Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Started of a beautiful sunny warm day then a bitter wind and icy showers blowing sideways. Heavy black clouds

So I decided to go for a drive just to get out now that I can. I passed an large but run down nursery and saw it was open.

Thinking of thelarge and magnificent wallflowers I inherited from a friend who lives near it I decided to investigate. The lane didn't do my ailing car suspension any good.

There were fruit trees on sale at reasonable prices! Everything at the usual price and not the double inflation I've found in the more fashionable GCs. But of course, not the variety.

Still some good plants, things I haven't seen elsewhere. A golden dwarf Pittisporum for one. So I went around twice (there wasn't a huge amount) and photographed things of interest so I could come home and see where I could fit some more structure into the garden.

Nice to find something different. Tempted by a peony as they had buds. The ones I bought from my old house are sitting in the ground just sporting shoots again and not coming to anything.

They had Sarah Bernhart and an unusual magenta one. Then I saw the single petaled one on Carol Kleins gardening show and thought of the bees. Now I'm confused.

Farway

'morning, now I know T & M are taking the wee wee

Just had marketing e mail from them with same fruit tree offer, the one I ordered a few weeks back and dispatch is delayed a fortnight yet again, utter utter shower and a man of my age really should've known better

On brighter front weather's a bit dull but no too cold, seedlings out for a bit more hardening up, probably a good day to plant bare root fruit trees

Davesnave

Beautiful sunshine here, but a cold northerly. With the hole filled in from yesterday's ceremonial burying of the water pipe, I may now dig other holes alongside to take two young yews which are only 7 years late in joining the end of their line. Personally, I reckon this is a daft idea, as the larger plants will steal the water and nutrients, but like a lot of other things lately, I will just smile and get on with it.

Our lemon tree story ended on Thursday with the delivery of a second plant, also damaged and with evidence of bugs that had at least been treated. Hearing your saga, Farway, I suppose we should be thankful.

DB has fired up the chicken propagator and just loaded the incredibly hard to source dark Dorking eggs she's been itching to get her mitts on. She had to join some weird poultry preservation syndicate to achieve her objective, though at £3 each I doubt if many would have bought the eggs for breakfast.

In other news, I've just realised the NHS app now prevents sharing a membership card when entering a certain establishment for recreational purposes. 

phoebe1989seb

They'll be very handsome hens, Dave 😀

I don't recall sowing verbena seeds so my money's on the hesperis....thanks for the suggestion though. Actually, I wish they were verbena as we could do with more of those!

My crambe cordifolia plants arrived safely from Perth this morning - Scotland, not Australia, lol! - not bad going as I only ordered them on Wednesday. 

It's mostly sunny here too with a biting wind, although there was a very short, sharp burst of sleet a few minutes ago. DH is back on the digging/sieving/edging today.

In order to take a break (aka skive!) he suggested a trip to a small garden centre that's recently relocated from the centre of Llandeilo to a few miles further into Beacons territory. We haven't yet investigated as they only opened in the new premises last weekend. I'm afraid I struggled to summon up the enthusiasm and opted to make chocolate bread and butter pudding instead 😋

Apodemus

Davesnave said:

... She had to join some weird poultry preservation syndicate to achieve her objective...

Presumably they are pickled eggs? 

twopenny

You lead an interesting life Davesnave!

Very cold wind this morning so started on cleaning oven and car which are usually neglected when I can play in the garden.

I did drop into the local expensive garden centre though as it was quiet. Would like more wallflowers like the refugees my friend gave me that are magnificent. None. Aparantly they are 'over' but nice assistant told me what they were and that they were easy to root from cuttings so if I can find a bit not flowering I'll give it a go.

Farway they had small fig plants possibily not as big as your cutting - £20!

The good thing was I saw a bee leaving my Greengage blossom so just maybe this year I'll get fruit. Hope it was a busy bee and made it round all the fruit trees

Davesnave

twopenny said:

You lead an interesting life Davesnave!

What? Digging holes? I found the old septic tank pipe with the mattock today. Thank goodness it wasn't the new one!

