Awful weather - typical Brits talk

greenbee

Plantgrow compost is recommended in this part of the world (haven't used it, but am due a delivery soon). It's made with waste from the bio digester, so is live (with microbes) rather than sterile. Everyone raves about it, so I have a 50 bags of mulch and 25 of compost on the way. If it's good I'll get a tipper load of mulch in the autumn. 

Farway

pink_poppy said:

I'm looking for a plant recommendation, please...

I'm after an evergreen free-standing bushy thing to act as a privacy screen. Flowers would be nice, red leaves also nice (I would have considered photinia red robin). South facing aspect. Needs to grow to about 4-5 feet?? Suitable for our (normally) wet Scottish climate

Anyone have any plant suggestions??

How's your soil? Rhododendron? Not the rampant sort, not checked, but I expect there are well-behaved ones.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/rhododendron/growing-guide

https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-rhododendrons/

Dustyevsky

PP your mystery flower looks like Lady's Smock. See my image below yours.

An easy evergreen shrub, potentially with flowers, growing 4'-5' might be Viburnum tinus, Eleagnus, or maybe Pittosporum, though the latter's flowers are often overlooked. Or wot Farway said.

pink_poppy

Just had a poor wee sparrow dangling upside down like a bat in amongst the ceanothus branches. It was just hanging there looking very sorry for itself. I took a couple of pics from the house, just to try and make out how it was caught and it looked like the tail feathers had snagged on something. I was about to go out and attempt a rescue when it did a bit of a wiggle and thankfully managed to free itself. I’d much rather that than me stressing the poor thing out trying to disentangle it, but I couldn’t have just left it like that without trying to help.

I do love watching the birds, but yesterday I was sat outside and there were a couple of hover flies (I think) flitting around together. The female (I assume) was going from one buttercup to another and the male hovered a couple of inches above her flapping his wings madly until she moved on and then repeated the same thing at the next buttercup. I wondered if the male was keeping the female cool (I could see the buttercup petals moving from the breeze he was creating) or if he was standing guard over her. It was a nice wee nature lesson in my own back garden 😊

And finally, I think I’m going to give up on my rhubarb plants and dig them out. The stems are just thin and spindly and they’ve been like that every year - I’ve yet to have a rhubarb crumble from them. I’ve no idea what variety they are or how old, but I moved them a couple of years ago to see if that would make a difference, but it hasn’t. The stems don’t look too bad in this pic, but they’re thin and bendy. I’ll attempt to stew them this year, but I think they’re past it…

OT - warm with some sunshine ☀️ 

Just refreshed - I’ll have a look at those plants, thank you Farway and Dusty. I wonder if I can use the plant I inherited from my MiL, I think that was a viburnum iirc - I think it needs to come out of the pot anyway.
Yes, my plant ID app said Lady’s Smock - lovely wee plant/weed (??) - your pic is much better than mine 😉

-taff

2p not sure I'd class it as exciting, just annoying having to water it all the time...I'm desperate to get it all in the ground so I can stop killing things accidentally. Actually, no, you're right, it is exciting planning..This time I'm actually tying to think about what the plants need instead of just sticking them in with added food/areas for wildlife and pollinators. I pruned a rosemary and the lilac out the front yesterdya and laid all the bits down underneath to do some insect habitat stuff seeing as I can't make a dead hedge out there at the moment. 

I've only recenty actually become interested in the smell of things - coincides with interest in flowers I sppose now - do you have favourite scented varieties?

wort, beautiful hydrangea, what is it climbing against? Is it hooking on like a virginia creeper would? does it need support at all? I might have seen one bee but it might just be some foliage!

pp - poor robin, I hope you buried him with dignity ...I saw the ufo! Had to enlarge it of course I do love the orange pom pom one, i bought one on ebay, I actually bought two tiny one but I accidentally broke one so one is now about six inches tall from 2 inches tall..... would a berberis do the trick?

ybe, the puns are getting worse! Maybe ask chatgpt for a speech to give the boos man , I'm sure if you put in a request for a payrise to a bluff hearty 1970s man it'll come up with something. Oil and vinegar is the go to salad dressing in Italy btw, it just depends on whether it's apple or wine vinegar ...

Dusty, that is a lovely rose, I like the colour chages..I have a red one that goes orange or the other way around out the front, I love it and this year after a sever chopping it really has come back with a vengeance from a weedy little thing.  That's the one I was thinking of..it has positive endorsements from a fb gardening group I'm on but I already have a mortgage. Yes, the garden is a dump and has a lor more plants than you can see thanks to my 'working area' and another table full of them behind the greenhouse. But I more or less know what the plan is...maybe....

farway , might have been the riginal name for prairie planting before they made it easier..and I love a bit of crevice planting too. I'm super impressed with your grapefruit too.

Nothing doing today, had the stuff in my eyes to get hotos taken of the back of them so haven't been able to do anything today.I watered a bit this morning...but I did have an almighy thrill this morning...Two coal tits didn't seeme standing next to the quince and were bouncing around in the branches and under the leaves not two foot from me...I had an ear splitting grin on after that.

greenbee

The planting in my garden is a bit hit and miss at the moment - still taking stuff out as well as putting stuff in randomly where there are gaps. I'm trying to think of it as a nursery for when I've created new beds. The trees are all in the right places (I've taken out the ones that weren't and added some new ones), but shrubs and perennials will need to move. 

