Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

Those look like 'White Wonder' cues, Farway. The 'grow it anywhere' outdoor cucumber used to be Tamra, but it became hard to find. I have one growing in a pot now, but the other F1 types are doing so well, I may not bother, except to get some newer seed.

Mrs Dusty says there were a couple of torrential showers on the M5 yesterday, 2p, so very localised. We had none here.

We are watering food crops and pots. That includes a few apple, nut, and plum trees. The borders are mainly left to themselves, except parts newly planted. Here's the out-of-the-way border, just doing its thing. Stuff goes over fast, though.

I loved that list:

"not a hazard to anyone growing up with asbestos, lead paint, scrapyards with cars stacked three high, jumping Jacks, pen nib darts, matchstick guns & white dog poo."   

I could add half a dozen more, but probably best not to.   Thankfully, they didn't stack the scrap cars here. I think I may have mentioned the mounted lion's head discovered at one dump. I cried, because it was far too heavy to carry home!  
OT: Looks like a few more showers today, and we'll all be a little wet in the south tomorrow.

twopenny

Double posted with Farway this time. I've worked out that it's posting photos that does it.

Love the white cucumber It would go well with purple and orange tomatoes and rainbow carrots. If we worked at it we could have some wonderful plates of food.

Where did you get them from?

So here's our scenery at the mo

Those fields are pasture and they should be green. Barely any animals grazing and the ponies have moved territory to get some grass. Cattle and sheep are laying down in shade during the day.

I did see a dozen sheep on a field trying to find green grass in all the dried up stuff. There are usually around 50 on that field.

The gorse has stopped blooming again and the heather, while out is not the rich colour it should be. Should be glorious at this time of year.

However there are lots of fields further along, of cereal crops that have been a massive harvest..........so bread should be cheaper this year?

Farway

Sofa gardening completed & caught up with GW. Seems everyone is suffering with drought now.

twopenny said:

Double posted with Farway this time. I've worked out that it's posting photos that does it.

Love the white cucumber It would go well with purple and orange tomatoes and rainbow carrots. If we worked at it we could have some wonderful plates of food.

Where did you get them from?

However there are lots of fields further along, of cereal crops that have been a massive harvest..........so bread should be cheaper this year?

As Dusty said, they are White Wonder [I had to look at packet], from T & M, must have been offer or free post or both.

Not tasted, and T & M have been known to exaggerate

https://www.thompson-morgan.com/p/cucumber-white-wonder-veg-saver-seeds/WKF4386TM

Silly Billy about cheaper bread, you can bet Global Boiling is bumping prices up somehow

Just asked Chat, wish I hadn't.  It's wars, heat, floods & Gnomes in Zurich and you, leaving the tap running. 

Better news, found one ripe fig, which was lovely and scoffed by me, not flies

The two in my photo look ripe now, and flies were seen loitering, so I expect they can sense ripeness

I'll be giving them a squeeze tomorrow, bit award for me to reach with my twinging back

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

 there are lots of fields further along, of cereal crops that have been a massive harvest..........so bread should be cheaper this year

 I was going to answer in similar vein, to Farway,  but thought better of it. Easy to get arrested for badthink these days. 

The price of some olive oil has reduced. It took an age, but Lidl reflected the better harvest eventually. Didn't notice anyone else making the same cuts, but they may have done so.

That awful, filthy, heating oil we use here is still at the lowest price in over 3 years, too. Must be all the people seeing the light on the road to Tescos and buying heat pumps. 

LessImpecunious

No Peacock pic, but did count 16 today, on various buddleias, a sudden increase...

Pics of sunflowers at sunset in Shrewsbury instead... (can't decide which one I like best so two for price of one...)

YoungBlueEyes

It was a Vapoourer Moth caterpillar eh Dusty, that's a new one on me. I wonder where it came from...  The sunflowers I've deliberately grown aren't a patch on that one :rolleyes: That's such a crisp photo of your Peacock butterfly, they really are beautiful when you can see them in detail like that Love your out-of-the-way border, sitooterie territory is that

Farway that is one ugly cucumber Lucky the flowers make up for it Another fan of your list here, and I've many happy memories of climbing up and down multi-car scrappy piles, never did me a bit of harm. Can I also add spud guns? We used to suck and blow on the lead-painted end of them to get out the manky bits of spud :bleurgh: How was the fig that the flies decided to leave you..?

