Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Another hot day with interrupted sleep and the wind dropped yesterday. Not much better this morning.

Just moving the potted geraniums round the side. 13 in small pots I'm fed up with watering when the flowers mostly die. Round the side in the shade and I can just chuck some water on as I go.

Flocks of little birds with the odd blackbird and pigeon are around. They didn't seem to bother with a second brood and the wildlife on the moor is desperate again.

Hardly any farm animals are in the fields with the heat and lack of grass. Prices will rise again.

Think it's just watering again today and feeding. Tomatoes are coming but mostly the little yellow ones I did from taking last years seed.

Do you remember when tomatoes dropped in price in the summer because so many people grew their own?

Farway

Rain & Walnut envy here. Supposed to be our last boiling day of 30, back to "normal" mid twenties from tomorrow

Early start due to heat again. Out feeding & watering all the pots at the front first thing while still cool. The large dahlias, Cafe Au Lait type, have fat buds now showing some colour, next stage is have T & M have sent the correct plants?

Too hot to exert myself on gardening, just a bit of mooching about. I do need to dead some daises butt hat is about it

OT, about teenagers, as you know I have a horticultural DGD currently getting boffed up Cheltenham way . Now I find I have a niece of DDIL, niece is in Macau, hands up who knew you could get a job doing this? She was part of GB gymnast team and is now part of this. Talk of experiences and stick it on your CV.

Nearly hour video BTW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76evO48YXAk

Dustyevsky

Bet that show's a wow in Macau! TBH I just dipped into it. They have some interesting laws there, but perhaps I should stay on topic for once.😇

Last night's rain did a power of good. It even set the stream going. While we needed it, seeing Somerset on Wednesday made me realise how lucky our area's been thus far. 🤔

With the slightly lower temperature (25c) I'm going to attempt some DIY work on my friend's pergola today. We have to add wires for the grapes and clematis to wind their merry way along.

Apart from that it's just watering in the polytunnel. The rest is done. 😀

I think we have the same small Buddleia, Farway. I nicked mine from DD2 who loses labels, so it might be one of the 'Buzz' series. The bees and butterflies don't care about its pedigree, anyway. 🤩

Farway

Another early start, but much more pleasant this morning, fresher & not so hot. Forecast is still sunny & dry for all next week, so looks like the watering will have to continue

Dusty I think we have the same small Buddleia, Farway. Certainly looks similar, I seem to be short on butterflies despite the buddleias, there are a few fluttering around, but eee, when I were a lad the likes of buddleias were covered in them.

Hope the DIY pergola work went OK, and now I need to check on the lone grape bunch, forgot the other morning

Thinking ahead, I think I will poke a few Buzz prunings into Poo Border and see if they take.May as well have a bit of free colour with anti pooping properties. Talking of poo border, Rozanne geranium is a great plant, just gets on with it, scrambles /flops about & flowers. Wish I'd bought one sooner, I may try & take some cuttings, supposed to root readily

Now it's cooler I hope to get out & start on the rest of the apple summer pruning, get half an hour or so in before my back complains, probably have to do it over a few days, or even weeks

Dustyevsky

Outdoor work looks easier now, with nothing above 25c in the forecast for the week ahead here. 😀

Yesterday, it was about 25c in my friend's garden with a reasonable breeze, so I marked out and drilled holes for screws to anchor and guide training wires along the pergola. We'll use electric fence wire and stainless pan head screws. I'm beginning to regret giving her a £3 Morries montana, but after failures with less 'robust' types, it seemed like a good idea! 🤐

No shortage of butterflies and moths here. However, we have a great selection of insect-favourable plants, plus a benign location, now the surroundings are no longer 50% arable monoculture. 😃 For example, here's a moth Mrs Dusty photographed, which has had over 600 views on a specialist forum this week. 😮 I can't compete with that! 😰

So, here's another shot of that Buddleia, with some Thalictrum the birds left us, waving about in front of it in our chaotic border:

LessImpecunious

Still feels v hot here, despite apparently cooler temperatures and big cumulus here too today; but no sign of precipitation…Water butts are much diminished…

We have chicory flowers too, and I managed to get an unexpected pic of a visitor which I've been spotting visiting marjoram and buddleia for the last three or four days…

twopenny

That's a keeper of a photo Less 😃😍

Was out early walking 😊 before the crowds and heat still looking for kingfisher with no success. The waterfowl aren't producing a second brood either but I did see the greater egret and swallows or swifts. They rested in trees after bouts of flying. Could have been youngsters. I've seen this behaviour before.

A gorgeous crowd of evening primrose blooming in the morning 🤔

It did warm up in the afternoon but cool tonight. The cold breeze helps. A little high thin cloud 🤞

Farway

Great picture Less, was that with camera or phone? Either way, very well captured

And same for Mrs D moth pic, another good one.

Cooler but pleasant this morning, sun & blue sky as usual, and no rain due for a while so they say, so the water lugging continues next week.

2P A gorgeous crowd of evening primrose blooming in the morning 🤔Hmm, mine seem to have taken this year off, no sign of them. Normally they self sow like weeds

Made a start on the apple / pear summer pruning, two completed before my back started warning me to stop. At least I can now spot the fruit, the useless red pear I've about four, which considering the tree was smothered in blossom, is poor. But as I 've said before, no big loss, due to pears being useless.

Lots more blackberries to pick, job for later today, maybe

Jobs I hope to do before the heat gets up, dead head & tidy the lilies, looking very scruffy now flowering is over

While pruning the apple I disturbed Little Miss Figgy in her pot, somewhat forgotten & neglected in recent weather. Weeded her pot and I think I'm going to move her to the front, where she will get more sun & shelter from the house wall. It is Vine weevil area though so not sure if VW go for figs, given a choice.

Just asked AI, "If you already have vine weevils elsewhere in your garden, I wouldn't avoid growing a fig in a pot because of them. It's one of the safer woody plants to choose" I'm assuming the VW will be busy eating the Morrie's fuchsias I put in as bedding, so I'll give it a go. One of those things I'd use nematodes for if they were not so expensive

Dahlias, Cafe Au Lait etc buds are just opening and colour visible. Probably by mid week should be open & ready for the earwigs to move in 😁

No pics, but I spotted one runner bean, it needs a macro lens at the moment

Dustyevsky

Cracking Humming Bird Moth , Less. 😇 I know they're about, but capturing thm in action is sooo tricky! 😯

I've another Mrs Dusty photo this morning. Using her phone, she managed to snap a Small Copper yesterday:

Again, it's the oregano getting lots of insect attention.

I can't even find my camera! 😪 It's somewhere out in the garden, or hopefully, in the polytunnel. We're all somewhat distracted, with DD in the maternity unit at the RD&E hoping to give birth soon.

However, it looks quite dull out there currently, and it's cooler, so perhaps a productive day ahead, depending on how 'productive' DD is. 🙂

LessImpecunious

Thanks for comments on pic -it was a v lucky snap on my phone, the first of about ten that I took and only checked later when inside - hadn't realised I'd got the perfect (almost) shot first time! Having attempted/photo'd them before I know how difficult they are, so was v pleased with it…

Good Copper shot Mrs D, Marjoram/Oregano a good attractant here too (a lot of flies seem to like it too, as well as butterflies/moths, all good "pollinators" I suppose…) Hope all goes well with the new arrival-to-be…