Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Sunny but cold start, supposed to be downhill later so need to make the most of what there is now

2p said The Cox is doing well.......8yrs to get them. Now if each becomes an apple I have problems 😲 I pruned the branches this year and last to try and fluff it up a bit but it continues to stay leggy. Pretty tho.

It does look splendid, IMO nothing beats apple blossom for real "Spring has arrived" feeling. If I beat the weather I will take one of my Pinova, since I moved & repotted it has perked up and looks like I will have same over supply as you. Regarding too may apples, I always thin mine out, gives decent apple sizes & discourages bi annual bearing, you may need to do the same, especially with Cox

Sorry to hear Lurgy lingers on Dusty, once the hooks are in it hangs about, hate to discourage but I had a repeat sneeze & shiver spell yesterday evening, usual P tablet & warm bed seems to have fixed it overnight. The Leopards Bane looks lovely, nice & sunny

All pirking out completed for now, still waiting for the smaller toms to grow a bit, and the Desiree runners have now sprouted a root shoot, maybe pot up tomorrow?

I may sprinkle some seeds about, to fall & grow where they may, with the rain & warmer weather due

Now to find those "sprinkle about" seeds, put in a safe spot so should be right to hand, famous last words 😁

twopenny

Off today to find something cheap to stick under the fence panels to stop fat rat coming in. I think it's been in my pot fountain because all the sealant is floating around in bits. So that's going to take an age.

I need to poison some brambles too. The unexciting bit of gardening 😐

Hope to have time to repot seedlings in compost because the lack of growth is ridiculous. I won't be paying for more of this bagged stuff. It's useless and expensive.

Sounds all depressing but it has to be done. You can only put off the yucky stuff for so long. Gardening is about the battle sometimes.

Cold and windy out there so a good time to brace up for the boring stuff.

It's amazing this year how quickly everything came into blossom and leaf. Perhaps they think it's survival time in case of more drought. Be interesting to see.

Dustyevsky

Farway: Sorry to hear Lurgy lingers on Dusty, once the hooks are in it hangs about, hate to discourage but I had a repeat sneeze & shiver spell yesterday evening, usual P tablet & warm bed seems to have fixed it overnight. The Leopards Bane looks lovely, nice & sunny

I've not had a temperature with this one, and thankfully, there was only one day when I did 'nothing.' Happy to say we're both on the mend now.😊 Mrs Dusty takes colds and flu badly, due to the after-effects of having pneumonia in her 20s. 😕

The Leopard's Bane looks far too mature to have grown up so suddenly the way it does. Then, later, when we might think about splitting it, there's nothing there! I never see when it 'disappears.' 😞

2p : Hope to have time to repot seedlings in compost because the lack of growth is ridiculous. I won't be paying for more of this bagged stuff. It's useless and expensive.

I'm guessing you mean home-made compost. That's why I paid over £150 for a new bag of slow release granules recently. It works out at about £30 a year. Even back in the 'good old days,' that stuff was the reason the plants we sold looked healthy, even in July/August. We had pals who were organic, and their plants looked fine in May, but past midsummer, their stock began to look weak and stressed in pots. I'm no fan of chemical solutions or big corporations, but granules are an efficient way to ensure the right nutrients and trace elements are present…..And there's also watering with comfrey mix! 😄 Perhaps if our pals had done that?

Of course, the longer this oil nonsense goes on, the greater the likelihood of fertilizer not going where it usually does, at reasonable prices. Then, it's possible we shall see famine; not here, but where those with the least purchasing power reside.

That was fine apple blossom you showed us.😍 I agree with Farway, nothing beats it. There's still none here, but some are unfurling a few leaves now.

My only news is making contact with the new owners of the big farmhouse our friends recently vacated. They're still only visiting at weekends. I've been asked if I'd be willing to cut their acre of grass! 🤣 As I'm still in the process of repairing the damage (parts came yesterday) suffered as a result of doing that last year, you can guess how keen I am! 😬 I'll do it once, just to tame things, and give the folk the phone number of a local contractor. Frankly, all the trees also need their crowns lifted to enable safe mowing underneath. Had they not been close friends in extremely sad and difficult circumstances, I'd never have done that job at all.

I'm not sure if I posted a picture of the hedgehog box we bought. It was about £45 and saved my sanity, after someone criticised the two I made. 😭No one told me I could use Cuprinol Garden Shades paint 😕 and I must say it looks good, treated with that. I might paint mine with it in the autumn, but we'll see how the cheapo Ducksback does first. 😉

Nearly forgot…. Heavy rain moving in after a bright start, but then we should have more of the sunshine and blustery showers. Tomorrow's a lucky bag, without the luck.🤔 At least I'm safe from mowing, for a day or two! 🤣

Farway

Drizzle & misty start, due to receive ex Dusty rain this afternoon, which is mixed blessings because I have sprinkled seeds about, old opened packets of cosmos, foxgloves and something unknown loose in bottom of envelope. May or may not survive, but even just a few will be nice

Very posh Hog box Dusty, I suppose, judging by the minuscule amount of shopping I have just had delivered for £46, the £45 for a hog box is good value.

Good to hear Lurgy is dwindling, I have a Covid booster on Saturday, to make sure I'm never really free from aches 😁It's one of those shall I? Shan't I? but given my age I think a few more weeks here or there will not make much difference.

