Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Forgetmenots aree lovely. 
But the spread needs watching! I thought I'd left mine behind in the move but they still found me. I've got ruthless now and take the seed and some plants to a bank in the cemetery.
So wet, showers and windy but feeling down and tired post covid so just pootled and tended the lawn.
Started to look up trrips to gardens i startre pandemic now you don't have to book in advance. Probably start near at Forde Abbey, one of my favourites. Bit early. I've always been with other people who aren't gardeners or artists so always wanted to go solo and enjoy going slowly.
My joy today was finding flower buds on my dwarf cherry. Late so will pollinate with a brush as other cherries have passed their blooming timee.
Nothing on the greengage this year:-(

in_my_wellies

twopenny said:

My joy today was finding flower buds on my dwarf cherry. Late so will pollinate with a brush as other cherries have passed their blooming time.

Several neighbours cherries are in bloom but mine still have tight buds (Stella and Morello) The Morello grew quickly and most are out of reach/taken by birds, but a beautifully shaped tree. The Stella produces well but is a weak little tree with just one good branch - it looks like a railway signal - but it's small and easy to protect from birds. Guess which was £4.99 from Aldi and which £29 from a nursery? 

April showers again here but apart from the first at 9.30 I was able and determined to work through them as I had a carer to take mum out from 1 - 4. So, small bonfire to get rid of spiky stuff first thing, cut some more new edges on the grass, raked debris from lawns before cutting tomorrow, planted out broad beans, planted out 12 new strawberries, hoed in rotted hen poop into veg beds, transferred 5 polyanthas from allotment to spring bed and raked stone paths (will sweep when dry) 

I pulled up the sprout plants and saved enough 'bits' for supper along with more sprouting broccoli and two rouge potatoes I found in the strawberry bed. 

Today is dry but very windy. I need to spend some time in the flower garden but might chicken out and just clean the hens which is not an option. 

Farway

Very windy overnight and still blowing this morning, tail end of some French storm it seems, at least the sun is out

My cherry tree [Sunburst] buds are still tight but swollen so hope for you yet 2P

With the wet & wind the daffs are over now and need dead heading but it’s too cold and yucky to venture out for that job today, I may prowl round the garden later to check on the apple blossom, looked like some were ready to go. There’s a huge crab apple a few doors down with blossom just opening up and pollination has never been a problem for my apples

Also opening up are my ferns, this one is nothing special but thrives in a dry and shade corner, I leave it alone except for annual trim & tidy up around this time of year, plus the odd bucket of tea leaf slops & no doubt some insects & bugs live in there at times, you can see the spider web to the left.  This time of year it looks nice with the unfurling fronds

phoebe1989seb

Dull and showery yesterday and extremely windy overnight, but although the wind has remained it's lovely and sunny here today 🌞

Those £4 (for two huge sacks, yielding some 180+) mixed daffodils are still giving their money's worth. Next year they'll be transplanted to the hot bed, along with my three expensive yellow eremurus which need relocating from the jungley area.

The twelve hostas I moved the other week are doing well, but the queen of orange geums (moved last year from rockery to hot bed) are looking disappointing at the moment, with only one flower among about sixteen - now rather straggly looking - plants. However, the Canary Bird standard rose that had been in a pot for several years till we popped it in the ground in 2020 is finally settled with tons of buds. Hoping for the same with the medlar and quince that were new additions to the mini orchard in 2021 😉

In the white bed there's lots of progress - the libertias are full of buds, Dicentras already flowering and the anemone sylvestris have spread like mad. The brunnera Betty Bowring (an eBay purchase last year) are looking fantastic (see pic)!

My forget me nots didn't seed at all, disappointingly, which is strange. 

I finally found time to start weeding the rose beds, but so far have taken the easy option - pulling out tons of hairy bittercress, leaving the more stubborn creeping buttercup and tiny sedge seedlings till later. Fortunately, we seem to have eradicated most of the ground elder from the rose beds...unfortunately I can't say the same for elsewhere in the garden 🙄

twopenny

Blowing a hooley but not a cold wind for once. Strong enough to blow over my cast iron chairs. Some drizzle and some sun.

Busy trying to deal with todays rubbish non existance customer service where the companies hide away online to do anything fun.

