Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Woolsery

The Morrisons sunflowers worked for me last year. I expect they will still be OK this year too, being large seeds and not fussy.

Farway

Sunshine & breezy morning, hoping the weather warms up a bit because at last the daffs are dying down in the pots at the front and all being well I can sort them out & get the summer Bishops children dahlias & castor oil plants  in them

Won’t be doing it today, bit too chilly plus I have Covid booster midday and may have a poorly arm, at least that’s what I tell myself

No sign of dead slugs near my blind beans after putting pellets down, so I can only assume it’s the variety of bean, very odd.

Had promo mail from Brown’s seeds, some packets now a quid so I’m making up next year’s order already, assuming I’m still around, always a bit of a gamble at my age. With my new lust for GYO cucs I’ve added Marketmore to the 2021 list

Flowers are very fickle things growing where they feel happy  but fail elsewhere no matter hard one tries, I think most who have been gardening a while just accept & enjoy them wherever they pop up.

I have foxgloves just opening up, all self-sown from a packet initially sown when I moved in here nearly forty years ago, and don’t mention the red sorrel or lemon balm that I sowed having fallen for the catalogues blurb

Here’s my just opened Texas red hot chilli streptocarpus, just one other variety to open now

in_my_wellies

Good morning all! So, it's been two perfect days for gardening, warm with light cloud and after some rain the soil is just right for weeding and planting.

I'm slowly catching up but I do have another free day today (already done an hour) Beetroot, parsnips and potatoes are doing well. Carrots and radish disappeared so repeat sewing. French beans are planted out: 50/52 germinated from 4 types of old seed, but of 50 runner beans only 3 have popped up. Again, saved seed and I'm wondering if some were an F1 hybrid which might explain it. The brassicas are netted and the courgettes planted out with protection. I'll keep four back but the rest are going to the sustainability stall in the village hall today. Tomorrow I have to focus on the garden - note to self!!

Farway - that streptocarpus is beautiful and a wonderful photo you have taken too. 

Woolsery - how long do you expect the barn conversion to take? I imagine you have contacts in every trade or are you employing a specialist company? My Devon builder has just retired, I never thought he would completely but he's upped and left the country

Farway

Blimey that was an early start IMW, very similar weather here and likewise I’m catching up to about where I want to be, still have to sort out [weed] the pots I’m planting my beans in, I keep putting it off but will soon have to do it now the beans have germinated in their nursery pots

Yesterday the sun got warmer so I went out and cut off the daff foliage from the pots at the front. And cut my gloveless little finger while at it, what was doubly annoying was I had only just finished reading up again on my blood thinning tablets where it specifically says wear garden gloves to avoid danger of cuts that will bleed a lot. No fool like an old fool. At least my tetanus is ok

All being well my Bishops Children dahlias plus some castor oil plants will go into them this afternoon , I may sneak in orphan lanky tomato plants while I ‘m at it, I hate to waste plants

My fresh sowing of beans seems to have worked, signs of life anyway, too soon to say if they’ll be blind like some of the others, it’s all very odd, seems old beans are problematic this year IMW, but can’t remember them being like it before? Blame Brexit, 5G or Covid?

I’m happy with the beetroot I’ve sown among the flowers at the front, all coming up now, just hope they are tough enough to stand their own against the dwarf nasturtiums

in_my_wellies said:

Farway - that streptocarpus is beautiful and a wonderful photo you have taken too. 

Thanks, I tried very hard with that pic wiht umpteen goes. I have another variety of Strept out this morning so another photo shoot. Then it's leaf cuting time of all four types

Woolsery

I too was impressed by the Streptocarpus picture but in too much of a hurry to say anything yesterday, being off to the Mendips quite early for a family gathering.

At least I'm ahead of you in one respect, Farway, 'cos my overwintered Ricinus has been in the herb garden for about a week.... if something hasn't eaten it, that is. We are planning a garden day today, all being well with the weather. Last Friday, when I collected the wood for the new deep beds, the guy at the yard looked at the rain sheeting down and declared,"It says 3% chance of rain on my phone here!"

