Awful weather - typical Brits talk

YoungBlueEyes

pp, if you've rhubarb you gotta make rhubarb and ginger somethings. Jam is good, crumble is ok. Or gin maybe  

Still autumn here but back to summer tomorrow they all reckon. It was almost cold enough for more than just the empty duvet cover last night In the middle of august dagnammit!

Cool and cloudy and humid all day here, so it'll be gardening after food shopping. Rather than me ask about every individual plant on here, can someone recommend a website that'll tell me how to deal with plants that have finished? Snip these ones off at ground level, leave those be, get these lifted in case of a bad winter..... like that. It all needs a bit of tidying up out there but I'm not sure what I'm doing 

Has 2p made it back off Exmoor...?

Farway

Sorry about the rain folks, my fault entirely , I watered the pots yesterday afternoon because they looked "a bit dry". This morning woke to torrential rain and forecast is "Gawd Help Us" for tonight

Drying out a bit now, but dull & close, luckily I removed all my blighted tomatoes yesterday afternoon sp not a problem for the moment

My Happy Days tom is still blight free, despite all around getting it, still not sampled the taste yet. 

Like Dusty, I'm having second thoughts on the taste of what I thought were fails, him with the large toms, me with my yellow cherry plum ones. Now they have had time to really ripen on the vine, they are quite pleasant, and I reckon worth another go, not blight tolerant though

No outside gardening today with the rain & wet, but if time I hope t repot my Cape primroses, looking very forlorn and a disgrace on my window sill, I think it's down to the allegedly bio friendly net root bags they arrived in, supposed to be OK to plant on in the bags, but from reading on web this may not be true

Soon find out once I pot on

YoungBlueEyes said:

 Rather than me ask about every individual plant on here, can someone recommend a website that'll tell me how to deal with plants that have finished? Snip these ones off at ground level, leave those be, get these lifted in case of a bad winter..... like that. It all needs a bit of tidying up out there but I'm not sure what I'm doing 

Try the RHS site, has most things about plants, including "how to"

https://www.rhs.org.uk/

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

PPS, Dusty bought one a year or so back, maybe he remembers the supplier? Mine was so long ago I've no idea

I got mine here:

https://www.hedging.co.uk/plants/fruit/soft-fruit/blackberry-merton-thornless

There's only one left, and it'll be the carp one no one else wanted!

I now have two, of course, but neither has a permanent home yet, thanks to all the garden disruptions and diggers chugging about....hopefully soon! Plenty of places to buy, though. Try to get locally with no postage cost.

Officially, it's not raining here, but that misty stuff is everywhere, and you get just as wet.

Sitting here, pondering what to do next about the objectionable objecting  neighbours, who proved at the meeting the other night they are still bat-shirt bonkers and liable to do something silly if they think they've 'lost.' I will ask for guidance on another web-site, I think, not this one. We're covered for legal stuff with our insurer, but I don't think they'll help until something insane happens. It will cost £££ to get a solicitor to fire a warning shot across their bows....

Poo day and poo people, so the answer must be another big, fat, cheapo dahlia!

Speaking of bats, the bat detector people were back on Wednesday night and they commented on the huge numbers of moths here. I hope our planting has something to do with that.

ArbitraryRandom

Farway said:

... looking very forlorn and a disgrace on my window sill, I think it's down to the allegedly bio friendly net root bags they arrived in, supposed to be OK to plant on in the bags, but from reading on web this may not be true

Soon find out once I pot on

Completely unscientific, but I picked up a half dozen 'Vintage White' Achillea/common yarrow  that came as bare root and a half dozen 'Cerise Queen' that came in those bags.

 Both arrived within a few days of each other and potted/treated exactly the same - the white has thrived and flowered well, the red hasn't even tried to put out buds. It's not dead and I reckon it'll overwinter okay, but certainly not happy.

YoungBlueEyes

I’m just gonna say it. Hands up who else wants a ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ treatment for their neighbours? I hope you get good advice Dusty 🤞🏻

Thanks for the rhs link Farway, I should’ve just thought of them first tbh. I’ll get cracked on with that today ready for tonight’s rain. Dry here so far, rain due after bedtime. Well I say dry, it’s as damp and close as it can possibly be, this side of mist or drizzle. 

Moth -attracting plants, they should put that on the labels 🙂 I don’t even know what they’d like… I expect rhs will tell me 🤞🏻

pink_poppy

Mmm, rhubarb & ginger crumble or gin sounds lovely. Jam of any description = food of the devil...