I did see that the wild blue bells are out in the hedgerows which is early, some trees coming into leaf but others still bare.

It's a funny old year, things sheltered seem to be doing well, those not are still hunkering down and looking as fed up as me.

So I thought I'd post these beautifully coloured Camelias from Greencombe.

The deep red against the moss edged paths was more beautiful than this.

I love the colour on the ground. I think in the right place (where you don't have to keep sweeping) it adds to the beauty.

  

I must get round to photographing things in my garden....

Woolsery

That hooley was pretty fierce here. In the afternoon I braved it to bump off a crop of very early thistles in the field. I'm not sure how they're still surviving given none has come anywhere close to seeding for 12 years.I had to use a paintbrush instead of spraying and arrived back at the house bent over like Quasimodo! 

Then it was back to the stream area and planting lots of Thalictrum flavum for a bit of drama early in the summer. I noticed my pink Meadowsweet was coming up and a Rheum I planted last year, so that's hopeful.

A quick glance  at the trees in the wild area by my grumpy neighbour's end surprised me. All 4 Eucalyptus had been badly scorched by the frost and winds, yet an Acacia that  was living a sheltered life inthe polytunnel until recently seems totally unaffected.

Farway

Wind has gone, now it’s just still air, cool & dull, I took the precaution of moving my seedlings off the window sill further into the room last night as there was forecast of heavy frost. That never happened due to the cloud cover in the end

Having fancied parsley sauce the other day I decided to try & find my packet of parsley seeds, but spotted Asda online have growing potful for 50p, may as well get one delivered with my next lot of groceries and grow them on for the season

I bought sage & rosemary in same way a few years back and they are still growing outside

No outside gardening today, too gloomy and yuck but if it brightens I’ll have a mooch with my camera.

I’m off to my daughter’s tomorrow and I’m told they have new tayberry, I think it’ll be time to drop heavy hints about rooting tip cuttings

in_my_wellies

We had a very hard frost last night and another forecast for tonight so all young plants are covered in the greenhouse, actually in polystyrene fish boxes. Like plants in coffins but it works. 

The wind dried the grass enough to cut it by this afternoon. All done properly right up to the edges, allotment paths cut, round veg boxes cut. All edges trimmed too. I start the year with good intentions.......

I underestimated the vigour of three blackberries I bought in a sale for 50p each. I planted them to make a barrier to a dog, aiming to train them along the edge of the plot. It worked but in pegging them down along the edge I ended up with about 24 crazy bushes. So as the dog has gone to pastures new the time was right to dig them out. They are in a bucket. I might put them on the verge on Sunday when there are walkers or I might plant them at the edge of arrogant neighbours woodland 

twopenny

Sunshine this morning but a northerly wind so not as pretty as it looks.
Neighbour gave me some self seeded tiny cyclamen yesterday. They bloom spring where mine are autumn. So need to go in my tiny woodland area.
No sign of seeds germanating. Guess they don't like the cold either. I need the pots and trays for more.
Broadbeans still not been attacked. Benefit of this cold weather. 
The bonus cheer from my little cherry tree is that there are signs of blossom. Some leaves developed first! Must look up if I've still got the label. If it's a good doer it's worth mentioning.
Yes, seeds. I'm sure I've got some San Marino? Tomato seeds but can't find them. Must get the garage tidied.

Woolsery

A  minor frost this morning, but nothing dramatic and the buffeting winds have left us for now.

Yesterday we focused on prepping for the animals, so cat and chicken food were obtained, though in the case of chickens the feed's oil content means no very long term storage. The price of that is up 20% since Christmas and it'll go much higher. We buy wild bird food loose from large drums, which is the cheapest way, but that will stop if we see famine by next winter in places like North Africa. It's on the cards.

We've been prepping for ourselves for almost 2 years now, so there will be no sudden increase in our monthly spend, other than that caused by inflation. It's nice to know the MPs are getting a good rise of £2.2k, but I think we pensioners are getting about 2.5% towards the 8% + that we're experiencing, with more to come.

On the same theme, yesterday afternoon I made a substantial pile of logs  out of the willows and hazel cut down in the winter. Next winter the mini woodland will get its first thinning with some of the fast growers to be felled, but I wish we'd planted more!

No sign of sheep.....