Awful weather - typical Brits talk

liberty_lily

Thanks Woolsery, although I can't take the credit for the peony 😄

We have sunshine and a strong breeze today so I really ought to make the most of it, but we've had the fibre broadband guy here this morning and I'm now struggling to get my backside into gear. What I really need to be cracking on with is removing a huge mixed clump of pink geranium (type unknown) and three cornered leek currently in the way of demolishing the existing extension frontage, which we'll hopefully begin over the weekend 😉

Instead, here's a pic of the one Royal Wedding poppy that's opened so far in the *not quite white* (!!!) bed...

And elsewhere in the garden, the rodgersia, which did nothing last year....

twopenny

Wonderful to see what you are all growing. Some lovely ideas.

It's been muggy and dry, or sunny and dry. Some rain a few days ago but it's not soaked into the ground.

Just a weird year for weather all round and I've found

a) the cheap compost that looked good I won't use again. It sits atop the soil and for potting seeds they don't like it for growing. It was however all I could get at the time with supplies still a problem.

b) all seeds in pots failed to thrive and planted out are just sitting there - probably because it's so dry yet not really sunny.

c) my Magnolia and Cherry tree have suffered the second year from beetles/aphids I don't know what and must make a post for advice and photos.

d) squidging blackfly with paper towels seems to work better than any treatment but again, fruits are slow and needing a good downpour.

On the more positive side I'm chuffed to bits to finally be getting butterflies and watching the birds feeding their young in the garden. It was worth all that hard work just for the pleasure.

Just wish the pigeon would stop pooping in the bird bath.

Off to look for a cheap budgie ladder to attach to the bird table and stop said pigeon eating all the fat. They aren't supposed to do that but no ones told him.

Farway

Sunny & breezy here as well. Nice lot of pics again but I’ve nothing today. I did manage to get the blackberry tied in, at least the new growth is pointing where I want it to go

Sorry news about you cherry 2p, mine is doing well so far and turning colour, with next week’s warm weather maybe cherry time if the snails allow me one or two?, the mesh is keeping the birds off so far

Your compost sounds like the lot I had last year 2P, absolutely awful stuff and nothing grew no matter what I did

Went up and watered the volunteer pots this morning, with a heat wave due next week and no rain due I thought I’d give them a good hose drenching to see then through. They are large pots so will retain a damp spot inside somewhere

Very pleased to see the sunflower seeds I poked in have germinated and the plants are about six inches high and look good, plus the Shoo fly seed I sprinkled has also come up,  pleased to se them as well, and the cosmos are just about to open, big buds just waiting to pop

All things considered I think it’s as hoped for at this stage

No home gardening planned today, but potting on the coleus is high on my list with the good weather due

Woolsery

Sorry RAS for mis-crediting your lovely peony picture! I see lily's been posting more things I can't grow .....the Rodgersia's vanished again! We also have a new oriental poppy, but it's so hideous there's no way I'm posting that! No idea where it came from and I'm sure we wouldn't have paid for it.

The ride-on is still dead, so I'm spending an inordinate amount of time with the push-along Honda and getting  fit in the process. The hay is coming on so well I now baulk at walking around the field in wellies, but it's a must with the tick season in full swing. Still a few weeks to go, but when the hay is finally cut and baled-up, it's a feeling very much like that after a delayed visit to the hairdresser!

Here's a picture of my first raised bed, half-filled. I've moved onto the second one now, which will be less high:

The framework behind is for training the yews to create arches. It should have been painted green by now.

Like some of you, I'm still struggling with composts. There's multipurpose, ericaceous, coir, vermiculite, grit and microwaved soil at my disposal, but I can't always find the right mix.

Farway

More sunshine today, could just, maybe, possibly pot up the coleus into their final troughs outside, and then I’m left with umpteen “Fire Dragon” polyanthuses in similar troughs that need splitting and making comfy for next year after a wonderful display this year. These were from DT Brown as plugs Oct ’21 and they really surprised me by their smack you in the eye flowers, too good to neglect them now

Bad news on my climbing beans, only have half a dozen anyway but the snails have found them, climb the canes and have eaten the tops out, it was that sort of result that made me think twice about growing beans this year, but as per usual gardeners thinking  it’ll be better this year

And my potted plum tree is in trouble, I reckon I have plum maggots in them, they turn reddish and misshaped, TBH if I were younger I’d have the plum tree out and plant something else, I may yet do that, or just leave it and enjoy the early spring blossom

I think if reincarnated I’ll opt for raised beds, but at waist or knee height for less bending, all inside a poly tunnel. Probably easier to be reborn with silver trowel in hand

Another thing on the to do list, sow a few more beetroot seeds now the first lot are up & away mixed among the nasturtiums at the front

liberty_lily

Nice raised bed, Woolsery! I'm sorry about posting pics of stuff you can't grow there...tbh, with our dodgy weather I'm surprised myself at what succeeds here (although I've a huge list of stuff we've tried that's failed, lol 🤣). Anyway, I'm jealous of your yew arch plans - the conical yews I had intended for the centre of each of the four rose beds didn't happen (mostly due to expense as we've so many more pressing projects to spend money on 🙄), so we ended up with four small yews that I'm hoping will reach a large enough size to trim into cones before we both expire!

Talking of which, I love Farway's idea of being reincarnated with a silver trowel in hand...can I put my name down for that please 😆😆😆

Yesterday we got the pink geraniums out and today I'll be popping them into some gaps in the rose beds to add a bit more interest....which means the extension frontage started to come down! 

Just a general view of the garden today - the astrantia and centaurea clumps are still looking ok, whilst the veronicastrum, eupatorium and day lilies are still to come....

Hedgepigs

Farway said:

I love the butter cups. Do cattle or horses eat them given the chance?

'Fresh' buttercups are toxic to horses (and cows I believe) and can cause skin irritation too - though they are bitter so they tend to avoid eating them. Dried in hay they are fine though 🙂

Woolsery

Hedgepigs said:

Farway said:

I love the butter cups. Do cattle or horses eat them given the chance?

'Fresh' buttercups are toxic to horses (and cows I believe) and can cause skin irritation too - though they are bitter so they tend to avoid eating them. Dried in hay they are fine though 🙂

Thanks. By the time the hay is cut the buttercups will be less prominent. There's a nmber of 'natural' fields like ours here, so I don't feel bad about them.  

Farway

At last I have planted the coleus out into the troughs, with the forecast ahead being hot they should settle quickly. The polyanthus I have just moved to a less conspicuous spot awaiting me feeling  like splitting them, I spoke to neighbour while was out front and already have homes for any “spare” polyanthus

Sunny & warm this morning so a trip up to volunteer garden and gave a bit of a hand tidying and trimmed a few brambles back, plus picked some bay leaves for the pot. The orchid that grew in the grass last year is back so over time we may get a patch growing

Today’s photo is the nasturtium that has grown near my garage, in a crack between kerb & under a laurel hedge. As said I await the seeds

RAS

Farway, stunning.

Been picking wild strawberries for 10 days. Today, first two Royal Sovereign, two raspberries and a few blackcurrants (Ebony).

But the clematis Miss Bateman bought last year has stripes! Possibly Nelly Moser?