Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

-taff said:

I don't understand. The flowers on each plant will pollinate themselves by themselves unless you're looking to create a hybrid for seeds next year. Tapping each one is fine. They don't need to swap pollen.

I never knew that, most enlightening, thanks, every day a school day

RAS

-taff said:

I don't suppose anyone here has successfully hybridised a couple of heritage tomatoes have they? If they have...any tips?I usually grow a medium size round black, I want to try mixing it with a beefsteak green just to see what will happen really....

Try Carol Deppe | Chelsea Green Publishing Carol's excellent book on plant breeding with fascinating tales of creating Rainbow Inca sweetcorn (Alan Kapuler) and Blacktail Mountain watermelon (Glenn Drowns), as well as some tomatoes.

Since beefsteak tomatoes often have double flowers, I'd go for that as a recipient as the stigma will be exposed and take stamens from black tomato. The tomato developer in Carol's book used to raise 10 plants in a 10 inch bucket, allowing each to only form one truss.

Davesnave

All this talk of stigmas and stamens has brought me out in a hot flush. You have to understand that's as close as we ever got to sex education at my school!

Did a reasonably long afternoon walk today in one of the least known areas of the county. It proved tougher than I'd anticipated from a quick satellite fly-over . We'd been threatened with rain or a thunderstorm so I chose a circular route that could be shortened by cutting across the middle, but we completed the full 7 miles. One of the attractions was a Palladian mansion, still in private hands, but there was no wonderful garden attached and the whole was quite austere and slightly run-down.

The good news came in the form of some natural meadows leading down to a lake and on to the forest beyond. The owners had paths mown through and the sun even came out briefly at that point. I spotted some common Early Purple Orchids and Orange Tip butterflies, but nothing rare.

It rained here at home in the evening, breaking a long dry spell. Looks like there's more to come, but nothing like the flash flooding further east. Our hay needs it.

Davesnave

Ganga said:

Here is my black elder ,2 years old ,do you prune /cut them back at the end of the season or just let them grow year on yearear ,

I'd probably cut it back by half next spring to help it bush  out. It's a tough old thing and puts up with almost anything. You can take it right down to 0.25m if it outgrows the space.

Farway

Dull start, with drizzle, not sure you really want the rain we've had Dave, soon flatten any hay I'd think

Only gardening today is hand over the T & M apple growing in a pot to DD who is coming over for Father's Day, bearing Fish & Chips I'm told

While I was out in garden prowling yesterday between showers I noted the rhubarb is crumble sized again with massive leaves from the rain + muck I added

My runners are lace like with the rain & snail explosion, I picked half a dozen of the snails off just in passing. Grrrr

The dwarf French beans are now waiting to go out, once I clear the weeds from the tubs, job for the week

Davesnave

Farway said:

Only gardening today is hand over the T & M apple growing in a pot to DD who is coming over for Father's Day, bearing Fish & Chips I'm told

Seems like a fair exchange, but F&C on a Sunday around here is impossible. I didn't even know it was Father's Day... I taught my kids to eschew anything like that from across the pond. Naturally, I support Towel Day, and for those of us of more mature years World Continence week is just coming up!

RAS

We were almost hoping for a good thunderstorm to dampen the ground but got a light drizzle. Temperature's dropped from 29 degrees in the week to thirteen, feeling almost nippy.

Need to get the soft fruit netted or the pigeons will have it with the leftovers for the blackbird. 

Farway

Davesnave said:

Farway said:

Only gardening today is hand over the T & M apple growing in a pot to DD who is coming over for Father's Day, bearing Fish & Chips I'm told

Seems like a fair exchange, but F&C on a Sunday around here is impossible. I didn't even know it was Father's Day... I taught my kids to eschew anything like that from across the pond. Naturally, I support Towel Day, and for those of us of more mature years World Continence week is just coming up!

The F & Cs came from a local pub which is doing Covid take aways, and very tasty they were.

I think in more "normal" times I may have been whisked off to said pub

I'm told by same DD that granddaughter has fallen not far from the tree and is going to Sparsholt for her sixth form work starting in September, she is plant mad so should do well from there and already has her plant web pages in hand

Davesnave

Farway said:

Davesnave said:

Farway said:

Only gardening today is hand over the T & M apple growing in a pot to DD who is coming over for Father's Day, bearing Fish & Chips I'm told

Seems like a fair exchange, but F&C on a Sunday around here is impossible. I didn't even know it was Father's Day... I taught my kids to eschew anything like that from across the pond. Naturally, I support Towel Day, and for those of us of more mature years World Continence week is just coming up!

I'm told by same DD that granddaughter has fallen not far from the tree and is going to Sparsholt for her sixth form work starting in September, she is plant mad so should do well from there and already has her plant web pages in hand

Looks brilliant!

If I had my time over again........<sigh>    

I was last a uni student about 25 years ago when I took a science module part-time. I wanted to know if I still had what it takes, but by then things were very snowflakey and we didn't get proper marks for our assignments, just comments. Afterwards we were told if we'd passed by post and that was it. To be honest, I felt swindled and I didn't go on to the next module..

Whatever happened to the embarrassing lists pinned on the wall showing everyone's grades?

I'd planned a quiet day today....Then DB revealed that she'd driven the van to Exeter yesterday and collected our 600kg of tiles, 100kg of grout stuff and 40kg of chicken food as an afterthought. I've unloaded most of the tiles, but at 27kg a pack, carried through the house, the rest must wait till tomorrow.Father's Day indeed!

Farway

And it's pouring down & blowing a hooley again, I had sort of pencilled in to clear & prepare the pots for the dwarf French beans which are now ready for transplanting, but too wet for that malarkey

Sounds like hard work coming your way Dave

To brighten up a dull day here's a rose with some rain on it, I've tinkered slightly with the pic post production, not clever enough to get it like this first time