Awful weather - typical Brits talk

LessImpecunious

2P Only thing I got around to today was wiping off the black bugs on the cherry leaves. They breed and move fast and can be devastating to foliage and fruit. It's a job I'll have to continue until the rape seed plants stop flowering.

What's the link? Surely aphids on cherry leaves, pollen beetles on rape? We don't have either here (yet) (maybe some aphids one year but fairly limited)…

Lovely clematis Wort, and rhodie, though a little dazzling first thing in the morning! (not that it's first thing any more…) Like the spiky-flowered thing at its base…🙂

Dustyevsky

This answers your question, 2p :

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/96334/physocarpus-opulifolius-dart-s-gold/details

I thought it was bright, but seeing wort's azalea….perhaps not quite so much!🤣 What a splendid garden you have wort, set off so well with the dark fencing! 😍

With all the varieties now, it's difficult to know if daffs are going over early, Less, but the consensus seems to be 'Yes.' I recall posting daffs blooming in Rosemoor before Christmas in 2024.😶 They were a specific variety bred to be early.

My courgettes are in the polytunnel, Farway. We were quite cold here last night, and might go to zero early tomorrow morning. 😕 I've nothing new planted outdoors yet. There's chard, which overwintered…..badly. ☹️We usually get a few courgettes from the poly before the conditions there see them off early. Anything's better than the carp from Spain. 😛 Apologies to any Spanish readers. I'm not bitter….the courgettes often are, though, and end up inside the chickens.

I thought you were quiet, Bluey! 😮 You and Himself look after yourselves this weekend…just rest and let Orange Jesus sort everything out. 😊 This lurgy Mrs Dusty and I've had / are still having, hangs on, so I hope you have a milder version up there. We'd a committee meeting cancelled yesterday, as so many were down and out with it. I would have gone, honest, but instead, slept for two hours! 🙁 That crappel tunnel is another burger too….Mrs D has to wear a brace after too much mousing. 😩

A bright and breezy day ahead, if the forecast is to be believed. Lots of these blooming:

There's a posh place not far from DD2 that's open today, just the once, so people can marvel at their bluebells, and nosey around legitimately, for a fee. Sadly, I don't think Mrs Dusty's up to that yet. 😪 Maybe Rosemoor next week, though.😃

Farway

Wow, lots to catch up on this morning, must mention the clematis arch before I forget, a cracker Wort., at least I can gaze at the green bits on my Cafe Au Lait and not feel too bad.

Hope the Bluey household improves YBE, I guess you have space for Cissie seed spuds? What variety?

Before I forget, it's free P & P at D T Brown this weekend, and 3 for price of 2 on seeds. Just in case anyone has ideas this bright & sunny weekend

Oh, forgot about aphids on cherry, I'll have to go and check mine later, luckily forecast is a pleasant sunny weekend ahead.

Just back from Covid jab, they snuck another one in the other arm for luck, sounded like RSJ but it was not a Rolled Steel Joist. Found it, RSV, I guess it's because over 75, certainly not pregnant.

Greenbee asked I have three arches on the veg plot and am trying to decide what to grow up them. Other suggestions welcomed! How about those trombone squashes? Something different and a sure eye catcher, or fancy flowered runners, like St George, or purple podded climbing beans?

Apologies if I missed something, it's the sight of sunshine driving my crazy

greenbee

Thanks Farway, I might grow my runners and climbing beans up them as I seem to have filled all the rest of the space with onions 😂. So once I've finished weeding the veg plot (again) and watered it and mulched it, I clearly need to dig holes either side of each arch and start filling them with compost to make the equivalent of a bean trench (the soil will be grim). Which actually would be a good use of the badly composted compost as it'll probably be happier in the ground and can take some worms with it.

I'd still like to know what @wort's clematis is though :)

twopenny

Less that looks like them! Don't usually do damage to plants eh? Destroyed my chives and following year the garlic chives. They quickly destroy the leaves on my dwarf cherry and the fruits go black and shrivel. No pollen in site. We are surrounded by huge fields of rape all in bloom.

Many happy returns to Mrs D. Hope you're giving her a real treat after all she's been through lately.

Wort that azalea will stick in my mind, glorious colour especially against the black. I love the curving path. Are the pavers cut or can you buy them like that?

Greenbee, You're very creative with these arches. When do we get a picture of what you've decided?

Farway hope you stay fine after the jab this time. You need to be fit to deal with all those seeds you've bought 😉

Bluey hope pottering in the garden has given you some relaxing time and helped restore the balance. Sounds like you could both do with that. Sitting in weed free garden with a book and some beverage on Sunday? You could make potato vodka 😄 how would cissy like that?

Went to Greencombe garden this afternoon and it was stunning with the mossy paths and sunlight filtering through. Then came back and pricked out the tiny seedlings into my own compost. 🤞 They get bigger. Then sweet peas and runner beans.

The tomatoes in the garden finally didn't like 2 consecutive cold nights followed by hot days. It's definitely more extreme.

Huge flowers on the strawberries. Of course the only one I moved was the one with 3 fruits on that I hadn't noticed 😐 and more squishing of bugs.

YoungBlueEyes

Morning all :) On this day in 1775 the American Revolutionary War began.

