Itchy fingers.....,

Oh ho, I feel a purchase coming on. How can I justify it this time? Or maybe I will just be a 'man' about it and not have to defend another purchase for the garden. All around Newport and in some places in Cardiff, there are references to the Ryder Cup that starts here tomorrow. It's a huge deal for Wales and the children have a day off because of the expected volume of traffic. How is it that when we were kids our only chance of a day off was if the school's huge Victorian radiators by which our milk used to warm decided not to work on a very cold day. Anyway, this is a gardening blog, I'm not going to reminisce. Well, anyway, back to it: as I say, there are mini golf courses planted up in Roath Park, on almost every roundabout in Newport and references to the 2010 golf tournament everywhere you drive. Why am I telling you this? To justify my need to spend more money on a few plants, it was like a diversion technique which I've had to confess before I was even asked!
Quite simply  all I want to do it plant up my little wooden ornamental wheelbarrow with some winter colour. I want to get some ornamental cabbage (Luke grew some from seed for me but only one leggy creation has survived the slugs and that one is too huge to fit in a container). I've visited the garden centre twice in  the hope that their three for two offer will have started but still no joy on that score so I'm going to have to resign myself to paying full whack for it.

So, I'm hoping to get a couple of purple ornamental cabbages, a little ivy (which I'll swipe from one of my other containers) and a Heather. I'm hoping they will survive in the relative warmth of the conservatory. They would happily live outdoors in all winds and rains but I want to be able to see them from the comfort of the living room. I'll photograph it once I've done it so you can see.

I'm also thinking of potting up the tall old chimney pot I cadged off Codge (as in old Codger, my Mum's friend) who had been wisely using it to force his rhubard. It now sits on my little elevated deck at the front of the house and I think I will top it with a couple of pink Heathers to make it look like it's got a little puff of smoke coming out of it. That sounds too fanciful I know but let's see how it goes. Who'd have thought that a few cabbages and a couple of Heathers would set me back twenty pounds? Life ain't cheap when you are a gardening enthusiast!