Awful weather - typical Brits talk

wort

Peering round the corner.... been MIA sorry not much to report. Freezing here in the NW , woke up Thursday to a layer of snow just in time for my meet up with friends for a walk in Yarrow valley. Did an hour or so wrapped up warm then into the garden centre for a lunch and mooch . Avoided buying anything as I really need to sort the garden when warmer a little rejig needed.

I still have some tetes and iris to put in when I can bear the chill and see a spot to get them in!

Young blue , probably too late but would recommend painting the fence before planting ,certainly if you are trying to espalier the fruit trees on the fence, as they can be a b***er to paint when plants in the way. I would make the beds as big as possible,as once you are addicted the plants keep coming !! Good luck with the rats, I have an aversion to them and once had one or its cousin in my cavity wall, hearing them scurry whilst lied in bed was horrendous. 

Farway you could definitely have a side line selling your cuttings and seeds, I don’t have patience the only thing I was successful with was a Bowles mauve. Whenever I do seeds inside I make a mess potting on!! Monty makes it look so easy! The only seeds I have at the moment are waiting until I can throw them straight onto the garden next month.😉

I’m hoping the snow hasn’t killed off the rhododendrons that were in bud and some started to open😬

👋🏻 Hi to the banished one, hope you are well and enjoying better weather down there.

twopenny

Sounds like you have it the worst Wort.

Apart from Farway who is organised it sounds like we're all going to have to be full on when we're given the chance.

At the risk of repeating myself it's still been 3c and hail/sleet no idea what but it was cold and dark and very wet and everything is drooping again including me.

So it's been a bit of a non event this Saturday. But just as the Met predicted (at last) it's suddenly gone up to 10c this late at night. It could have obliged a few hours earlier and saved my heating!.

We'll see what it's like tomorrow. Heavy rain but mild it's supposed to be but still no chance to get out.

So while waiting here's the start of my woodland corner under construction with the lemon coloured fern I love. The cyclamen are a mix, the little spring ones from my neighbour and the autumn ones from my old garden.

Behind in the pot just showing is my 4 leaf clover. I hope it's survived

Farway

What a nice woodland corner 2P, lots of promise & cheer early in the year. I hope your ferns behave, I have some, mixed ornamental ones growing in a dull area next to a wall where nothing else will grow, they do get large, but the new unfolding fronds are just lovely early on.

Which is another job needing doing once weather improves, cutting back the dead & brown fern fronds, I normally leave to overwinter to give some shelter to any wee beasties that may be around, probably just a nice slug shelter if truth be known but allow me my dreams of huddling ladybirds and hibernating hedgehogs

Rain overnight but bright & a bit windy now, not going outside though, looks very soggy & cold

I found all my tomato seeds, so many varieties , I remember I went daft when T & M had £1 clearance sale last year. I must remember to sow Mountain Magic, except one of the £1 clearance is allegedly the son of MM and better, decisions have to be made

I also found the "stolen" Little gem lettuce seeds while sorting out the tom seeds, another job for another day

My canna seeds in water are doing fine with definite white eyes now, but it is showing how mixed the results are, some have still not "hatched"

wort said:

Farway you could definitely have a side line selling your cuttings and seeds, I don’t have patience the only thing I was successful with was a Bowles mauve. Whenever I do seeds inside I make a mess potting on!! Monty makes it look so easy! The only seeds I have at the moment are waiting until I can throw them straight onto the garden next month.😉

Years back I did try to sell but found unless doing properly, pretty pots / label etc many who were happy to pay say B & Q a fiver begrudged paying me a quid, or even 50p for a similar item, so now I just grow less & give any excess away

This is some of last year's ferns unfolding, not long now

twopenny

Lovely photo. I love it when the ferns in the wood unfurl. There's something particularly wonderful about it.

So the temperature has been 12C and sunny all morning and the world was out walking on the moors and me to.

The only bit of gardening was finding a lot of gorse and heather wood drying where they'd flailed it. I'm eyeing it up to go in my woodland corner and maybe near the pool. Yes, slugs and bugs but I get them anyway.

I was also able to have the window open last night and woke to the sound of the dawn chorus

Now just waiting for some more dry weather to stain and put together my false door where the woodland steps are going up. I'd like to get on with the little seating area there but first need to dig up a rose that's not a doer for me and repot it for the charity stall. Might be someones dream.

And I have to cut the bottom off a large plastic pot and sink it plus varigated privet tree somewhere. 

Screw some battens on the rotting garage door and fill.

The pond pot needs drying out so I can seal the hole and that needs sinking and a few plants moving around.

As my duff leg now won't raise more than 2" off the ground it's going to be ambitious.....5th physio a couple of weeks time. I'm not getting my hopes up.

On a cheerier note, my neighbours garden has me envious. Being 89 and still climbing ladders she needed it easier. She has pebbled it and patterned it with block paving and it looks lovely all year.