With the rain, no gardening anticipated, I may try & find Geoff Hamilton on YT if I remain awake 😴Had a bit of a sleepless night for no reason whatsoever

Pics, more apple blossom + Honesty in the drizzle this morning. The first one is the one I repotted and is loving it

Neighbour's cat, waiting for the pigeons

Honesty in the rain

twopenny

Mild but cloudy and windy.

Dusty make a point and mow around the trees that need lifting 😉

Overdid it yesterday , moving pots, pruning, mowing and trying to get the ivy off my new fence that neighbour can't be bothered with. Ended up with back and hip giving me jip together 😬😬

I'll never learn

So apart from maybe some repotting, seed sowing it's going to be a sorting out day. Mind there's a bath full of water and the plants out front need watering. Trolley in use methinks.

Hope you're ok Farway. Unlike you to be missing unannounced.

Well of course with all this water to water the plants it bucketed down, hail going sideways. Pots still need watering 🙄

Well blow me down! Your post hasn't appeared all day until I posted. Love the photos especially the pussycat. I have one somewhere of a cat snoozing under the bird bath.

wort

Good morning all, no gardening done here, apart from moving seeds to window in a morning and back in the evening.

It’s been chilly winds ,and random squally showers. I’m hoping the weekend is better, as I’m off to the lakes for a few days with my friends , to celebrate some big birthdays. So I’ve been trying to sort clothes to take 🤔

Farway I love the expression on the cat 😂 I have had a birds eye view of 2 pigeons,up to no good on the scaffold opposite!! 😳The honesty is pretty,good luck with the seed scattering.

2p take it easy, whilst your back is giving you jip, you don’t want to make it worse.

Dusty that’s a very smart hog house. I hope Mrs Dusty is putting her feet up, and recovering. You are very generous with your time, good idea to offer them a phone number of someone they can employ to do the mowing for them. Are they only planning on being there part time?

Dustyevsky

Farway: Good to hear Lurgy is dwindling, I have a Covid booster on Saturday, to make sure I'm never really free from aches 😁It's one of those shall I? Shan't I? but given my age I think a few more weeks here or there will not make much difference.

Covid? We were told “Trust the science.” Back in 1992, I spent a year studying the question “What is science?” at Bristol Uni, so I'd a rough idea what scientific discourse was. I'm not saying any more!

`

Dustyevsky

2p: Dusty make a point and mow around the trees that need lifting 😉

Well blow me down! Your post hasn't appeared all day until I posted. Love the photos especially the pussycat. I have one somewhere of a cat snoozing under the bird bath.

I met the new owner yesterday afternoon. He's already worked out the need for crown lifting and completed it , plus a few other jobs which have opened up new views. 😇 I'm going to cut the grass as soon as it's dry enough, and I've handed over details of a chap who does next door's large lawns. It should be possible for him to keep things in check until the right equipment is purchased.

Anyone with an acre+ of grass, trees etc, should expect to have a ride-on, and a brushcutter, or deep pockets to pay a garden contractor. There's no way an 18" battery mower is going to do it! 😲

Farway's post with the pretty pussycat, apple blossom and honesty wouldn't appear until you refreshed the page. You did that automatically when you posted.😉

It'sunny and very pleasant here now, but we have rain arriving from the Atlantic in an hour or two.😕 I don't care, as there's still more pirking-out to do. 😜 It's Mrs Dusty's birthday, traditionally a mixed weather day.🙄 A garden visit on Saturday or Sunday, looks a better option, especially if we can tie it up with pub grub. I'm sure she'll be lurgy-free by then.

Meanwhile, I must take some more photos. Here's one from a birthday walk by the Teign in 2010:

Farway

This morning is as per Wort, chilly winds ,and random squally showers. Not very pleasant but could be worse

Happy, soon lurgy free, birthday to Mrs D, and I hope any birthday pub grub is as nice as mine was

Only thing outstanding is pot on my runner beans, now sprouted on kitchen roll. Not sure if it's old seeds but this year I seem to be getting very poor germination, I have enough for my needs but find it frustrating so may fail. When I eventually plant them out I'll pop a spare seeds alongside, belt & braces

The window sill toms are going well, some still not really large enough to pirk out

Yesterday I had my first crop from the garden this year, rhubarb, not a lot as it is still a young plant, but enough to give me a taster. It's a newer variety, Crumble King, that I got on offer from T & M last year

Today's pics are food edition, rhubarb & goosegogs. The goosegogs are some random one but they are nice dessert ones when ripe, I did train it as standard lollipop shape, but it died, or so I thought, but since then it has come back and grown from the old base, another of my Lazarus fruits !

Maybe I should get a pic like the Trumpy, not Jesus,one, laying on of hands. 😁

LessImpecunious

Wowee, goosegogs already Farway! (if not yet ripe) - my goosegog flowers are still sulkily refusing to open… Do have rhubarb though - suddenly spurting into growth over past fortnight and providing an embarrassment of stems - must pick quick while they are still in pink and delicate (ish) state.

Squally showers here too yesterday, seems a bit nicer this morning, so far…

Interesting, Dusty, that daffs (presume wild/native ones?) were still in flower at this time in 2010 - all but the very late cultivars are over now here…