Awful weather - typical Brits talk

greenbee

Open gardens is just one day @-taff. And teas are all at one location, maps/payment at another, and I think one person is selling plants (I'm going to offer her anything spare I have that survives). 

Compost has arrived. I've shifted 25 bags of compost and 40 bags of mulch (and two pallets) from the side of the road into the garden. And then ran out of energy to open it and do anything! Gravel is due tomorrow, at which point I'll probably feel a bit more motivated! I'm currently watching Chelsea on iplayer and hoping to get some ideas. 

twopenny

Yes being a small garden I thought it would be nice to have as much fragrance as possible.
I used to hate roses when my grandmother planted a rose hedge of 30 Queen Elizabeth tea roses, I had to prune them and that's how I learned to do it 😬. 

Then I saw someone who collected old roses on GW and fell in love. No pruning, no disease and huge variety.
We had a rose field (in fact 3) locally where you could walk round and see them, choose what you wanted and they'd be dug up in winter and dispatched.

Fairway, Felicia Perpetua or something like that spelling, might work. About 3ft in all directions and almost no thorns. Blooms April to October.
Cecile Bruner iis the button hole rose. Small and perfect blooms. Again few thorns.
Both have a lot of foliage so people don't get close enough for prickles. Both semi evergreen.

Green bee that sounds exhausting. But guess I used to be able to do it. Quite glad I can't now 😁

Sorry to hear you're crook again. But um, join the club 🙂

Good thing people respond and repeat posts because somehow I miss some so it keeps me up to date.

Last garden I dug up the rhubarb and temporarily slung it on the corner that was the stone heap.
It rooted and grew prolifically for years there.

Domestic nonsense and trauma this week and it's only a little cooler at 25c. Air still. Must be about 5 weeks now.
Birds are using the veg beds as dust baths.
I made a rhubarb crumble but didn't realise the heat had made the crumble return to its ingredients so scooped the gunge off the top and had just rhubarb.

Time for bed, more watering tomorrow 😐

Dustyevsky

twopenny s
Time for bed, more watering tomorrow 😐

Or maybe not. We both have some 'useful' rain till about 11.00.

Just as well, too DD2 is in the process of giving birth to her first, and although she watered her extensive potted garden yesterday, I can't see her watering it again for a while!

I can't keep up at present, but GB moving all that stuff, reminded me of when Mrs Dusty was having DD2. We'd just had a delivery of 700 concrete blocks and the car was marooned behind them. Mrs D lay on a sun lounger while I called for back-up, and they were all relocated onto the slab we'd laid for the extension. DD2 was as considerate as usual and didn't arrive until late evening, allowing the midwife to attend a wedding.  

Anyway, I'm glad you've managed to keep walking pp. You're observing so much in your garden too!  I love the Spirit of Ecstasy, Bluey. How creative and poetic are we folk here, eh?   Splitting hares, Farway!

Oh, and that hoverfly observation was remarkable, pp. I can't even get one to stay still long enough for a photo, or if it does, the camera focuses on the background.

We used to watch Chelsea Flower Show back in the day, WM, when it paid us to know what was going to be on trend. Mrs D even worked on the Special Plants stall there, taff. However, Derry, who owns SP, didn't repeat selling there, or didn't do it for many years. You'll enjoy your day, next Tuesday, I'm sure.

I think self-seeding and more relaxed, 'natural' gardening, has been around for quite a while, taff. Back in the '90s Carol Klein was in the forefront of popularising it, and I remember visiting her garden at Glebe Cottage with DD2 as a 3 year old. Councils have embraced it, of course....less mowing!

I'd say the app is accurate with your self-seeded hellebore, pp, and the berberis is right too, but most likely to be darwinii, which is very easy from seed.

As bums are still fashionable here, I'll give you one from the cottage Garden at Rosemoor last Friday. No need to say what plant it was.

And here's more of the Cottage Garden. The tulips are almost over now as the perennials and roses etc take over.

YoungBlueEyes

Morning all.  I think I'm gonna be in the same boat as you 2p when my garden gets properly going. I keep buying stuff to fill gaps because I'm sick of weeding, but stuff isn't getting big enough fast enough so I keep buying more   25' - jesus you can keep it!  

I'll send you some yellow lupin seeds if you want pp no bother. The plants were only from morries iirr but they've come good these last couple of years. I've got a range of colours so I'll wait 'til they're all out and take another pic and see if you want any of them. If your laptop is telling you you're spelling stuff wrong is it on American spellings..? It's a keyboard/language setting I think.  Have you got the Merlin bird ID app thing? That'll tell you if you've dunnocks   And you can deffo buy bags of horse shoite cos my gc sells it. I couldn't tell you the price cos I've never bought one, but it is available  

Thanks for the vinegar info Farway, I didn't realise non-brewed condiment was refinery spewings, I thought it was something based on inferior vinegar or summat *shrug* What I meant by wine -v- apple vinegar is do they use wine vinegar in the South cos that's where grapes grow so they have it to hand and apples in the North, or is it based on the foods it's going on - so apple on salads with fish and wine on meat dishes... does that make sense...?  I love those boxing hares, and I wouldn't say no to that hot house (as long as it came with some knowledgeable staff ) 

Wm the bee bum plant is a Honeybell. They were only cheapo, a box of wee bulbs from T3scoo the other year but they seem happy enough. The ones that the squirrels left me I mean I've got 4 out of a box of a dozen, they cost £3... (?) I only lifted them cos they're unusual  

I'll go get a pic of the white frothy stuff taff cos I've no idea what it's called. I remember it looked lovely on the label but it actually looks like a mini bushy cat wee tree in real life. Smell is sort of similar too *sigh*

Good luck with your gravel today gb, you'll have muscles like popeye by the weekend ha haa! 

