Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

That rose is gorgeous, Dusty. If it is Golden Showers, then I had that in my very first garden.
The thrush pic is brilliant - it reminds me though that I was supposed to be moving some things in the garden to hopefully uncover some snails - I'll do that today

The very early morning light made a substantial contribution to the rose photo.   I'll ask Mrs Dusty what it is. She's elsewhere until tomorrow, hence me being in two places at once yesterday morning. Somehow, I ended-up with two more tomato plants (Maja and Orange Paruche) than I began the day with!   Also, excited to find 'Tamra' cucumber seeds, going for free; I thought it had joined the dinosaurs.

We don't seem to see thrushes here in the summer, pp. Maybe they find the numerous blackies too much competition. More's the pity, because I don't see blackies smashing snails ; they just hoover-up the worms!

Surely, Bluey, if Boss Man employed you as a rookie at £x, now you're trained and more capable, your worth is £x + £y? Or is he saying there's nothing to learn, and no gains in efficiency to be had?

Can I make a claim to the first ripe strawberry?

Other banks/ building societies are available, but the strawberry isn't, as I've scoffed it!

Another hot day in prospect. We have a 90th birthday party to attend. The nonagenarian has requested steak & kidney pie, mash, and peas for lunch, so that's what we're having! Cream tea to follow.

See you on the other side of that!

PS. No one wants to Remember Monday on Saturday night! Other earworms of superior quality are available. Hopefully, that one will be quietly buried now!

YoungBlueEyes

Big Boss Man is marmite - a few people think he's an out of touch sexist dinosaur, but I think he's good fun! Maybe I was raised wrong ha haa (thank you daddy)  

I've flicked back a few more pages to try a proper catchup. I love the pic of your cosmos Dusty, that's such a vibrant rich colour. The sunlight on your rose is calendar worthy imo. 

Pp you for calling your robin Robert De Niro then..? He's definitely saying "you lookin' at me?"  Ooh - Robin De Niro *giggling*  Good luck with your bites, and I agree tea tree oil mixed into some aqueous cream is a good call. Did we used to put vinegar on our bites years ago...? I'll have to ask Cissie tonight. And yes I think that's our first thrush bum  

I like your fluffy aquilegia too wort, that's unusual and intricate. Lovely   

Ah look at R0meo's mossy ears wm - that's the kind of thing that makes your heart smile eh I'll have to take a pic of the twisted willow cutting you gave, it's still living and everything  

I'm absolutely with you on garden design taff. I'm learning all kinds of everything on here and I think my garden looks alright really, considering, but I bet if a proper gardener walked round it there'd be 100 things wrong. It's a different thought process and I just don't have it. 

What construction do you need to do to your garden before it opens gb? If you get the right weather will it all come good? I think your bravery will be rewarded  

No Sunset apples this year Farway, will it come good next year when it's got it's roots down and is happy with itself? Anyway you've got pears coming, you can't have everything  

Hopefully your leg is in good form today 2p, yous have pleasant weather down there that's just right for sitting in your heavenly sitooterie and/or running round the moors taking pics  

OT still cool, the breeze is a bit calmer atm, and we'll get up to 17'c today. They say. Cloudy out there now mind and that's alright 'til my wash finishes but then it needs to be sunny. If you're listening St Fiacre, ta muchly  

Farway

Dull & grey, but Ventsky shows clear skies not far away, and a bit further over Dusty, so maybe it's hot later once the clear sky arrives?

Now that's a lovely & early strawberry, mine are nowhere near that, just green lumps.

Planted up the dwarf dahlias, bit rubbish TBH, they had hardly any roots, I blame the compost these days, It's just useless.

Anyway, planted and fingers crossed they settle in.

I can see me getting a few whatever they have from Morries next time I'm there

Because of the poor dahlias I sprinkled some seeds around, California poppy, pot marigolds & cornflowers, even if only a few grow it will be some colour at least.

Poked sweet corn seeds in two tubs as well, I grew some last year, using young plants from Morries, and it did so well I thought I'd try again this year from seed, with a known variety

My pyracantha is going to be a mass of blossom this year, it was very sparse last year. The blackbirds will be happy at Autumn berry time.

If sun arrives, I'll water the seeds in, too miserable out right now

GW + BeechG to catch up on, and pot on tomato copse.

More Wisley, This is a Wedding Cake tree, everyone was stopping to admire it.

The electric buggy is the one I was whizzing in

PS, just refreshed, YBE post. Hoping my Sunset apple is good next year, like I said, plenty of blossom this year, so no reason not to set, except being a baby maybe not enough in way of roots to support a crop?

greenbee

YBE - I've had some slabs taken out of the VAST paved terrace/patio/whatever you want to call it (so huge it looks like a car park!) and need gravel to go in them so I can put pots back on them and clean up the paving again. There are also holes to dig by the patio to install obelisks with climbers, holes to dig elsewhere for other climbers with temporary supports until I can get round to putting up trellis, and beds to dig out round the patio and elsewhere (although those will just be marked with linemarker/sand by the open gardens and I'll weed/cardboard/mulch afterwards so they're ready for moving plants in the autumn. The summerhouse guttering needs finishing, and more water butts installing; the IBCs need one of the pallets replacing (wrong size) and the plumbing sorted; the summerhouse needs painting. I also have lots of sowing and planting left to do so there are things growing.

