Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

There all from baccarat bill house. If you expend the 'rusty head girl' sculpture, all the back of her head is beautifully carved leaves  

I was going to say, your area's dead posh if that's the overall standard of local gardens!

Don't know how to expand your pics Blue Eyes, they always stay the same size in a new tab for me.

Still very lovely, tho'!

Back here in the workaday world, here's our partner Farmer turning the hay last night, just before it turned cold again:

YoungBlueEyes

I can all but smell that! Mmm  

I don’t know how to do clever things with pics, I just upload them from my phone. For expanding I do the ‘fingers on the screen thing’… 

YoungBlueEyes

I hope this works 

YoungBlueEyes

And no, that’s not the general standard of the gardens here sadly. It was one particularly beautiful spot. The rest were very nice, pretty plants etc but nothing special :shrug:

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

And no, that’s not the general standard of the gardens here sadly. It was one particularly beautiful spot. The rest were very nice, pretty plants etc but nothing special :shrug:

I still like the 'ordinary' gardens, though. They make me feel better about ours. Also, when someone gets a feature totally right, or does something extra creative on a budget, I feel inspired to see what's possible. We have pretty much unlimited space, but limited time, money, and physical ability, which is also true of other locals, many of whom share the problems we have in a windy, and occasionally harsh, locality.

Dustyevsky

Here's a local garden from a few years ago:I still have 'Joe Pye Weed Envy!'  Size matters! They're in a real frost pocket though!

YoungBlueEyes

Yep I know what you mean Dusty. The beautiful house above was pure lovely, but I enjoyed the 'ordinary' gardens as much. I really wanted to see plants that look good together, where to put different things, and chat to the auld gardeners about how to actually do stuff. That was more valuable to me as a beginner

Farway

Not sure if I have the best of the weather, it's always sunshine lately, even at 0530. Still a chilly wind though. Which is fine, but a bit of rain would be nice, TV local said not rained for three weeks or summat like that. Ideal for making hay Dusty

May have thunderstorms at the weekend, then something mumbled about could be a month's rain in an hour

Whatever, it's watering day today, dragging the hose down the garden for the blackberry roots

My plums are swelling

My posh & blooming expensive canna is coming along nicely in its pot, once I've sorted the dying foliage of the daffs out I can get on with the summer planting. Not seen any lily beetles for over a week, so hopefully the danger time has passed, and my lilies are "safe" for now. They are loving this weather, but no doubt when they flower hurricanes will arrive to flatten them

One job soon arriving is tying in the fresh blackberry canes for next year's fruit. I have a cunning plan to tie one shoot along the same framework as my espaliered red pear, hopefully they can co-exist

Still no sign of grape flowers , the new shoots are romping away, so time is running out.

Impressive rusty head pic YBE, a lot of open gardens seem to have art displays these days. I know Hillier's near Romsey have an annual one, with eye watering prices

ArbitraryRandom

Here's a tad nippy too, around 12 degrees vs 19/20 earlier in the week. I had to pull the duvet over last night (window still open though!) and it's a hoodie rather than a t-shirt today. 

According to the forecasts no rain until the weekend, so still watered my strawberries this morning. 

twopenny

Sunny and warm today. Pots watered but need to do the beds. The pinks are laying flat on the ground! But if I water the slugs will get them. 
Gardening is about war I think.

Love the bricks in the gravel on one pic. I wannted a brick path but they are slippery. I've got gravel scraped from when the place was built. I'm going to try that combo later.

Yes open gardens are about getting ideas. Also remembering that my tiny plot isn't right for some grand plants - but I planted a climbing hydrangea anyway 
As my lovely deceased neighbour would say, you can have anything you want. Just keep pruning!
Her lovely plants are now growing high over the fence and looking glorious as well as screening me from the windows of the flats behind. 

Good news on the lilly beetle Farway. Your hard work obviously has them stunned for the moment.