Awful weather - typical Brits talk

greenbee

I've just started hardening off the greenhouse contents, and moved the stuff from the windowsill to the greenhouse. Frost forecast AGAIN tonight, and possibly later in the week, so still need to pay attention. However, warmer during the day so hopefully I'll spend more time in the garden again and start getting stuff done. 

twopenny

DD265 are there trees and cover for the birds near the current feeder site? Have they got an open view?

They tend to like somewhere they can view from cover and dash for cover near a feeder which is why my bird table is where I want my pond to be.

Greenbee and others that are 'hardening off' you may be annoyed to hear that the trees here many are in full leaf and blooming, the Blackthorn is stunningly white in the hedges and the Gorse is rampant in the yellow flower. Really is Gods garden.

It's so hot and dry here that I'm watering like mad daily with no sign of rain for yet another week.

The down side is that the purple sprouting isn't sprouting and my newly moved plants are seriously suffering. Have the builders coming to do all paths so it's up horribly early tomorrow to water like mad as I'll have to skip a day.

Also need to cut out new bed for the veg but it's rock hard and no chance of moving anything now.

Lots of Wallflowers in the town beds and they look so bright. I'm wondering if when they pull them up for summer bedding if I can have a few. I've done it before with Pansies and they are prize sizes.

Birds and Hedghog are being annoying digging up soil over the paths and lawn every day!

DD265

twopenny said:

DD265 are there trees and cover for the birds near the current feeder site? Have they got an open view?

They tend to like somewhere they can view from cover and dash for cover near a feeder which is why my bird table is where I want my pond to be.

There's a conifer or similar in next doors garden about 15ft away from the original home of the feeders (which is where they all are currently). The smaller birds will perch on the fence either next to that, or at the highest point on the other side. The pigeons and magpies look down from the roofs of other houses. They all seem happy with the location. The pigeons and magpies have been eating from the ground feeders, the robins, sparrows and blackbirds have eaten from the ground feeders and the fence-hung feeders today.

Where we moved the box to is not as easy for them to scout, and honestly I don't want to feed them so close to the cats anyway. I don't think it's good for either the birds or the cats to be so close to each other, even if the cats can't get out of the enclosure. That said, one of our cats has attempted to get a pigeon on the gutter of the conservatory, from inside the conservatory. More than once actually, you'd think he'd learn about the glass. It was quite the impressive jump about 7ft up in the air.

I've ordered a couple of Postfix brackets which will allow us to easily fix things to the concrete fence posts. I like the idea of moving the strawberries onto the fence, something like this below (from Pinterest), as with such a small garden we have to work upwards where possible. It might be that we go for a freestanding thing instead but we'll see what these brackets look like when they arrive.



I'm thinking that it may be possible to mount a platform feeder on the brackets, which would hopefully give us a few more options as far as the birds are concerned.

I should add that I wouldn't be encouraging birds into the garden at all if our cats were free roaming!

Apodemus

twopenny said:

Greenbee and others that are 'hardening off' you may be annoyed to hear that the trees here many are in full leaf and blooming, the Blackthorn is stunningly white in the hedges and the Gorse is rampant in the yellow flower. Really is Gods garden.

It's so hot and dry here that I'm watering like mad daily with no sign of rain for yet another week...

Birds and Hedghog are being annoying digging up soil over the paths and lawn every day!

Leaves are proving slow to emerge here,  my espaliered apples in the warmest, most sheltered part of the garden are just emerging, with plenty of flower buds showing, so I'm hoping for some colour in the next few days (and hoping for a frost-free period!)  The rhubarb is showing its head, with enough growth now to lift the pots that I am using to force it.  Gooseberries are flowering and being pollinated by the wasps as usual - every year my first signs of wasps are on the gooseberries, and nothing else seems interested in the flowers.  

I've seen my first bat of the year over the last couple of evenings.  I'm not sure what species it is, but it's been flying pretty close to me and seems bigger and less "fluttery" than I normally see.  Last year  we had very few bats and I put it down to loss of trees and the demolition of an abandoned house nearby, so its good to see that they are still around.  I briefly wondered about buying a bat detector, but I don't think I can justify the cost for the amount of use I'd give it - I might contact the local bat group to see if I can borrow one.

Farway

Sunny start again, still moving the young plants in & out for hardening off.