It's probably been a slightly insane thing to agree to do BUT it has made me get on and do stuff. Yesterday involved a lot of weeding, planting, and putting up more wire for climbers. I'm having a rest this morning (much to the disgust of the dog) as the weather is dull and grey so I'm doing laundry ready to put it out when the sun (hopefully) rejoins us later. 

-taff

Lovely aquilegia wort.

My camelias look like yout ones on the right Dusty but that pink one is really beautiful...walking two miles almost counts as excercise? righty ho! Gorgeous rose too, hats off  Look at those perfect green [no black spot] leaves! Shame about the ongoing name assocations Strawberry award goes to you. And I would definitely attend that birthday party...stuff salads.

How cool is your birch wm? very is the answer...The guy behind me has one but has left it to its own devices which means it's very very tall, but is only very tall with one central leader and very bushy around the bottom..looks a bit silly. Yours is a lovely shape. Even if I have a quince in a bin [ for now, it is destined for the ground] I'm stealing your idea and doing that too...I'm sure he doesn't look like that it was just the angle of the photo of him lovely mossy ears!

Farway I've never been to Wisley or any of the RHS show gardens [videos and pictures yes] but I get what you're saying about revamping. I don't know whether it's a particular type of consciousness that filters through after a while. I happened to catch a piece of film on youtube the other day about the first xeriscape gardens being done in Nevada as a response to water conservatione etc and was amazed it was 25 years old. That particular thing seems to have been living in my head for a lot longer. I expect using weeds as garden pkants and not weeding so vigorously will be the same in another twenty years...And yes, peat free is useless...maybe I should try some expensive stuff...begins with an s or something and is made in Dustys neck of the woods somewhere...I think also the thing about the show gardens is the amount of space they have to play with. that GW? episode about the woman in scotland [or was it beechgrove] who'd made a Japanese garden was inspiring precisely because she'd made so much of her tiny space and made it into a tardis.

Farway said:

These poppies reminded my of tropical butterflies dancing in the dappled sun

You win this weeks poetry award.

pp thrush bum! brilliant!

greenbee, any chance of pics of your garden you think were the best  and the ones you're most proud of? Also very impressed you open your garden. I mean, I might, but it's not just the fact it's a bombsite but the fact that you have to be organised and make tea and cake and greet people nicely and not swear at them for stepping on your erigeron or whatever...

2p, hope your ills are on the mend too...

Anyway, the sun is shining, the fruit cage has been battered into submission with a cardboard and wood chip walkway in the middle now, so it's sweetcorn planting out day and parsley and rocket sowing...And just to prove the back garden is something of a bombsite, this is what it currently looks like warts n all

You'll notice the plate I got from the second hand place that I put the foxes beaten egg on still there [ one way to get it's mange stuff in it] and the cunning bit of poo it left for me too to show it's appreciation. You'll also notice many things left to go to seed for the time being...The guys birch tree doesn't look too bad in this photo, maybe my eyes are stupid.  And my lovely pallet steps too

twopenny

Taff that looks like a exciting garden to work on with all those pots and containers.
Are the lengths of things guttering type you can plant in? I've seen that on the make over programmes?

Bluey I'm sure your garden is just fine. As long as it's somewhere you enjoy sitting and playing in that's all that matters.
Moors are off limits at the mo. Tick season.

Farway those buggies are so classy these days. I'd like a go on a tramper. Have you tried one?
Looks like it was a wonderful day.
I'm reluctant about the poppies as someone has been scattering them in the moorland hedgerows where the colour dwarfs the native wildflowers and looks all wrong.

Dusty I'd love a party with a menu like that 😊 

Still hot like the med here and the soil parched. I have stopped watering the beds because it's pointless but the pots will need doing today. The apricot is needy and leaves droop every 3 days 😐 but I still have 3 green apricots hanging on.
I am loving the weather but it's not normal.
Dragged 3or 4 bags of the compost round the back without damaging any more bits of myself. 4 more to go.
Be careful what you wish for 😁

Can't spread them till we get several days of rain so that joy is to come.

My sitoorie rose seems to like the sun but it goes over to shaggy really fast in this heat. Around 27c daily 🥴
The smell is gorgeous though.

-taff

That's another! beautiful rose...you lot are so good with them!

No 2p, that stuff is the new to me greenhouse which is 8x8 and destined to live next to the shed at the bottom.

twopenny

Oooo that's going to be good 🙂
It reminds me of when I started+a few years 😁
Yes, lots of roses. I've got cream, yellow and pinks. All scented because I like one or two in the house of a summer. 

Forgot to say to Bluey, yes the car telling me what gear to go in is really annoying. I've turned the dashboard lights down so I can't see it.
No good telling me to change to 5 when our only straight bits are 30secs long.
Or Togo into 3rd up the steepest hill and a hairpin bend in England 😬

Haven't got anything done yet because neighbour didn't set off to church at 10am so I lost track of time.

wort

the bees are hard at work o  the climbing hydrangea.  See if you can spot them though, I had A hard time and I took the photos 

twopenny

That's gorgeous Wort!
So big. You see them on posh big houses. Like yours? 😁

I have one in among the roses and wisteria but it's so crowded out I don't think the bees can find it 🙂

They are an excellent plant that climbs itself and needs no attention.