Awful weather - typical Brits talk

ArbitraryRandom

pink_poppy said:

One of my tomato stems (the whole plant is Y shaped) is snapping. I think it's the weight of the 5 toms that are quite big, but not ripe. I might have to snip them off and stick them in a South facing window?? Or sacrifice the top bit of the stem?? Decisions...

Can you tie it up to something with a bit of string to take the weight? 

I remember my grandad having a lot of what looked like little coat hangers for his toms when they were near ripe. 

ArbitraryRandom

twopenny said:

I think I need to recalculate. Abs and scheme planning may be needed.

If it helps, this is the site I use whenever I need to 'sketch' a plan. I know my end result will probably not look a thing like any of my plans, but I find it soothing and helpful to be able to do something vaguely in scale when my brain is being mean to me. 

https://virtual-graph-paper.com/

Dustyevsky

Managed to dig out the first pathway in the new polytunnel. It didn't seem like much but I riddled it all, and pushed 5 barrow-loads of excess 100m to the wild garden. I thought I'd finished dropping soil on the slope there, but there were too many stones in the stuff I put there last year and the weather exposed them.

Inspired by Gorse's pictures of the bees, I poked about with my camera for a while before the rain resumed. Soon found one of Blue Eyes' favourite insects! 

pink_poppy

I have this lovely image in my head of little coat hangers belonging to haggis' for their tweed jackets being used for your Grandad's toms, AR  

I've actually got a few bits of string up and down the plant at various stages. I think the problem is that I was too tight to buy a bamboo cane the right height for the plant and just used a stick I found in the garage haha.

Love your shield bug pic and conversation, Dusty  

Farway

Rain overnight, but just a bit windy & mild now

The runners have been rescued and are propped back upright by two new canes. Come winter, I'll replace the old canes and start fresh next year. 

The only reason I didn't do it this year was because I did not intend growing runners due to poor aphid slug riddled results last year, however the Great Veg Shortage this year gave me a kick up the bottom to do something constructive to help me out, and so far it's paid off, well ten fresh stringless beans & counting

YoungBlueEyes said:

Oh aye Farway, you’ve got proper gales and stuff tomorrow  

Well the rain has held off here, despite some thick dark clouds, so that’s my 3rd wash out now. And I’ve spotted a wineberry ripened! Also I’ve a couple of toms (possibly). They feel ripe when I squidge them so I think they’re yellow and done rather than red ones that’s half done. I’m all giggity  

Yay, well done you, the toms look lovely, hope they taste good as well. And wineberry , waiting to hear the taste test, are they perhaps one of those fruits that has to be really ripe to be great

Your yellow tom, I picked a Sungold yesterday while sorting beans out, grown outside & warmed by the sun, it was superb and if you see a cheap packet it's one I can recommend for taste, unfortunately it's a F1 hybrid so saving seed will be hit & miss. However, reading the blurb it seems there is a baby brother Sun Baby which is open pollinated, so I'll keep an eye open for that

Good news about my Boysenberry, it has fresh growth, so I assume it's settled in and sorting itself out. The new growth is not yet large enough to start training yet

The Merton Thornless blackberry is laden, this rain should plump then up & hopefully I'll pick a pile tomorrow. I'll freeze them because the apples are not ready yet, but they're also swelling with the rain

twopenny said:

Wildflower meadow looked less as the poppies had been hit by the rain but non gardening friend tried and said maybe she could plant wildflowers and flax so a perhaps.
Just looked round her immaculate easy care garden pre set as it was formally a rental with envy. N'er a thing out of place but with fruit trees. I'm still trying to compute.
I think I need to recalculate. Abs and scheme planning may be needed.

Cloud all day, smattering of rain. Picnic ok, watched the sun over Wales as we sat there.
I have a fabulous photo of a scarecrow made of plants for tomorrow. Exhausted today, green bin out to surprise the bin men at silly o'clock tomorrow - and snooze breath....


Oh and Farway, another fig?
I had coffee and toffee crisp tray bake by the sea after the blood test   

I love flax colour, used to see fields of blue in Wiltshire on the way to my Mum's years back, that & yellow from rape

Flax is a very useful plant in all ways, and not just for cricket bats, 

OT, one of my ancestors worked in a flax processing factory, near Beaminster, Dorset, before cotton imports took the living away  https://www.bridportnews.co.uk/news/10334082.flax-to-grow-again-in-west-dorset/

wort

I’m fed up of the rain here, although just looking at the Ventusky is like falling down a rabbit 🐇 hole , that says 56 degrees and the rain skirting round the edge of my town.
last week managed a couple of hours to fill the green bin, it’s mega heavy now so praying the binmen take it today . Chopped a foot off the choisya at the front, edged the lawn at the back, did some weeding, before the rain came down.
my aquilegia are mostly the muddy mauve and purple ones dotted around like everything else never a clump! I did have one of the lovely cream and purple ones like the fab pic on here, but it seems to have taken itself off or married a muddy mauve. Missed out on the white ones offered, so will watch how everyone gets on with interest/envy .
Dusty that is a beautiful thrush is it still frequenting your garden?

