Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

ArbitraryRandom said:

Dustyevsky said:

Thinking about 'water composting,' in a sealed container, won't bacteriological action be mostly anaerobic

Would that be a problem?

I was figuring rotting is rotting... 

Yes, probably OK, thinking about it, though it might be slower. What you start with is likely to be the most important thing. The benefit of tap-rooted plants, like comfrey, is their ability to pull up and store nutrients and trace elements from very deep in the soil. When we came here, I made a couple of comfrey 'hedges' behind stock fences. They do their thing, year in year out, and the bees have a field day. About now, they get mildew, so they're cut down, stuck in a barrel and away they go again! They're a win/win if you have space.

Dustyevsky

-taff said:

..nice daisies, I like them too, but the ones I had were really prone to blackfly, or are they generally and I'm just being picky?

I can't say we have that problem, but blackfly are random attackers. We have loads on our cardoons at present, but they aren't normally affected much. As the cardoons are way above my head, I'm letting them get on with it!
Farway is right, there's a number of good Shasta daisies to be had easily from seed, such as 'Crazy Daisy.' The bog-standard Ox eye Daisies of roadside fame propagate themselves too.

ArbitraryRandom

Dustyevsky said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

Dustyevsky said:

Thinking about 'water composting,' in a sealed container, won't bacteriological action be mostly anaerobic

Would that be a problem?

I was figuring rotting is rotting... 

 The benefit of tap-rooted plants, like comfrey, is their ability to pull up and store nutrients and trace elements from very deep in the soil. 

Not a great picture (the weather hasn't decided what it wants to do yet and I'm not in the mood to spend a lot of time in the garden today) but here's my six comfrey plants. Started as little inch long root cuttings with a sprig of leaf on each, now overflowing 10L pots

They're still in pots because I'm still fussing around where they'll go. I want to plant a medlar in the same area, and I'm still not sure if the compost heap I've built/started is big enough/quite in the right place. But I don't think it'll hurt them to go in the ground when dormant as I think they're fairly bomb proof. 

They're Bocking (spelling?) 14, so apparently won't seed/will only spread by roots and so shouldn't take over if I'm a bit careful with it. 

Interesting thing, the ones with dark green leaves are all/mostly compost from my local tip (Free or £3 if they bag it for you).

The other sad looking couple in the middle with the pale/yellowish leaves is the compost I bought from a discount garden store (this stuff but not from here: https://www.newgatenurseries.co.uk/product/growmoor-multi-purpose-compost-50l/#:~:text=This%20Multi%2DPurpose%20is%20a,for%20a%20long%20lasting%20bloom.). 

Gorsebush

Hi everyone, 
I've been lurking here for some time, and did once type out a long post, but somehow it got lost, so gave up trying, until now. The appearance of this exotic looking fellow on an oriental lily leaf this morning has galvanized me into action! 
Can anyone shed any light? 
Cheers, from a (now, at last!) wet corner of Blighty 😊

ArbitraryRandom

What a delightful creature  

I can't do a positive ID without checking some references, but I'm 80% sure it's a type of tussock moth caterpillar based on general appearance and location. 

Thanks for sharing the pic. 

EDIT: Scratch that, I'm now 90% sure it's a rusty tussock moth (trusting someone else's ID): 

https://youtu.be/XdR-d0Tq1FA

Dustyevsky

Welcome Gorsebush.

I'll go with Rusty Tussock too, though the RHS sticks with the old name of Vapourer moth.

The important thing is not to touch it, because the hairs can cause severe irritation and rashes. We've had Tussock moth caterpillars here once or twice, but not that one.

Rain has finally arrived here after threatening all afternoon. I managed to have a bonfire and cut all the rough grass paths in the  mini woodland  before being forced indoors. We're hosting a family day here next weekend, and there will be no outings for me this week. So.....here's another picture from last week's wander around Rosemoor, best seen in another tab:

pink_poppy

Fungus gnats on my Tom, blackfly on my rhubarb and now potentially NZ flatworms in the garden eating my worms 🤢 I don’t think I’m cut out to be green-fingered...

Showers pretty much all day today and the same again forecast for tomorrow ☔️ 

Forum temporarily unavailable tomorrow as well 😕

Gorsebush

Thanks A R for the ID. Yes, it was exactly as shown in the video.

Thanks Dusty for the welcome. 

I hope everyone's getting enough rain now. We here in the west had several dry as bone weeks, but pretty much all of July, so far, has been wet'ish, with proper rain appearing right on cue for a local fete and dog show on Saturday. It's been wet, windy and thundery ever since. Happy to have the water butts full, and having a break from carrying the kitchen sink water outside for a while! 

Hopefully I'll see you all on the "other side" (of the site upgrade, fingers crossed)

ArbitraryRandom

Ah! I forgot to update... 

Well, the app was right (or close enough, I didn't actually time it), there was a shower at 10. It was fairly heavy but not for long, then the rest of the day was just grey and sulky so I went out and watered anyway. 

According to the app it's raining right now... and I'm going to say it's not. Or if it is then it's light and quiet enough I can't see or hear it through the open window. 

I'm on a train at 7:30, which is a horrible hour (darn people scheduling meetings for 10 when some people have to travel!) so hopefully it won't be raining as I walk to the station. Then I'm afraid the garden will have to fend for itself for a couple of days. 

I've freshly slug pelleted around my squash and courgette plants (only one courgette now...) as they're the only thing's I'm vaguely concerned about. 

Oh, and my mother has apparently bought me a baby mulberry bush... even I think the variety I was after (mojo) she's bringing it round when I'm back. She says it's got berries on it and everything, so that's something to look forward to  

Hope everyone has a good upgrade - make sure to check your forum email address is still one you can active in case something weird/bad happens with logins and passwords again! 

YoungBlueEyes

Good tip about the email Arb. You're lucky with your council compost - ours do the same here but I daren't get any cos I don't wanna be bringing in more weeds and nonsense. I know what I throw in my brown bin I don't wanna risk everyone elses on top of it! 

Love your lily Farway, that's a beauty. Aren't they striking colours   

Welcome Gorsebush Great name,  I love gorse. It means Easter's round the corner In sunday school when we were little they made us pick the flowers and throw them in the water when boiling eggs - the whole egg turned yellow. We thought that was amazing, cos it is when you're 5.

Cracking pic Dusty, very cool and summery I'd swop my garden for that in a heartbeat

It cooler here this morning and very humid. It rained a wee bit overnight (it gave plenty of rain for hours but the bar's obviously open again cos I've nothing much in my waiting buckets). Heavy thundery showers all day they say, a tiny sprinkling around 7pm the sobers say... Good job the apps are free eh!