Today's delivery was 3 pots, a HUGE (well 1m diameter) steel water bowl, and a pallet. I'm not sure that I'm not more excited about the pallet than the rest of it, as it means i can swap out the odd-sized one from under the last IBC before the plumbing is done.

Gravel is arriving on Wednesday, so the chances of me doing much work on Thursday are slim... I'll be shifting gravel to fill the holes in the paving so I can move my pots into place!

twopenny

Sheesh tried to post about roses twice and it vanished both times.
I'll do it tonight from the putter.

One I have photo of here. Gertrude jeykll highly scented and I make rosewater from the petal s. 
It's in poor soil, north east facing but in cool sun most of the day.

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

Does a grapefruit flower trump a ripe strawberry?

This grapefruit is outside, sheltered of course, grown from a pip by DS when he was at Uni decades ago

Only flowered once before, many years back. 

I think it's flowering may be linked with new Popes, a bit like weeping Madonnas.

Sadly, I must agree, a grapefruit flower is somewhat rarer than strawberries in May.

These days, isn't it the public who weep when they see Aunt Madge 'perform?' Like many others, retirement would seem the best option, but agreements with the guy under the stairs probably mean the show must go on...and on!

I've just brush cut the roadside verges, so that's a formerly class act of daffs, bluebells and primroses retired for another year. Our neighbour across the way, kindly arranged for her barren strip to have similar treatment for 2 hours on the morning of Easter Sunday, but we held out scruffily until the bluebells and primroses seeded.

I note our illustrious inebriates at weather HQ are now predicting some rain for this area on Wednesday. People are already cutting haylage here, but our two fields have a long way to go yet.

 Passing a couple of large reservoirs in Somerset yesterday, I saw no sign of low levels, despite the current boiling. We had a good birthday get-together, with pie, mash and 3 cakes for pudding, all of them incredibly sugary and fattening.

Then, it was off to celebrate another significant birthday, which actually happened a few years ago. As we were very late with acknowledging it, we had a wooden owl sculpture made by the chainsaw guy, who works out of a lay-by near Exeter. It must stand over 1m high, so it was hard to hide it in the recipient's garden, but with the aid of a sack truck, we spirited it in. That was great.... until the 4 year old blurted out, "There's a big secret owl behind that tree!" While I'd love to share a photo, it was a personal gift and a one-off, so I can't, but instead, here are some stream-side primulas, snapped at Rosemoor on Friday.

Update: A dire fall in temperatures is forecast for 31st May in some mainstream blarney, complete with pictures of frosty grass etc. Well, we shall make a note of that and see, but the courgettes are in the ground, and somehow, I think they'll be OK.

twopenny

Blush Noisette, evergreen, controlable and blooms highly scented and go on from Spring to late autumn, evergreen, disease free

Mme Alistair Grey are deep clotted cream opening to pale cream all on the same branch.

Spring to December, gorgeous scent loved by bees, will bloom from cutting back. Also evergreen.

Best book for research is Roses by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix

I';m struggling here. The photo thingy on here isn't co operating and all over the place and bluring bits once posted.

I have some small ones and a shrub which I'll photo on my tablet tomorrow.

The old roses are more disease resistant, fragarant and generally sturdy. Grow anywhere. But with GCenters bringing out stuff with names to sell and nurserys going they are mostly ordered online.

One new GCenter I asked the boss if he had a certain rose and he didn't know.

Oh for something different there's Blue Moon which is lavender colour. Don't know if it's fragarant but is unusual.

Dusty that's a lovely spot. I'd go as far as to say Perfect

Aww poor bird. I guess their feathers are a bit scruffy with all the nest sitting.

Grapefruit Farway - at least the squirrels will leave those alone!

YoungBlueEyes

Marinade gb! I spose it was really. I don't remember ever smelling like vinegar though, same as your clothes don't when you use a splash for the rinse cycle in your washer.

Ooh I like the Dame's Violets Dusty, and whatever the short white things are underneath them Glad to hear the birthday party was a success Sounds like your neighbour needs a bit of light education re leaving verges to seed though.

Gawd grapefruit Farway, you'd think you'd need tropical heat for those... shows what I know The pope thing sounds right though, well it's dressed in the right colours for it ha haa! Fingers crossed you get that Sunset :fingerscrossed:

pp I chuckled at your dopey babby blackie. Oftentimes that's the only reason I can tell them from the thrushes that occasionally come - they just sit there expectantly, like a sleb - I am here. Bring me goodies. I shall wait. I'm glad your wee bird wiggled itself free  

Your coal tits not taking a blind bit of notice of you and just going about their business would have made my month taff, that's a proper treat What's the distinction between apple and wine vinegar btw? Is it a different foods thing or a geographical thing? 

That large pink rose bush is a cracker 2p! I like the daisy wosnames too, and the purple spreading thing at the back I'm putting Mme Alistair Grey on the Wanted List, not that I've any room at all :rolleyes: 

OT cloudy and cool and lovely. They reckon we'll get up to 19' today, warmest day of the week. Possibly.  There was something scrolling along the bottom of my screen yesterday about a 650 mile 150 ft wall of rain and desperate winds that'll hit us all on BH Monday (I've no further details - I can't click to read any of that nonsense cos our key strokes are logged). It didn't say anything about collapsing polar bears/snow/ice but that was probably further down in the article.