Awful weather - typical Brits talk

greenbee

Drizzle here too @Farway. I've picked broadbeans (sorry @twopenny, they're delicious - I think they're Longpod) which are starting to collect blackfly faster than the birds can eat them. Given that there's a nest of sparrows in the roof almost right above them, you'd think they'd have noticed a quick, easy meal as well as the sprouting tops of the bolting chard, radishes (which are being nibbled by tiny slugs), lettuce, a courgette and strawberries (which I'm clearly sharing with the woodlice). 

I bought some Supagrow compost from Homebase a week or so ago, and when I got it out of the car I thought it smelled odd, so only used it for some spare toms. Which have died. So I need to dispose of it safely. Given how cheap it was (probably for a reason...) it isn't worth driving all the way back to complain, but I thought I'd warn you all.

Thankfully it looks like I have enough for the remaining toms & chillies that I need to deal with. Peppers and aubergines may need to remain  pots that are slightly smaller than they'd like, but then that way they'll still fit in the greenhouse. Several of the tomatoes have megablooms, and I'm debating whether to take off or experiment with (I have 14 tomato plants in the greenhouse, but managed to forget which ones were which, so I'm not sure how many I have of each variety - but I'm guessing the ones with the megablooms are Marmande). 

I've also got 4 roses to plant - I know it's the wrong time of year, but I know where the gaps are, what I need, and I'm actually here (although the rain is putting me off). Work travel looks like starting up again after August 16th unless things change, so who knows what will happen with gardening then.

@Davesnave - that Arum looks fabulous. I'm contemplating putting some in between the hedge and the stream. Mind you, I should probably concentrate on dealing with the horsetail - as two plants appear to go for £15.99 online, maybe I can make my fortune?

MovingForwards

Sorry I'm not commenting much, I'm only good for resting after switching the laptop off each day. No gardening activity going on aside from looking.

We've had rain the last few days, everything has grown to silly proportions. I seem to be in land of the giants or something. 

There's wild rabbits running around (cropped and resized the photo hence poor quality):



But so far my crops are holding up, aside from the basic lettuce I was growing for guinea pigs.

My roses are full of buds and starting to open and various bulbs are popping up, possibly iris but will need to see them flower. I will have to relocate them from my edible areas to the sections I've allocated for flowers.

Tomorrow is lift a cabage day, definitely a lot bigger than what is for sale in shops!

Davesnave

greenbee said:

@Davesnave - that Arum looks fabulous. I'm contemplating putting some in between the hedge and the stream. Mind you, I should probably concentrate on dealing with the horsetail - as two plants appear to go for £15.99 online, maybe I can make my fortune?

I grew mine from seed. Once you have a mature one, babies are easy. I grew them mainly to trap flower arrangers when we had the stall. They're a little too much 'in your face' for my liking!

Loving the rabbit photo, Moving. My photo programme creates  watercolours like that. Sometimes they look better than the realistic ones.

Here's one I did earlier:

pink_poppy

Going back a bit, but thanks for the plant ID, Dave. You would love it here as we see fish flip flopping in the nearby Loch quite often, I can just picture you trying to grab them Castaway style 😂 Sorry you’re still having problems with the evil neighbour, why someone would go out of their way to cause problems is beyond me...

I spotted these little alpine strawberries yesterday, very tasty they were too 😋



And a David Austin rose for phoebe as I know she loves them 🌹 

Ted_Head

Hello there, a refugee from the Daydream fund challenge that seems to be unchallenged and gone into the mists.

It's very muggy here in the Highlands and quite a glorious Summer we have had all in all.

Been recovering from major surgery so the garden has escaped yet again and was out with a machete trying to bring some sense to the track which is overrun with tree  and shrub branches. Most I've done in a long time and feeling it.

twopenny

So you have been fashionable and helping wildlife Ted. Very praiseworthy

Take care though, not worth giving yourself more problems when a lot will die down in winter or still be there when you are feeling better.

I'm lacking a bath and can't dash up to the spa at the mo without booking but I find an electric blanket and a lay down for a while with a book or the net does wonders.

Today it remained dry after early rain but the grass is too wet for cutting. Dave can I borrow one of those cows - it's got to the so long that it stays wet stage. Wish I hadn't done all that lawn improvement in the spring that I was so proud of.

I also had twinges in the old wounds today so the badger run I cleared now needs clearing again and I just couldn't be bothered, I'm hoping to wake up tomorrow full of enthusiasm.

For some reason It won't post the photo I wanted it to so just for the amusement here's one I took in my friends garden

And no, it wasn't after the fish. Just a drink on a hot day.