Suddenly, it stopped and I loaded up in the sunshine. Coming home, I saw some great potential photos driving along the lane I'd found by getting very confused between two villages beginning with 'P,' but there were no passing places and I just wanted out of the hell I'd put myself in. A 3.5 tonne van trumps cars, but with my luck I knew I'd probably meet a tractor and trailer!

So, no plant photo today, but instead I'll settle for a snatched shot from yesterday with just a hint of Magritte and added cuteness!

Woolsery

in_my_wellies said:

Woolsery - how long do you expect the barn conversion to take? I imagine you have contacts in every trade or are you employing a specialist company? My Devon builder has just retired, I never thought he would completely but he's upped and left the country

I've sent ypu a PM. Too much info to post here!

twopenny

Another day off, I'm normally fit but at the mo if it's not the dental treatment or the pelvic pain I've now got some sort of tummy trouble! So digging out turf is not on the agenda. It still sits on the list

I did get the old Purple sprouting out and the runner beans in. Stuff trimmed up and so on yesterday.

I was upset to see the cherries looking like they're not going to make it. Again the leaves are thick with a black beatle and nothing seems to affect them, even the birds aren't interested.

And why don't the birds eat the black fly infesting my broad beans?

So while feeling poorly (again) I went for a wander around Greencombe. So quiet and you feel better just being amongst all that green with the odd hit of colour.

 I'm spending the evening feeding the pots and sitting watching the birds in the garden. They love the bird bath now the foliage has grown up around it.

Farway

Yesterday I finished off planting out the dahlias & castor oil in the front pots, with added slug pellets, not checked them this morning but should still be there, it’s dull with a slight promise of rain but if not then watering in is a job for later in the week

My you are going through it 2P, but at least the bird bath is working as intended. My cherry doesn’t have black insects / beetles but I think the recent hot & dry weather has taken its toll; some of the cherries have dropped off, it’s not yet turning colour but keeping my eyes open to cover them once colour starts

To make up for lack of black beetles on the cherry my plum has collected a load of aphids, which are also ignored by the blue tits collecting food nearby. However I did spot a ladybird so have held off spraying for now

Fruit seems very hit & is this year; my neglected strawberries are in flower, sods law of course, cosset them & they die

Here’s my ladybird mooching around a pear and I hope thoroughly checking under the leaves

Woolsery

Sorry you're not out of the medical woods yet twopenny. I'm not allowed to offer specific advice, but I'd say consider health info for our age group, especially with regard to maintaining a strong immune system. It's not plain sailing. For example, just getting out in the sunshine doesn't always do enough, like it did when we were teenagers. There have been a few scientific studies done since Covid and these make very interesting reading indeed. I can only hint, but my confidence when sitting between two coughing casualties a couple of weeks ago wasn't founded in visits to the doctor, nice though he is when we speak. Of course, it goes without saying anything you might consider doing should be cleared with yours.

Well it was a very on-and-off day yesterday, but mainly off due to frequent heavy showers. I did get a couple of courgettes in  and the tomatoes re-potted, but it isn't warm enough at night here to risk those in the ground yet.

Rummaging through the barn on Sunday, I came upon the bulk of the commercial aluminium staging system we purchased second-hand when we got the polytunnel. We only needed about 1/3 of it. I was thinking of eBaying it, but then I realised it might make an amazing raised bed.....raised that is to about 0.65m from the ground! Above carrot fly and out of slug reach. I can't think why I've not thought of it before, but details still need to be worked out. With the shortages worsening, I'm disinclined to sell off anything that might help boost home productivity.

Today's plant is Hesperis matronalis or 'Dame's Violet' a short-lived perennial that also comes in white.

in_my_wellies

Perfect weather for gardening yesterday between the heavy showers but dull and cloudy here today. I've just come in for a warm drink

Yesterday I picked 5  larges strawberries. I've not even got round to netting them yet so I was lucky. Unfortunately I think the blackbirds were unlucky as a neighbouring property has two teenage cats and I've not seen or heard them this year. 

I'm pleased to see blossom on the medlar this year having had a rest last year I was a bit concerned. It has doubled in size, putting it's energy into growth

This will have to go soon but the bees and other insects love it. My compost heap is next to/behind that!