]

Hi, Marc. No, I haven't been to a flea market for years. What I must be missing! I'll check some out. Yes, I would like the names of a couple seed companies, if you don't mind putting the info out. And not to reveal my lack of information, are sweet peas perrenials always?