Davesnave

Hi Ted, nice to see you here. I hoped you'd drop by when you felt ready. The other thread died from natural causes, although it was probably recorded as due to you-know-what! Once you and I stopped posting for our different reasons it was like the life support being turned off.

Glad you're getting the summer we are missing out on at present, but I see there's a wee heatwave coming, so the hay will probably get done here at the end of the week. I'm still checking for bottles, but so far there's been no more. My farmer friend, Pete, says our cantankerous neighbour has always been the same since his school days; it's normal. I'd hate to get abnormal, so I just keep my head down. He doesn't like 'furreners,' and as I'm originally from a town 10 miles up the road, that makes me almost an alien!

Managed to split a whole Transit tipper load of logs yesterday, thanks to them being ash. As if responding to my dire predictions yesterday, we had a power outage this morning at 06.10, but it didn't last long and to be honest they're quite frequent here. Just crashes the computer, the ovens, the clock radio and in this case, my cup of tea!

[Deleted User]

Davesnave said:

Brightening-up here now after overnight wet, so maybe not too bad for our log delivery late a.m. As with food, I'm getting plenty of reserves in for the coming winter. Word on the bush telegraph is of increasing cyber attacks and inflation, so theoretically it'll be sound investment, but do I really want to eat all that spaghetti and beans?

Yesterday I dug a 1/2 metre wide trench in the front garden to take about 8m worth of box hedging sitting in pots. Every year a friend gives me box to use as cuttings and a lot of them take, so I'll be overwhelmed if I'm not careful. They'll be forming the edge of our car parking area in the re-designed front garden...'one day'.

I've never tried the Lumix program, Farway, though I must have it somewhere judging by the number of dead Panasonic cameras I own!

OK another 'odd' plant: an arum lily that's about as tough as a dahlia, so often hardy here if planted deeply. Its colour makes it hard to place! (Zantedeschia pentlandii.)

Love Zantedeschias, D, they grow like weeds here too 🌼 

Yesterday was rain free, so that was an unexpected bonus, got to do more work on those strip borders, today is supposed to be rain free now too so will, hopefully get to finish it today.

[Deleted User]

greenbee said:

Drizzle here too @Farway. I've picked broadbeans (sorry @twopenny, they're delicious - I think they're Longpod) which are starting to collect blackfly faster than the birds can eat them. Given that there's a nest of sparrows in the roof almost right above them, you'd think they'd have noticed a quick, easy meal as well as the sprouting tops of the bolting chard, radishes (which are being nibbled by tiny slugs), lettuce, a courgette and strawberries (which I'm clearly sharing with the woodlice). 

I bought some Supagrow compost from Homebase a week or so ago, and when I got it out of the car I thought it smelled odd, so only used it for some spare toms. Which have died. So I need to dispose of it safely. Given how cheap it was (probably for a reason...) it isn't worth driving all the way back to complain, but I thought I'd warn you all.

Thankfully it looks like I have enough for the remaining toms & chillies that I need to deal with. Peppers and aubergines may need to remain  pots that are slightly smaller than they'd like, but then that way they'll still fit in the greenhouse. Several of the tomatoes have megablooms, and I'm debating whether to take off or experiment with (I have 14 tomato plants in the greenhouse, but managed to forget which ones were which, so I'm not sure how many I have of each variety - but I'm guessing the ones with the megablooms are Marmande). 

I've also got 4 roses to plant - I know it's the wrong time of year, but I know where the gaps are, what I need, and I'm actually here (although the rain is putting me off). Work travel looks like starting up again after August 16th unless things change, so who knows what will happen with gardening then.

@Davesnave - that Arum looks fabulous. I'm contemplating putting some in between the hedge and the stream. Mind you, I should probably concentrate on dealing with the horsetail - as two plants appear to go for £15.99 online, maybe I can make my fortune?

Ugh, that b**dy stuff, it's an absolute menace isn't it 🤬🤬🤬 
Made so much worse when neighbours don't deal with it their side 

Farway

'Morning, I seem a bit late to the party today but I've been busy watering & feeding the pots out the front, lilies & dahlias, none of which are in flower but do have promising buds, re-homed a snail from one of the lilies, very satisfying because my front is higher than the road verges, so flying snails are a common sight round here

Still dry at the moment, but wet is due here on it's way to Wembley once Dave has finished with it , meanwhile I'll continue with water & feeding the pots out the back later, it's fruit this time, grape, apple & plum in pots

I need to tie in some more wayward plum shoots that I seem to have missed, I'll go to Specsavers once the Covids are a memory

No photos today, I'm hoping to get one of Deep Secret but with the wet it may have joined the rotten rose club since I last checked