Awful weather - typical Brits talk

YoungBlueEyes

I’ll not even guess at your birds, but just to say that if you zoom in on the first photo - it’d be 50/50 whether it was a fresh babby one of whatever or an old man one of whatever 🧐

No payout for me then, if thems the criteria I dun it wrong. I did a sort of Caesar salad jobber (yum) with Pimms Sundowner and soda to drink (not yum, the Sundowner is muck). 

Climate change compliance vetting Gawd I love this thread! 

YoungBlueEyes

Oh and that rose is the peachy one you asked me about Farway, The Winston Churchill something or other  

LessImpecunious

I was going to say baby goldfinch too, based on wing marking, but it does have the yellow top of head, plus the beak doesn't look finchy, so would go with baby goldcrest...

twopenny

Baby Goldcrest
Finches are seed eaters so that narrowed it down. Unusual to see them in gardens. If there's 2 babies there must be a nest nearby.
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/goldcrest/

Can't decide with the strawberries. You can tell by the taste. Alpine ones are disappointingly on the 'tarte' side while wild ones are sweet.
The wild ones tend to be straggly where the alpinnes dorm usefully neat mounds.
I managed to kill mine I thought by constantly moving them as I bought more plants but a brand shiny new one has popped up in the veg bed and a new leaf from the dying stump on the old one. 
Probably scared to show its head in case I dig it up again.....

Eenymeeny

LessImpecunious said:

On the topic of radishes  - YBE I think I remember the pic of seedlings on a paint pot lid, and thinking you'll have to transplant those quickly! Radishes need soil depth to grow, and also don't like being transplanted, being a root crop - try again in a pot with deep soil or direct in the ground, and as long as they get sufficient water they should work, fingers etc crossed... And Eeeny - radishes only go woody if they start to bolt (put up a flowering shoot) - though the odd few never seem to grow properly...should be 4-6 weeks before they're at eating size...

Thanks for the info, I'll just keep watering then... they're a variety called scarlet globe. The one I uplifted has perked up again so maybe it will forgive me! I think that I sowed them on Easter weekend but they look like they have quite a bit of growing to do.

YoungBlueEyes

Lovely and cool here this morning, nice breeze coming through the house  

Goldcrests - so you'll have to keep well stocked on seeds now Farway. They're proper little cuties.

Nothing so fancy in my bird situation. I've still got blackies (hooray) I think 2 pairs. I'm guessing one is my original Mrs Blackie because aren't they very territorial...? They still have babbies cos they're taking food back still, but no-one else is.

I'm looking forward to tasting my strawbs now, I hope they are wild ones. Good luck with yours 2p, talk to them nicely and reassure them

twopenny

Hot already! Found a couple of huge strawberries and some raspberries which I ate immediately 
Found the brassicas being eaten by an army of caterpillars. No time to deal. Really need some blue titsin the garden.
Blackie has had a bird bath and preening happily on the fence.
The rest of the garden is a mess of petals and dried flowers. It will have to be sorted but too hot for the mo.

Dustyevsky

I'm being very tactful about my experience with 'alpine' or similar 'wild' strawberries when I say they were successful. Mrs Dusty introduced them a few years ago,  and let's just say they thrived! It was a while before I noticed just how prolific they were, but strangely, I don't recollect eating any. When they began to dominate in the areas assigned to them, and then in some other places too, I began a quiet campaign of eradication, which is now almost complete. I say 'almost,' because the odd guerilla plant may still be found lurking under a shrub.

Sunny and warm here too, which is not what the drunkards down the road are telling me. Hopefully I'll be poking around Rosemoor this pm, because I don't trust the weather, or the drunkards, to go further afield.

Edit: Don't think I've ever seen a Goldcrest, which makes them 'rare' in my experience. Maybe if I lived near pine woods? .....err... but I do!

Farway

Thanks everyone, Goldcrests R Us .

Now if they can just get a taste for slugs & vine weevils I'll be set for the rest of summer

I have seen them picking at my window edges, presumably after the insects or spiders lurking. Talk of the Devil, they are back again right now nibbling whatever insects are on my window

Another scorcher here, I've fed & watered the front pots already before the sun gets there, the LG lettuce forest I splodged last week is now up, just green showing. The radishes are still there and greening up a bit now

I need to remove side shoots & tie up some of the tomatoes, nothing too strenuous, just another job to be done

I have been attempting to pollinate the grapefruit with a brush, no idea if that will work, but it's all there is, hardly a lot of bees flocking around the couple of flowers

What few cherries got pollinated are starting to ripen, I'll attempt to cover from the birds and hope I at least get a taste this year

-taff

The only thing I wage war on in my garden is mares tail. But I don't have to worry about the birds anymore, notably magpies and pigeons, because the tree is no longer there...Woop woop!

This was the tree and the fence is 6ft.