Awful weather - typical Brits talk

phoebe1989seb

No gardening for us today as it hasn't stopped raining since first thing. Good job, therefore we've got plenty to do inside, lol!

Yesterday was a different story - dry, sunny and warm...ish 😎 We visited two independent garden centres in the wider area - one which I'd not even been aware existed - and decided to take a risk with a pair of ceanothus for the urns 🙄 If they don't thrive, there's always a space in the ground that needs filling! 

On our return home we - or should I say DH, as my job was merely to steady the ladder, pass/hold tools and disentangle the occasional branch - re-affixed the rambling rose to the porch/adjacent stone elevation of the cottage. This time better fixings were employed 😉

Some more planting took place too, but also a fair amount of basking in the welcome sunshine, watching the birds and the occasional cheeky squirrel stuffing themselves at the feeders....

Davesnave

Hi Moving Forwards and welcome.

Sorry RAS, no experience with acers from cuttings. I only have the toughies here, although my seed raised Madeline Spittas are coping and fairly true to type. They're not as fussy as the Japanese ones:

https://perfectplants.co.uk/acer-davidii-madeline-spitta-tree-in-a-12-litre-pot.html

Crikey, I've raised over £200 worth from those seeds!

Farway

Still raining of & on, but at last I've finally potted on the tomatoes into their final pots in the conservatory, they do look a tad sickly but I'm hoping they perk up now with a fresh start & some slow release fertiliser. Two options of course, let's hope I get at least a picking from them

Better news is the grape pruning / cutting that I'd poked into a pot has rooted well, potted on and awaiting developments

Plus the sunflowers I planted out needed tying up, they're now growing and so far survived rain, wind & slugs, supposed to be warming up soon, then stuff'll rocket away

MovingForwards

Your grape cutting sounds promising Farway, toms are temperamental when it comes to transplanting, but usually perk up again after a good grump.

Could only look from the windows today, but I've been told everything still looks fine, including the outdoor toms. Garden has definitely had a good water. I've sowed some more beans, peas and squash, have to get a few more melons on the go.

I've some long weekends arranged which should give me the time I need outside, it's always hard going back to normal hours afterwards.

Davesnave

Another day of violent showers and chilly breaks meant we were in the polytunnel all day. The tomatoes (Floridity, Sungold, Sweet Aperitif, Sweet 100, and Marmande) are in.  The cuttings bed has also been prepped, ready for the items in the fridge I purloined (with permission ) at the weekend.

Next week its visitors in the house and caravan.... and their children. Luckily, I can padlock the stream garden. I may go for some walks too!

Farway

Sun's out, and promise of better weather, just seen the results for May weather, record rain etc. Not surprised

I have all the toms potted up now, even the wall baskets.

If the weather does improve I can get on & sort out the outdoor wall baskets, they have a nice crop of grass & willow herb growing in them, not sure what I'll stick in there, they are North facing but get sun in the morning. Lobellia [sp?] did well in them as have pansies.

Depends what I find when I look in Morrison's, ideally I'd like some easy small hardy perennial that hangs down or mounds up, plus frost & vine weevil free

With the rain after a dry April, longer days & gradual warming the garden is now starting to look very green, possibly lush in parts with lots of promise looking a the buds on the shrubs

This is one of the herb Roberts that pop up in my garden [and wall baskets] easily removed of course but so dainty.

I sowed hardy geraniums in 2019, planted out in 2020 and hoping this year they'll flower now they are large enough. I chose them because of the herb Robert, if that likes it here the geraniums should as well

Paspatur

Davesnave said:

Weather's still horrible here. I've done little, except plant/harvest salad greens and send off an order to Chiltern Seeds.  I find them expensive, but I like their catalogue and they have a few things others don't. One of them, the Past-Their-Sell-by Shrub and Tree Mix, is a bit like a visit to Wisley and a dozen open gardens, all without leaving your chair!

Ha Ha I read this then ordered the bargain basement 10 packets for £4.45 - 5 of them of no use to me at all and of the 5 I will sow 3 are half hardy which means not hardy in NE Scotland. Had fun looking them all up though. 10m trees a definite no no for me.

Davesnave

Paspatur said:

Davesnave said:

Weather's still horrible here. I've done little, except plant/harvest salad greens and send off an order to Chiltern Seeds.  I find them expensive, but I like their catalogue and they have a few things others don't. One of them, the Past-Their-Sell-by Shrub and Tree Mix, is a bit like a visit to Wisley and a dozen open gardens, all without leaving your chair!

Ha Ha I read this then ordered the bargain basement 10 packets for £4.45 - 5 of them of no use to me at all and of the 5 I will sow 3 are half hardy which means not hardy in NE Scotland. Had fun looking them all up though. 10m trees a definite no no for me.

Sorry! I'm disappointed too. Photo later, but this year's packet wasn't like those of old.  Not so much a trip to Wisley as a quick November tour of Morrison's car park! 

MovingForwards

Nothing worse than disappointment when it's something that normally makes you happy.

Had a potter round the garden after work, did a bit of weeding, watching the flowers slowly open on my herbs and comfrey. 

I should be going to some independent nurseries Friday, mainly just to look as there's only a couple of things I want for this year and beyond.

Plans this weekend are get netting up round my fruit as the gooseberries are getting fat and strawberries taking shape. Start sowing seeds in the borrowed garden.

phoebe1989seb

I managed to get a bit of gardening in between the showers today. As is often the case, the best part of the day was around 6pm by which point I was prepping a roast dinner 🙄

There are loads of buds on most of the roses now, with the exception of a few later flowering varieties and the newest additions, most of which were bought as bare roots earlier in the year.

The rambling rector we planted to grow up through the old apple tree shortly after buying this place in 2018 hasn't flowered since that first summer. I'm pleased to report it has several clusters of buds appearing 😃

Sadly, our efforts to retrieve the situation with the porch rambler were too late to save one of the thickest branches which the wind left hanging by a thread. The leaves and buds are withering and dying 🙁

Elsewhere lots of stuff is flowering nicely - the newly planted Libertia and Brunnera, geums on the rockery, rhododendrons, azaleas and alliums. My recently planted poppies are budding too.....