Belated happy birthday to MrsD Dusty 🎂🥂 I hope your lurgy hangings on shift soon. There's loads of it up here and it does seem different to the last round of bugs we had. Mind I saw a picture yesterday of an orange 'doctor' when I was reading a bit of news (I'm very behind on the news) so I'm sure we'll all be cured soon. Greatly cured. The strongest and best cure. Which reminds me - the word they censored yesterday was something like peedoh. Anyway. Your proper English bluebells are a sight for sore eyes ☺️

I can't turn the page back cos it's "saving draft" constantly but wort your garden is beautiful. I love your azalea and do the flowers on the arch smell as heavenly as they look?

Farway I'm gonna have to create space for the tatties, I was thinking I'll plant them in the big trugs I've got. I don't know which sort they are, Cissie just wrote "get these purdies in". I'll take a pic so yous can offer advice. Hows your flippers today? Bit heavy with the RSJ…? 😆

Your arches gb, what about whatever it was we decided compostybag carparkii was? That was a good strong climber 🙂

I didn't get in the garden at all yesterday 2p, I've no balance cos my ears are still a bit swishy. I was sat watching a thing on Aunty-catchup called Speechless - it was about the ..uhh.. trials and tribulations of being a teacher/professor in yanquiland these days. Christ it was an eye-opener, I had no idea. Sunlit mossy paths sound just the thing, calm and restorative. You need to stock your brain with stuff you can sit and recall after you've had your op ☺️ Can you fetch your toms back in or are they planted?

OT sun's up and drying the place out, it's very pleasant out there. 7' currently, and a high of 12 to come. Probably.

Farway

Sunny & warm day ahead, bad news is no rain due for another week, always moaning but now I'm on metered water, watering is me pouring pennies into pots. Has to be done, this year I'm going to try adding a glug of fertiliser to each can of water, weak but more frequent feeding

While I was out yesterday I spotted loads of lilac out, love lilac, no room in my garden or I'd have one

YBE, my flippers are fine thanks, left hand one, Covid, is a tad tender, right hand, steel reinforced 😁, is fine. Hope your balance recovers or you may be joining me in the flower beds, bum up, face down

After the alert on aphids & cherries I checked mine, all free and no signs of aphids. I think it's the blue chests busy scoffing them this time of year, hope it continues if once the runners ever get going.

While cherry checking I spotted young pears appearing, but the photo is carp, try again later. And my Helen blackberry is cracking on this year, loads of buds on it, and about time, it's been loitering around for two years doing bu66er all

Completed my seed scattering, just wait & see now.

Today is pirk out a couple more toms and try for better pic of the pears, and tie in some stray flowers

Here's two pics from yesterday that did turn out, it's a flower edition today

Front steps, with self sown Honesty, from plants grown from seed supplied by horticultural DD a couple of years back. The foxgloves are also self sown, the seed originally sown over 40 years ago when I moved in and obviously just loves the conditions here, one has even popped up in Dog poo border. Any Hawkeyes spot some in the gaps in the steps? Where the Ergywahtsits should be 😡. The green plants, middle of handrail, are Shasta daises.

Left the pic as large

Judas tree in the sunshine, after it's severe haircut.

Dustyevsky

2p: Many happy returns to Mrs D. Hope you're giving her a real treat after all she's been through lately.

The tomatoes in the garden finally didn't like 2 consecutive cold nights followed by hot days. It's definitely more extreme.

Mrs Dusty has me as a treat 24/7 x 365,😇 (apart from when I'm with that other lady! 😈)

Seriously, she still isn't well enough to go anywhere, and her appetite's poor. Even a car ride to a local eaterie is out, currently. We were supposed to be trying a well-recommended pub today. 😪 DD2 is still unwell and off work, so this lurgy's persistent.👹 Naturally, GC3, who caught it from nursery, was over it in a few days.😉

I'm not surprised your toms are off-colour! 😯 We came close to a frost on Friday night, and it's the same this morning. Half of mine were under 2 layers of fleece inside the poly, while the others are still in our warm conservatory. Even so, the temperature differences in 24 hrs in both are unhelpfully large..

Bluey: Morning all :) On this day in 1775 the American Revolutionary War began.

Shh! Don't give people ideas! 😲'Tis bad enough the MSM are finally giving folks clues about what's to come, shortly.😟 I expect people are now clearing the shelves of all the stuff we bought weeks ago, when they said everything was tickety-boo. I've just spent reluctantly on a couple of expensive items I'd hoped not to purchase…. but if I said what, I'd probably be censored, like your PDF Files. Instead, here's proof that birds levitate….all that wing flapping is just to cover-up their real ability.

Yesterday was largely fine, and with the grass drying-out, I bit the bullet and tackled our new neighbour's acre of grass. 🤐 It hadn't been touched since my 'final' visit last autumn. He pitched-in with the rake, so in a couple of hours we'd made hay on the formal lawn, while the informal areas had been thrashed into partial submission. ☺️True to his word, (I'll call him Mr Renovator) had phoned the mowing contractor, so my involvement with that sward is now history. Hurrah! 🙂

Misty here first thing, and now the brightest, sunniest day, with all the sparkly new foliage everywhere. More mowing, I fear, and much rearrangement in the poly too. Like the guest that stays too long, I'm wondering when the sheep are going to leave us, if we're to cut hay in early July. Like us, over winter they've put on a few pounds, and I've not seen or heard from their owner since the day they arrived!

Would he miss one? 🤒

greenbee

Sheep are always escaping Dusty. If he hasn't been checking up on them, he probably won't miss several…

Farway

Would he miss one? 🤒

May as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb 😈