This morning the runner beans have joined the outside parade and the peas I planted out are still there this morning, good sign

I've noticed everything seems a bit backward this year, due to the cooler weather I assume

Yesterday I managed to get the blood, fish & bone raked into the pots with daffs in them, give them a feed for next year's flowers, I'll water it in this afternoon because no rain in sight

The apple blossom is just starting to open, my old tree that i espaliered is heaving with buds this year, should be a picture once they open, and I'll get fat[ter] from extra apple crumbles

My plum blossom is in full flower now, and the gooseberry that I have sort of made into a droopy standard is covered in flowers, used by bees in my case, but have seen wasps there

The Sunburst cherry is full of promise again this year, I think if I had space I'd have one in a poly tunnel

Here's a pic of the Sunburst cherry blossom from yesterday

twopenny

So many wonderful things happening and all different! Some great ideas too.

I'm in a bit of a pickle. I'm having the paths laid properly as it was a bit of a death trap and the bit that's done is wonderful - so got a new hose pipe and all the bits and put it together, worked out the mystery of how to thread the new strimmer, made a lighweight gate for the badger run (another story) and tidied up the blackberries, planted a few things there that had no home.  If they survive they'll move to centre stage in the garden.

The things I've moved and planted desperately need water but I can't get to them till tomorrow when a few slabs have set.

I'm exhausted and moved all the bits of turf that have been sitting outside my garage for ages, round the houses to the badger run. Now the new slabs sit higher than the lawn and I need them back to raise the lawn so I can mow straight across

If only my back could be renewed as easily as the path!

Apodemus, I went on a Bat Course over a weekend at Dillington House. Great fun. Sure your local group would at least come round for you rather than lend something but worth asking.

Farway beautiful photo!

RAS

We've had some lovely days but that's meant taking time out to work on the bees, as when it cools from tomorrow it won't be warm enough to inspect.

We thought we'd lose a couple of colonies with the freezing weather and gales last month but they are all thriving and have extra space. One lot are busting out of the box, so we had to do some urgent reconfiguration to give them even more space.

My cherry tree flowers earlier than most round here; no idea of variety but it's large black and juicy. Buds are just beginning to break

Pears are also coming in flower; Williams is amongst the earliest. This isn't mine but I have permission to use it for pollination, which benefits us both.

Farway

More sun today but I'm up to date now on the potting on all the toms, their next stop will be final one

I checked last frost date here, normal times it was last week [beast from East excluded], so I'll start prepping the runners pots & canes over the next few sunny days aiming to plant out beginning of May

I have one fiddly job pending, I sowed a packet of coleus, such tiny seeds, looks like every one has germinated and soon will need potting on. The intention is plant them as bedding in my volunteer garden but time will tell

The radishes sown in modules at the weekend have germinated, and here's one I sowed earlier in the year, ready any time I fancy.

This is a success for me because I've failed at radishes for years now despite any ten year old being able to grow them by the bucket full

RAS

Our last frost date is a month away, so you'll understand why I'm about to sow beans.  Noted the a few early strawberry flowers have been blackened even if the temperature was above freezing. Mind you there was the year we had frost on May 29th and early June is often vicious. Onions at 60 degrees from vertical and tomatoes chilled. 

First frost can any time from 1 October to mid November.

phoebe1989seb

Sunny(ish) here today, not as much as yesterday but getting warmer. Took a chance and left the gunnera uncovered last night and it survived ok. 

I've been weeding and discovered a few ajuga reptans Caitlin's Giant I thought were lost, plus the Cornus Kousa - which is getting huge - has buds. Last year it failed to flower and we were considering relocating it, but fingers crossed it'll be alright.

Shame the same can't be said for the wisteria alba - it was in a huge pot at our last house and when we sold up/bought the cottage we planted it in the ground against a south east facing wall. First year (2018) it flowered profusely for the first time. Subsequent years it's had just three or four buds. This year none 😣

The five brunnera Betty Bowring plants finally turned up yesterday, a little dry due to being in transit for six days but they soon perked up after a thorough soaking. 

Just need to buy a handful of things now (anemone sylvestris, bergenia jelle, another standard bay tree and possibly geranium clarkei kashmir white) and hopefully that will be it for the white bed. Then we can start planting....

Including all the timber, the whole thing will have set us back around £1100 😮 so hardly money saving, but it should be well worth the expense being in such a prominent location on our property and imho worthy of a garden that's on the historic register. Shame our fellow neighbouring owners don't make an effort - particularly the owners of the *big house* whose idea of gardening is to hang those plastic plant balls along their grand entrance drive, lol! Our garden is only included because it was once part of their estate - you'd think they'd do something, especially in their fabulous ancient walled garden, but no 🙄