The chick raising will get interesting in about 3 weeks when they hatch. I don't think these are auto-sexing, so things can later become interesting again when the boys reveal their true identities. DB is convinced that because this breed is so rare, the boys will be easily re-homed. I am more sceptical, thinking if few people have them, it's probably because they're not popular!

DD265

Evening all, it's been a while.

Fly trap is out of hibernation and I've had to stop it flowering - twice (and both plants were giving it a go second time). Flowering uses a lot of energy and apparently it can be difficult to keep them alive afterwards, so the advice is if you're novice, or not wanting to get seeds, chop the stems off. Traps are still very green but it's under the daylight lamp, and I've refreshed the soil today. In that process I accidentally triggered a couple of traps and they closed quite quickly so it's wintered well.

We've dug up the front lawn this week - it was mossy, full of weeds, lumpy and generally scruffy - and have been on a shopping spree. Got lots of lavender (including a couple of £1 plants from B&Q that need a little TLC), some different ornamental grasses, and various heathers. The general theme is purples/pinks/blues. Hopefully we'll get those in the ground tomorrow, though I think I'll keep the sick plants in the conservatory for some nursing. Will be topping it with slate but I think that might take a while as it's very expensive, and we need to cover 16msq! We want to put some kind of focal point out there too; originally there was a purple Acer (which I think I asked on here about before) with significant trunk damage, presumably from a strimmer, which we cut down last year. I'd love to replace it as I think they are beautiful, but longer term we plan to widen the driveway so I'd want to put it in a pot. I do so hate getting rid of/losing plants! A neighbour is planning to get rid of some larger plants and was going to give us first refusal, so I might see what she has going.

In the back garden I've gotten rid of some pots (which were empty) and have three more - one contains a rose that will go into a different, better condition pot, one is a lavender that is off to the front garden, and the third contains something that I used to know the name of. Not sure where I'll put that! I'm trying to reduce the amount of 'stuff' and my previous approach to the garden has been see something pretty (be it pot or plant) and buy it, without much thought to where it'll go or how it'll cope. I'm hoping things will look a little more organised this year. I've got my plastic green house in the garage ready to put up, and two tomato plants on the bedroom window sill, then two pepper plants in the conservatory. Initially I think I'll put the fruit trees in it so I can take the fleeces off which I've been dying to do for a while, then plant out the tomato/pepper plants next month.

I'm not sure my bay trees have survived the winter, and there's a fuschia around the front that is terribly unhappy but the knowledgeable chap who took some plant pots from me reckons it'll bounce back, so we'll leave it be. Otherwise I think we managed relatively unscathed.

Apodemus

I'm afraid this cold spell is becoming a bit of a drag!  Another morning today when the daffs are lying completely flat on the lawn, they'll resurrect themselves later, once the temperature comes back above zero. 

Its now confirmed that I've lost two rosemary bushes to the cold - the ones in the ground are OK, but the ones I've lost were growing out of an old wall, so the roots are poorly protected.  I've probably had them there for five or six years, so it shows that this year is the first return to a proper winter for some time.  Surprisingly the thyme that is planted on top of the wall in the same spot has survived unscathed and was growing away, before this recent cold.

I think I may also have lost my potatoes, which I planted under a cloche, but left shallow to earth up later.  Thankfully, I've some seed left over, so can start again.  

Just like the daffs, the ground elder starts each day completely flat before springing back and of course, the nettles are taking it all in their stride and coming away nicely! 

Davesnave

DD265 said:

I'm not sure my bay trees have survived the winter, and there's a fuschia around the front that is terribly unhappy but the knowledgeable chap who took some plant pots from me reckons it'll bounce back, so we'll leave it be. Otherwise I think we managed relatively unscathed.

Whereabouts (roughly) are you in the country? My bay trees in 1 litre pots are OK, while the rosemary is burnt, but it'll recover. As for fuchsia, I don't expect them to ever come back other than from the base, which they're trying to do now.

We had an impressive looking frost this morning, but the chicken water was liquid, so it was either very late or not as bad as it looked. Sunny and gentle breeze now, but no rain in the 10 day forecast, so not ideal for stuff recently planted-out. Good job we're not metered!