Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Glad you're both on the mend LL.
Farway you be careful. Last thing you want on top of gout.

I had the original varient, 2 jabs and omicron 2. Don't know if it was the varient or some antibodies but it was exceptionally mild and wizzed by. Just the tiredness. But they don't seem to be interested in finding what protection people have.

Lot of walking and socialising till 3, the fields and grass moorland are still crisp. Trees some fine where they grow together but a lot with yellow leaves dropped like autumn.
The streams seem to be running well so wildlife will get some relief. Saw a pony trying to eat gorse there is so little grass.

Some rain overnight and I was able to get some fallen canes back in the veg bed. Too muggy to do much though.

Happily I didn't take my purse with me as the roadside stall had some glorious plants in wonderful colours. Thought I should check the threads on drought first 

Woolsery

twopenny said:

I had the original varient, 2 jabs and omicron 2. Don't know if it was the varient or some antibodies but it was exceptionally mild and wizzed by. Just the tiredness. But they don't seem to be interested in finding what protection people have.

'They' are interested. DD2 was invited to join a study that's just ended. She's retained strong antibody protection, without 'enhancement,' since having Covid Original way back in Feb 2020. Grandparents, aged 87, also joined the study. They got a later variant, despite having all the treatments, but they both came through it OK in a week or so. Main conclusion: the payment in £25 supermarket vouchers was well worth it! 

Edited to add less facetiously: If you are interested in ongoing clinical studies, then two people stand out among those interpreting these for the public . They are Dr Mikolaj Raszek of Merogenomics and Dr Mobeen Syed, both on You Tube. Sadly, they both have strong accents, so following the already difficult subject matter isn't easy.

Yesterday, there was a window of opportunity, so SiL and I shifted the polytunnel hoops across into their new positions and fixed them down. The steel tubes slotted into the new foundations without drama. 

There's just 5 hoops this time instead of 8. The original front hoop is still visible framing the caravan. That will come out now and won't be used as it took the brunt of storm Eunice and is slightly bent. We can use it and the other 2 spare hoops for another project.

No gardening today. Bought a car for DB instead....or rather took her to try it out fully and approve it. I'm not daft! 

Woolsery

By the way, lily, you've done it again! About a week ago I re-used the compost in a pot labelled 'Eryngium pandanifolium Physic Purple.' Planted the seed fresh a couple of years ago. Nothing!

Shoulda used plugs!

liberty_lily

Woolsery said:

By the way, lily, you've done it again! About a week ago I re-used the compost in a pot labelled 'Eryngium pandanifolium Physic Purple.' Planted the seed fresh a couple of years ago. Nothing!

Shoulda used plugs!

Sorry, Woolsery 😜😆😂

Our plugs arrived beautifully healthy back in 2020, but till now had just grown larger and more 'frondy' with no sign of flowering. They are down in the jungley area where I tend to plant things and forget them but I'd had high hopes for these and my patience seems to have paid off 😃

Thanks Twopenny - we're definitely slowly moving back towards some semblance of *normal* 😄

Sunny today - which is good for us as we're getting rid of some no longer required building materials. Might finally find the strength to do some dead-heading later too.

Farway

Sorry to hear the covid is lingering on LL, my volunteer co conspirator is back to normal so the lingering seems to vary a lot

That project looks huge, Woolsery, but hard work way beyond my ability these days

Back to dull, muggy & useless damp drizzle which only serves to get the blight spores going, so up to volunteer pots and hose watering this morning in the drizzle. The sunflowers I sowed from saved seed have come into their own, towering above the users as they go in, I wonder who will pick them? Bound to be some sticky-fingered person about Took a photo, so fingers crossed I got it in focus this time

A bit of good news regarding my granddaughter who is doing Horticulture at Sparsholt, she has obtained a Distinction in her first year exams, so hopefully she's off to Chelsea with the college exhibit next year, top marks get to design & set up. That's one gardening experience worth having, I reckon. Never know where these things can take you

Meanwhile, today's photo is my Kong coleus in flower, due to high cost of seeds I'm going to attempt and save seeds for next year, they are like dust, similar to foxglove seeds, puff of wind, and they're gone

Woolsery

Farway said:

That project looks huge, Woolsery, but hard work way beyond my ability these days

It's 3 hoops smaller than last time, so easier, plus I know roughly what I'm doing. The main problem is the site still slopes despite cutting into it,so we had to extend the hoops by 20cm on the south side. That means well need something like railway sleepers to retain the soil  when we level-up.

