Awful weather - typical Brits talk

wort

Arb I have puschkin,very small but pretty 🤩 
No storm here, though I have put my washing on and it overcast and blowy , the drunkards are saying no rain 🤔
I like the look of a well designed more regimented garden, but when I get home and see my plant it and see full to the brim quirky garden it makes me smile more.

YoungBlueEyes

Wow them's some costumes eh! I love that Your Rosemoor pic - that's the sort of thing I'm wanting in my garden. Lots of flowers and colours, tall at the back and lower at the front, grass in the middle. You wouldn't think it'd be so hard. Well it's only hard when you keep buying the wrong plants cos they're cheapy and you've no will power. Or knowledge  

Did anyone else see the £75m house on the Have a Look at This thread? And did anybody else click through the pics like 'yeah yeah gorgeous gorgeous, ooh library, yeah yeah lovely lovely lovely. Ooh garden! Greenhouse!! And what's that plant there? Where will I get one? Is that south facing..? Or was it just me? Maybe that's the sign of a gardener (at heart)?

I'll have to find fresh places to walk and see if I see any evening primroses. There can't be none surely? But if I strike out I'll let you know 2p.  And parp prp prp prp parp parp parp paaarrrppp for your tomato! :applause: That's it now, you'll be knee-deep in a month and wondering what to do with them all Someone should institute a time limit on asking for stuff back. If I haven't given it and you haven't asked for say, 3 months, then it's mine. And no you can't borrow it or I'll never get it back.

Speaking of moths though, last time I was in B+Q I got a couple of cheapy fuschias thinking lovely neighbour would like one. Apparently she hates them - she used to have quite a big one but then one morning she went out and it was full of elephant moths. I had to DDuck the images while she was shuddering at the thought of having them so close to her garden... She'll have to suck it up cos I like fuschias  

Good luck with your rescue mission Paspatur. That looks like a beggar of a job!

OT Well it's Autumn, it really is. I've had to put a long sleeved shirt AND socks on Rained overnight, and a bit drizzly first thing but it's just thick cloud up there now. Showers and rain on and off all day Ventusky reckons, northerly wind and no sun anywhere. In August. I missed the supermoon but will hopefully catch the blue moon later this month. It's been sorely lacking in moons/stars/sunrises/sunsets round here lately  

YoungBlueEyes

It was a little frog/toad pp. I'll do a zoomed-in screenshot thing and put another pic up. Aye the bugs were disgusting. The thing is they didn't fly away. I gave the bottom of the nettles a good rattle thinking they'd s0d off but they hung tight, then when we were clipping the stems they decided to make a break for it - up our arms *shudder* Mind my apple tree will get more light now. Not that it's producing any apples but it'll be easier to sort the branches now it's all open.  

Whereabouts are you wort? Have you tried the Ventusky app? I'm finding it more accurate then the drunkards or sobers. Having said that, if you go against the drunkards you'll be more right than wrong If they say rain, get your wash on!

Right I'm off to raid Wilcos cos they're about to head into administration apparently so should be bargains galore  

YoungBlueEyes

Tiny wee frog/toad. His whole body wasn’t the length of my thumb. 

Farway

Sunny start, and my runners are back to vertical now, until the next lot of wind & rain arrives tonight

I managed to pick over a pound of my blackberries yesterday, just in time because a few have started going manky with the wet. Loads more left to ripen, it's a very good year this year, last year they mostly shrivelled in the heat

I hope the wineberry turns out as nice YBE

Rosemoor border looking good Dusty, I like those sort but like YBE, I've no space or inclination to do it these days

twopenny said:

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.

Whatever you decide 2P now is the time to summer prune it, both for shape but more importantly next year's fruit. Don't leave it too late. The branches are still bendy, and it's just the right time. 

