Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Sunny, blue sky, but blooming cold wind blowing, as per YBE, wind would cut through to my old bones

Forecast says 20C, maybe out of the wind.

Out for a spin in new car YBE? Some GC & café maybe?

Have to go out for my jungle juice booster jab later, but hopefully the arm will be OK after for a spot of mooching about

The plum blossom had bees buzzing around it in the sun yesterday, far better than last year when it was bitter cold at the time and all wise insects stayed inside

Talking of bees, I spotted a long nosed jobby yesterday, a bit like a striped, furry, humming bird

No camera to hand, of course.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombylius_major

Hoping to get photos later, bees, blossom etc, when sun moves round & back from jabbing

I found a honeysuckle had sprung back to life, it was in a small pot, from Morries last year, and I thought it was dead. Now I will have to try & find a home for it. Could try at the front, where a neighbour has kindly removed the dying buddleia.

Dustyevsky said:

pink_poppy said:

Exercising your dibber    

It's one of these, but in black. I wish it was red, then I'd not lose it so easily.

https://www.victorinox.com/en-GB/Products/Cutlery/Graters-and-Peelers/Potato-Peeler/p/5.0201

I know, a bit 'posh,' but mine has survived, totally unmarked, after being buried in a compost heap for a year. Also, even the best tattie-peelers go blunt eventually, so rather than throw it away.....

However, I'll post something a bit different this morning. It's another early bloomer, often, overlooked, so we don't  spread it around as much as it deserves.

I guess no sign of my stainless garden knife and red handles trowel in there?

I like the something different, just looked it up and not one for my current conditions, no where suitable to put it, plus my voracious vine weevils

Sowed my Kong coleus yesterday, on offer price or way too expensive.

wort said:

Friday I nipped in Asda to look at the 3 for £5 plants , I wanted aubretia that I had spotted the other day,but none left so I got a clematis, a geum, and arabis.

Ha, by coincidence I bought aubretia from Morries a couple of weeks back, prompted by a photo on here. Mine has settled in and looking happy, some flowers opened as well. I'll try for photo later

LessImpecunious

Thanks for the polytunnel tape suggestion Dusty - must make sure I have some in for repairs.. What impressed me about the freezer tape was that it's still perfectly sticky and useable after getting on for 50 years! Thorpac brand, apparently vintage now according to some online auction site listings, still make some things but sadly not the tape, AFAICS... Came across this one too https://conservation-resources.co.uk/products/all-weather-clear-strong-waterproof-tape recommended for freezing temps and long-term storage...

Primroses:

Dustyevsky

It might not have been the photo you wanted to show, wort, but you've caught two trees having a natter there, and one has a huge bum, or it's wearing a bustle!  

Even better, the tree on the right looks as if it's just fallen into a sink hole.

LessImpecunious

This was the dark red primrose I promised earlier - v difficult to get a shot which shows the colours well, especially with all this dratted sunshine  And they look better on a phone ( small) - another one who hasn't worked out how to downsize...



I deny all responsibility for all these non - native types btw ( after what 2p said about daffs, with which I sympathise...)  - they, or theit ancestors, were all here when we arrived...

Farway

Glorious warm sunshine now

It's brought out the blossom on my pears & plum, surprisingly the cherry blossom is not quite there yet

Looking at my pear blossom, if bees do their job in the sunshine, and all rats take the day off, I could even get to eat some this year

I've not had a pear to eat off my two trees, I've had one since 2012.

Here's some of my plum blossom.

twopenny

I do want that sitoorie!

How glorious it looks. Of course you're going to get bitten to pieces after 4pm from the mossies and gnats  

Haven't had the time to download my sitoorie spot or lots of others I'd planned on. Sunshine and dry it's just got to be outside for me.

Farway, could that be a Humming bird Hawkmoth?

They used to be uncommon, still are really, but they come in summer usually around 4=-6pm and hover like a hummingbird. Lovely things.

Cant' have too many primroses. That's a gorgeous colour   My problem is not letting them cross breed because I love the yellow ones.

And the daffs, just would like to see more native. Here we have people/person planting hybrid daffs on moorland which is not where they are supposed to be. I think that's where my irritation started because I love them. Just not in the wild.

Dusty, my dibber is an old spade handle sharpened to a point.

I went in for my seeds yesterday. 89p and grow.

Poppy - couldn't make up my mind so bought red and californian.

Sweetpea - couldn't make up my mind so bought Old Fashioned which have the burgundy colour and the new one that has long sturdy stems.

They are wrapped in damp kitchen towel in the kitchen to catch up with my late development.