YoungBlueEyes

Lovely and mild out there, bit breezy like. I've been out to put a bit of bird food out in the catcher tray and blacky was right on it. My neighbours must all be very rich cos their boilers are spewing out steam like a power station, and I've all my windows open ha haa!
Wort I already need more plants.... I thought I'd bought plenty to start it all off then in a few years they'd fill out nicely and the beds would be full enough. I've got all the wrong plants for my ideas They're very lovely but they'll only be little-ish. So more shopping required We did talk about the doing the fence first but we decided to get the garden planted and then replace the fence from the other sides when this one dies. A proper fence is a bunch of money and other things were more of a priority - roof ridge, guttering, windows and a front door....

2p I love your woodland corner, and your lemon coloured fern, and that pot too. Your neighbour's front garden looks like The Oracle's - very simple but elegant and just enough   

Farway "huddling ladybirds and hibernating hedgehogs" made me smile They probably are, cos everyone has to be somewhere eh.

I've still not done my tomatoes... we've had a full weekend of graft. So the other side of the garden now has a flowerbed too. It doesn't look different enough for all the work it took, itms. No tree roots that side, but lots of white wormy looking roots of something, so I sifted them all out as himself was moving along the fence digging and I got my plants in. Hopefully my berry bushes will be happy cos I can't wait to pick the fruit. I've never even heard of a "Japanese Wineberry" bush but I've one in there now so fingers crossed.....

Oh and my wee daffs are finally out. I know they're only common but I do love daffs . Here's a pic from about an hour ago - it's black as night and pouring down now! Not a great pic cos I've tried to get everything in, including blacky - who came straight down for his breakfast. The two blue buckets are my fruit trees. 

YoungBlueEyes

Sorry pic didn’t attach 🙄

twopenny

Wow that's coming on. You've worked hard 
You can move the plants next autumn spring if you want but once there's some decent weather and they come on you can sit back in the sun and feel proud.
Couldn't open the bedroom window last night for the howling wind. This morning the rain is blowing sideways in the howling gale and the sky is grey.
Little daffs are great! Mine all came as window sill pots. The joy is they are tough and don't blow over like the big ones, just sit looking pretty whatever the weather throws at them.
Can't see the birds except when they fly from bush to the shelter of another bush.

I think I'm going to have to empty the airing cupboard and do Farways method for starting seeds or, like this year, they aren't going to get going soon enough.

Farway

Some lovely photos again, the 2P neighbour's garden I like, but not for me, it's one I like to see and can admire

And YBE, blacky at last. I noticed yesterday all the manky apples I threw out for the birds have gone, presumably with the cold snap they were glad of them, seems plenty of birds about now, no doubt looking for mates & nesting, however I spotted a finch on my plum tree, bet the little devil had some of the buds, but it does flower very well, so I guess I can spare a few.

Sunny but very windy this morning, if sun keeps out I may mooch into the garden later on a progress inspection, don't want things too far advanced with the cold forecast to return

At last, I have sorted out my tomato seeds, at least know what I hope to sow.

I'm going to try some more outside this year, normally blight takes them & I stopped bothering with outside growing, but last year was so dry blight seemed to be on holiday, fingers crossed this year will be a repeat

YoungBlueEyes said:

Hopefully my berry bushes will be happy cos I can't wait to pick the fruit. I've never even heard of a "Japanese Wineberry" bush but I've one in there now so fingers crossed.....

Just looked up wineberry, sounds nice, and ornamental as well, but may need a firm hand, I now want one

Talking of fruit, listening to this morning's Farming on R4, English apple orchards are starting to be grubbed up, again, supermarkets won't pay cost of production, again, shades of eggs, salad crops etc.

The point is if you've space & thinking about a fruit tree, now may be a good time to get on with it and at least have a source of fresh British apples

YBE, will it be apple & wineberry crumble in a few years? Bet it would make superb jam, luscious red colour

YoungBlueEyes

Thanks both It's disproportionate - 2 days graft there and all that's different is a bit of soil down one side. But you've gotta get the prep right first so it'll be right later on I hope. 

Aye blacky is happy now and I'm not getting The Look any more. He adapted to eating from the tray so quickly! The blackys at my last house loved apples but round here they don't *shrug*  I think (maybe possibly) the varmints have taken to the poison cos I've not seen one these last few days. Also - and I appreciate this isn't scientific or foolproof - but when we had the first light bit of snow the decking all melted at the same time. I thought that perhaps maybe if there were a squillion rats under there their heat would've risen and melted patches in the snow a bit quicker... I don't know but I hope that's true anyway.

The wineberry. I only bought it cos they'd obviously translated the description from another language and it made me giggle. It's pouring in the rain out there now so I'm not going for a look but the label says something like produces berries in the autumn "that are edibly sweetness". It was only a few quid too. Best not taste like wine tho or I'll be leaving the fruits for the birds!

Actually anyone wanna swop their airing cupboard for my wineberry?

YoungBlueEyes

Rain’s paused - here’s said wineberry. 

Will swop for an airing cupboard, or a box of red kites.