Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

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

We have a record of zero losses over >15 years, which is probably why he just leaves us to look after them.🤨 He knows if we spot something wrong, we'll phone. And none of us likes to know which sheep we're consuming. Even our farmer friend has a way of randomising the finished product! 😄

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

Get you, not falling into the 'hung' trap there! 😇 We oldies was schooled proper, weren't us? 😉

Another equable day here, with light winds. More mowing in the morning, and after a snooze, filling the last deep bed in the poly. Pictures tomorrow, 🙂

twopenny

Lovely weather here and despite spending it sorting the garage stuff and pulling up the rampant erigion 😉 then tidying the front garden I managed a bit of sunburn having lunch 😐 25c out the back

All my body parts went to pot and the last job of planting a lavender cutting I couldn't do because the mother ladybird was out there frantically gathering food over 2 hrs.

Hope you're feeling a bit better Bluey , earache is horrible.

You're garden is lovely Farway 😍 such wonderful colours. Quite bucolic 🙂

Dustyevsky

I missed Farway's steps yesterday.🤔 They look splendid, if a bit scary! That handrail has probably earned its keep over the years.😉 The self-sustaining foxgloves must look great when blooming. I expect you follow the early bloomers with other plants, like fuchsias if that's a spot foxgloves like. I can easil imagine the Erigeron karvinskianus in there too. 🙂

I'm trying to introduce foxgloves to the banks of the stream, and they bloom there if planted. However, I've a feeling they'd be there already if they really liked the conditions.

It's a pity the Judas Tree is named after a famous turncoat and probable headknob. 😥 I'm sure it would be more popular with a different name. No, I'm not going there! 🤣

Another slightly cool, benign day here, and it looks as if the weather's forecast to steadily provide sunshine through the week ahead, albeit with some fierce, drying winds on Wednesday.😬 Hopefully, Mrs D and I will tidy more borders. We're behind now, and the weeds are winning. 😥 With everything growing away like mad, there are too many things demanding attention! 😨

The last deep bed in the poly I mentioned yesterday, is partially filled with a mix of soil, composted bark and very well-rotted manure. As I'm strapped for time, I'm going to leave it half done for now:

I've covered the surface with cardboard, and we'll use it as a temporary place to store plants etc, as space is becoming very limited in there! 😏

Farway

More sunshine & blue skies, set fair for the week, but like Dusty, a cool breeze blowing which takes the warm edge off, pleasant in the sheltered sunny bits though

2P, I like Bucolic, yep, that's what I'm trying for, wild, natural looking chaos within bounds, no bare earth. The weeds sometimes get a bit rampant but I try and catch 'em young if possible. That front bit is very poor soil, clay & rubble so anything has to be tough to survive there

Dusty, I missed Farway's steps yesterday.🤔 They look splendid, if a bit scary! That handrail has probably earned its keep over the years.😉 The self-sustaining foxgloves must look great when blooming. I expect you follow the early bloomers with other plants, like fuchsias if that's a spot foxgloves like. I can easil imagine the Erigeron karvinskianus in there too. 🙂

That handrail is a God send, thanks to the NHS and taxpayers who fitted it as part of my rehab, physio & return home after spell in hospital spell some years back. Cheaper than me becoming a Bed Blocker. I keep meaning to put some mesh under the lower bit, and train some climbing summat up there and fill that space. Work in progress, just needs me to get to do it. purple podded Mange toots would be nice, they have just sprouted, so could do that if CBA.

I'm itching for the foxgloves to open, was it you who pointed out the foliage colour gives early clue to flower colour? Paler is white, darker leaves are purple. I do try with fuchsias, I'm on the look out in Morries right now, but vine weevils love them so have to treat as annuals, and some fox gloves get munched by the weevils as well, but seem to hold their own after a drink of Jeyes fluid solution

I'll gloss over erigerons, look there's a squirrel, and it was all some one else's fault anyway, the seeds never crossed my desk. 😈😁

Good going on the poly beds, time whizzes by, especially if a few days are missed because of "things". Hope Mrs D is improving, she sounds similar to my DiL, who suffers badly when Lurgy type things happen

Woo hoo, my Celebration runners are poking above the compost, it was a race between rotting & growing

Jobs for today, pirk out the Balcony Yellow micro toms, got about six, own saved smeared seeds, and maybe water some pots before it gets too dry

Today is currants, not sure if red or white, I have both, muddled together

twopenny

No gardening today other than to look to see how dry everything was. Watering and feeding tomorrow I hope. I have germinated some salad seeds in my pot in a pot idea. Not sure how they;ll manage in the mixed compost. It still seems a bit like shredded branches. Hoping it's better stuff underneath/

You're on a runner with all that growth Farway. Steaming ahead. .

It will be interesting to see if Dustys polytunnel stuff catches up or yours does. I think I'm the control with everything going outside.

So a touch of Greencombe.Glorious for sure but I do think I prefer Worts single plant against a black backdrop. Sort of like Chinese idea of having one that you can study and appreciate for it's beauty.

