Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

. Why aren’t they called asters now? 

Actually, it seems that one is, but there are about 6 sub-groups of the plants formerly known as asters, so a lot end up now under

symphotrichum or eurybia. :'(

Trying to finish off the polytunnel today, but un-forecast rain stopped play an hour ago.

YoungBlueEyes

Hutber's law - see that's why I'm not a fan of change, people can't leave stuff be. Not hugely looking forward to the new forum either tbh. But that's suck-it-up-buttercup territory eh. 

Anyway. The drunkards were right! Well mostly right. Well more right than the sobers. It did come across in waves and there was a bit of thunder before lunch (only a couple of rumbles) but when it rained in the afternoon it rained, Properly persisted it down, bouncing off the roads type rain. And it's been so humid overnight - still 96% now. It's a wonder it can be so moist and not be foggy. So they were a bit dramatic with the forecast, it was too much to live up to. Sadly.

Did you get your polytunnel finished Dusty?

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

Did you get your polytunnel finished Dusty?

Yes, thanks, the main structure of the polytunnel is now complete, but there's a lot of fiddly stuff yet, like putting on the sliding door gear, concreting the thresholds and installing the deep beds. Should mostly be done by late autumn! Mrs Dusty has a big agenda, re-organising the chicken orchard, and I've not forgotten the new entrance which is still just about on schedule for September, not that our neighbours are aware. I heard two of them discussing how well the hedge had re-grown after their  successful bid to prevent us breaching it. Ecologist's report is due this coming week. We submit it to the council and wait....

Meanwhile, as my other Rosemoor photos are still not sorted, here's a picture of some Canada geese we met at Marwood. They all hissed, but only the one nearest the camera had a go with a few half-hearted pecks. After we'd sat down, they relaxed and got on with enjoying the sunshine and the grass.

twopenny

Still waiting for rain, proper rain.
The soil still isnt wetted more than the surface. Washing out. Very hot and humid
Thanks for the good wishes, I'm in holding for the moment. Bathroom, car, kettle, heating, my stuffed muscle etc. Start again next week 

Just tidying around right now, sweating like a pig and waiting for the amagheden of continual thunder storms predicted - or occasional showers others predicted. Who knows.
Proper post later - unless someone comes up with something exciting
....

Farway

Very dull & cooler here, I was thinking about doing a spot f rose dead heading now the rain has battered them into a brown mess

The only exciting gardening today is an Ama2on delivery of Phostrogen liquid fertiliser, I have nearly run out of my usual, and it seemed an ideal time to try something different, no doubt I could save a few pennies by flogging around elsewhere but I CBA

Can you have a candid camera on hand when you start on the hedge Dusty? Perhaps you could trim it first, a bit of topiary? *

Update on DGD, the horticultural one, Chelsea etc, her next stop is Horticultural Training scheme at Douneside House, near Aberdeen. 

Paid while learning the practical stuff. It has been on Beechgrove & is on YouTube, about 4.30 in

Apart from the jolt she is going to get of an Aberdeen winter coming up from Hampshire, it sounds like a great opening for her

* suggested topiary

YoungBlueEyes

Ah god Dusty if you do that topiary PLEASE film the reaction and put it on here :prayinghands:  

That is gonna be a jolt Farway! Beautiful area though, and good to get the place eh. 

Being stuck in holding is annoying 2p. Any notion of when you’ll get movement. 

Don’t be waiting on me providing anything exciting post-wise, it’s all hot and sunny and still here. Drunkards gave cloud and a good breeze all day, obviously back to their old form…. 

-taff

We've got sun and spattering rain after yesterdays downpours but the butts are full again which is my mian preoccupation. Had to remove an olive tree from out the front, the wind always sent it bashing into the bay window, but I'm hoping it will live, I've removed quite a few branches and put it in a pot, hoping it will live. I always fail to extrapolate the eventual size of things.

It was only this year I realised I don't know anything about gardening. I have no plan about what will look good in various seasons all year, I buy things I like, stick them in the ground and hope they'll live. I can't count the number of things I've yanked back out again when it's obvious it doesn't like it where it is...Now that I know that now of course, maybe I'll stop doing it. Fingers crossed.

