Awful weather - typical Brits talk

wort

This is my dd2 pic from on her hols, too cute not to post 

Dustyevsky

-taff said:

Dusty, ...well done for sorting walking friends garden too although next time I'll say act your age and take more breaks ..How about goats? Your rolling hills are very 18th century paintings! Well done for finding amenable shed men too.

Gotta go, so quick answers:

Walking friend's garden isn't done yet, but she's opted for walking today, so..... If we acted our age, we'd never have any adventures, but the trek today's in a book, so there's less chance of losing ourselves and getting dehydrated, like last time. I should've said, we're sunshine and about 17c today, so not bad weather for it..

Those hills in the Fish & chip photos are amazing, but Mrs D and I were a little late, hence the soft focus.

The shed man was great, but already I'm having doubts and thinking a stable would be better. Lots of planning stuff involved, though.

Farway

Sunshine and warming over the next three days, allegedly.

Even better, full sun due for my Wisley Whizzing on Tuesday

I envy the clematis & wisteria Blue, DD has clematis like that running along her side entrance, it came with the house so no idea what the name is.

On clematis, the one I planted last week has been tampered with & partly dug up, grrrr . Tamped it back in place  and left to luck. It's one of the common large purple flowered thugs, which I'm hoping will leg it up my Judas tree to give an eye bashing show.

I never realised my Specked Wood butterfly was an early bird. 

Looking them up, I see "You can help pollinators like the speckled wood butterfly by planting trees or letting part of your garden grow wild."

I've trees & opted for the go wild bit now I lack bendy and puff.

From now on my garden is not weedy, scruffy or untidy, it's a butterfly conservation area if you don't mind

Not quite as old as Dave Att but working on it.

Early start this morning, Friday Feed time now the weather has improved. I'm trying the Asda tom food now, cheap enough, and it gets delivered along with my groceries! One less PIA.

Water shortage incoming I'd guess. Farming Today on R4 mentions it, with the spuds wanting water already and too dry to sow some crops.

The only problem one I have is my cherry, too far away for me to lug water or drag a hose there. Birds will have anyway.

Should my plums survive, I can use a hose on that tree

-taff said:

Farway, woop, plums! I did chortle as you GC description.And fingers crossed for actual pears this year. And look at you giving genese to accomplished dgds! ...and imagine JF being good for pelargoniums! [scribbles note in book] but jf tasting carrots is not funny. And ooo, trouble at mill volunteer place gossip! I'm not confident your cherries will be eaten by you though.

wm, I feel your pain with your 24hr post! Sometimes I start one and forget and then go back and it's hours later and what I have to say is now irrelevant not you though! and how lovely for you to have compost fairies too! maybe some geums for your shady bit on the edges?

From my end it's a firm no to Levingtons. I only remembered this week looking at the state of my tiny tomatoes that it cakes on top and stops them after they've just started. Must remember and not buy it next year.

Also...Whizzley! let me know how the wagon goes if you get one farway, looking to visit this year and I will need one too.

I share your pessimism on me actually eating my cherries, I've said before if I was doing it again I'd grow under them, trained, undercover

I'm having same problem with composts, last year’s Levingtons was fine, jury still out on this year's, peat free now

Whizzley wagons, They are free, not sure if non RHS members charged or not. 

They are popular, and you must book ahead to guarantee you get one, especially if travelling any distance.

Check the website & even give them a ring to see your best option, I've had trouble trying to book too far ahead

You can book the whole day, but they are not keen on that, maybe if you were coming miles then perhaps it would count?

They do have push along ones on first come, first served basis, but Wisley is very hilly in parts, so you may not get there unless a super strong pusher involved

Today's pic is one of the Autumn raspberries, from Morries, name forgotten, but it is well known and really tastes of raspberry

pink_poppy

Absolutely stunning photos, everyone, too many to comment on individually   It does make me think that my garden is seriously lacking though...

