Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

The thermometer on our smoke alarm read 25c here overnight too , but it's optimistic at other times, so I suspect it was 23c. Neither of us feels uncomfortable on the north side of the bungalow. Guests get the south facing bedroom! 😉 Mostly, that's the best side, but not now, or when the south westerlies are lashing us!

Got a meeting this morning. By the time that's over we shall be forced into more dom non! 😢

Here's another sitooterie, this time from the garden visited on Monday. No Erigwhatits. 😀

greenbee

It's actually cooler here now than it was at 5am when we went out for a walk (on of the cats decided to empty toys on the bedroom floor and play loudly until I got out of bed). Since then I've opened windows and put the fan on, and upstairs is down to 21C - downstairs is still about 24C, but will benefit from shade at the front for longer (also I forgot to open the downstairs south-facing windows earlier). Not helped by the fact that the stupid aluminium windows in the kitchen a. frequently stick in hot weather and b. don't actually stay open particularly well.

Most of downstairs only has privacy/light-filtering blinds (although roman blinds are on order for the sitting room) and these normally do the job and keep things cool. However, the heat from the west has been intense, so I've rigged up some curtain wire and old sheets to cut the glare.

Outside I've dug out two old sails (looks like two Salcombe Yawl jibs) and am trying to work out how I can use them for shade.

I think the baby magnolia suffered from either wind or morning sun, so I've (probably too late) found some wind/shade netting, some fencing pins, and some netting staples, and made a shelter round it. Gave it some water, and am hoping it will recover. If not, I at least have it set up for whatever goes in there next.

More squash and tomatoes planted when I did the watering this morning (greenhouse, as I still haven't completely sorted the dripper system, and the stuff I planted over the weekend in the beds). There are now four assorted squash round the based of the dead apple tree. I'm hoping to get a squash-and-pumpkin tree :) There are also lots elsewhere. I'll try to get more beds cleared gradually (there's one with spinach in and another with broad beans to do, plus all the onions/garlic/shallots must be ready for harvesting under the calendula and opium poppies by now) and put the remaining plants in where I can, building whatever supports I can cobble together with a selection of hazel and bamboo. And I still haven't planted beans… or sowed a lot of the other stuff I'd intended to.

Farway

I'm melting, it never cooled down at all overnight, so a restless & hot night. Thank heavens for the shower, at least I had some respite for an hour or so once I'd washed the muck off me, but it's burning down now.

DD is coming home from hols, in Tenby area, early due to the heat. She is now discovering a drawback with dogs, you cannot take them everywhere, like into a cool museum, so stuck with the baking beach & too hot for walking / exploring.

Well done on cracking nasturtiums Taff, they'll hopefully be with you forever now. Love the sunflower, I've yet to crack them, slugs get them first.

I had to water wall baskets at the back first thing, droopy foliage, a daily job in the heat.

Taff There are two sparrows who are fascinated by the greenhouse and keep popping in and out of it [ I've taken some glass out so it's more open so they don't get stuck] Could they have a nest in there? Or eating you stash of aphids

Dusty Your buddleia is way ahead of ours, Farway. We still have that new aphid attacking and disfiguring them. 🤨 I agree, the Buzz series are good for the mid-border and restricted spaces, but we need a few thugs in the wilder spots. I did have three, different colours, but Vine Weevils had the White & the Pinky one. The ones I have now are from poke a stick in ground cuttings when pruning.

I have Shasta daisies just opening up nearby, which i think will make a nice contrast with the purple, if I can get a decent photo I will

Sampled the Boysenberry yesterday, a success, the berries are about Loganberry size, longer & larger than blackberries. Black / purple, very juicy & squishy, which I guess is why the commercial failure, just don't travel well.

I had about a handful, with loads more to come. Taste is sort of "perfumed", not as sharp as a loganberry, or sweet as some blackberries. If I had to choose one berry I'd stick with Merton blackberry, but for added longer season the Boysenberry would be useful, and I bet it makes good jam & crumbles. Certainly seems easy to grow IME.

Photo to follow once I can get a good one. meanwhile here is Rose Campion, I class as Wild Flower, but descriptions may differ.

wort

I hope you are all enjoying your gardens, from a nice shady spot 😉

wort

Not a cloud in the sky here, hot but a nice cooling breeze..sitting in the shade with a book. Washed my sofa throw, and done a quick hoover and mop through downstairs. I watered the front and pots at the back, really need to get hose out and water more tonight.

