Awful weather - typical Brits talk

alicef

@twopenny - you have been extreme deadheading!   I just have the one rambler, 'Ghislaine de Feligonde', which is quite tame, as ramblers go, being not very vigorous and thornless.

ArbitraryRandom

LessImpecunious said:

Just think of summer squash as funny-shaped courgettes. 

This was it completely - they're basically courgettes aren't they? They tasted nice, but I was hoping for more 'squash' like but earlier in the season than winter squash. I think next year I'd grow either those or courgettes, not both (unless anyone wants to recommend any other types for me to try). 

My winter squash haven't really started producing much in the way of fruit yet that I can see but have been growing most enthusiastically so I'm hopefully they'll get their finger out smartish! Part of the problem is that I did overcrowd the beds so they've been perhaps growing more vines than flowers/the flowers haven't been in places the bees can see... or maybe there are fruit under there and I'll be happily surprised when I'm clearing the beds  

Farway - another seed deal to tempt me? Right after I just decided I need to grow less next year...? Ah well. Variety is the spice of life and all that  

But it does mean I'm not guilty posting this: 


As it's my first time growing them, trial and error means it could have stood to wait another week or two before being harvested, but the tassels were brown at the top and I figured it was worth a try. I'll leave the rest a bit longer before trying again, but I et this one last night and it was lovely and crisp and sweet  

Also my first two tomatoes (the little one fell off!) Absolutely delicious. Hopefully many more in the next few weeks. 

Finally, ladybug bum: 

gollygosh

Think this is your glossy leaved plant 😀

Farway

Arbs, now I have sweetcorn envy, but it looks delicious, hoping mine are at least comparable. And now you know, you can't beat home-grown tomatoes, nothing compares.

Likewise, with the temptation, just completed my Mr F offer order, added in mixed sempervivium & Harlequin dahlia seeds, I've wanted to try sempervivium from seed for years but at quid a pop I can now gamble

The dahlias are poor relations to Dusty's ones, but belt & braces for a quid!

I've put the socks on my grapes, and some apples. 

The socks are easy to fit, and I got the bug, so just ordered more for my other apples having had bird & squirrel probs last year a bit of effort hopefully will deter them this year

I'll post photos later, meanwhile here is my £2.50 Morries Heritage raspberry, never weighed the fruit, my hand slipped & berries went straight down my gullet

Sacrificial nasturtium to right

twopenny

Alice that made me chuckle

We could make our posts shorter if we used the appropriate words - medative, extreem and so on.

Indeed I prefer the old roses but my garden was created from scratch during the pandemic + I had to cover a huge orange fence opposite my patio doors. I picked New Dawn without realising it was such a thug.

It may well be replaced! But that's a job and a few...........

Interesting plant Gosh. You've reminded me that I want a Myrtle but my MSE cuttings didn't take.

Farway, what a lovely colour those raspberries are. Is that your excellent care or the variety and what is the taste like? I'm thinking of reducing the amount of canes I have. Over run with raspberries and the freezers full. Giving them away.

Arbs that's a really interesting garden you have. And quite a sucess as you only began this year with the building and such. Yes, tomatoes are one of the greats to grow. Commercial ones grown in water only have 30% of the goodness and it shows.

No gardening today. It's still cloudy and sooooo humid. The most I've done is apply the remains of my organic Algon to the slabs and window sills. See how it does and if still sluggish I'll go hardcore and get the strong stuff.

pink_poppy

Ooh, I'll look out for that plant, gollygosh. A bit disappointing that it only grows to 4 feet high as I was hoping I could use it as hedging (it looked quite dense in Dusty's pic) I'd still like one though.

That's the first big snail I've seen, YBE. The thrushes were finding lots of the smaller stripey snails in the garden 2 or 3 months ago, especially around the pond, but I've not seen any broken shells lately, even though I've had one thrush return to the garden a couple of times in the last week.

Hope the wedding was fun, Dusty. I haven't been to a wedding for ages, it's just been funerals lately.

The weather has been rubbish here - pretty much constant rain and chilly too. Today is supposed to be better - sunny and dry and up to 20 degrees, then back to rain for the rest of the week/month/year/century...

