Blooming good garden and kitchen deals

Well I hope all’s well…

So, glorious sunshine over the Bank Holiday weekend catching out a few of those who didn’t anticipate applying their Ultrasun (easily done I know!), then snow on Tuesday and today for some – you couldn’t make it up! It only goes to show that a British spring can throw any weather at us and it’s never too late to keep your warm clothes in your wardrobe or too early to order your sun protection!

Talking of ordering early, we had a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend of plants, flowers and gardening ideas, many of which were on advanced order, allowing us to book ahead and receive our chosen plants and flowers at the optimum time for the best results. I presented some lovely flowers from Richard Jackson and individual shows from Plants2Gardens with Ken Evans and Hayloft Plants with David Ponton. These brands specialise in finding our customers unusual offerings not always readily available elsewhere.

If you love your balcony, patio or garden as I do, you’ll be pleased to learn that today (12th April) we have a colourful Today’s Special Value (TSV) from Hayloft Plants in the form of their 6 x Begonia Limitless in 9cm Pots. Begonias are actually the UK’s best loved bedding plant and Hayloft Plants are offering us these brand new for 2021.

They’re ‘large bloom begonias’ boasting blooms up to 10cm across and come in unique colour-changing shades, from soft pastel sunset shades to rose and apricot shades, and all on the same plant! You’re bound to get a great show all season, as when well fed and watered they’ll flower from late May and repeat flower through to the first frost (typically October). You’ll pay nothing until Hayloft Plants dispatch them to your door from the 24th of May.

I’ll be presenting The Cottage Garden show tonight at 6pm and hopefully the Begonias will still be available. A little later at 9pm, I’ll be with our excellent kitchen guest Simon Brown, as we pre-launch Tuesday’s TSV from Cook’s Essentials. We have a lovely four-piece Non-Stick Metallic Cookware Set with three lids and cool touch silicon handles.

It’s available in Black, Red and Midnight Blue and has been created especially for QVC customers. Each pan has a “Whitford Halo” non-stick coating as well as an aluminium core to keep them lightweight. They’re also oven safe up to 160C and suitable for all hob types including induction! We always say clean them quickly with warm soapy water, but you can pop them into the dishwasher if you want to.

You’ll receive one 24cm saucepan with a glass lid, one 18cm saucepan with a glass lid, one 14cm saucepan with a glass lid and a 24cm skillet/frying pan. I’ve mentioned it already to Mrs F as we have a few odd pans in our kitchen and this set looks the business! Well worth a try with our 60 day money back guarantee.

I haven’t been out much with my camera since my last blog as I’ve been working most days since, so I thought I’d share a couple of photos of newly fledged birds – a Song Thrush and a Crow taken in my garden in 2019 and 2020 respectively. One’s cuter than the other but they’re both great little fellas aren’t they?

Well that’s all from me for today… so until next time stay well bloomed and well fed!

Dale