Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Black_Cat2

wort said:

A neighbour was digging up huge shrubs and almost trees! I was helping out by getting them into tubs , as they are moving. I managed to get 2 for spaces I have, so need to sort those out . Needed a rest day yesterday!! With copious amounts of deep heat. I also have a silver birch, I did wonder where the little brown bit came from the stick in the cats fur😬

Don't get me wrong, beautiful tree but it does shed those bits a couple of times a year and then drops loads of leaves in autumn 😸.  My moggy also walks them into the house grrrrrrr!  Hope you're feeling better now W 🤞

goldfinches

Picked my first blackberries of the season on Tuesday and took this photo to show to my walking group yesterday to try to encourage them to do some foraging themselves. They weren't keen at all except for one person so we'll see what happens next.



They look really luscious don't they and they tasted lovely with my yoghurt this morning too.

There was a family of sparrows in the tree to the left of this clump and they spent the whole time I was picking making alarm calls and generally getting their knickers in a twist over my presence which made me feel as though I had to hurry up and leave so that they could all relax in the hot sun!

Sorry to hear of so many travails with plums, rain, snails etc. and the flying lessons made me giggle, richly deserved I think.

I've spotted a patch of water mint in full flower along the river bank on my usual morning walk and am contemplating doing a little surreptitious harvesting for some ricotta and herb filo parcels to use up half a packet of filo that is sitting in the fridge. I'll try not to fall into the water while picking.

Happy gardening to all, goldfinches.

phoebe1989seb

Loads of lovely blackberries there, goldfinches 😃 

Where we lived previously there was some great blackberry foraging to be had where we walked our dogs in the countryside on the way to Bridgnorth.... I really miss those walks, coming home laden with fruit to make a crumble 😋 Although we do have some wild areas of the garden here that we haven't yet tackled where blackberries do come up 😎

Talking of wild areas - yesterday I had a bit of a shock....mid afternoon I took the dogs out into the courtyard and beyond the gate came the sound of cracking twigs.

I thought some cheeky holiday makers (the only two neighbours we have here both have holiday accommodation as well as living on site) had decided to explore our garden, so opened the gate from courtyard to main garden, all set to tell somebody to "get orf moi land!"

Only to be confronted by a cow, standing by one of our benches at the back of the orchard where we've been clearing overgrown vegetation 😮😮😮



Having stealthily followed it as it - actually rather daintily 😄 - traipsed around the paths and flowerbeds (only walking through two of the rose beds) I stood at some distance, watching as it attempted to scale the log pile! It then began to make its way towards me (fortunately I'd left the two dogs in the courtyard!), so I beat a hasty retreat.

By the time I'd made a quick call to DH - who should have been home ten minutes previously 🙄 - I returned to find it had disappeared down into the (dry) leat. Further investigations by myself and DH (feeling a little like Sherlock Holmes, examining hoofprints!) led nowhere - the field to the rear of our land which often has cows in, had sheep and nowhere along our lane could either the stray cow, or any others be found 😯 Horses - yes. Sheep - dozens. Cows - not a single one! DH even had the audacity to ask if I'd not been mistaken and it was a horse I'd seen!!!         

The mystery remains unsolved.....

We've been gradually replacing the (non-existent) stock fence that separates our property from the lane and in a couple of places there are gaps, but between the farmer's field and our land are actually two fences because the mansion (one of our neighbours) has an impassable footpath between our land and the farmer's. That's the field with the sheep.

Anyway, looking round no damage to plants seems to have occurred - unlike the time shortly after we'd bought the house when another neighbour's five pigs got in and ate lots of weeds, thereby doing us a favour, lol 😂

Farway

Now that is the garden pest to top all others Pb1869 and most mysterious

Nice find with the blackberries GF, picking them seems to be a very limited pastime these days many preferring to buy a punnet from the S/market. I may have mentioned before how I was always amazed when people walked by bushes laden with them to buy a punnet in Morrison's

The HG ones I picked are in the crumble with a few portions left

No gardening today, I'm on taxi service for someone hunting round for a car, could be rinse & repeat tomorrow

In the meantime here is the skeleton of a grapefruit leaf left by the snails, these leaves are glossy & tough but makes no difference to my super snails

twopenny

Hilarious post phoebe!
I'm still without computer and my posts vanishon this gadget.
I've had my first greengages despite the gales breaking the young fragile branches. So that's 4 greengages and 2 cherries for 50 quid. 
Sometimes you wonder.
Blackberries in abundance but bramleys scarce. Not sure what to do.

[Deleted User]

goldfinches said:

Lovely photo F. Here's my insectophile contribution.



I spotted this particular plant earlier this week when it was also humming with insects and when I came back yesterday it was far and away the most popular of the several varieties of echinops in the garden that are all currently in full flower.

This is the plant label - I was rather surprised to see that it originates from Ethiopia, I had assumed that a plant that so many insects were attracted to would be native to an area quite nearby.

One of my favourite perennials.

RAS

Farway said:

In the meantime here is the skeleton of a grapefruit leaf left by the snails, these leaves are glossy & tough but makes no difference to my super snails.

I stopped putting my citrus in the garden for the same reason. This year the lemon was damaged by frost in a polytunnel, so it went home for a while.

It's currently on holiday in the self same polytunnel whilst its new growth hardens off. Might put it outside for a while later in the autumn. A friend and I put them together when they are flowering to encourage fruit.

Farway

Dull out today, but I think I'm still in Taxi mode so unlikely to get into garden except to lug wheelie bin back to it's filling up position round the back

RAS said:

Farway said:

In the meantime here is the skeleton of a grapefruit leaf left by the snails, these leaves are glossy & tough but makes no difference to my super snails.

I stopped putting my citrus in the garden for the same reason. This year the lemon was damaged by frost in a polytunnel, so it went home for a while.

It's currently on holiday in the self same polytunnel whilst its new growth hardens off. Might put it outside for a while later in the autumn. A friend and I put them together when they are flowering to encourage fruit.

My grapefruit is from a pip sown by son over twenty years ago and has only flowered once, due to complete lack of pollination partners around here it came to nothing

Not that I really expected much from a pip. It is permanently potted outside in a sheltered corner next to the house and too large to move now

I keep it only because of sentiment and it covers up an unsightly drain pipe

goldfinches

Phoebe - that's hilarious, wonder whose garden it ended up in?

F - your snails would take some beating in an eating contest, keep up the flying lessons.

Has anyone else noticed spring flowering magnolias flowering again, I think I've spotted three this week and wondered if it's the funny weather causing it?

Apodemus

goldfinches said:

Has anyone else noticed spring flowering magnolias flowering again, I think I've spotted three this week and wondered if it's the funny weather causing it?

No, but I've got a flower on my wisteria!  ...which is more than I had in spring and shows that the plant is capable of flowering, if it would only get it's act in gear!