Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

wort said:

Just seen Dustys post of aquilegia and had to run to show a better representation of the flowers from the seed he sent. They are stunning, I will try to gather seed to add to other spots in the garden. Thank you again 

Glad to help.   I could send others some of this year's seed too, but of course, they'd have to break MSE rules and advice to make that possible!  So, sadly, I know that will never happen. 

The shape of the flowers on the clematiflora types is different, with no 'spurs.' They come in a range of colours. I'll get a snap of a dark one to contrast & compare. 

Farway said:

With the [poor] compost chat on here.

I have just watched an American site on YT where he has same problems.

Of course US standards may be more, or less, regulated than ours so not a direct read across, but the amount of, what he called Filler was surprising.

Filler being lumps of wood, and the like, which we've all found. 

The issue may well be that this unrotted material is continuing to rot & delete the nutrients in the compost as it does so. Which could explain why the seedlings / plants just sit & do nothing, due to lack of nutrients.

Good theory.  There's certainly nothing stopping the supply of good, debris-free, quality compost at sensible prices, because that's exactly what my GC is supplying right now with its own brand.....which hails from Ireland. I'll try to get a snap of it some time. It's like going back to the 90s.

twopenny said:
Dusty the duck is a nail scrubber, not enough float for the competitions 🙂 gee we know how to enjoy ourselves in the country!

A nail scrubber is more use for us burrowers of the earth, anyway! Your garden looks lovely.  When our guests go, we might get back to ours again.   

Dustyevsky

Here's a picture of an Aquilegia clematiflora that isn't white:The colour is wrong. It's very deep purple, trending towards black, but unless I cheer the photo up a little, the structure isn't very visible. 

A dull morning in prospect, with potential dampness, means I may do some bonfiring today. We're promised a sunnier afternoon and evening, but it still looks fairly windy. 

No sign of any guests going home yet, and more will arrive today......Dinner tonight may have to be in 2 sittings.  Half-term doesn't last forever, though. Just feels like it! 

Working_Mum

Good morning everyone,
It's taken me three days to catch up as my phones have been mega busy - mainly thanks to a client who advised their 500 clients of a change to their bank details without telling me! So I have been swamped with callers asking if the email was real and confirming the magic numbers! Keeps me out of mischief and the days have flown by so I'm grateful for that!

Aw the latest Dusty addition has a name - neither of my children are christened so I love the idea of a naming ceremony! The white aquilegia are gorgeous - I may be sending an SSE to you You always seem to have a houseful of guests! I think the Nora Barlow is a bit dahlia-esque isn't it lovely. I struggle with dahlias so they may be a fair compromise! I have Osteopermums romping away in a border so I need to split them but I am a bit of a chicken when it comes to that kind of thing! I am essentially quite lazy and "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mantra serves me well most times but not when it comes to splitting plants for free!

The baby conkers are so cute Poppy - you live in an area of such contrasts don't you - mountains and locks and then forests! Beautiful. I have two self seeded horse chestnut trees in pots in my garden - I thought one had died last year as it suddenly stopped growing last year. It has come back again this year and the new growth is great but last years growth is a bit narly and weird shaped.

I found my key YPE - I wish I could say I was so lucky and found it when I took Rome0 out for his next walk but alas it was actually in my jacket pocket where I left it and the one I had checked at least 5 times ......some days I shouldn't be allowed out of bed! The tom forest (sounds like a fellas name!) is fabulous - love that you're re-using the bags for life - they're almost indestructible aren't they. Loving your roses - the well behaved and the riotous one - they look so healthy.

Great to see you again Luna - those mountains are breath-taking - such a stunning area you live in. I'm a flat-loving walker so no mountains ever close to where I live!! Here's a pic of my view - our highest point overlooking to the east yesterday morning when I walked the dog. The light was quite mellow - great way to start my day.




Who knew Jey9s fluid was so versatile 2P - I used up the last of my tin a couple of years ago but reckon it was about 20 years old. I must check my Mum's garage for her stash - I believe the newer stuff is less vigorous! Boo to rats for you and YBE. Your garden is stunning - just as I imagined it tbh. So pretty and full of flowers which are all earning their keep

I'm glad you took the chance on the roobarb Farway - it's my fave fruit and remember eating it having dragged it through sugar! Hopefully you'll make a delicious ragu with the inevitable glut of courgettes you are going to get! I'll start thinking about recipes now for you

You are so lucky with your freebies -taff - I am super jealous! I thought I was a bit of a magpie but you seem to have the knack for it. 