Well done to GD. Tomorrow Chelsea, next week Gardeners' World!

goldfinches

@Farway - Congrats to your GD and like @Woolsery says I hope she walks in Geoffrey Hamilton's, Gertrude Jekyll's, and Beth Chatto's footsteps. Lovely photo, I hadn't realised coleus flowers were that beautiful shade of blue so they've gone on my wish list, hope you catch the seeds.
@liberty_lily - glad to hear you and your OH are both recovering and very envious of your lovely plants.
@Woolsery - very impressive effort there and much envy from this townie. I'm also participating in one of the ongoing population sampling and monitoring programmes and agree that the payments are well worth the faff.

Farway

Sun's out again, but cooler.

I've already fed & watered the large pots out the front, now the lilies in there are dying back I'm building them up for next year

Plus I have a few "where shall I bung these LO tomato plants" in them, which are fruiting and may even give a crop, assuming sticky fingers passers-by don't nick them

I've had to tie up the castor oil plants, the recent breezes had given them a sideways tilt

My next venture is sow some of the oriental poppy seeds from heads I collected at the volunteer border, may grow or not but worth a try

I was hoping the small pots from e bay would've arrived by now [forecast is Tuesday to be fair] so I could make a start potting on the Cape primrose cuttings, which reminds me, Dibleys has a sale on, I'll have a peek later

Woolsery

The Ricinus I overwintered hasn't done much at all, Farway, but it went in late and probably didn't root much more before the drought. On current performance I'd not say treating it as a biennial works very well. It's flowered, but not that you'd notice.

The seed pods on the Coronilla varia I expected to start harvesting soon dropped off when it became stressed, but now it's rained I notice new ones are forming, so fingers crossed on that. Normally it produces the goods, no problem.

Yesterday, dismantling one end of the old polytunnel took a long time, but putting the bits up again has been quicker today with help form SiL. My legs are telling me to stay off the ladders for the remainder of today, so I'll probably put wood treatment on the pieces I've reclaimed for light relief.

Farway

Dull start to the day, looked like rain once, but that gave up to just overcast & gloom

Good news, my little potting on pots from e bay arrived yesterday, late afternoon, and now I'm all set.

When I looked at my Streptocarpus cuttings closely, it is obvious some varieties are far more advanced than others, Polka Dot is really advanced, into young plants really, but the Texas Chilli are still only small even though they are growing.

I'll have to pot in phases, I think, never having done his bit before it is seat of the pants stuff for me, I can begin to see why the high price of young Strep plants now

Woolsery said:

The Ricinus I overwintered hasn't done much at all, Farway, but it went in late and probably didn't root much more before the drought. On current performance I'd not say treating it as a biennial works very well. It's flowered, but not that you'd notice.

The seed pods on the Coronilla varia I expected to start harvesting soon dropped off when it became stressed, but now it's rained I notice new ones are forming, so fingers crossed on that. Normally it produces the goods, no problem.

Ahh, by coincidence, I was only thinking yesterday about trying to overwinter the Ricinus and why I'd want to. I'll probably try it and see, but being so easy from seed, it's not imperative for me. I'll save some of my seeds anyway

Coronilla varia, again coincidence but RHS mentioned early Autumn and loss of leaves etc but also said any rain could fool plants into thinking it's Spring, so watch out for primroses, apple blossom etc

While on seed subject, I expect to collect the Balcony Yellow tom seeds some time this week, the next time I have a salad in fact

So today only garden related will be pot on some Polka Dot streptocarpus leaf cuttings and look at my two carrier bags full of apples & thinking I should be stewing them, PDQ