2p, hope the car proves less epxoensive than anticipated...bloody things, whenthey go wrong, they go wrong..And my pet peeve is not being able to fix them now with some spanners and a hammer...

I think that's an excellent bit of topiary there farway, something to aspire to

Dustyevsky

TBH we have enough hedges planted by ourselves to care for without going in for fancy topiary, but I've a feeling Farway was joking. ;

Strong hedges usually make for good neighbours, and that's mostly proved true, especially in the places where a hedge is now preventing others' fences from collapsing! Many of the hedges we've planted have given us good protection from the wind, and that's true too of the elm hedge, which is the controversial one. That isn't one of ours. It's  the remnant of a line of trees bordering the lane, which were cut down and then laid in the latter part of the 20th century, to preserve them as a field boundary. The Dutch elm beetle kills mature trees. If they're allowed to grow above about 15' -20' they die.

Elm makes a lousy garden hedge, especially elm which has been living in a sort of zombie form, with a massive root system that ought to be powering a large tree. Many of the trunks are hollow now and the laid laterals are beginning to fail, so although there's still good cover in summer, large gaps are present in winter when wind protection is most needed. Filling the gaps is very problematic, not only because elm saplings are hard to source, but mainly because the prodigious growth each spring shades out new planting and starves it of water and nutrients. Right now, the hedge is about 10' high and there's 90m of it, so you can imagine how much fun I have each autumn taming it on the garden side! Fortunately, my mate with a tractor can do the 'public' side and get the top down a bit before I pitch-in, but it's still a nightmare.

This year I began a reduction program on the garden side, bringing much of that down substantially. Most growth is easy to deal with, but the big trunks aren't ! They prevent the tractor reducing the height in one fell swoop. As it's a few metres thick, no one on the 'public' side noticed what I'd done. Next winter, I plan to reduce the trunks and growth on the lane side, but I'll probably need a platform or tripod ladder, a new chain saw and a thick skin!  Hopefully, by then, the new entrance will be done and dusted.

In winter 24/25, with the trunks down to a sensible level, we can hope to keep the hedge down at around 6'-7' even if the top growth goes well above that in summer. If not....well, Plan B!

To answer the question, the GoPro will be rolling when the digger begins doing its thing, just in case! We aren't at war with all our neighbours, so we've tried to keep things civil. A few of them have been very helpful, especially those who also have land, livestock and local connections. It's the NIEOMBYs who are worst (Not in either of my back yards.  )

OT: Still no rain and no thunder. Just sunny and windy. Lots of grass cut.

ArbitraryRandom

Here's a bit...anxious... feeling. 

Part of it I'm probably projecting - I've got to travel again for work on Tuesday and will be away most of the week, which I always hate. Not the actual traveling or being away, though that's not huge fun, but the waiting to leave. I hate waiting. 

But the weather is the same I think. It keeps threatening rain, and we've had (really loud) thunder on and off all day, with dark and moody clouds that sure look like it should be tipping it down already... but not a drip. 

I watered the strawbs and squash just in case but everything else can chance it. 

Oh, one new 'project' just started: Bin juice, but mini. 

I stuffed a big milk bottle with weeds and topped up with water from the butt - I can't see it won't rot, eventually, but I'm hoping the lid will contain any smell (I don't think it'll burst...). Questions remain over how concentrated it'll be, but I did stuff it fairly full (bindweed is soft so easy to get in there). Dunno. I figured it couldn't hurt to try.  

pink_poppy

Nothing exciting happening here, unless you count my DH moving a slab of concrete that the previous owners left. It might be another part of the coal bunker that we had already moved from a different part of the garden - who knows... I expected/hoped to find slugs and worms and all sorts underneath, but there was nothing (apart from a tree root). That’s one thing I’ve noticed about this garden - the distinct lack of worms. I think I’ve dug up one in the three years we’ve been here 😕

Very hot and sunny this afternoon 🥵 we’ve had a lot of heavy rain in recent days, so the weeds are growing... like weeds!! Too hot to do anything about them today though.

I’m still waiting impatiently for my toms to turn red... 20 of them at the last count - pretty impressive (to me 😁) for one plant 🍅