Awful weather - typical Brits talk

wort

Middle wife you’ve definitely beaten mine ,still no flowers yet.🥹 Got a couple of hours in the garden this morning after some dom non. Tying in, trimming back no one but me would know it’s been done.

Farway the boysenberry looks lovely ,do they taste like blackberries? I’m missing something with the kitchen roll 🤔

It’s stayed breezy , but the suns back not as hot but normal summer hot.

Farway

MW I may have a fully ripe one in June, do I win the first ripe tomato contest😅No, that winner's cup went to Dusty awhile back [in his tunnel]

Farway those boysenberries look fab, I have a fence that's in sun half the day, 15 foot or so and always fancied digging up the grass and planting either autumn raspberries or boysenberries, any recommendations (although no digging yet as I have compensatory muscle weakness and pain 😔Very slanted & biased response, but I love my Merton Thornless blackberry, [also endorsed by Mrs D], nearly "proper" blackberry taste, prolific, no thorns, care free, fine raw or cooked, freezes as well

And also the Boysenberry, again no thorns, easy, never available in shops,[does not travel], large & juicy. Not tried but I bet ideal in pies, jam, fine raw.

You'd only need to dig up a square for either of them, enough to get roots in and allow for watering

You could have both, one at each end? 😈

Wort Farway the boysenberry looks lovely ,do they taste like blackberries? No, it's a unique sort of floral, sort of perfumed taste. Not overly sweet or sharp. If you like blackberries, raspberries etc you will like these

But like all berries, rain & damp weather ruins them. Both have good, reddish, large & prolific blossom for a great display in Spring

Both seem pest free to me, birds & squirrels no doubt will have them given a chance

Boysenberry roots very easy from tip layers, just looking at soil & it sprouts roots, good for gifting, but untended it could become a thicket after a year or so, but at least thorn less

twopenny

So we're back to sweltering 😑 seldom see the British get so excited about big dark clouds we saw lunchime but they did. However they went Wales worth.

My geraniums are just wilting flowers and the red ones are getting rust. Never found a cure for this. Anyone got one?

I'm wilting too. Enough of this heat 🥺 think I'm going to sleep through the rest of it.

LessImpecunious

2P So we're back to sweltering 😑 seldom see the British get so excited
about big dark clouds we saw lunchime but they did. However they went
Wales worth.

Hmm, didn't reach me…or at least had evaporated a bit by the time they reached here - just normal clouds passing over at speed in a brisk breeze; almost cool at times, tho' I was definitely WOC (or anything much other than shorts and short-sleeved shirt - too warm for T-shirt)… The heat following the wet has accelerated everything into that tired gone-over garden look that should have waited another month or so…🙁 At least it's dry enough to be able to pull weeds easily (was puzzled by Dusty's (I think) comment a while ago that damp soil was preferable, not a fan of soggy clods of soil stuck to the roots!

I have a few toms, but still small and green; picked a ripe gooseberry today, and some rasps yesterday, but red and blackcurrants still seem hard and sharp…

Dustyevsky

Less: At least it's dry enough to be able to pull weeds easily (was puzzled by
Dusty's (I think) comment a while ago that damp soil was preferable,
not a fan of soggy clods of soil stuck to the roots!

It probably depends on the soil and the weed, but our light soil gets hard and weeds then snap before the roots come out, resulting in re-growth. In wetter conditions, we get the roots, especially when willowherb is concerned.

And speaking of weeds, especially the Bill & Ben character, Weed, Mrs D and I were in Exmouth yesterday, celebrating a 70th wedding anniversary (you don't see many of those!) with a boat trip. On our inefficient walk from the station to the marina, I spotted this woolly tableau perched on a pillar box: Unfortunately, Weed is only just visible…🙄

In our party, one member, Bluey (and others) will appreciate, was present. I don't know how she lost an eye, but the experience didn't alter her very laid-back nature:

It was a great day for a boat trip on the Exe estuary: bright, breezy and not too warm for the train ride there.😊

In the pub afterwards, I saw something else which Bluey may be able to explain better than I can!. 😮

Two of these photos have strayed rather far from gardening, so they will magically disappear later! 😉

Dustyevsky

middlewife: Morning all, last hot day here, but it has brought my cherry toms on a treat, I may have a fully ripe one in June, do I win the first ripe tomato contest😅

Dusty that's left a fair space behind , what are you going to do with it?

The first ripe tomato here was on May 31st, but the main thing to take from that is the variety: Cherry Falls. It's cheap, reliable, and tastes good too. 😃

The space left by the container, and all the land to the gates will be grassed-over as an agricultural track. That's what it is in planning terms. We have plenty of garden to the north, including the polytunnel. Long story, but most of that is still classed as agricultural land too, but not for much longer! 😉

Farway

Much cooler at last, still sun etc, just less humid, just like summer.

I was still out watering first thing, hose on the wilty wall baskets at the back, and a squirt on my runners, now I have some white flowers as well as pink, so looks like two varieties survived. Both still bean less so far, hope they are not lessbeans like my broad beans were.😁

Watched GW yesterday, forewarned on certain parts as maybe not suitable viewing😂I have a cunning plan though, there is a gap in a corner of my front steps where I think an Erywhatname would get a roothold. Obviously my conditions are just not right for some self seeders.

I wonder how my Sea Holly will do self seeding? It came from Morries as a young plant last year & is about to flower in Poo border. And I have loads of pansies, also Morries 2025, about to seed, lets see how they do, I may try a pinch of pansy seed in the step corner

No gardening planned for today, I'm more or less up to where I need to be, even thinned out my apples, although this year there do not seem to be as many as last year

Here's one of my useless red pears after yesterday's rain

twopenny

I wait for the day you post your frustration with having to hack back the daisy's.

I know that day will come 😂

Farway

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82050465#Comment_82050465

You're right, if they ever get going I expect I will trip over them as I hobble down the steps, and as I slump there, dazed & bruised, get set upon by livid lily beetles and voracious vine weevils 🤣

Dustyevsky

I think the Erigwhatsits are in a group which grow with apparent abundance when self-seeded, but don't respond well when planted, or deliberately seeded. They aren't really that fussy about soils.

A similar plant is Erodium pelargoniflorum, which I advise people to plant at midnight when there's no moon. Slip it out of its pot into a pre-prepared, measured hole, don't firm it in, and don't water it; just run away, fast!.

That worked for a friend. Soon, they were taking over the front of the border.😳