Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

Norra lorra time now, but I've wondered about using this to make a snail-repellent wash/spray, and maybe you could use it when planting your bulbs too, Bluey.

https://groceries.asda.com/product/scratch-cook-vegetables/taj-crushed-garlic/26059076

Cheap enough. 

Sparaxis arent reliably hardy, but like the garlic, they're not expensive. You can't put 'em in your curries though! 

Farway

WM, terrible news about Romeo, hope he recovers and goes on for years

YoungBlueEyes said:

Quite a nice morning here, not a great dawn but there's hardly any clouds and the sun's up now and there's a wee bit of heat in it. It'll do I spose. I might be brave and get out and do weeding, but the soils that cold still I might not.

Who was it mentioned about bulbs etc in Lidl/Aldi, Ras I think? I went for a look yesterday and came back with a pack of bulbs that look a bit different, and a pot of fluffy daisies, which I absolutely have bought before and they've died on me. But my buggerance gene kicked in <nods to Farway for that one> and maybe this time they'll decide to make a go of it cos I do like them :fingerscrossed: 

Cold start, but like, YBE, now sun's out it looks great, but my computer tells me rain later.   If it keeps OK I may get out & do a bit, plant out the long awaited Aquilagas [sp?] I grew, after extreme casualties, from seed last year.

I've tried those daises Blue, never ever got them to take here. 

Grown from seed, and plants. Both methods failed.

Now I've been triggered, looked on T & M, they have the seed on offer, with free P & P this weekend.

One packet, 89p, was £2.49. One packet in my basket, Kerching!

https://www.thompson-morgan.com/p/bellis-monstrosa-mix-seeds/WKB9795TM

I like those mini daffs BTW, and the measuring stick brought a smile

My chillies are up, Yay, two weeks, with bottom heat as well. Shows how seeds differ, my dwarf dahlias, sown same time, now have proper leaves showing.

The sweet peppers, same propagator & time, are just starting to look like they could be interested in living, with a white shoot from the seed.

Dustyevsky said:

P.S. The hazels will re-sprout from their bases, just like others we've done.

I keep remembering this, and now I'm torn with my recent Purple Filbert buy, destined for the volunteer place. But, I keep thinking about how useful it will be in the future.

Peas sticks for a start.

Make me wish I had a time machine, so I could whizz back a few years & get one instead of the useless hard red pear

I'll probably continue as planned & put it in the volunteer place, and coppice it in later years, assuming I'm still out of the ground myself of course

Started off another batch of purple peas for pea sprouts, having now found a viable packet. Plus added a yellow [golden] pack to my T &  M order, daydreaming of intermingled yellow & purple mange toots twined up near my front steps.

Plus some dwarf sweet peas, another daydream of them tumbling from pots.

Reality may well be a mildew ridden mess, with dying fluffy daises at their base.

Dustyevsky said:

 Bluey.

Sparaxis arent reliably hardy, but like the garlic, they're not expensive. You can't put 'em in your curries though! 

Mine have always died , so good luck with yours Bluey

Clouding over now, will I get round to planting?

twopenny

Those photos are magnificent Luna. Can't see what you have a problem with. The light and shade is just lovely.

Bluey that made me laugh. Use what you have   

Dusty we had the same weather yesterday. Lovely and warm sunshine which just vanished and came over all cold I'd planned to do some gardening when I got back about 3pm but no way. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Wort, doesn't matter if you've cleaned it now. There's a satisfaction in it.

By the time you use the w&f it won't matter either way. Hopefully you get the same satisfaction I did. immaculate paving that stays that way all summer.

Trouble is the dirt comes down with the rain these days. It's all from the fast and furious way we live these days.

I'm giving in and going to plant the smaller raspberry canes in front of the sturdy ones. I want more raspberry jam for next winter.

Found a tub of plums in the freezer so it must have been a good summer for them. I'm about as good at labeling things in there as I am plants.

And raspberries have frozen perfectly raspberry shaped. Seems a shame to cook them down.

Brussels plants never got over 10" and are now going to seed. I'm letting them and save the seed. I must get some more in the seed tray.

Cold today though the temp has climbed to 7c it feels more like 3.

Seems we've got endless N and E winds for the forseeable. Lets hope they are wrong about that one!

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

Seems we've got endless N and E winds for the forseeable. Lets hope they are wrong about that one!

Some may be S and SE next week, and with them maybe 15c for you sheltered folk. No rain till Friday either, allegedly.

T&M must have had a lot of seed to clear. I ordered one packet for everything, but got two, or even three, for some!

The Sungolds weren't duplicated, but they re labelled £4.49, and they're good till '28. That's a ridiculous price for a few seeds , but Mrs D and I aren't sure we've had the genuine article from certain sources, so these 'cheap' dearer ones are certainly worth a go.

Farway, we have a purple hazel. It's nowhere near as productive as the Cosford Cob, but it is prettier. It grows more slowly than the 'wild' ones by the stream. Those we cut down must have been over 25 years or so old and they'd lost a lot of vigour. If hazels are grown multi-stem, they need harvesting every 5-8 years. Unthinned, a number of the stems in the centre just die out, which is 'natural' thinning, I suppose.

Farway

'morning all, just popping in quickly before trundling over to DGS 18th birthday gathering, only family, not some huge marquee type bash

Sunny, blue sky but heavy frost & cold wind

Dustyevsky said:

T&M must have had a lot of seed to clear. I ordered one packet for everything, but got two, or even three, for some!

The Sungolds weren't duplicated, but they re labelled £4.49, and they're good till '28. That's a ridiculous price for a few seeds , but Mrs D and I aren't sure we've had the genuine article from certain sources, so these 'cheap' dearer ones are certainly worth a go.