YoungBlueEyes

Gawd Arb it doesn't seem that long ago that you were wishing the builders would hurry up and come and now look at all the things you've harvested! Those toms look like little balls of deliciousness I know people always say "oh home grown is better than shop bought" but I couldn't believe how tasty my toms were last year, I'm hoping everyone gets the same this year. Shop ones only have 30% of the goodness 2p? That's appalling. Ladybug bum  

Bit annoyed with myself that I didn't get Myrtle gollygosh, I've one growing outside my kitchen window Yours looks happy and healthy.

Sempervivum - I've just looked it up. That looks good Farway. Someone was growing a load of those in a bird bath full of diddy pebbles at the Open Gardens here a wee while ago and they did look well in it. Those rasps look tasty, and such a nice colour too. Is Autumn the name of them? You're making me wonder if the squirrels and birds will leave my apples alone... I haven't seen them taking any interest yet but I've only got 5 and I don't wanna share them! 

We've got your humidity here 2p, there's not a breath out there this morning. How's your slabs and window sills looking?

Are you still in one piece wort? Hopefully no fresh leaks have sprung? And how's your lurgy pp? 

Well Bob the Builder came yesterday with his cement mixer, so I guess you can call that a start. He's happy with the bricks we've got and impressed with the rope top tiles too. Work will commence next weekend. I believe it will too, Portugal's cooling right off ha haa! A little robin came down for his dinner while we were stood talking and he said they call robins builder's ghosts or builder's shadows, cos in the winter all you see out are builders and robins. Isn't that nice  

OT Properly cool when I got up this morning, 11'c said my phone and humid with it. High of 24' to come, but with a few clouds. Possibly. Drunkards say no clouds, just wall-to-wall sunshine and barely a breeze..

YoungBlueEyes

A few pics. Last night’s sunset - it changed minute to minute, it was lovely. 

(No I didn’t cut out a map of Oz ha haa!) 

Robin’s managed to drag a brush through his hair - 

A fuchsia  

Farway

Warm already & sun's out, it was a restless warm night for me, knackered & it's not even 10 AM

twopenny said:

Farway, what a lovely colour those raspberries are. Is that your excellent care or the variety and what is the taste like? I'm thinking of reducing the amount of canes I have. Over run with raspberries and the freezers full. Giving them away.

Variety is Heritage, I think the colour is partly down to being in shade, but TBH not impressed with the flavour, it's OK, but I was expecting a super raspberry taste.

I prefer my Merton blackberries so far, but I have Autumn Bliss rasps coming on, maybe they will beat Merton?

YoungBlueEyes said:

Sempervivum - I've just looked it up. That looks good Farway. Someone was growing a load of those in a bird bath full of diddy pebbles at the Open Gardens here a wee while ago and they did look well in it. Those rasps look tasty, and such a nice colour too. Is Autumn the name of them? You're making me wonder if the squirrels and birds will leave my apples alone... I haven't seen them taking any interest yet but I've only got 5 and I don't wanna share them! 

My first memory of semperviviums is from my childhood, by coincidence they were also growing in an old bird concrete bird bath. My childhood ones were the cobweb type, always fascinated me.

I have tried growing bought in plants, but my Vine Weevils had them , and far too expensive to take a gamble on buying more plants, hence trying seed for a quid

Nice to see your Robin has had a tidy up, no clouds here so any sunset will be poor I think

I ordered more fruit socks, and some liquid Phostrogen on offer while I was at it, arriving today. 

I'm going to put socks on my figs as well, the figs sometimes split & wasps & snails have a go, the net socks should stop those blighters at least.

Not sure if the net mesh will act as sort of fleece & give a bit more warmth as well? Keep wind off, possibly?

Here is before & after with a bunch of grapes

Dustyevsky

gollygosh said:

Think this is your glossy leaved plant 😀

You're correct , although the one in my photo and the one we have at home is the variety called 'Kathryn.' I'd not heard of the plant until DD2 brought one in her plant collection when she came to live with us 'for 6 months,' two years ago!