As I came out I spotted tomato plants £1..........they are Honeycrunch or somesuch, little ones. No idea about them, reminds me of Crunchies.

Well I had to go back and buy a couple didn't I.

I've tipped all the poppy seeds into one bag. Again, couldn't decide so it will be an interesting experiment. I'll scatter them in the badger run.

Some looked a bit different to me. Looked more like brassica seeds. We shall see.

LessImpecunious

I think you'd be relatively safe with the primroses 2P - although we have quite a few non-yellows the stronger colours are slowly disappearing. Am guessing individual plants, perhaps especially of the coloured varieties, are not very long-lived, and any hybrids seem to be tending towards more dilute colours in new plants (so there are red seedlings which are less red than the one in the photo, which I had to search hard for - sure there were more/better examples in previous years)... But we also have masses of new plants which are spreading downslope and under trees in the wilder parts of the garden and these are almost exclusively the pale yellow ones...

My newly windproofed greenhouse made an excellent shelter for pricking out (not, sadly, with such a fancy tool as Dusty's) lettuces and tomatoes today... in fact, typically, far too hot and sunny, until I remembered I had a window which I could open ...

wort

Primroses here it seems as though the yellow variety were out a lot earlier than the pink and red.
Dusty you are quite right those trees are a funny shape.

Yesterday was sunny but still had that cold wind, I did a couple of hours in the garden, weeded then put a few of the seeds in and put the plants in. I took the deadheads off the hydrangea too.
Farway I had some nasturtium seed, a mix summer seed, cornflower seed, alyssum, and forget me not. I had forget me not before but it disappeared, I’m not sure where to put it yet so I didn’t put any out yet. And I have 1 clump of cornflower, so was trying to add more. 

It was nephew’s birthday so went for a few drinks in the late afternoon into the night 😉

YoungBlueEyes

I've primroses here and I'm wondering now if they're filthy furriner invader sorts...  I only bought them for the colours wot it said on the label and most of them don't match. The biggest disappointment was the buttery gold one - yellowy in the middle fading to creamy white on the outside (which looked a bit like a daisy) - and that came out a rich dark burgundy colour like the one in your pic Less. You can't trust anybody these days can ya. 

I did go out in the new jalopy yesterday, I'm a bit less impressed than I was tbh.  I took it for a wash, which did help, but I think I liked my Swift more. Things that want putting on car adverts 1) if you've just come from a petrol car be aware that diesels have a sharp lack of poke in comparison and they want driving differently. 2) When you're standing there filling it up, petrol smells lovely and diesel does not, so don't be taking big deep breaths while you're filling. 3) If it has thing on the display telling you when to change gears, ignore it at your peril. The days of learning what the engine sounds like when it’s ready for a gear change are gone and now you have to do as you’re told. Honestly, I half expected a German-accented klaxon to start wailing! Anyway. How's your new car 2p? Have you settled into it rightly?

I like your pair of ducks gong for a walk wort, and isn't that wall pretty   I agree with 2p about being bitten rotten at that sitooterie (unless I was there as a warning presence ) but it looks like it'd be just right for a dip in that pond. Lovely. Glad you've sorted your greenhouse Less, what you growing in there..? Did your jungle juice jab have you swinging through the trees on your way home Farway? Putting 2 and 2 together - could you not wrap some brightly coloured tape round your dibber Dusty, like the stuff that goes round tennis racquet handles? Ooh or what about masking tape, then you could sit and colour it in using every colour that takes your fancy

OT same as it has been, sunny and not a bit warm. Hopefully the wind will drop today cos I need to get in my garden.  I got round yesterday and dug up the thistles that are starting to march in from under next door, then slung some BFB about the place and watered it in. The thing with weeding/hoeing now is I don't know what's what. I was slinging seeds about a few weeks ago, and now how am I meant to know which ones are flowers starting and which want getting rid of... it's all very tricky. Might try for a gc and cafe today, if himself ever peels his erse outta bed. Or I might go without him cos it's not like he enjoys it  

greenbee

YBE - leave the weeds until they're big enough to identify  

I've been watering and mulching new trees and fruit bushes. I've watered the hedge at the front as those plants only went in a couple of months ago, but it's on a slope, so hard to do. I'm contemplating mulching it with grass clippings, but wonder whether that might be a bit harsh.

Lots of organising going on here at the moment in order to make actual gardening possible. We have open gardens here in June, which I have rashly volunteered for - thankfully it's a 'real gardens' type thing, rather than 'perfect gardens' (none of us have perfect gardens) but even so I'd like it to be a bit less of a tip... and ideally have something growing in the veg plot and things flowering in the beds.