Farway

Sunny, but a bitter wind coming from somewhere very chilly, no clout casting yet awhile, hope you have better 2P if watering & feeding

2P You're on a runner with all that growth Farway. Steaming ahead. I'm getting a bit concerned about runners / climbing beans, I don't want many, about six or so, but attempts so far are a let down, older seeds but I hoped for better results, got one coming up 😒, the rest may be dreaming about fiords.

Found old [2019] packet of Cobra climbing French beans, I'll sow some this afternoon, in a pot, in the conservatory, if that fails then Hello Morries plant sales. Of course this will trigger amazing germination & I'll have a bean forest

All toms, except two scrawny Outdoor Girls, now pirked out and in the unheated conservatory. Over supplied again 😣, some I'll give away and about half again, about 10, are what we now know as micro, so not much space needed for them.

Also found opened old packet of sunflower seeds, duly sowed in situ at the front, on the off chance a couple may make it

And spotted the cuttings that stuck to my secateurs from next doors Hot Lips, can't remember if it was Purple lipped, are showing signs of new growth, looks like they have taken root. Hooray.

twopenny

Not looking promising today. Power cut overnight, well 4.50am 😬 and was woken by a text telling me. Then woken again an hour later to say it was back on, then another hour and the TV had switched itself on. This in constant contact is a pita!

Grey rainy looking sky and cold wind so no gardening yet.

I listened to a podcast that was interesting about AI , don't know if it would interest you Farway. It's a bit like a who dun it but makes you think it may not be so far from the truth when you see what's going on 😉

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002stym

Back to indoor work. It's supposed to cheer up later but I'm not convinced.

Dustyevsky

Great excitement here this morning as our collection point became subject to investigation by the Council's Recycling Hit Squad. 😨 Having recently spoken to the ladies who do this work, I knew this was coming, but anyone viewing our collection point would know it's not a great example of intelligent human cooperation. For example, who'd think a toilet seat is a tin, a glass jar or a small electrical device? Someone here does! 🤣 But it's the non-recyclers they're really after. Fifteen properties, and maybe 10 who put out recycling. Tells its own story.😕

Farway: I'm itching for the foxgloves to open, was it you who pointed out the foliage colour gives early clue to flower colour? Paler is white, darker leaves are purple. I do try with fuchsias, I'm on the look out in Morries right now, but vine weevils love them so have to treat as annuals, and some fox gloves get munched by the weevils as well, but seem to hold their own after a drink of Jeyes fluid solution

Yes, the white ones definitely. I'm not sure about the spotted whites, apricots etc.

Farway : ….time whizzes by, especially if a few days are missed because of "things". Hope Mrs D is improving, she sounds similar to my DiL, who suffers badly when Lurgy type things happen

We had such a wet winter, we were behind anyway. 😐️Then, as you say, 'things' have eaten our time. Mrs Dusty, like me, rarely catches anything, but when she does, it's in style! 🤨

Late today. 😔I was out for much of the time in the big, van collecting various necessities, including diesel and some posh petrol for the ancient mowers. Not the much-vaunted £2 a litre, but enough! 😫

😕 I popped into Morries, and noticed a goodly selection of climbers and fuchsias outside, some of them already heading fjord-wards on their Danish trolley, powered by the fierce and chilly easterly. 🙄

Your bean discovery may be a gentle reminder the other COBRA has been in session over…err….supply chain difficulties. At the garden centre, the heavy-side manager told me of hold-ups with supplies of their good compost from Ireland. Something about extra tariffs. Pointing to around 6 packs of Erin, he said, “That's the last pallet for quite a while.” You can guess what I did next! 😄 Their own-brand compost, which is great, has moved from 4 bags @ £20 to 3 bags @ £18. I had a few of those too.

I won't bore you with the farmer's store, or the cat food. The latter has plenty of protein, but I'd have to be desperate! 😆

It did clear-up 2p, but the wind continued all through unloading. It's still going. I didn't dare open both end doors on the poly.

Inside, I'm trying to do the big swop-over, from winter crops to the toms, peppers etc. The oriental cut and come again is still going well, but now liable to bolt. Here's a tub of them. No idea what some are!

Yes,😬 something's had a go at them.

twopenny

Is that salad Dusty?

I really must grow some more. Hopefully continuously. Maybe I could utilise the boiler vent and keep fingers crossed 🤞 that it's not dangerous 😲

Dustyevsky

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81972518#Comment_81972518

Yes, there are oriental mustards there, and something called komatsuna, but I don't know what the bright yellow-green stuff is. It's very mild and trying to flower now, but it hasn't gone bitter. Then there's a frilly leafed thing that may have been sold as mizuna, though it's more likely to be another mustard. The trouble is, I've mixtures of seeds from 3 or 4 places, and as I mix them up a bit, there's no tracing them back to a description, assuming there was one. Sometimes it's just "Spicy Mix" or "Frilly Leaved Mix." 🤔