Awful weather - typical Brits talk

YoungBlueEyes

Morning all, on Star Wars Day 🙂

2p I agree with Dusty - just nip a wee bit off the comfrey cos then it's not stealing if the thing's still there eh 😀

Less I never even thought of planting my macrorrhizum as ground cover. Mind we don't know if we're stopping here yet and I'm quite fond of the thing so I'll keep it in it's pot.

I didn't get any gardening done at all yesterday, it was drizzly and showery and not exactly warm. Today is about the same - temps up in the mid teens and only drizzle or it'll be dry, possibly. If himself ever peels his erse outta bed we'll be off to the beach, should be empty today with it being less than glorious weather and kids go back tomorrow so parents should be sorting that out 🤞

I forgot to tell you a Most Important Thing yesterday! I was all set to plant my sweetpeas up the trellis+bits of string fandangle that I did the other year, and look what's moved in (I’ll leave the pic big so yous can see them)

That's on the right hand side where I don't get any weeds really so I don't know how long they've been there. And yes I did squeal a bit 🤗 So I lashed together a sort of bamboo cane wigwam and they can grow up that if they want.

More pics. Shocking news - I am no longer a Dog Person, I am a Cat Person, because look -

This is DeadStickTree, and it's doing grand now! His Holyness wipes his chops up and down the trunk and then falls asleep. Well I don't know how long he's been doing it but the tree's in great shape 👏

Roses. My rose from that pic the other day is out, and it's beautiful and fragrant -

Swish Rose is out too. Some of the blooms are lovely but some look like they've been chomped down to half by something. I couldn't see any likely culprits so maybe it just grew wrong…?

*Sigh * there's always something eh.

Dustyevsky

A misty start here, but they say we're heading into some potentially calm, part-sunny weather, with increasing chances of showers. Maybe the folks here on the long weekend will get a half-decent day from it.😊 But are there many city people having quickie holidays here? It was very quiet, out and about yesterday, putting up posters. Admittedly we're not where most tourists go, but even the locals seemed to have gone to ground. 🤔

I've cracked the yellow-leaved salad plant mystery, Less. It wasn't hard. I found the packet of T&M seed used, and on there it was listed as 'golden leaved pak choi.' It's in the photo too, but I missed that originally. They use a different photo here:

https://www.thompson-morgan.com/p/salad-leaves-bright-and-spicy-seeds/881TM

Anyway, I can recommend, but mine were cheaper. 😃

Yes, Bluey, G macrorrhizum is scattered around here too. There are tasteful or loud pinks, plus an almost white. Good weed suppressing ground cover that will bloom twice a year if gone over with the shears!😉

Our non cat-wee tree is blooming now and smells good in the evening. It looks OK after having its crown lifted. Perhaps we should call it Andrew? 😈 Second thoughts, no. Gladys wouldn't approve. Having an Andrew leering down at her bare chest would be most inappropriate. 😱

Edit: Almost cross-posted with Bluey. Love the Terror, fast asleep, and the old-fashioned roses! 😍

YoungBlueEyes

Andrew <snort> 😆 Gawd I love this place.

twopenny

Love the roses Bluey 😍 do you know what they are called? The creamy one especially, enough rose to be a rose but open enough for the bees.

I think your disfunctional one could have been the weather or aphids affecting the bud.

Your may tree looks magnificent trimmed like that too Dusty. And a great dinner table for the birds and bees 😉

Less can't your hound sniff out the plant? If not you should train him to 😄

Infection is passing with rest. Just feel like that fish called a Slime Head now and tired with coughing. "Most slimeheads are sluggish and demersal, spending most of their time near the bottom . The head is especially notable for its network of mucus-filled canals, "

Thundery showers yesterday so everything is growing like mad. I've found that it was the fountain that was keeping the birds away as it came on and off. Now it's off the dunnock are feeding on the caterpillars. So that needs sorting out.

Would like to head for the hills to get some fresh air through the tubes but it's grey, dull, damp with a chance of rain , no sign of the sunny spells yet so not inviting to an invalid.

Farway

Dull and chilly, maybe improve later. All rain itoday s supposed to be North of me, along M4 corridor, so grateful for what I did get.