Gawd 2p there's no hungry slugs where you live eh Is that a tom in the top of your first pic? Jeez your landscape does look parched, those colours make it look like a photo from the 70's. Just wants an announcer telling us in his best RP that this will be a lovely modern housing estate soon and aren't we lucky.

I think you're right Less, you can hardly pick between those 2 shots cos you capture skies ever so well Possibly the second one, I like the tilt of the camera rolling hills feeling of it  

How was your gardening do wm? Anything new or exciting cross your path? 

Nowt to report here. My bird-sown sunflower is still here and has had a baby, I'll get a pic when it shows its face. I've still not been sacked, which is slightly disappointing really for my garden needs me… Must Try Harder  

OT cool and a slight breeze out there, 12’c currently and up to 20’, possibly. They’ve given rain around 5 o’clock but only a 15% chance. You wonder why they bother. 

wort

Farway this was Lol 😂😂😂 

No kids etc around so not a hazard to anyone growing up with asbestos, lead paint, scrapyards with cars stacked three high, jumping Jacks, pen nib darts, matchstick guns & white dog poo   

Made my morning 😂 Yes it’s white Clematis it used to be v.rampant massive white flowers coming up twice a year , but had to cut back a lot when my wooden structure rotted and had to be taken out. But it’s making a coming back down my washing line !! 

YBE the Acer,it’s been in a tub for years ,kept out of early morning sun, likes it quite shady water well in summer, good drainage though. My dad had one in north facing garden it was huge same type.

Dusty, I get it the advisor tell you what the planners will approve 😉 I love that border with the gate , one of those let’s just wander down for a peek over ther gate.
2p hope you get some rain soon, I had the same,hard work getting weeds out because of the rock hard ground. Last night brought rain not sure how much but everything looks wet still.
Dull,grey and cooler than of late today.

-taff

Bringing up the rear again..I did a hard stare at the lotment, but I fear it did no good, butteflies have made it through the anti butterfly net and they all look awful, everything is dead or stunted apart from squash/pumpkin, courgette and potatoes. So I did what any sane person would and redesigned the whole thing to be done in the autumn, and I started building a small dead hedge. The compost bin will be moving and I'll be taking apart the keyhole bed to finish the top of the hedge and from Farways recommendaton I'll be getting a thornless blackberry to grow over it after seeing the light re thornless as I've scratched myself to embuggeration today in places I didn't even notice till I got home. Never mind, two lots picked, mine are already cooked and OHs mums have been deposited earlier.

The Jersey Tiger is a well deserved name isn't it? I think I have a great tit nesting around my roof somewhere, he's a right noisy beggar too and really loud considering what size he is. 

And that's a lovely one Less, what very regal colours. I was amazed how big creeping buttercup actully gets the one time I let it do it's thing in the front garden, ditto the Herb Robert, went from a side plate to three or four chargers in size, one plant! And your sunflowers are lovely, either photo is good  

I don;t remember pig bins but I did work in a bakery where the waste food from there and the shops was collected a couple of times a week by the pig farmer...Bongos Bingo form what very little I saw of it looked horrendous and just the sort of thing I did when I was in work about twenty years ago And Jesus, I went to see James in Swansea Uni when I was 16 and they were first starting...I remember Skullduggery from that gig..And that beastie on the rose is so cute!! Not so much the wasp bum though...My trick for jars is to slide a good strong eating knife under the rim of the jar press the knife against the jar and pop the seal. 

Your Rosemoor price isn't that bad Dusty, David Austin ones are more in the local GCs..And the uchiki kuri are looking good. [insert jealous sick smiley] Any further with the hard track? I think a pair of legs in bay topiary might look a lot like something else Lovely peacock butterfly but the buddleia is lovelier [ never thought I'd say that] Your border is mucho impressivo too. 

Farway, don't worry , your ends are only soggy until the male flowers give themselves a talking to..Congratulations on one edible fig too, I feel your struggle...And I am tempted now, the globosa is growing well despite being a pot in the recnt heat, at least I remembered to water it..I do like that spiral one though...hmm... Your white cucumber looks like my normal green ones, just rub the pricles off and peel. It'll be lovely. 