I'll get hunting for a blackberry plant asap, Farway. I'm envious of your bramble haul, but hopefully that'll be me in a couple of years. I don't think hedges direct deliver to us anyway, dusty, I'm pretty sure I've checked before. I'll scout out the local ish garden centres - I definitely want a thornless one.

Boo to the NIMBY neighbours, dusty, I hope it can get resolved amicably and without too much expense involved  

The weather is a bit grey and breezy here this afternoon - forecast is for heavy thundery showers tomorrow.

Farway

YoungBlueEyes said:

I’m just gonna say it. Hands up who else wants a ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ treatment for their neighbours? I hope you get good advice Dusty 🤞🏻

Thanks for the rhs link Farway, I should’ve just thought of them first tbh. I’ll get cracked on with that today ready for tonight’s rain. Dry here so far, rain due after bedtime. Well I say dry, it’s as damp and close as it can possibly be, this side of mist or drizzle. 

Moth -attracting plants, they should put that on the labels 🙂 I don’t even know what they’d like… I expect rhs will tell me 🤞🏻

An easy one is evening primrose, and it's a nice plant as well

Dusty, R4 Farming Today this morning was going on about Devon hedges, best and oldest in the country it seems, big eco green credentials, powers that be have realised they are our Rain Forest and are now paying the same people who they paid to dig them up to replant them

Next thing they'll discover is all the meadows and cow fields are good things

pink_poppy said:

Mmm, rhubarb & ginger crumble or gin sounds lovely. Jam of any description = food of the devil...

I'll get hunting for a blackberry plant asap, Farway. I'm envious of your bramble haul, but hopefully that'll be me in a couple of years. I don't think hedges direct deliver to us anyway, dusty, I'm pretty sure I've checked before. I'll scout out the local ish garden centres - I definitely want a thornless one.

Yes, they grow quickly and reliably. There are many types but for taste it seems the Merton is best, not tried them all so couldn't really say, but Mrs Dusty agrees so good enough for me

If you have space, Morries has Thorn Free £2.29, I have that, which is OK, looks lovely, shiny and big, the sort you find in a supermarket punnet, but taste is just not comparable, be fine for pie / jam etc which is where mine go

PS, some say Merton is "pippy" but until I read that I never knew

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

Dusty, R4 Farming Today this morning was going on about Devon hedges, best and oldest in the country it seems, big eco green credentials, powers that be have realised they are our Rain Forest and are now paying the same people who they paid to dig them up to replant them

Next thing they'll discover is all the meadows and cow fields are good things

Devon hedges are mostly mixed species, not a monoculture. This hedge is only a hedge because if we let it grow into trees it would die, thanks to Dutch Elm Disease. It's rare, because very few people would choose elm for hedging; it's rubbish!  However, as it's a hedge, it can't be given a TPO, so that's one spanner our detractors can't throw into the works!

We could get grants or free trees if we wanted to get into re-wilding in a big way, and I'm tempted, because keeping animals in is one of our largest expenses. It costs thousands just to do the perimeter every 15 years or so. OTOH, I feel pasture is meant for producing food, and feeding people is important. Gill Bates can eat his lab-grown meat if he wants!

OT. Just gone outside and it's raining properly now. The wind was whooshing fine stuff around us this morning, but we were able to work. I moved my potting bench into the polytunnel, so in theory I could carry on working in there, but it's like late October and I'm not keen.

ArbitraryRandom

Farway said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

Moth -attracting plants, they should put that on the labels 🙂 I don’t even know what they’d like… I expect rhs will tell me 🤞🏻

An easy one is evening primrose, and it's a nice plant as well

Also jasmines, honeysuckles and buddleias are common plants which are good for adult moths - foxglove and thyme are good for several types of moth caterpillars. 

twopenny

Well hi, reading along here. Yes I'm back from a fabulous walk along the ridge of Dunkery with 360 views down to Dartmoor looking south and I waved to Dusty.

Glad I did because it's gloomy and grim here though still warm. It's doing it's slight wet thing tonight where it sort of throws a few drops down to wet the paths, spoil your fun but not do the garden any good.

Despite that I've more tomatoes ripening - just a couple or three at a time so no pressure to preserve them, just eat and enjoy their deliciousness. A little bite of sunshine.

Hate that it's getting dark early. Seems to be cheating in August but that happens every year.

Ground still bone dry and no indication of good rain though I'm thinking it would have to be more than a week of heavy rain to get down into the soil now.

Bluey there are some books on what to do with plants that given you love old books are really good, should be in charity shops and I still find more useful than the net. I'll make a list and post or we could have a thread where we can all add our favourites.