Awful weather - typical Brits talk

ArbitraryRandom

I have had an amazing week last week (sarcasm alert) culminating in managing to break my mac screen while playing with the cat... managed to find a local guy who could fix it yesterday during my lunch break for only a moderately painful amount of monies :-/  

While I was waiting, after reading about your various adventures and finds in B&Q, I made the very wise (:D) decision to mooch about a bit. Now I'm the proud owner of two more types of Aquilegia seed (McKana Giant and Biedermeier) both of which say plant outside April-June. I've already sowed the ones I had and will chuck these out when I remember next year. See if I can tell a difference.

Plus (bonus random plants) I came away with a mixed bag of 30 bulbs: snowdrops/russian snowdrops, snakes heads, bluebells, daffys and something called puschkinia(?) which looks lovely on the packet.

Plus plus packets of snapdragon and lobelia seeds (to add to the lobelia I already have in the front)...

Plus plus plus perpetual spinach - which I think is the same thing as sea beet(?) which I've been wanting to try since a friend of mine foraged some on a walk/picnic we took a couple of years ago. I honestly didn't realise how many packets of things I'd picked up until I was just unpacking my bag now!

That was all yesterday - I got an alert this morning that the 2023 yellow rattle seed I ordered has been shipped, so I'll hopefully get the seed out back this weekend (if there's a dry spell I can get out to rake) and try to avoid temptation for a bit.

Today was supposed to be planting out my 24 lavender plugs into their final spot in my front garden, but the weather hasn't stopped - how is it getting dark here at not even 5...?

It's August. It's supposed to be light until I get annoyed I have to close the curtains to sleep!

EDIT: reading that back I'm having a real moaning fit! This week has been much better than last week. Just wet and a bit dark. I've been spending the time reading and trying to avoid the habit of spending money just because I can't do the things on my list. One thing I did spend money on without hesitation or a hint of guilt is the new good omens kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dunmanifestin/good-omens)

twopenny

Wow that's quite some achievement Abs, compensation tactics for the pain of the screen

But you'll be pleased you did come next year.

I have some cornflower seeds that fell into my pocket while out and some poppy from a roadside clump.

Hoping to dig up enough in the badger run to plant them. All sorts of odds and ends go in there but it still needs clearing. Happily the green bin men didn't notice that neighbours bin had gone from a handful to crammed and cleared that.

Just waiting until I can stop the boring stuff like bills and trying to pin down trades. So far that's taken all day.

So many odd pots, things to be pinned and trimmed in the back garden.

I'm thinking of trying to make my Bramley sort of espalier as the branches seem to have grown long with pompoms on the top due to too much shade but really health so far. Pruning down may or may not work but I'll post a photo sometime for advice.

The sun is out one side - massive black cumulus clouds racing across the back the other. Desperate for a walk and fresh air.

-taff

AR, I''m sorry btut I very much laughed at the 'until I get annoyed'. And funded in 10 mintues? Wow!

Drizzle drizzle all day here on and off but could have been worse....

YoungBlueEyes

Your friend's pristine bungalow garden sounds very pretty 2p, but it doesn't sound like there's a lot of fun in it. I quite like queer things popping up or other things going wrong and trying new things/seeds/whatever. Maybe I'm doing it wrong and your friend has bought reached nirvana. I've got a couple of plants out there now that I got from the open gardens weekend thing. The fella said they'd be tall and bushy (I was thinking of creating a bit of privacy from the school flats). With a good lot of heat and a bit of support they'd be just the job the man said. Well they've grown a good bit now and I'm looking at the leaves thinking 'oh god, are they heat-loving loft dwellers?!' Pretty flower on them though, I'll get a pic.

