Awful weather - typical Brits talk

greenbee

Bits have arrived thank YBE (well, some of them) so today is definitely sorting out the garden day. I've started scrubbing the vast, bleak, car-park-like patio that came with the house using the pressure washer and while it looks better it's taking forever.

IBCs are those big plastic tanks that are used to store liquids. You tend to see rows/piles of them in fields round here for irrigation/watering livestock. New ones are expensive, but old ones aren't too bad - two of mine claim to have held salmon oil at some point in their lives!

Love the happy windswept stone chap on the beach  

I need to try to find a spare tyre and inner tube for the wheel on my garden cart (it was free, someone left it at my mum's and after a couple of years it was clear they weren't coming back to collect it. It's a 13" diameter tyre, 4" wide on a 7" rim. All the tyres I can find are for 6" rims. The alternative (increasingly tempting) is to buy four new wheels with solid tyres as I'm not sure that I need pneumatic ones anyway.

It's chilly outside (I've just taken the black lab for a walk YBE ), with a bit of cloud. Hopefully it'll improve as I have the patio to clean and the veg plot to fence (fencing pins and deer mesh, nothing complicated). I also need to check the new hedge at the front carefully as there was a muntjac in the front garden earlier and I think it's had a go at one of the hedging plants. If it's discovered them, I'll need to get them fence temporarily too. 

I think muntjac might be on the menu for lunch on Sunday... 

twopenny

My that sounds busy, I'm envious because it's cold 6c and dripping with rain. 
Just sorted out a nice day then realised I have an appointment at 11.30 😬
At the moment I can only look wistfully at the garden. My glorious white blossom on the cherry is beaten and brown and my one 🌷 is blown to smithereens. Can't wait for some cheerful sunshine to make it feel better.

 Been trying to work out how they made that pretty mound of daisies. 
I'd like one.
And I love the man on the beach ⛱️ the stone heaps usually are annoying around here but that's so cheerful and creative.

Hope your hedging is intact Greenbee. It will be really annoying to have yet another job to do.
Wish I'd pressure washed my path before I put the wetnforget on. An expensive mistake.  Wonder where the dirt comes from? Apparently there isn't a fluid that magically gets rid of it 😉

Farway

The rain did arrive yesterday, all nicely watered now, and some more is due later, then maybe sunshine. Perfick!

pink_poppy said:

I really want a clematis called Jingle Bells now, twopenny.
Beautiful blossom, Farway, makes me more determined to plant some trees this year.

If you get round to fruit trees,please please buy a Christmas pippin apple to go with Jingle Bells clematis

I've had my eye on CP for ages, and nearly buy one then buy something else. I like the "backstory" found growing near the road from a chucked out apple core.

It'll need a pollinator but more the merrier

Other suppliers are available https://www.orangepippintrees.co.uk/trees/apple-trees/late-season-eating-apples/christmas-pippin

Only gardening, if it dries up a bit, is to check on my bird bath. I think it may have been blown, or knocked, over because I can't see it from the house any more.

I will soon need to sort out planting pots for the tomatoes in the conservatory, they are getting leggy now, plus my cucumbers are doing better than expected so will also need sorting, somehow. Too cold for them to go out just yet.

Ooooer, is this an omen? While typing the above about cucs also need sorting, it Auto Corrected to Oslo. Their Final Destination!

Your cherry blossom is later YBE, ours has gone now. And seeing the pom pom daises reminded me to get on & sow the seeds I bought.

I intend trying to sow in the cracks, but may fail

The application of BFB + top dressing has worked wonders on my posh fuchsias in wall baskets. Leaves are now green, were yuck yellow.

Sun's popped out, time to get the clogs on & lurch down the garden on operation Bird bath

greenbee

Thanks for the reminder to buy BFB @Farway, although I think I probably need a tipper-load. 

It looks like one of the hedging plants has been muntjacked, so yes, another job to do. Hopefully I'll get round to it before they cause too much damage. 

pink_poppy

Love the photos - the stone man is definitely photo of the week material 😊

I’ll look out for that apple tree, Farway. It would need to be a wee one though because my garden isn’t that big. Talking of which, Lidl have dwarf fruit trees coming next week for £9.99 - I’m hoping to get one or two, depending on what they are.

I must get my BFB out of the garage and see if I can rescue it because it’s just one big lump at the moment 😳

Shame about the muntjac damage, greenbee. Hope it doesn’t end up as dinner, although we were given a lump of frozen venison from lovely neighbour that we’re currently defrosting - no idea what it is yet, but whatever it is we’re having it for Sunday dinner 😂

I downloaded a free plant ID app and have been wandering around the garden identifying plants this afternoon. It seems I do have two peonies, which I’m really happy about. The ‘Dogwood’ came up as something else and of course I can’t remember what it was now, but I’ll go back outside and check again.

This pic came up as a snapdragon for the long thing with leaves, but not sure what the straw looking things are. I suppose I might find out in the months to come.

pink_poppy

No muntjacs in our garden, but we do have slithery slimy creatures… 😂

pink_poppy

The ‘Dogwood’ is coming up as a Viburnum. I’m happy with either tbh.

Dustyevsky

A quick in and out today, due to family visitations etc. It has (finally!) stopped raining here, so we have drippy everything under a grey sky, and it felt like 10c when I was last outside. While the easterly wind's dropped, and a sunny evening's mooted, it's definitely pork chops and mash, not quiche and salad tonight!

Love jolly Bob the Boulder on the beach, the Mull-bound ferry shot, Farway's  blossom and the bridge at Malmsmead.   I need something self-explanatory today, so here it is....a grovel-in-the-grass photo of our cowslips:

pink_poppy

Hmm, not sure what possessed me to buy this Hosta (£3.99 Lidl) after seeing that ginormous slug in my garden this morning 😳 Will it survive the night, I wonder… 😂

Dustyevsky

Pp, Vaseline (other brands of petroleum jelly are available) around the lower part of the pot might help the hosta survive.

I will guarantee survival if you use this instead: https://classic-marine.co.uk/product/stockholm-tar-1kg/

but it does seem a lot of outlay for one Lidl hosta! 

Just refreshed and read what your phone app said.

Yes, the first pic could be a viburnum. The stem is somewhat rougher than I'd expect on a dogwood. The picture of the half-dead 'antirrhinum' now looks more snapdragon than choisya.

Looks like AI may be making me redundant soon!