WM, make your own pectin with fallen grannies or whatever [ search Nancy Birtwhistle] 

2p, love the legs akimbo...There used to be a shark in a roof in Oxford, pre Sharknado days, maybe that's what gave them the idea. Your garden looks like mine too, all dry, dusty and what little there was, eaten...

wort, your garrya look lovely, all falling down like that. 

Jesus, I've written another essay, note ot self, must try harder...Today nuffin much occuring, maybe I'll move the raised bed I already filled and put the jasmine in because I should have thought about it more the first ime I moved it...DOH

Dustyevsky

Very little going on here weatherwise. A bit of rain, some sun, little wind and....hang on, it's just thrown it down!  I don't mind; that's saved me watering anything. It looks as if even 2p will get a drop, before the big blob of precipitation moves eastwards to give Farway some H2O around lunchtime.

wort said:

Dusty, I get it the advisor tell you what the planners will approve 😉 I love that border with the gate , one of those let’s just wander down for a peek over ther gate.

Sort of. The advice is about what we should/shouldn't do. For example, if we'd built the hard track, it would have separated the land into two neat parcels, so the council might say one is 'garden' and the other is still 'agricultural.' For complicated reasons, we want it all to be garden.

The picturesque gate is into the top field. I'm not sure if it was an intentional effect, or just a lucky one, being the most direct route.

Aw taff, what a shame about the allotment. Butterflies do have a down-side, regardless of how pretty they are.  I can recommend thornless blackberries as an easy crop, as we've some growing on the fence at the edge of the wee woodland, and they cope with the competition, and the sheep! 

Got to dash now....someone else's plumbing emergency.....and then shopping.  I'll leave you with a bomb-proof plant from that border which gets neglected....gets around a bit!

Farway

Morning all, a bit later today, sleepless nights eventually caught up and was stuck in bed longer than usual.

Looking forward to the rain due around lunchtime, had a few spots already, enough to persuade me to postpone my watering plans. 

Which means no further rain will fall here.

Love the sunflowers Less, I prefer the bottom one, brighter. 

I saw an online bit about a sunflower farm near here, and thought I would pop over for a few snaps, then noted small print of entrance fee, wouldn't have minded a "donations tin" but they want £7.50 which includes 3 "free" sunflowers.

Not so small print, it's 7.50 regardless, and the fields are uneven not suitable for wobbly folk, like me! 

So, cunning plan foiled

I'll have to settle for my foxglove, which has now opened, not a prizewinner, but welcome 

My borage has got mildew  , so chopped down, nice while it lasted and hope a few seeds escaped for next year.

Not yet picked my other two figs, I'm a bit wary with my back playing up again, don't want to reach up & find myself in agony.

If I have to water, I'll probably pick them then.

I like the Soap wort Dusty, had to look it up. I'm now thinking it may be handy in DP border where it will be confined by concrete and slugs' teeth It could fight it out with the other bits I bung in. 

Taff, thornless blackberries, wise move you'll be thankful for. As you my recall me & Mrs D recommend Merton Thornless

I also have Thorn Free, commonly available. But when you compare taste tests, the Merton tops it easily.

I've just asked Chat about UK available ones, and ranked in taste, and here are the top results.

I've seen Chester growing at West Dean, ideal on allotment, huge plant, heavy cropping

Summary (UK-Grown, Thornless, Ranked for Flavour)

Rank	Variety	Bred in	Flavour Profile	Best Use
1️⃣	Asterina	Switzerland	Very sweet, juicy	Fresh eating
2️⃣	Loch Ness	UK	Mild-sweet, firm	All-purpose
3️⃣	Merton Thornless	UK	Soft, old-fashioned taste	Traditional dishes
4️⃣	Black Satin	US	Mild, sometimes tart	Cooking
5️⃣	Chester	US	Tart-sweet, firm	Freezing, jam

If I had allotment, money & time I'd grow the lot, but now would be ideal time to check GC to maybe taste?

Today is Shoo Fly, self sown, pop up every year