Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Aim straight for the coast Bluey 🙂 while the kids are in school and have it to yourself.
I spent an hour yesterday sitting in the shade listening to the waves while I read a book. Bliss 😊 

Poppy you scared a mouse. Just think how you would feel if a blooming great monster stepped into yours 😉

Wort is the cat still outside?

Like last year, peal and cut pears and put them in a jar of wine or Madeira and save till winter for desert. They'll be soft then.

Early waking and it's cloudy and stuffy so all doors open to cool it down.
Someone has an allotment nearby and brings his noisiest car over at 6am to work on it 😵‍💫 then neighbours son left at 7 followed by allotment guy 20mins later. What is it with morning people!

Photo group today and wait a century for a doctor to phone back from working somewhere in the world.I contacted the surgery 3 weeks ago. Makes my teeth grind because they are charging the NHS for this.
Best not to answer or we'll be in trouble 🫤

Farway

A less restless night, but still saw the dawn. 

Supposed to be scorcher but it's a bit dull right now.

Back is OK ish, so I was out feeding & watering the front pots at six this morning.

Quietly 2p, like a ghostly Gunga Din. 

All looking well, and I'm just waiting for some lilies & buddleia to open up before I take pics for you to see what I've been up to

The Morries perennials planted in DP border seem to have settled, well, they're still green & not brown, which in this weather is a plus

That's a posh Iris Dusty, wouldn't mind a few like that, but I've not really got the right hot spot for them, it's full of Lucifers.

Purple peas, mine were from T & M, on offer of course. Look for Shiraz. 

Just checked, T & M 99p down from £4.99, other suppliers are available

https://www.growseed.co.uk/vegetables/pea-seeds/shiraz.html

Pears, my neighbour has a Concorde pear, which performs as they should, pick they ripen.

In my next reincarnation, I'll grow that one, assuming I don't return as mouse to be chased by someone waving a flamethrower.

Dustyevsky said:

Farway, my toms have absolutely romped away since changing the compost, they're bigger now in smaller pots than they usually are...If yours are in a consevatory,t hey should be enormous by now, if they aren't, it's got to be down to compost. You could try giving them an all purpose feed to see if that perks them up but I di remember aminopyralid poisoning, and they were obviously curled and rubbish in that stuff. 

I've tried feeding, improves them, but it really is P poor that we have to feed just to bring a bought in compost up to what should already be included.   

The withdrawal of effective slug controls and the dire nature of many compost brands have combined to reduce gardening pleasure for many. No, it hasn't stopped old-school, persistent people like us, but those on the fringes, having their first crack at growing something, may well be put off by lack of success. I've a feeling those at the top of the decision-making chain have no great love of gardens and gardeners. We're 'inefficient' as one US university study pointed-out last year. Far better we give up dabbling with nature and leave it to the 'experts.' We can have a much easier time, staying inside, scrolling until our brains seize-up. That would be handy, wouldn't it? 

YoungBlueEyes said:

 I was watching that thing about the Mitford sisters last night and I've come over all independant + I won't behave just because you asked me . 

Well, there you go! A typical gardener, farmer, Jack-of-all-trades person who won't be told what to do, or use the rearview mirror to see what others are doing!   Mind you, the ladies you quote had the wherewithal for true independence! 

True about the younger new gardeners, we can look on failure with a shrug, seen it before etc but if having been fed a diet of Tik Tok influencers growing barrow loads of stuff it could be shattering

Didn't some Mitfords follow AH a tad closely? 

Careful YBE, don't want you having your door bashed down in the middle of the night for Wrong Think.

Having completed early watering, all I have left is top up bird bath, poor things must be gasping

And check my cherries under fleece, may find some really ripe one by now

Today it's self sown nasturtiums, doing their bit scrambling where they wish

pink_poppy

That Iris is a stunner, Dusty.
I've never heard of a scuffle hoe - probably not possible to use it on my weeds because there's at least one layer of stones across the whole area   Bluebells, daffodils and aquilegia grow in amongst the weeds (it's the bit between the Rowan trees and looked lovely a few weeks ago) but at this time of year it's a disaster. It's impossible to weed using a small garden fork or trowel because of the stones (believe me, I've tried), so it's fingers crossed they just pull out by hand.
I can't imagine insects etc would be happy being sprayed with weedkiller either, so it seems I can't win

Are you calling me a monster, twopenny??   Yep, I'm not sure who jumped furthest, me or the mouse.
I wish I'd remembered about the pears in wine/madeira.