Yesterday was horrible hot, sticky and no breeze. I had to walk for bloods done, so when I got back that was me done for the day.

Dusty that's far too much work in this heat 🥵

Taff I prefer the sunflower you have to the regular one, well done on nastutium, I don't envy you having building work done.

wort

I can just make out the crocosmia buds. I always think they are an autumn plant for some reason.

Dustyevsky

wort: Dusty that's far too much work in this heat 🥵

Please tell Mrs Dusty! 😥We haven't dared go outside since returning from the meeting, so I've been hoovering and mopping floors much of the afternoon.😬 I should be killing thistles. They must not seed! 😐️

Not sure about crocosmia and autumn. I recall them along the cliffs in Cornwall during the summer hols, and we have our Somerset/Devon ones beside some Exmoor rivers now.. Purists don't like them, but like the American crayfish, I think they're here to stay.

Your lovely, lush photos have reminded me of a failure to take Elderberry 'Black Lace' cuttings. One of our 3 propagating cold frames is totally out of control for the second year in a row. Although there are about a dozen penstemons, perennial wallflowers, and other plants filling most of it, I'll never get them to survive if I hoik them out. 😕 It's a case of cut back and try again later.

I like the shady, secluded patio in your garden with the pinks and catmint etc surrounding it, but what's that flower which attracted the butterfly?

I missed -taff's post this morning. 😯 Have to agree that the sunflower is a very sophisticated colour, entirely in keeping with the 'Arts & Crafts' tiled bed. 😇 We're loving nasturtiums too, and don't know why we didn't companion plant with tomatoes before.

Farway, people can buy a named variety of pink campion in our GC! 😄 Boysenberry sounds good. Perhaps there ought to be a Girlsenberry too? Equal opps, and all that. 🙃

Finally, for 2p, a perfect, old-fashioned rose from Monday's trip.

YoungBlueEyes

Morning all :)
Christ it’s been hot, I’m glad you suvveners are surviving regardless. I’m sat here with all the windows opened etc to let the cool in (such as it is)…

I’ve got a something growing in my garden that may or may not be a good or bad idea. It’s taken ages to grow and the leaves were so thick and soft and lovely that I let it be, but I’m wondering now if it’s some breed of a GetRidOfItInstantly cos I’ve never seen another one..

Timeline of events. It moved in last year and was only wee for months and months, then this year it’s gone mad. This was 4weeks ago -

2 weeks ago it threw up a spike, which started getting eaten almost instantly -

But it persisted, and now the spike is about 4ft tall (whole plant is near on 6ft) and started oozing black stuff -

But it hasn’t minded a bit and is now flowering -

So what do we think? Goodie or baddie? (If it some rare yoke anyone that wants them can have seeds.)

I’m waiting to hear back from PoshTown council about the forsythia, it’s not right and I’m not letting it drop. You stand for what’s right even if you stand alone.
OT bearable here, for once. 18’c and the high might only be 26’, possibly. Not even a threat of a thunderstorm or rain cloud here but, they’ve given it for tomorrow when it may be 31’ so we’ll see. Auntie reckons the feels like will be 38’! Unnecessary is that 🥵

Dustyevsky

Bluey: Your plant is Verbascum thapsus or Mullein, and the caterpillars, not surprisingly, are from the Mullein Moth.

It's classed as a herb with uses in respiratory medicine and the woolly spike was sometimes used to make candles. We always have some of these popping-up, usually on the compost heap, and rarely where I scatter seeds!

We grow other verbascums, and I squash the caterpillars on those, but the wild one is pretty bombproof, so they get to live on that.😉

27c indoors when I woke up at 06.00. We have the container leaving here today, so I'm off now to take down the security fence and allow the lorry in…..☺️ Happy to say "Goodbye" to a 20' lump of metal in the garden! 😛

PS. "You stand for what’s right even if you stand alone."

Indeed. Tens of thousands of children were failed by councils and politicos who were supposed to be protecting them, because no one spoke up for fear of repercussions.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Burke wasn't a berk; he was bang on target

wort

Dusty the butterfly is on a lavender plant,I had to go close up to try and catch with wings open. I think it’s the colours of crocosmia that are autumn looking, same as Taffs sunflower. I would be excited to get rid of the container too, what’s moving into the vacancy ?
YBE not sure I would of got to the flowering stage with that monster flower, lovely as it now is the black stuff is rather grim😳 the beeb weather are forecasting Friday for rain here even with 32 degrees heat. It’s Sunday before it’s back to 21. Next week is all rain.