Right I'll sign off now - my phones are out of night-service now and who knows how busy today will be!!

((WM))

Farway

Dull & damp, but not actually raining.

Lovely garden there 2P, and taste test of Cambridge strawbs. 

I've no idea what variety mine are because they are runners of runners of runners from I don't know where. But all taste nice warmed by the sun & fresh, carefully avoiding the slug bites.

Dustyevsky said:

No sign of any guests going home yet, and more will arrive today......Dinner tonight may have to be in 2 sittings.  Half-term doesn't last forever, though. Just feels like it! 

As you have found out, the smell of fresh babies attracts visitors like jam to ants

Not sure if a good squirt of JF would be appropriate right now

twopenny said:

Sprayed jeyes because the ants were having another go at eating into my mortar 😬
Sprayed around where the rat comes in but there's so many options among stored wood and pots.
Read the back of the bottle it's an old one, and it talks about spraying plants against blackspot and aphids. Must look that up.

Fairway, how's your cherries. Reminds me to unwrap mine and check for those black bugs.
The apricot needs watering again 😵‍💫 maybe doing well but it sulks for a pastime.

It's hard work finding out about JF spraying, info seemed to be well hidden when I was searching, almost as if you weren't supposed to do it

Actually you're not, it's only licensed these days for cleaning patios & the like, so be very careful when spraying patio for cleaning that none drifts onto your plants.

I was unfortunate that some spilt into my vine weevil infested pots and seems to have killed the weevils

Cherries, due to check today, if the damp gloom lifts a bit. I'll also return the potted Golden del apple to upright position.

I'm going to start another thread on aphids on buddleia, for RHS, do have a read. Mine are infected & I'll report to RHS

https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/aphids-on-buddleja

Farway

Quick update after a mooch about

Cherries are still there & turning colour *

Plums, dropping off rapidly

Peas, got some flowers *

Found a stick of rhubarb snapped off, so eaten that

* = photo later

Mail from DT Brown, still free P & P, plus seed sale, some 69P. I'm not on commission.

Now my peas are flowering, very tempted to get a cheap pack for next year, Kelvedon Wonder 99p, and ditto courgettes.

May also get pot marigolds as 2026 plan B

Loads of runner bean choices down from over £4 a packet to 99P

And it's 3 for price of 2

twopenny

Got home and went to inspect the badger run to find someone has cut down the whole ivy tree to mend the fence

To add inslut to injury they've dumped that and other on my and my neighbours bit - this is our land!

Previously they dumped concrete from renovations over the fence.

So that's something to sort out.

On the better side this is a photo I got from my kitchen yesterday - was keeping my eye on the cherries when this happened

and it was so hot here this morning mum and baby sunbathing and scratching to get rid of mites

  

-taff

The freebies come from many places, fbmp, freegle, freecycle, gumtree, skips, outside houses etc and I don't look at these things all day I just look maybe four or five times a week and there's usually something there. And I have always found being unfailingly polite and accomodating will usually result in being given something.

ybe omg that really IS a tom forest! Geez, Lookit the Roland....and beautiful roses.

Lunatic the illnesses do not sound good but  hopefully they've gone now? Excellent views as ever [ when there's no bloody rain] 

Farway, your Spaghetti western Morries sounds like fun! It might be a theory yeah re the compost. Thing is, All my stuff in the carp stuff had what looked like really good roots until I realised it had robably got that many roots because it was looking for something to eat, so maybe feeding is the answer, I don't know. And yet the compost only seems to get wet halfway yp with the top being like a solid crust. 

Dusty, the one I was thinking of was RocketGro so it almost started with an S I did read some reviews, gosh, the response to some of the complaints is quite forceful....basically anyone who complains gets told they're wrong and they don't know what they're doing. I like your geraniums. 

2p I got some coffe stirrers I think they are or something made of bamboo, about 50 for a quid from the local scrapstore, very useful for a forest of toms Is that a sage? Does it flower? Does anyone elses btw, mine seemed to have stopped doing that a few years ago, no idea why. Lovely view! x 2! Going ot have to get some of this Jeyes and try it..maybe...

