Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

It cheers me up looking at all the lovely flowers.
Mine are looking desperate in the eternal dry and of course many newly planted.
The bugs have been prevalent, I've even got blackfly on the chives!
Can't do much at the moment after a 'procedure' and its even too hot to potter so feet up and binge watch gardeners world this afternoon.
One bonus is we've had a n/e breeze so with all doors open it's ok. Doesn't help the garden though.
Perhaps I should get the roses parasols.

Woolsery

 

I hope you're soo on the mend twopenny; it seems to have been a tough year for you.

Stunningly tasteful lily, Farway and definitely nicer than the one DD2 brought down here. She and her husband are living with us now, so there's a new 'instant garden' in the barn yard.

The digger guy was a no-show yesterday, but he made up for it today, (Friday) starting at 14.00 instead of after his other work. We  finished at 20.00, by which time I was competent again in dumper driving but also very aware I'm getting rather ancient for bouncing around on a machine with two parts that move independently of each other!  About 20 tonnes of soil have been distributed around the place so far and I'll hopefully persuade our guy to use the digger to spread them out....or it will be a lot of raking!

Farway

Blimey Woolsery, not the ideal weather for hard work, but needs must, I do hope the digger saved raking

I was out early, up the volunteer border with my hose to water all the large pots, despite having been soaked on Tuesday they still bubbled away as the air came out once water added. All done now until next Tuesday, also dead headed a few roses & the cosmos

The roses up there are looking a bit sorry with the poor dry soil, but watering the bed is just not a practical choice on the basis of once started will have to continue or the rest of summer

I've also used the hose to do the pots in my back garden, trying to beat the heat really, apart from that my gardening for the day is done but I have some photos to get out of the camera sometime

liberty_lily

Farway, that lily is absolutely gorgeous 😍 

Woolsery, wow! Your achievements are making me feel inadequate, lol 😆

In fact, due to the heat, apart from starting to put together the stumpery which has involved some weed clearance, not much gardening has taken place here. A few logs have been chopped and moved to one of the log stores and the obvious dead-heading has been done...plus loads of watering (I feel very lucky to have our own water supply so no concerns about hosepipe bans!).

DH did offer to continue helping me with the stumpery area (in a shady spot where my egg chair is positioned, in need of levelling, composite decking added, not to mention planting 🙄) over the weekend, but as we have more important stuff for him to get on with inside, I declined. 

My offerings today are Ajuga Reptans Catlin's Giant, on its second flowering...

And Astrantia Star of Billion in the not-quite-white bed...

Woolsery

I can assure folks the choice of day or weather for the big dig wasn't mine. Also, although I trust my SiL, he's young and a dumper in youthful, inexperienced hands can be very dangerous. The last time I hired one it had just come back from the workshops, having been overturned.

At least the invariably young drivers of the John Deeres that shift grain and silage here at full speed have passed a test. A few days ago I noticed a plant pot with a sign in it by our new neighbours' wall which read, "PLEASE slow down!" It was in very small letters, so the desired effect was achieved, but that will only work once! I have a feeling if the newbies are already telling locals how they should drive, it won't be long before the 'For Sale' board appears. I don't think they're flippers, just people who saw the picturesque cottage and viewed at a time when nothing passed which shook the furniture. Thinking positively, at least the back garden no longer goes underwater....

No digging so far today. The clearance and levelling is is complete and we just have to dispose of another 20 tonnes or so. The picture below with my wheelbarrow for scale shows the heap of better soil we'll keep for deep beds etc on the right and the disposable one on the left . There's Jerusalem artichokes in that. Be interesting to see where they come up!

Woolsery

Lily, I can get astrantias to flower twice, but I'm obviously doing something wrong with 'Catlin's Giant!'

Farway

Another day up & about early to beat the heat, and unable to sleep anyway, there is a slight breeze but apart from that it's blue sky & hot sun

The main task was to water the couple of pots at the bottom of the garden, the ones I tend to ignore TBH. Both done and bird bath topped up but spotted a couple of missing blackberries I had my eye on, providing water for birds can be a two-edged sword.!!

Plus cut back the geraniums at the front before the sun gets round and bakes the area

My climbing beans are in flower now and remarkably snail & aphid free, a complete contrast to last year when I fed the all neighbourhood's pests, mustn't count my beans before they are hatched, but you never know

And another triumph, so far, anyway. Tow trays of cape primrose leaf cuttings are sprouting, I have four varieties and took leaf cuttings from all four, now I have Charlotte & Harlequin leaf cuttings with rows of babies growing, and hopefully the other two varieties are not far behind

That's a first for me, I've never tried Streptocarpus cuttings before, in fact until this year I had no interest in them, never too late in gardening, is it?

I took a picture of a busy bee on a teasel, but now find the camera had chosen to focus on the one next to it , so my award-winning shot is blurry, out of focus and not suitable for here. I'll try again during the week next time I'm up the volunteer border

liberty_lily

Woolsery said:

Lily, I can get astrantias to flower twice, but I'm obviously doing something wrong with 'Catlin's Giant!'

Ha! Indeedy...but in a reasonably sized clump it's the only one to flower a second time 😉

Woolsery

Up early to beat the heat, though I'm now used to what we've been having and worked through yesterday, finding that preferable to the 'retail experiences' the rest were enjoying in IKEA and similar places.

Sadly, on Saturday the digger disappeared, thanks to another breaking-down. I expect it will be hard to get it back again quickly and I don't much fancy loading the dumper by hand! Such are the woes of doing jobs on the cheap....

Some plant-related photos don't work for me either, Farway. Here's the one I did for the magnificent bottle brush, when I forgot to change the setting from the previous day. It's a little blurred.....

Just looked at those Streptos.....amazing!

Farway

Watered the needy ones early this morning before the heat gets up, and I wilt, made a bit harder because I think I have gout in my little finger, so my right hand is more a claw at the moment, I shan't being doing brain surgery for a while anyway

No other garden related items today, I'm running a hospital trip for a friend later and luckily the waiting room is air-conditioned so some respite today