That was a funny image of the mouse being chased by someone with a flame-thrower, Farway. As if I would do such a thing    
There is indeed a connection with at least one of the sisters and AH.- Unity used to live locally and I've heard a few stories about her.
Beautiful photos of the nasturtiums.

Farway

I'll just leave this here 

pink_poppy

Ooh, they look good enough to eat, Farway 😋 hope you enjoy/ed them.

My poor pineapple plant appears to be drooping 🍍 my DH has prescribed Viagra for it… 😂

Tomato plants behind - according to Beechgrove on Facebook you’re supposed to tickle your tomatoes when you walk past as it’s supposed to be good for them. So now you know…

twopenny

Yup, that's better than Erigonon stuff 😬

Great result Farway. 😉

We had just a few spots of rain this morning which was remarkable because they were massive drops that left inch wide spots.! 
Had to go out and it started again as soon as I got out but then nothing.

Too hot to do anything today. Every shady and breezy spot taken except one. Must get a photo.
It was a plague cemetery and lots of lovely dogs to play with who were being exercised in the shade.
On the gardening front I was going to get a photo of the beautiful wildflowers in the lawns but they've mown the grass!

twopenny

Well there's me up early for once, 24c in the house and no breeze.
Probably a good day to defrost the freezer 😄 

Tried to have breakfast, last of the blackberry and apple jam, outside but a seagull stood and watched me, I was then bombarded by crows that think it's their territory.
Apparently that's where my birds have gone. The crows have been attacking nests. 🫤

Surprised Bluey hasn't been in, did she go to the coast and not come back?
Dusty, another early bird, I'm not surprised. He'll be out there getting stuff done before the sun breaks through.

Anyhoos, the grass is long and full of debris falling off the plants but no way am I doing that in this heat.
Being Saturday it's going to be heaving on beach, hills river so it's probably chores and reading today.

greenbee

I walked the dog at 5.30 (he's now snoring!), turned on the veg plot irrigation before I left as I forgot about it last night. When we got back I picked strawberries and peas. Need to go and do the blackcurrants and anything else that needs picking before it gets hot and I can then stay inside and deal with them.

Good call on the freezer defrosting 2P - I think I might go and shove all the stuff from the new chest freezer into the old one (mostly used for pet food - muntjac, carrots, mashed BNS, home made cat food) so that I have space for stuff that's being harvested. There are lots of strawberries, and I have peas to blanch, and need to see what else needs dealing with. 

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

That Iris is a stunner, Dusty.
I've never heard of a scuffle hoe - probably not possible to use it on my weeds because there's at least one layer of stones across the whole area

They come in various shapes, but mine's quite like this: https://www.burgonandball.com/cdn/shop/products/GTC-SLICE-burgon-and-ball-weed-slice-03_d67efd0f-c24c-4a57-9cf0-780f8b17d96a.jpg?v=1505419141

 I find it works best in stony soil, by pulling it back towards me, rather than attempting to push. Mine was wrested, (politely!  ) from a lady attempting to throw it into a skip at the tip. 

I like your arrangement of pineapple and toms. Perhaps pineapples lean naturally? The pot it's in is stunning! 

twopenny said:

We had just a few spots of rain this morning which was remarkable because they were massive drops that left inch wide spots.! 

Same here, this morning at 07.00. I'd just started watering. Just enough to make me wet and didn't last.  

Farway said:

I'll just leave this here 

Gorgeous!  I discovered we have cherries in our mini-wood yesterday. They're bird cherries, and even the birds don't seem that interested, they're so tart!   You've encouraged me to grow nasturtiums this year. The Tom Thumb ones are flowering and providing some useful colour, now many spring bloomers are over.  Same mixed colours as yours, but I especially liked this one:
Village Market today, and then, if I can raise the enthusiasm, shopping. I might just pop into the GC for more of their fab potting compost.  OTOH, it's going to be hot again, and I think the clutch is on its way out on the van, so maybe not the best day to find out!  

Update: Thunderstorms have just made landfall in Cornwall around Camborne. Maybe today won't quite go as expected? 

twopenny

Anyone noticed this ste going wonky?
My photo disappeared.
I've missed a couple of posts when it wizzed me down the thread and had to go back to read when I saw them mentioned