I was thinking of putting the three runners I do have out, but weather due to get colder, with even snow on the mountains, so I'll postponed that a day or two. They do physically need to get our soon, starting to climb & twist now

YBE Could you dry out your soaked runners and keep them 'til next year or is that them started now? It did cross my mind, but they had been out all night in the rian and I'm not sure if "life" may have been triggered, or not. Decided against in case they just rotted away or failed to germinate next year if dried out again. By growing on I hope to save some fresh seeds for next year, and I've only got three growing this year despite sowing umpteen

Sorry YBE, I can't see the wood for the trees in your fence pic. What should I see but failing to? Are we talking LIAM?

The cat's enjoying it anyway, and the chomped rose, is it one of them there Cabbage roses that were all the rage a few years back?

Still waiting for any rose to open here,I have buds, just dragging their heels

Now then, this lad #lady flew in my conservatory yesterday, lingered a while and I eventually got him / her out before closed up for the night. Had to ask Chat to ID it, I thought maybe Speckled Wood, but seems it is a declining Wall Brown

Based on the orange-and-brown patterning with multiple eye-spots, especially the row of small “eyes” on the hindwings and the larger one on the forewing, this matches a Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera).

Why this fits your butterfly

• Orange-brown wings with dark borders ✔️
• One larger eyespot on the forewing + several smaller ones on the hindwing

Just refreshed, good you're on the mend 2P

YoungBlueEyes

Morning all, on back to bladdy work day.
2p the lovely peachy rose is one of the two swish ones I bought, that ones The Churchill Rose. The half eaten one is on the same bush, and it’s also got a white one. I dunno what’s going on there, it’s just making stuff up as it goes along. Good to hear your filthy lurgy is on it’s way out 👏🏻I remember watching the slime fish on QI - producing a bucket of slime in 2 seconds or something *boke *

Farway yep it’s LIAMs ☺️Dunno where they came from but I hope they want to live here permanently. Cabbage rose 😆 I wonder why the Wall Brown is declining, it’s got camouflage so it can’t be that. Habitat or food sources then? Maybe your one is the one that saves them all, like wosname and his bananas.
CatWeeTree is near on in full bloom now, bloody thing. I’d love to do an Andrew on it but blackies live in there. And blueteets have moved into the hedge at the front, so that’s that off limits.
Couple of pics. My 3 plants which are not called cystitis are blooming one at a time. The white one is near done, the yellow one is about right and the fancy red jobber is just coming good -

They're quite attractive but it’s a pig of job getting the bindweed out from round their erses.

I’ve something growing on my apple tree and I don’t know if it’s good or bad. I’m guessing bad - will I snip the bits off when I get in tonight?

There’s quite a few patches but I daren’t touch it so I don’t know if it’s fluffy or slime or smelly or what. So, wipe off or cut off..?
OT - another lovely Spring morning. 7’c currently and a high of 13’ to come, possibly. Dry and calm all day they say. Sunny too, the clouds are fluffy like teased out cotton wool. I’ll take it 😊

Oh and yes to white strawberries 2p, sure you can’t see them when you’re chewing them eh 🙂

Dustyevsky

Your not cystitis looks quite like a Colutea I'm trying to grow, Bluey. It's summat like this, supposedly.

https://www.burncoose.co.uk/site/plants.cfm?pl_id=1212

After a year, mine's about 5cm high! 🙁

I think your grey apple leaves are just a bit of botrytis. Just snip them off and offer up a prayer to the god Pan. It won't do any good, but spraying fungicide will cost, and it probably won't work either. Farway will have a trusted, cheap, illegal remedy. 😉

We saw a Wall Brown butterfly last year at one of the Brendon gardens on Exmoor. Never seeing one here, w guessed it was rare. 🙂

Behind schedule today, so a quick photo-delve, and I'll be on my way….How about a view of our Secret Garden from the field. It's neighbours' bungalow on the right. We're just about visible behind the trees, which act as a shelter belt against the nasty winter easterlies.

Oh dear, It's not secret now,

😫

but the sheep knew all along! 😀

Farway

Dullish and coolish, but trying to be sunny

YBE I’ve something growing on my apple tree and I don’t know if it’s good or bad. I’m guessing bad - will I snip the bits off when I get in tonight? Yes, BAD, get snipping,and bung bits in the bin. Cut back to a good bud. It's powdery mildew & will spread if left. Once cut off it tends to stay away, just needs a wary eye open. Next thing is Woolly Aphids, cotton wool in or near cracks & crevices, squish them, or dab Meths on them

I suppose it's only right & proper to have [not] cystitis bushes near wee trees 😂. My CWT is in full pong now

And hooray for your LIAMs, let's hope they are a tough & persistent strain, enough to stick around forever.

