Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Davesnave

I just have a trusty splitting maul which manages to get through most logs. I do my own ASAP after felling  when it's easiest, while the logs I buy in these days are generally ash and only take one quite moderate blow to split.

I managed to plant a variety of tough perennials on the slope below the woodland today, They certainly need to be strong to cope with the wild environment. Even Eupatorium  was eaten by slugs or something else when I put some large plants in last spring. So far, Telekias and Rheums have been shredded, while Moon Daisies often just vanish. Geraniums, Geums and large Saponaria have all survived and multiplied, as have Tiarellas by the stream and I'm having to cull Shuttlecock ferns. It's a case of seeing what works by trial and many errors!

greenbee

I have a maul, but my technique is lacking... and definitely only works on good quality, well-behaved logs I haven't bought logs for years, as I'm still burning the garden. And the last few bits of the floorboards and stairs...

twopenny

Well finally got the much wanted soaking rain but typically British now it won't stop.
I've some cuttings i want to put in the ground as I've been rooting lavender and myrtle in water and I find they do better in soil.
But too wet to do more than plan and watch gardening programmes. Might listen to back podcasts of gardeners question time while I touch up paintwork. 

Farway

greenbee said:

I've just been clearing old logs out from the undergrowth - someone was supposed to split them all for me last year and didn't. A surprising number are OK after a week in the log store, but most are very soggy so are being loosely stacked to air for a bit. And some are huge bits of stump/root that are just too twisted for the lot splitter or the axe. Sadly I think they'll have to be burned on the firepit at some point. I'm not to be trusted with a chainsaw! 

How about making a "stumpery" out of them? Quick name drop but when I was visiting HRH Charles' pad at Highgrove he has one there, first one I'd seen and it did impress, his has ferns & hostas on it and is partly in shaded area

Dry, dull, and cooler this morning not a day to be mooching around a garden unless wrapped up

I had a narrow escape this morning, clearance offer from T & M of 10 mixed perennials arrived in the inbox, their pick not mine, £9.99.

I went as far as adding it to my basket but double checked when the P & P was £7.99, on line recent reviews still showing rubbish delivery delays and dead plants arriving so I've skipped that offer.

I have eye test Monday so may look in Poundland & Wilkinson's while in town, not for anything specific except maybe a packet of Love lies bleeding seeds

RAS

My local Wilkos have been dire. No bulbs or seeds since the summer in the three branches that I might visit when doing normal things. Some stuff at another branch which I can get to when I volunteer, if I've time before the train, but very little that actually grows for the last few months.

There's a very good branch that I used to be near once a month although I maybe dropped in three times a year, and we had our first meeting since lockdown last month. The timetable gave me enough for a quick visit and they had a good selection of bulbs but I couldn't carry much.

Picked up some good but rather pricey stuff at a show but still cheaper than paying postage. So will have to put an order in sharpish. 

Still the situation's a bit better than last year.

goldfinches

It's wild, wet and windy here too and I'm back in full foul weather kit to put my nose outside the front door. Hasn't stopped the wrens in the hedgerows shouting their heads off though so I'm hoping to catch a few on camera soon.
My local M&S has some nice boxes of bulbs and the florist in the covered market has a lovely selection although they're going quickly, worth a look if you're over this way.

Davesnave

The rain is still battering at the window as I type, but we're promised a window of fine weather later today, so I'm hoping for a garden visit and a few new photos. I'd do a walk, but it's likely to be a bog everywhere, except well-used metalled tracks like the Tarka Trail, which I'm saving for winter.

We have solved the problem of our bad luck in raising 4 cockerels from 5 fertile eggs by finding a local gentleman who dispatches, plucks and dresses birds for a very reasonable fee, so that's Christmas sorted. We're also considering the future of our remaining flock, as they've cost us dearly recently, and the much-needed replacement of their runs, giving them the space to be truly free range, will cost well north of  £1k. It's going to be  a choice between that and replacing the polytunnel cover, I think.

Farway mentioned a stumpery and we have one planned....sometime. Meanwhile, we make do with one at Rosemoor. Here's a bad picture of it I took in March this year:

Farway

I also have Dave's rain battering away outside, with the dry window on it's way with worse expected tomorrow, still it is October so it's seasonal anyway

The wind has toppled my grapefruit in a pot and now blocking my back door , so until I trot round the back via side alley no garden mooching. It's not worth putting pot up right just yet with more mank on the way

Nice stumpery picture Dave, the Highgrove one is more piled up, stump on stump providing planting pockets, but same idea.

They don't seem to have one at Wisley even though there should be loads of stumps around. I know after the Big Storm they decided to leave the fallen trees where they fell after making safe, sort of conservation and cost saving given the number involved so perhaps stumps & trunks are still there providing homes for bugs etc?

Only slight garden related is visit to volunteer group and a quick shufti at the pots but at least watering is not required this morning

Thanks for update on Wilko RAS, see how my one compares, probably full of Christmas stuff by now

twopenny

We have sun! I have been out and nibbled a few raspberries straight off the cane and looked yet again at what I want to do. I keep going from formal to informal so the inspiration still isn't there.

A climbing rose needs tying in (I'm looking through the windows) and the cheap trellis I got in lockdown has broken away as well as cutting out turf and moving plants when I have the energy and inclination.

The Kale has matured early so I'm picking that at the moment.

I've finally got brave enough to work out getting photos off my new camera so to brighten up those in the rain here's a memory of spring to come again - at Greencombe

 

 

And for Phoebe this made me think of her garden......I loved all the little stone troughs tucked away in odd places.

There, that made up for lost time

phoebe1989seb

Thanks, 2p 😃 That's rather more beautiful than our place looks right now, lol....in fact instead of the earlier suggestion of opening our garden here to the public (and some of you may recall me mentioning that our little plot is on the Historic Parks and Gardens register 😮🙄😮), which I'd love to do one day, we're more likely to attract visitors as a reclamation yard at the moment 😉 This lot is a mix of stuff removed from the snug and barge boards that were going to get added to the bonfire pile at the renovation DH is doing for a client...so he rescued them!

Although it's sunny today, we've had loads of rain (and wind!) too, but fortunately with this place there's always something to do indoors, so during the worst of it I kept busy moving huge pieces of furniture....

Sounds like you've got your work cut out finding thugs that will survive on your slope below the woodland, Dave! Tbh, I'm surprised that our telekias have done so well where they are, because they were actually intended for a completely different location and just ended up in the jungley area to fill a gap, lol! The stuff that mostly gets eaten/decimated here are kirengeshoma and acanthus....

Anyway, not many plants worthy of pics here. The eupatoriums are still going, but apart from some rather suspect persicaria that truly exhibits its familial relationship with knotweed of the Japanese variety 😨, the phlox are about the only newly blooming plants here and - not only are they a couple of weeks behind - but my *clump* has shrunk from last year 🙁

Eupatoriums....