YouTube has videos, and really it is not tricky as long as you can count to three. Count two or three sets of leaves on new growth, then cut. Easy as that. Tie down any you fancy using for espalier and it's Bramley crumble next year

Picked a few more ripe toms yesterday, Cherry Falls mainly, not quite sure about the flavour, jury out on that, but they do crop well. I'm sampling my ripe Bloody Butcher lunchtime, it does come true from seed, so I'll take a smear for next year

Pulled up my disaster radishes, no radish, just running to seed now . I have slightly better hopes s for the few LG lettuce that survived the slug attack

Warning, bug photo below the next one

This is my self-sown Evening Primrose, this one has chosen to live in the tomato planter where it has performed very well, it's just starting to go over, but there are lots more buds to open.

In front are some sedums, sort of butterfly / moth corner. Should be plenty of EP seeds to spare, all being well. 

We have them in the volunteer border as well, one of those if they like it, they'll stay plants

And here's the next Nature Study pic of my cabbage whites on nasturtium leaves, hatched and starting to chomp away

ArbitraryRandom

Talking of blackberries, there's something I don't understand that I hope is 'normal'... 

I'm picking mostly strawberries and the odd blackberry if I see one. Most completely black with the odd one just slightly underripe (because apparently they have more pectin). But when I put them in the freezer bag, they all turn a reddish colour that looks to me like they're underripe. 

Is that just something that happens to blackberries in the freezer (the ones from the supermarket aren't that colour) or am I actually picking them a little too early when I just think they're fully ripe? 

Farway

ArbitraryRandom said:

Talking of blackberries, there's something I don't understand that I hope is 'normal'... 

I'm picking mostly strawberries and the odd blackberry if I see one. Most completely black with the odd one just slightly underripe (because apparently they have more pectin). But when I put them in the freezer bag, they all turn a reddish colour that looks to me like they're underripe. 

Is that just something that happens to blackberries in the freezer (the ones from the supermarket aren't that colour) or am I actually picking them a little too early when I just think they're fully ripe? 

I've just checked the ones I've frozen, most are black, but there are a few, not all, reddish ones where there were none

All very odd because all were black when they went in

I expect once cooked all will be back again when juice soaks them

YoungBlueEyes

Oh gawd I'm first to answer. Ok. How are you testing for ripeness when you pick them Arb? Sometimes the dark ones are only dark looking and not ripe. I squidge stuff just a bit and if it falls off gently - it's ripe.  Have you tasted any 'started dark but froze to reddish' ones? Do they taste ripe? 

I only came on to say Wilcos doesn't have great bargains, just the usual 'summer sale' nonsense. The seeds tho are 70% off marked price, and they've their own brand and Johnsons. Majority of them are £1/£1.50/£2 so it's pence for a packet. Also their string/jute balls are cheaper than B+Q So another good haul of stuff, but no bulbs though. Nothing startling in the seeds either (I don't think). I got various sweetpeas, lobelias, foxgloves, ox-eye daisies, verbena, salvias, zinnias, sweet sultans, purpley echinacea, nigella. Went a bit mad there but there's a good long date on them all and they keep beyond that anyway don't they? 

So that leaves persicarias and eve prims on my to do list. Wondering if I need to be doing anything to my apple tree as per Farway's instructions for 2p....

OT Ventusky said no rain 'til mid aft and I double-checked with the drunkards who said rain and showers so out I went in my shirt sleeves and sunglasses and little sandals, and it's not stopped raining since I left the house. Swines.

ArbitraryRandom

Thanks both. I don't have a huge number (it's just the few edges of the garden and in the hedge that have managed to creep back after the clear out a few months ago), so I'm reluctant to 'test' them as they'd be none left  

My normal approach is to try to pick them, and if they come away without much resistance then I assume they're ripe. I guess it doesn't really matter. They're going into jam with my strawberries and any other fruit I manage to glean, so any tartness will be overwhelmed by the 60% sugar needed for it to set. It just surprised me they changed colour like that. 

YoungBlueEyes

Ooh Farway beat me to it. I need to type faster. Which is funny cos I did typing in college and got a good score!