Awful weather - typical Brits talk

greenbee

we’ve had drizzle! Not sure how much, but it’s very welcome.

twopenny

Yesterday (seems my post didn't get posted) - Been 27c in my garden, shady side 5pm 21c.

I like that phrase litany of other stuff. Felt a tad better this morning so that's what I had to do. No choice. Now I feel worse ☹️ so a lie in tomorrow.

I need to water stuff.

Today - Very grey 10c, North wind blowing but apparently it's not going to rain.

It's a battle to keep the plants in pots alive. I've a bath full of water but I'm full of water it seems with the amount of tissues I'm using, feeling poorly. Yup, the 50mile blood test tomorrow. Op on the 11th 😵‍💫 .

Dustyevsky

A very floriferous grouping there, Bluey.😊 Seeing the aquilegias opening to reveal their often wayward parentage is fun. Some old, some new, some throwbacks, and sometimes, even red among the white and blue. 🙂

I was wondering about WM, so thanks for the reassurance. Will life ever calm down, though? 🤔

The knee and leg problems aren't Mrs Dusty's doing; they've been ongoing for some years. I'll probably have to get the quack to refer me, which takes months.😓 Then they'll do X-rays and say, “It's worse.” I'll say, “Yes, that's why I'm here.” Then, maybe, I'll get on the list, or perhaps not. 😔 I don't see myself walking 6 or 7 miles this year, lost or not, but I said that last year, and something changed for the better. 😏

A cloudy and cool day here with a sharp easterly blowing. That's OK for the jobs I want to do.

Cross posted with 2p. All the best with the drive tomorrow. Mrs D and I know all about the long trips for 5 mins work! 😩

Farway

Blumming cold wind this morning, and dull grey, no rain but it looks like it could do & I wish it would, if not I'll be watering the front pots this afternoon

Best wishes for those with aches, pains, coughs, croaks, and long drives ahead. Awful if just for a blood test 2P, my GP does them but I suppose NHS being what it is you have to go for the five minute check and quiz, I know I had to go to hospital just for a weigh in & blood pressure, but my hospital aggro consists of finding parking spaces, not travelling miles

Good to hear about WM, I got exhausted just reading the work she was putting in 😉

YBE Have you high hopes for the Boynsenberry Farway? Any clue what they’ll taste like? I do have high hopes, it looks like it is going to be covered in blossom, like my Merton blackberry, so if as productive that'll be great. Tastes, unknown, similar to Loganberry so I read, sort of large, sweet but tart long blackberry, but there are assorted cultivars so varies I guess. Doesn't travel, so another fruit you will never see in shops.

I do like growing unique fruits or varieties if I can, I blame my grandad who grew yellow raspberries way back in the 1940s /50s. I can taste Nan's yellow raspberry jam even now 😋

Love, and hate, your Aquilegia, mine is just a mucky purple disgrace, one of the "throwbacks" I guess, probably plays a banjo when I'm not around 😂https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFutge4xn3w

Only watering today, I have to sort out ISAs, for some reason on line is not good enough, has to be a signed paper posted form.

Today it's my Morries clematis, label lost of course, but it has flowered after a few years of absence, so I'll forgive it.

And my Morries Acer, bought it a couple of years back, because of postings on here and I fancied a nice red leaved jobby. Still in a pot while I ponder on a good location for it, no direct sun or cold winds etc

twopenny

Thinking of yellow raspberries, (never tried them but the canes for sale in Morrisons) what are people's thoughts on white strawberries?

I only know them from the reduced baskets in Tesco's so they don't seem over popular. Told they taste ok.

But there is no real white fruit. And everything about it tells you it's unripe and will taste unpleasant.

I have a few of the ordinary sort.

Love the colour of your aquilegia Bluey 💙

So sorry, I have been reading enjoyably, but can't remember who or what with fuzzy head 🙂‍↕️

Dustyevsky

2p: Thinking of yellow raspberries, (never tried them but the canes for sale in Morrisons) what are people's thoughts on white strawberries?

The raspberries might have an AGM. One yellow variety does. However, white strawberries aren't going to look attractive, no matter how they taste!

I hope your lurgy is easing today, and wort's too.😃 The one we've had is a stinker, for some folk. I'm OK, but Mrs Dusty did too much on Monday, and paid for it yesterday, with non-stop coughing. Temperatures dipped, but it wasn't that bad, and we had no rain. We were back to a warm stove in the evening though. I thought that was past, but with heating oil still at £1.10 per litre, wood's cheaper!