Dustyevsky

Hmm, notifications have stopped again. I didn't change anything.

wort said:

my aquilegia are mostly the muddy mauve and purple ones dotted around like everything else never a clump! I did have one of the lovely cream and purple ones like the fab pic on here, but it seems to have taken itself off or married a muddy mauve. Missed out on the white ones offered, so will watch how everyone gets on with interest/envy .
Dusty that is a beautiful thrush is it still frequenting your garden?

The thrush has been active in the last 15 mins, and it must have a nest nearby, as it flies off with a beak full of worms and is back again quickly. With the amount of rain falling now, it's doing very well!

I still have white aquilegia seed; not a lot, but enough. If you want some, PM your details. I'll be near a pillar box on Friday, when the Met promise no rain for us! People must be ruthless regarding any muddy colours and hoik them out as soon as seen. We used to, and our old garden had a great display. I'll look for a photo, but fear that was pre-digital.

I was puzzled by your flax and cricket bat comment, Farway. I'm not the sportiest person, but then I remembered the business of oiling it, same as for tool handles.

As we're on tomato stories, here's my first truss of Sungold. It seems 'someone' has already snaffled at least one of them! None has reached the kitchen yet!

wort

@Dustyevsky thanks for your kind offer, I’ve PM you. I have a very tiny bird at the moment very loud chirping sound tried to get a pic but it’s too quick. It’s tail sticks up , possibly a wren?? Maybe the owner of the tiny nest in the shrub, though I haven’t seen any bird there .

YoungBlueEyes

Dusty your pic made me laugh! "end of the leaf" I still see them/it in the garden, there's others as well that are like a browny mushroomy colour. I steer clear of the lot of them. No further 'locust' sightings or hearings either, so that's global boiling past and gone. Hurray!

Sungold - that rings a bell, that's what mine are. I got the little trays of plugs from Lidl/Aldi of Sungold and MoneyMaker. So at least now I can identify one bucket. I picked the two from the pic yesterday, they were ....fine. Bit of a thick skin and not a lot of flavour, but I think I was happy enough with them cos I'd grown them and was eager to get a taste. Maybe the rest will come sweeter if we get a bit sunshine and then I'll be more enthusiastic I'm not sure how I'll tell the other plants apart - some are the Marks' seeds I did myself and the others are the Moneymaker, but they'll both be red.. Note to self -  you can't whine about it when you should've labelled them but didn't    I had a good squidge of the wineberries and one almost dropped off but didn't, so no tastings yet They were a kind of sticky though, but hopefully the rain will wash it off if it's A Bad Thing. 

I got some aquilegia seeds into the ground, a clump and some dotted about. Hopefully they're all white for the first year at least, the images of whites are very pretty. I'm looking forward to them now  

I didn't get a ladder cos I did get through to the gutter man. He's going to "try to come this week". Not a bit of good to me when all last night and today it's just poured in the rain non-stop. It doesn't seem as windy as they said it would be, 30mph gusty winds haven't appeared. And nor have the thunder and lightning Honestly, what's the point of bringing Autumn forward so we get extra months of it if it's not gonna include the good bits  

twopenny

Thank you Abs, that looks useful for all sorts.

I may use it to see how different ways would look in the garden. Being on a slope it gets forshortened from the patio so a false perspective and from the top it's much larger.

Wish I'd had that when I was trying to draw up the bathroom!

I'm having garden envy and sulking big time.

Went to see my friends bungalow yesterday. It's like a mini grand estate, immaculate block paving, curved metal fences, classy pale and dark slabs, almost work free tidy evergreen bushes and mini fruit trees covered with fruit, a modern arbour and furniture and some grasss and flower beds. Not a fallen leaf or rose petal in sight on these slabs.

The bungalow is super modern interior too and so much space.

They bought it like this and needed to do no work.

I now think I'm nuts with the effort I put in mine. Time to start the lottery again I think.

Farway, we have Flax fields around here. Much prettier than the Rapeseed and without the alergies.

There is a sunflower field too. Pay £5 and pick 5 sunflowers......cheaper in Morries ;-)

Yes, wet here and dry in between. a little wintery sun and a bit of wind. Nothing to write home about.

The garden is taking on autumn colours and a lot of the plants seem to think it's autumn.

Who knows what will come next??!!??