No Dusty yesterday - has MrsD worked you into the ground? If you've fallen down the back of a flower bed, see if you can find @ArbitraryRandom and @the_lunatic_is_in_my_head in there and fetch them back will ya  

OT well it was nice yesterday and not 19'c. A little breeze, a few clouds, bit of warmth. Lovely. Today will be the same but only up to 16'. Possibly. Enjoy your rain you suvveners! 

YoungBlueEyes

White fluffy frothy wosname - 

And no, it’s never shown a bit of pink it’s whole life. Shipbag 🙄

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

No Dusty yesterday - has MrsD worked you into the ground?

Sort of. She said I couldn't go gallivanting unless I got the new deep bed in the polytunnel finished for the tomatoes. So, I was pushing-on with that....and then 'other stuff' (see above) took up the evening. I don't think gallivanting's on the agenda now, anyway!

greenbee

Seeing as there's a lot of rose knowledge here

I'm putting some obelisks in round the VAST paved terrace i've just had holes dug in. It's technically north facing - sheltered from the east by a wood, but get lots of evening sun from April onwards (if we have sun, like this year). So I'm putting five obelisks in - one on the corner, two east and two north (I think - I might put 3 east and one north, but will work it out when they are here!). 

I have a wisteria to go on the corner, but am looking for roses to go on the other four. They'll be 2.1m high and about 50cm in diameter. The soil is a disaster, but the one rose that was in the garden when I moved in is thriving, so hopefully with a bit of tlc, a lot of compost/manure/bonemeal, I can keep them alive!

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

White fluffy frothy wosname - 

And no, it’s never shown a bit of pink it’s whole life. Shipbag 🙄

Beware the label. Spirea comes in white, or a variety of pinks, and with 'normal' or yellow foliage, but none does two colours together. 

Deception? "We wuz jus' showin yous the two in one picture, like!"

GB: I'm no expert on roses, but with the summer storms we've been having occasionally, make sure the obelisks are well grounded in the soil. We have 3 obelisks here and we've never dared to use them!

Still raining, and nothing startling happening on the progeny front, despite early signs.....

twopenny

Green bee roses don't naturally form an obilisk shape but very much do their own thing.
Perhaps some searching for the height would help then come back for experience of what you find.

Cecile Burner, climber maybe would work but check to see what the current growth is estimated at. I've not grown the climber, only the shrub.
The musk one that I grow was very contained in poor soil but has gone rouge here.

The book I mentioned Roses by Phillips is easier to get info from. Used to be a staple of nurseries.

Ooooo we had rain overnight 😁
I thought I had burglar s because there were unfamiliar noises out there then realised it was rain ☔ 
Seems to have got down into the soil too so it's compost time. Late afternoon I drag the bags so if my bits give way I can spend the evening with my feet up.

Farway

My rain is just an annoying patchy drizzle, useless for gardens, except to help the slugs along a bit. 

Sort of drizzle that stops you painting the widows, pruning Box hedges, etc but otherwise a waste of time.

Working_Mum said:

Our local council collects garden waste and food waste and make compost out of it - each year there are several giveaway locations - I turned up at the Saturday one and joined a queue of cars which was at least half a mile long. I picked up my two free bags and despite trying they wouldn't give me a further two bags for my poor mum - I laid it on thick but was told "2 bags of compost per car only luv"  

I've not heard of a Red Filbert Farway - just googled it and it 's a looker - could have a lot of fun with that in your garden. Loved the Wisley goslings btw

Is anyone watching the Chelsea coverage?? I haven't bothered in previous years but the AI in my 5ky box auto recorded it for me so I watched the Sunday show and quite enjoyed it.

Lucky you with free council compost, ours takes the mickey, charges me £124 a year to collect garden waste, then wants us to pay for the composted stuff

Have to use, I physically can't take to the tip

But they do need the cash, Chief execs aren't cheap

https://order-order.com/2025/05/19/cash-strapped-hampshire-county-council-hiring-ceo-for-250000/

My red filbert is going well, repotted, I think one more size up before winter

Chelsea, not watching this year

I did see Monty is in trouble, his dog friendly garden has dog poisoning plants in it

As someone pointed out, he is a designer, not a “proper gardener”

Easy mistake to make, seems most plants will kill dogs or cats if they eat 'em, but, in the main, Ds & Cs are not daft enough to eat 'em.

Green B, I'm worn out just looking at the amount of shifting you did.

2P, thanks for rose info, I'll have a look around. Just looked, I wonder if I have Cecile B already? Mine is from cutting taken years back.  BDGC . Before DGC

See pic below, and now I'll have to get some cuttings going to pop in dog poo border, though a dog rose would be poetic justice

pink_poppy said:

I never thought of horse muck for the rhubarb, Farway. 

I actually know someone who has a couple of horses, although I'm loathe to ask because I can't stand him. I'll see if I can get hold of some in the winter - do they sell it in garden centres?? It can have one more year and if it's no good next year, it's coming out. I would get another one to replace it though, because I lurve rhubarb crumble.

Horse muck on rhubarb, some prefer custard, Boom Boom

You can get it in GC, or maybe FB marketplace locally?

Today's pi, my pyracantha is back to normal this year, it was sparse last year and only had a few berries

Bottom right is the rose, which may be Cecile B

PS, forgot to mention Dusty, maybe name him / her / they Chelsea?

At least the birthday will be remembered, one of mine is May Day