Weather very windy but sunny, been re erecting the greenhouse, there was much swearage yesterday while trying to get the front and back to stand up while adding the side lengths. Two people would be better but I am impatient. Hopefully finish later and then I can level and square tomorrow. WM, As for freebies, I think I've just got worse in one way as I get older but better in that I don't stop at every skip now...This weeks..to be filled and planted up with something that likes it dry. And someone is coming on Sunday to dig up the path, hoo-bloody-ray.

Dustyevsky

I love that vista over the city WM.    That's the closest I want to be to one nowadays!  

Farway said:

As you have found out, the smell of fresh babies attracts visitors like jam to ants

Not sure if a good squirt of JF would be appropriate right now

I'm going to start another thread on aphids on buddleia, for RHS, do have a read. Mine are infected & I'll report to RHS

https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/aphids-on-buddleja

Should the JF just be fired around the place randomly, or would it be more effective as an additive to a salad dressing, perhaps?  As you say, it's hard to find reliable info these days.

Like you, I succumbed to another cheapo seed offer last week, but from T&M. All essential stuff, of course. 

The Buddleia aphids are here, but they don't match the green ones the RHS feature. The plant affected also has had some Mullein moth caterpillars, as pictured, so a double whammy.    It's a self seeded one with a very upright habit. Others seem clear currently, but I can't get to the top of 'Lochinch' as it's about 13' high!   

That's a lovely baby too, 2p. Are you going to give him, her, them, a name? 

And wow, to that fire grate taff! It would make a tasteful fire pit, if you're into such things.  I decided not to bonfire yesterday and possibly spoil the day for the folk in the cottage near the field end. Then I opened up Rightmove last night to find they're on the market. They're pleasant enough, but my instincts told me they might be flippers, and so it seems to be. At least I hope so, because much of the other property for sale/rent here has been down to sudden ill-health.

OT: Don't forget, tomorrow is the time when a hundreds of miles long wall of cold weather and precipitation is supposed to hit us. Here, the Exeter crowd say it'll be sunny, around 20c and a bit windy in the afternoon, so some of you folk must be getting the cold and rain. Or does the MSM just present speculative garbage as fact, because most people will forget ? 

Today, sunnyish, 21c and I know one cat that will be pleased about that. She's gone feral for the week rather than share a house with the older grandchildren. I'd do the same, but people would talk, wouldn't they?   

PS: Rocket Gro. Tried it. It was OK. Now I've something better. That's my review.  

Farway

Dull but warm, supposed to be sunny & close later

I did fall for the Brown seeds / free P & P, like Dusty. All essential items. 

Well they are if you don't count Bishop of Oxford dahlia, with the more or less complete fail of my dwarf ones I have dahlia pining symptoms and a goodly blast from the Rev should help

A tad late I know, but should get romping away once it's settled.

I know it's false economy etc but saved over £15 with the half price / P & P offers

And those nice folks at Nationwide are bunging me £100 so I can splash out before I fill in my Tax return

2P, bit of a cheek, dumping stuff. Some folks eh? 

Watching YouTube I do wonder at the brass neck of some folk, and when confronted they see nothing wrong or untoward in their actions, like the one parking on someone's drive & plugging their electric car in to charge. 

They were low, and the owner was not using it!

If sun does appear, I want to cut back the Scarlet Campion now it's flowered & before seeds get everywhere, some I don't mind, just not a forest.

Good job I checked on my cherries, the covering had slipped, or been pulled off by furry things

Replaced & now hoping for a taste. The ripe colour is dark red / black.

twopenny

Blimey it's quiet around here 😁
Hope it's because peeps are having a wonderful time.

Not much to report. Still hot and dry.
Spent most of the day trying to find a contact for who came into my garden and dumped their branches on my land.
Not so many birds and babies without the tree and I can't get at the cuttings to see if there were nests there. Still angry.

Watered the front yesterday, need to do the back now.

Great cherries there Farway. Better than what I've got left.
Covering them acquired greenfly and the leaves drooped too.

No names Dusty. Far too many babies 🙂 seems like some of my photos went AWOL.

Taff yes, some blooms on the sage