That bag of mixed bulbs sounds good Arb, my B+Q didn't have them Addictive though innit. We genuinely only went in for string and came out laden And 24 lavenders? Your front garden must be hooj!  I had to put my lights on at 7 last night. It's August fgs! Not at all cold though, even with all the damp. Lovely neighbour didn't agree, her boiler was going full blast all day. And they say NHS workers are poor  

OT Well it rained, my god did it rain. The wind arrived early evening and blew all night, it's dropped a bit now mind but it's good clear cold dry air so I'm happy about that. Hopefully it'll dry my back wall out before it gives up and slumps into a soggy heap. I shouldn't joke cos it's beyond a joke now. Has everyone come through the storm alright? 

YoungBlueEyes

The …err… pretty flowered plants. See what I mean about the leaves? 

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

The …err… pretty flowered plants. See what I mean about the leaves? 

Oh no!!!

Relax, they're Cleome. Good choice.

Edit: Pic 1 Thistle???

YoungBlueEyes

You swine, you left a big gap there between "oh no" and "relax", my heart raced!   The fellah said it was just the very thing for my garden so I got 2 of them. 
Aye thistles. I've a bank of them down the left side of the garden, for all the wee birds and butterflies etc. It's a non-stop job pulling up all the off shoots that are marching into my lawn. Nearly flowering now so they can stay 'til they're done and then they're all coming up. Then I really will be without backbone

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

. Has everyone come through the storm alright? 

Storm? Trees were thrashing about a bit, it got dark early, as you said, and there were bursts of rain with murky drizzly bits between them, but there's no lake on the front parking area, so I'd guess the rain stopped in the night. Friendly neighbour's 4x4 is abandoned outside, but that's probably because it's even older than ours, and British, rather than overwhelmed by last night's inclement-ness. I fear there's a spoilt horse somewhere that isn't getting its Ready Brek this morning!

2p, one good thing about having a dense, muddled garden is that it doesn't matter too much when something falls over or breaks. We just cut it out and other things fill in the gap. We lost most of that nice marshmallow to wind and general sogginess, but piff! paff! !!!!!!! out it came, and a hydrangea lolled into the space.

Some plants are great at just getting on with it, withstanding all that nature can throw at them. Persicarias come to mind. This one, which might be the variety 'Firetail' - don't think it was bought!   - fills up an otherwise boring corner. Put three of these in a new build garden and that's the border sorted!

Edit: Blummin heck! Can't even say p00f! on here now!  The Magic Circle won't like that!

YoungBlueEyes

I'll have to keep my eye out for Persicarias, that's really lovely!

The local weather here last night said "Storm woman's name" will be moving off to the continent and it'll be an alright day tomorrow. I thought it was just a spell of bad weather. Shows what I know eh!

Farway

YoungBlueEyes said:

OT Well it rained, my god did it rain. The wind arrived early evening and blew all night, it's dropped a bit now mind but it's good clear cold dry air so I'm happy about that. Hopefully it'll dry my back wall out before it gives up and slumps into a soggy heap. I shouldn't joke cos it's beyond a joke now. Has everyone come through the storm alright? 

After a fashion, my runners have got a lean on them now, think LT of Pizza, but at least still upright after my cane repairs. Now the wind has gone, I'll get out later with more pit props. As long as the flowers & beans get some sun & bees, I'll be happy enough

Busy time in B & Q Arbs, but as 2P said, next year you can thank your lucky stars you did.

YoungBlueEyes said:

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've found the Sungold, and most toms TBH, are much improved when really ripe, I think we get accustomed to the supermarket type when just waiting for nature gives a big improvement, this also applies to berries & apples. I know I can use some of my apples, and they are fine, but wait a fortnight and they are superb.

Hope the wineberry is one such fruit

Rain overnight but sun's trying now & all being well I will pick a lot of my blackberries for freezing, once I've rejigged the beans

One tomato I really hope tastes nice, not sampled a ripe one yet, are these, Limoncito, prolific and the ones outside are even better but not yet ripe. Supposed to be small plum, but the indoor ones seem rounder than outdoor ones, very odd

Cribbed from Dusty, added the name to picture, lettering colour matched to the tomato BTW

PS, car passed MOT OK, it lives for another year