Farway, we have a purple hazel. It's nowhere near as productive as the Cosford Cob, but it is prettier. It grows more slowly than the 'wild' ones by the stream. Those we cut down must have been over 25 years or so old and they'd lost a lot of vigour. If hazels are grown multi-stem, they need harvesting every 5-8 years. Unthinned, a number of the stems in the centre just die out, which is 'natural' thinning, I suppose.

Oooh, I wonder if I'll get doubles? My order was placed yesterday. With my success rate, extra Love in AM would be useful.

I did add Alyssum, that grows easily & forever once it settles in, and you can eat them, allegedly. Spicy so they say.

Others say it will give you runs & upset tum.

One to try with caution.

https://growveggy.com/b/alyssum-flowers-edible/

https://greg.app/alyssum-edible/

The price of some seeds has gone daft these days, which is where the "sales" are handy for everyone to try something

My tomatoes, sown last weekend & started in airing cupboard, are now up, and I moved to window sill, Sungold is one, but it's my saved seeds, so not expecting A1 results, B2 will do

Thanks for Hazel pointer, given my age harvesting every 5 to 8 years will not be my problem.

twopenny said:

I'm giving in and going to plant the smaller raspberry canes in front of the sturdy ones. I want more raspberry jam for next winter.

And raspberries have frozen perfectly raspberry shaped. Seems a shame to cook them down.

Brussels plants never got over 10" and are now going to seed. I'm letting them and save the seed. I must get some more in the seed tray.

Can't beat fresh raspberries, but it surprised me how varied the flavours vary between varieties.

I thought frozen berries just went to mush anyway? Maybe not

Brussels, instead of saving & chancing your own seeds, what not take advantege of T & M free P & P this weekend?

They have some from 89P, was £2.99, worth a gamble to try F1?

https://www.thompson-morgan.com/newsletter-special-offers-friday3?source=newsletter-tidal-140325&acq_source=

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

Sunny, blue sky but heavy frost & cold wind

Dustyevsky said:

T&M must have had a lot of seed to clear. I ordered one packet for everything, but got two, or even three, for some!

The Sungolds weren't duplicated, but they re labelled £4.49, and they're good till '28. That's a ridiculous price for a few seeds , but Mrs D and I aren't sure we've had the genuine article from certain sources, so these 'cheap' dearer ones are certainly worth a go.

Farway, we have a purple hazel. It's nowhere near as productive as the Cosford Cob, but it is prettier. It grows more slowly than the 'wild' ones by the stream. Those we cut down must have been over 25 years or so old and they'd lost a lot of vigour. If hazels are grown multi-stem, they need harvesting every 5-8 years. Unthinned, a number of the stems in the centre just die out, which is 'natural' thinning, I suppose.

Oooh, I wonder if I'll get doubles? My order was placed yesterday. With my success rate, extra Love in AM would be useful.

My tomatoes, sown last weekend & started in airing cupboard, are now up, and I moved to window sill, Sungold is one, but it's my saved seeds, so not expecting A1 results, B2 will do

Ah, but when I opened a packet of chilli seed yesterday to sow a few, 'fewer' was what I found! Only 3 seeds instead of the expected 5. I'm not going to look in the other pack to see what's there. They'll be for next year. I only want a trial plant for '25.

Anyway, now I've sown them, my Norwegian Bishop's Hat seeds will germinate after all.

I can confirm you'll get OK results from saved Sungold seed. They might be red instead of orange and may vary in taste too, but all have been acceptable....except to Mrs Dusty, who's a purist!

A sunny start here after a frost, but it wasn't a hard one. I know some of you like garden ornaments, so here's a classier than average one spotted last Monday. Another picture of those well pruned apple trees coming.

pink_poppy

It’s a lovely sunny day here 😎 I’ve been outside weeding for the last couple of days and the soil is much nicer to work with when it’s dry. We seem to have a lot of the same type of weed - lush and green on top with stringy jellyfish type roots - at least they’re coming out easily enough. I’ve covered the weeded area with cardboard for now.

My MiL’s amaryllis has finally got all flowers open ❤️ when my DD saw it yesterday she just said it’s very red isn’t it 😂

We had a couple of visitors in the pond this afternoon - I’ve left the photo uncropped to show what a state the pond is in… ☹️

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

We had a couple of visitors in the pond this afternoon - I’ve left the photo uncropped to show what a state the pond is in… ☹️

I doubt your visitors will care if the pond isn't pristine; it's working well for them.  

And you have a bullfinch! Despite the veritable banquet Mrs Dusty provides, none of those visit us.

It's been wonderfully sunny here, too. I've been working my way through the perennial pots and trying to decide what's alive, what's brown bread, and of the former, what we actually want to keep. Meanwhile, SiL has almost finished laying a path I started around 2018.

The amaryllis is very striking, perhaps in a way reminiscent of Angela Rayner's outfits. Plenty of bang for your buck, one might say.... Oh, hang on, I didn't mean to imply she too may need a table for support.....as if I would!

wort

Too funny Dusty 😂😂 not a fan of the grumpy dog though😳 Hope you have luck with the 3 seeds you did get.
I got a Bromeliad indoor plant at work yesterday, not sure if it will stay ,my house may be too cold for it.
Pp the visitors to your pond are so sweet. Lucky you.

wort

Edit to say compost and bark in at Lidl , I might have already posted this , so apologies if I did. I have used the compost a couple of years ago and it was ok. I took these pics yesterday whilst waiting to go to work think they are a double daffodil