Your shadow photo was really good, Dusty, you couldn't have posed any better   

I'm off on my ferry travels tomorrow - I'm told it's lovely and sunny where I'm going, but with a chilly wind, so I'll need to take my thermals if we're having the planned BBQ on the beach   

It's actually a bit grey here at the moment, even though the forecast says sunny all day. Next week looks promising though - temperatures reaching 20 degrees - not exactly scorchio, but perfect for me   

Dustyevsky

This one's for 2p, whose area we invaded today....but which bit??? Clue in the photo....

wort

Taff you can do Farway Forest of seedlings this year. I may have had a similar misdemeanor,I went to a proper nursery and may of come home with a boot full. Though some weren’t for me. I wish it was closer but it’s worth the travel well looked after range of plants ,reasonable prices and knowledgeable staff.
Farway this is perfect "You can help pollinators like the speckled wood butterfly by planting trees or letting part of your garden grow wild." I class myself as an untidy gardener, not pristine and sometimes it pays off .
Dusty that looks a nice walk, feeling envious as a groin strain put paid to my week off, unable to walk too far despite the good weather. Had enough of it now hoping it doesn’t take too long to go.

twopenny

Oh Wort, bad luck 😐
Was it your own fault or an accident? Always worse if it's your own fault. Perhaps it's your body telling you to take a rest.

I'm reading along here but can't keep up!
So much to do and not enough time but enjoying the lovely pictures and stories as I take a break.

How's the Vertigo Poppy? Still managing to potter?

Lovely plants Bluey. The large purple leaves are my Prunes Nigra. Blooms in February which is a bonus.
I managed to kill the Wigela, both variegated and purple leaved. Always liked them but never had much success.

One neighbour behaving oddly and driving off at 6.30am. Not sure what's going on. Other neighbours son in a mood and watering pots and moving them at 7am. 
I'm not getting my beauty sleep 😴 so trying to stagger on today.

Farway

Bright & sunny start, and forecast is sunshine all the way until next Friday, which means melting around Wisley for me on Tuesday. 

Wisley frequently gets the hottest place award, all that sandy soil sucking the heat in [plus heat from traffic jams and language on M25  ]

I guess Dusty photo clue is the tower structure, means nowt to me, but I expect someone familiar with the area will twig it at once.

With a sunny day ahead I hope to get the Kelvedon peas sorted, these are ones I have grown for eating fresh peas, not shoots

Just need large tub prepped with sticks and the young cell grown peas transplanting

My wall baskets on the front handrail are planted up now, final dangling toms planted in them yesterday.

Will have to top up bird bath & water the apple in a pot, plus check if dug up clematis has settled back, or is even worse

wort said:

Taff you can do Farway Forest of seedlings this year.

This year I have reduced it to a copse! 

My Minibell toms need sorting PDQ, maybe later today.

Luckily there were not many seed in the packet, so only about a dozen to sort, and being old seeds I was not sure if any would actually germinate. The old Legend ones sown at the same time are no shows.

If body allows, I will prep two large pots at the front for my courgettes

Ooh, a bit of excitement there 2P. Hope you manage to stager on through the day

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

I guess Dusty photo clue is the tower structure, means nowt to me, but I expect someone familiar with the area will twig it at once.

Aye, but the person who'd know hasn't seen it; like I didn't refresh and see wort's cute duck and ducklings yesterday.  Sorry to hear you're currently incapacitated, wort. Hope you're soon fit enough for walks again.

I won't post anything easily recognisable from our 'easy' walk just yet. To be fair, the guide we used didn't suggest it was a doddle, but another did, and it most certainly wasn't. As usual, we lost the correct route, but it made no difference overall. The views this time were great, so we knew our direction of travel. It wasn't 2.75 miles either; our app said over 4 miles.  We couldn't find the correct car park, so ended-up walking a long way just to begin....and paying for the privilege! Touristy places!! Grr!

Near the start, I thought of Farway and wort as we passed a pretty cottage front garden. Could one of these be the answer?

 Another glorious morning here. I'm feeling a title fragile, leg-wise , so light duties today. Mrs D says we must reduce our 'forest,' so we'll ID the plants going to the garden club sale next week. e.g. the 24 Bishop's Children cannot all be accommodated here!

twopenny

Just been back 4 pages for a tower but I missed that on the walk photo.
Is that Dunster castle? 
You were down here and didn't buy me a coffee? Hurruumph!

No gardening today. Went for a 3hr drive that turned into 5 because it was such a lovely day, all the wildlife and wild flowers.
Photo later. Exhausted from the heat and driving.

The T&M strawberries are coming on a treat. They have doubled in size since taking this and strawberries growing.
Even my old ones are looking amazingly healthy as though they've been shown how to do it ☺️ 




Anyone know how to let cherries ripen?
I'd like to cover them with fleece or netting. Fleece preferably but do they need light? Google is increasingly useless because they are always trying to sell you stuff and not answer the question 😬