We have loads of strawberries forming this year, courtesy of my neglecting to cut off runners last year. Sometimes, indolence pays! 😄

Farway, your aquilegia envy is parallelled here with clematis inferiority complex.😔 I cannot recall all, but we have many sites where clematis have met their doom in dry weather. We've even lost montana! 😲

Today's plant I could smell at a distance of 5m last night, even with the remnants of lurgy! It's related to cabbages and does well on our soil, lasting a couple of years before it gets too woody.

Edit: I thought the above photo wasn't very good, but see Beth Chatto & co below. They're not doing it justice!

https://www.bethchatto.co.uk/conditions/plants-for-dry-conditions/matthiola-incana-alba.htm

Our original seed is a mystery. Either we got it from Derry Watkins at Special Plants, or she got it from us. There was a lot of cross-pollination going on! Anyway, she still has it and her pictures are better!

https://www.specialplants.net/shop/seeds/matthiola_perennis_alba/

Farway

Bit later today, lugging my shopping delivery indoors.

Sunny, but a very cold wind, I've only just put the hardening off plants outside, in a sheltered spot, much too chilly earlier

The yellow raspberries I grew were Fall Gold, which seems to be the one readily available. It was OK and eventually died off, although I have the occasional survivor pop up here & there. It was inferior taste to whatever one my grandad grew, even with nostalgia tinted specs on.

I see the AGM one is All Gold, easily mistaken name. One advantage I noted was the birds did not seem to recognise yellow as tasty. This also seems to apply to my yellow pyracantha, until hunger gets the upper hand. Maybe the same would apply to white strawberries?

Lurgy, mine came back yesterday evening 🤨, just a brief shivering & sneezing visit, never needed a P pill so not a bad visitation. Fine this morning

Watering completed, I have a new problem now, never really had this one before, just something I've read about. Some plants, in pots, have yellow leaves & green veins, which could be many things but I reckon is linked to the carp compost I've had to use.

Monty Google suggests Epsom Salts, but I don't have that. What I have done is knock up a decent mix of Miracle Gro and watered that on. I would have used a nitrogen heavy mix of Sulphate of ammonia if I had some. I did consider, just for a wee while 😁, using my home made liquid, but decided I needed to get the remedy on right away. I'll give it a few days and see what transpires

Today is my goosegogs, now teenagers

twopenny

Epsom salts (with lavender or eucalyptus scent) are available in Poundland in the bathing section. It's in sachets.

Been for the blood test, you and half due to roadworks bunging up lorries and buses on narrow twisty streets. Quicker coming back. May have to cancel the op due to whatever bug I got in case it's in my lungs. Oh joy! Not. But maybe the universe has a reason.

So no gardening except I did talk to a lady waiting for her husband and she'd visited 3 garden centres on the way and another planned for the way back. They were from Devon so no point in suggesting. It had to be Helen something.

wort

ah no Farway another 👂 🐛 needles and pinza 😂 at least Sherry I knew more words. Just letting you know I only know these songs because I have much older siblings 😉😂 and stop bragging about your cafe au lait or I’ll have to tell you about digging out bits of self seeded Erigeron !!
I am still doing the daily move from sunny windows at the front in the morning to the back in the evening with my seeds. The Toms have been picked out I did two seed snails and a couple of pots . My gaura now have 4 tiny seeds sprouting . I’m not sure how these will fare when I’m on holiday !!!

The lurgy has eased, hoping it’s off now. Yesterday I did the watering then tidied the weeds at the front ,and edged the lawn. Had a two hour walk up the canal in the sun we still have the chilly wind blowing here,and looking like more of the same today.

Good luck YBE with the lucky dip potatoes, are you hoping for waxy or mashers? Lovely Aguilegia, my two tone one has turned into one colour. But I love them anyway.

Farway

Sunny again, and the wind has dropped a bit. Went up to Morries first thing, realised it was now or never to post my Voting and ISA forms, decided today because of Bank Hols and maybe delays in postal vote deliveries, don't want to be the one vote that tips the scales the "wrong" way

Plus the BH plants are out at Morries, well some are, the ones I particularly wanted, fuchsias, are MIA 😭. Came home with 3 for 2 bedding begonias instead, and left the consolation pork pie on the shelf this time.

I like the idea of tidying the weeds, sums it nicely up I think

Thanks for Epsom salt tip 2P, must admit I've not been in £land since pre Covid, no reason for me to go there normally, and as far as possible I avoid personal shopping except in a GC or linked activities. It's near my Specsavers, so next eye test I'll get some, just in case.

Hope the op can go ahead as planned, unless it's in the stars and like Holby City, a tanker is going to crash into the hospital.

Bloody Butcher tom seed, from 2024 own seed squelching, has germinated. It's a late one I'm growing just for some seeds

No gardening planned, maybe a spot of watering, no rain, except maybe a shower, due this weekend

I have baby apples and plums, so at least some blossom set.

Here's my yellow leaf collection😞