Awful weather - typical Brits talk

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.

Farway

Morning all, bit later today because I had to do some emergency watering, wilting pot plants at the front. Not surprising, I'm not very far from the hottest place in England. It was melting and same already today. I hear, true to form, it's too sunny for solar panels and we have to import leccy from France.

We may be importing thunder storms later tonight, hope so, could do with a god drenching

Away from that nonsense, the plant you described YBE is as Dusty said.I had one pop up when I was tending Volunteer Border. I left it, harmless enough, and a focal point, but it does have a giant tap root, just in case it pops up in a paving crack. Loves hot dry sun so ideal for it.

For Vengeance I'd save some seeds & sprinkle on Forsythia Corner 😈 Try to make sure none get in pavement, kerb, or gutter cracks or they may be hard to remove once growing. 😉

Lovely pics Wort, your lilies are ahead of me, mine are nearly there, a few more days required. I have Lucifer crocosmia, at much same stage as yours.

Dusty We're loving nasturtiums too, and don't know why we didn't companion plant with tomatoes before. I think nasturtiums are one of the hidden in plain sight marvels, maybe because they are easy & uncomplaining, will grow nearly anywhere & always just get on with it, no one thinks of them. You wait, next year Chelsea will be heaving with them !

I have one popped up, with variegated white & green leaves, I think it maybe a throw back from some Alaska strain I tried a few years back, but came to nothing. Hope it grows & seeds around. Not flowered yet so flower colour is TBA. Camera on standby.

I have a dahlia opened, Bishop of Oxford, the larger ones, cafe Au lait etc are still doing well but no flowers yet

MY ball courgettes, some are tennis ball size now, how long do I wait? not football size I know.

Much too hot for any gardening, but here's Paul waiting for a date

greenbee

Not too hot for solar @Farway but it is less efficient if too hot (which is why having grazing underneath it is good as it keeps it cool). The real issue is that a lot of nuclear power is offline at the moment (not just here, but also in France), and that while there are lots of wind farms in Scotland, no one build the infrastructure to a. store energy (hydro/flywheel/compressed air) or b. move it to where it can actually be used. And here in East Windfarmland there isn't much wind right now (although they are building a flywheel facility near me to store some of the wind/solar generation). Generation really needs to be local to balance the grid.

YBE - I have some mullein which I also leave the caterpillars on. They occasionally wander over to my prettier verbascums, but mostly seem happy to stay where they are. Farway's suggestion for forsythia corner seems like a good one!

Hot here still. It has made me realise that I need to design more shade into the garden. So that's something to think about during my unemployment! Hopefully I won't be unemployed for too long or I might have to dig holes for trees myself…