Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Cold start but sunny, once it warms up a bit I'll get more of the seedlings out & hardening off.

The runners on the window sill definitely have a slug or similar in there somewhere despite never having been outside & new fresh compost.

I put some pellets among them & now I've slime trails, little s0ds but I think I've got them in time before they did much damage

twopenny said:

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

Yay, hundred quids worth on my kitchen window sill then , if only.

Actually although I'm not up for it I bet there's a small enterprise there if one had space, get some named trees and start propagating, this time next year Rodders we'll be millionaires

I've spotted bumble bees round my plum blossom, fingers crossed here.

Now I have greengage envy

I've always fancied a Gage, ever since I knew a bloke in the RN who was called Gage and he reckoned it was a family name because one of his ancestors was the first to grow them, and just checking Wiki he could've been correct, blow me down, brushed by fame

Davesnave

Quick update: We have been seeing swallows for two days now, so that's our 'summer' officially under way. OTOH, it has been snowing in parts of Devon, though not here yet.

I spotted a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers whilst dragging the last bag of prunings from blackthorn back today. (I'd saved it till the end and still got an injury through thick gloves. ) They are very timid in these parts so it was a first seeing two together.

Had to take some baby courgettes off my plants as it's far too early, but if the cold nights moderate, we may have some ready by early May. They're called 'Midnight.' Daughter 2 grew them last year and I wasn't slow in buying some seed after I saw her early crop.

DD265

Davesnave said:

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.

Just north of Nottingham. I wintered the bay trees in the conservatory last year, but outside this year. If I do lose them they didn't cost me anything - one was a sucker from a largely dead standard left by the previous owners, the second was a sucker from the first - and it'll help with the goal of reducing pots. I do get very attached to my plants though.

As for the fuschia, the plants in the front garden are terribly overgrown so we did some hard pruning in autumn. It has some sickly looking leaves coming through nearer the base so maybe they'll improve as time passes. I'd like to cut it right back to the new growth now but I'm wary of shocking it. Really all the shrubs at the front are too big for the space.

Repotted a rose today, and moved the lavenders/grasses/heathers into the conservatory as I'm conscious that they're all in tiny little pots so are more likely to suffer with the cold. I reckon we'll manage to get them planted out mid/late week given the lighter evenings (still need to rake over and level the soil), so in the mean time I just need to keep them safe from the cats!

twopenny

I didn't do anything other than a bit of watering of pots - I went and sat in someone elses garden. Does that count?

It's been 5mts since we've seen each other or the gardens. Always good to see what others are doing. We have completely opposite styles.

She is an expert on what can survive being cut back brutally or which huge climber will grow in the tinyest pot. Nothing is allowed to stay still in that garden! It's an education.

Davesnave

twopenny said:

I didn't do anything other than a bit of watering of pots - I went and sat in someone elses garden. Does that count?

It's been 5mts since we've seen each other or the gardens.

Oh yes, it counts; we all need time to sit and reflect on the things we've done... or not done! It also helps to have a critical friend who will be tactfully honest, saying what they think works best, even if they're wrong!!! .

DB and I have decided to buy a seat for our 40th anniversary this year so we can sit and consider our work in progress. That might be better than waiting to buy one when we finish.

In other news, I finally managed to move the yew trees today with at least some of the root ball undisturbed, so there's hope. I also reduced a miscanthus to zero, but chickened-out of trying to split it. That's for a day when I feel strong.

Farway

It snowed this morning , not much but enough to check the calendar to see if it really is April. I'll not be putting my young plants out for a bracing hardening off today

Looks a leaden cold sky at the moment, should it ever buck up I think I need to lop some off carefully prune my pear a bit more now I can clearly see blossom buds

I have it roughly espalier trained but the top tier, about shoulder height, has decided to reach for the stars instead and I want to bring it back down to sensible level by removing the upward ones and horizontally training in subsequent growth

More news on fruit front, T & M informed me my "bargain" fruit trees were dispatched on Saturday.

Because there isn't any tracking info showing yet I can only assume they went from back of their warehouse to the front, however I'll keep an ear open just in case they arrive today

Another job if weather improves is to dig planting holes for the fruit trees that may arrive sometime this week

twopenny

Another do nothing in the garden day. Bitterly cold despite the sun, several cold showers and glowering skies.

So just a bit of watering, dead heading wondering what was eating my polyantha flowers, the standard lavender that blew over hasn't made it despite potting and nurturing but I'll still plant it in a corner in case it changes it's mind.

Wondering if my beloved tree heather will recover from being pot bound and dried out.Can't find another. Still, an excuse for a trip to the distant nurserys as a run out now we can

Did go to the garden centre to buy a silver thyme and lemon thyme to bulk up the ones from last year. Paid full price because I use them in cooking and picked the ones that had some woody stems because a lot of these are just new shoots and too tender to survive.

Hoping we get some slightly warmer weather soon.

Black_Cat2

Hi all, enjoying lurking and reading your posts 😸

Not much to report for me.  A buddleia and camelia have both not survived the cold frosts.  I was a bit surprised with the buddleia as I thought it would be like a weed and hard to kill!  Guess it didn't like the pot I had it in. 

Sun has briefly made an appearance today and it's forecast to be dry for at least a week, so fingers crossed will be able to potter about outside again 🐈

Farway

Ta Da, good news day

Quite mild to start the day, up to the volunteer border for a mooch & check up, all looking well, loads of violets in the grass surrounding the Centre, plus daffs still out and a magnolia opening nicely which avoided the frosts

Looking forward to the crab apple full of buds & promise

But the biggest surprise was spotting some buds on the young lilac, it's only a small one planted early last year and I was not expecting it to flower for a few more years yet, it's only a cheapo purple one from Morries, nothing special

Picture at bottom of page

I also managed to pot on some toms, Shirley plus Bloody Butcher for the moment, the others can wait a bit longer with their size

The other surprise, my T & M fruit trees arrived at midday , of course no one knocked the door etc, first I knew was an e mail telling me they'd left it

Not yet unboxed, the package is about  four feet tall and looks adequate fro a couple of young fruit trees not twigs

One branch has lunged it's way out of the top of the box, that looks a bit dead type brown but who knows

I'll take some photos of the great unwrapping & let you see them tomorrow

Lilac buds

phoebe1989seb

The weather has been *changeable* here in Carmarthenshire over the past few days with a mix of sun, wind, hail and rain. The gunnera has reverted to being shrouded from the worst of conditions but the peonies are taking their chances. We too, appear to have lost a Buddleia (in addition to a Dave who asks me to inform you is on an enforced *break* for a couple of weeks ☹️). In our case a Globosa that we only purchased/planted out last year. Other buddleias (weyerania) have survived ok.....

I'm also concerned about a rodgersia that - iirc - didn't do as well last year and that I fear may not have survived the wet winter here. Also some acanthus (Hollard's Gold and Morning's Candle) are not showing signs of life....yet. Other things are doing better - darmera peltata, kirengeshoma and astilbe, the latter which are romping away 😀

The new white bed crept ever closer to completion over the weekend although I confess to not having played much part in that, failing miserably in the summoning up of enthusiasm department 🙁 My role was confined to shifting the smaller of the rocks (the larger ones are 50-60cm diameter) and distributing directions from the cosyness of the egg chair, lol!

More oak sleepers are required though.....and more plants! I ordered some Brunnera mac. Betty Bowring as we need early flowering stuff. I'm looking at a few more plants too, but - although I've drawn numerous plans - till I start laying things out it's difficult to determine exactly how many more are needed. However, having a design background (fashion), I love the planning part, lol, so that's what I'll be working on this afternoon.....