As foretold, once I had messed up with the runner beans seeds getting wet left out in rain & sown because it was that or bin, my real, sown on purpose ones, have germinated. 😐️ These ones are my own saved 2024 seeds. No sign of Cobra French beans yet

And, TaRa, Bishop of Canterbury dahlia has sprouted, nice red foliage was hidden under the weeds in the pot. I'll need to find a decent sized pot now. I'm hoping to be in Home B tomorrow, plenty of choices there

Only gardening today is maybe add a support cane to a tree lily that I thought had gone to Norway, and maybe pick some rhubarb from the crown neighbour Jim gave me last year, my first sample, looks lovely dark red stems, variety unknown

-taff

Again, long time , no write. Back from a weekend in Wales to clear yet more stuff, my boot is full of stuff to take to the Sally Army [ because they accept everything].

I've just caught up three pages now, to say nothing of the ones before them, glad everyone seems to be unlurgied now but unfortunately, with all the same aches and pains [ including me] . Before I forget, 2p, why don't you stick some mulch or something around your toms, hopefully it will lessen the watering. Sorry about your delayed op when you were all ready to go. Love the stuff in pots in the ground idea, I put some chcolate mint in the front garden unfettered, now it's proving it's a good example of the species after hiding for a year, now it's definitely alive and spreading. Smells nice though. I remember mowing the lawn at an ex kinda sorta MIL garden where that had happened and it did smell absolutely lovely. After an espeiment, I decied that putting a load of comfrey leaves in a covered bin or bucket or tub or whatever and leaving them over winter, produced a remarkable not very smelly concentrated feed, so if you don't like the smell of plant sewers, do that instead of adding water. I did heave a bit at the snot producing fish too, lovely mental image..

Mathiola wotsit alba is now on my list as well thanks Dusty., I might even stir myself next Tuesday and see about a trip to Special Plants, because I think the garden is open on a Tuesday. Lovely Andrew tree :) .lovely aquilegias ybe! Fancy having surprsie LIAMs! woop woop! Keep the cat tree, it's very pretty :) Lovely roses too. You should be able to get Epsom salts from health food shops or bargain stores sometimes. wort, well done on your gaura sprouting, no sign of mine for a couple of weeks, I think they've taken a trip to the north. Your yellowing leaves Farway, mine too, the bays I separated have started to turn up their toes and I've no idea what I'm doing wrong. normally that stuff is indestructible.

And a special mention ot all photos I haven't mentioned, including the skies, landscapes, fruit, flowers et al…

I've been Doing Things again, so get ready for picture heaving posting…

One bed is now made, finished yesterday as below, used up nearly all the little roof tiles so I was able to finally move my compost bins to the side out of the way. The large tiles are to be used elsewhere in the next job…

This is the bit to the side where the wild garlic and comfrey are slugging it out including my new structure so the cats can still climb the fence.

Greenhouse before the weekend, bursting a bit

And finally, the tulips I planted late, two bloomed, good enough for me :)

Got some dwarf french beans to sow today, and then a sit down…Weather has been quite good, only a little bit of rain, hopefully it'll chuck it down when I've finished levelling off the bed I just rejigged :) And a few days after I started taking blood thinners, a chair fell on my foot, it was very colourful, so I've decided against taking them until the op date is confirmed [ an ablation] because no thank you very much :) clumsiness is not a superpower unfortunately…

twopenny

Wow Wort. You've been busy - as usual 😉

Love the tile bed. So clever. It's like the ones in India which I had a hankering for.

My runners haven't shown. Planted beens in the ground after soaking but they're sulking.

Spent the day getting bugs off leaves ☹️ the ants have dug all the grouting out of the pavers during the two days of rain, the cherry has these massive black bugs and the apricot something that looks like a pill bug clamped to its bark.

Those of a nervous disposition don't look at the photos

Bluey you get your knowledge from the same place as me by the sound of it.

Cloudy with sunny spells. Mild.