Awful weather - typical Brits talk

pink_poppy

Beautiful autumnal colours, goldfinches.

Rain, rain and more rain here... 

Are your blackbirds returning, YBE?? Ours are well and truly home and it's lovely to see them  

Fingers still crossed for your planning, Dusty.

Have you seen the mint chocolate 'oranges', Farway?? I'm tempted...

Twopenny, hope the leg is better today. DH has an ankle injury at the moment, so he finally understands how I feel when I'm hobbling around in pain...

We don't have a mice infestation, just cat fleas how, when our pussycat doesn't even go outside??... any advice on how to get rid of the critters (I react really badly to being bitten) gratefully received... already tried the stuff that goes on the cat, sprayed the house, combed the cat etc etc...

YoungBlueEyes

I haven't had a rummage through the undergrowth Farway so I don't know if there's good nasturtium stems or seeds or a flower bud or what. I just spotted those three leaves and got all giddy! There maybe isn't enough of it to survive a frost but sure easy come easy go. I'll check this aft when the rain (that we aren't meant to have) passes. 

I don't think they're actual wild strawbs 2p, but they are strawbs. When our gardens were an allotment there was a lot of fruit in that area. There's bramble stalks and big tall rasp stalks too that all came up from nowhere but none of them has produced a flower or a fruit. The strawbs are a good mat to keep the soil in place though cos they run the width of the garden. Handy in wet weather Gotta say I agree with gf about mice. When we had ...varmints... I mentioned about the mice we had too, but apparently the ratman doesn't come out for mice cos they aren't that much of a bother and traps work really effectively (proper neck-snapping traps). I know what you mean about them being so sweet looking though  

Jeez you have been busy taff, no wonder we haven't seen you! I'm a fan of heucheras too, the colours are beautiful. Are they easy to take cuttings off or are you just good at it?

That sumac is a belter gf. Is it yours? And that squiggly trunk too I did think sumac was a spice mind....

I haven't got my blackies back pp but I do hear them sometimes when I'm up before the birds. They're usually the first birds up in the morning, vociferously telling the world they're up now and gerrofmoilaand! I love to hear them, even if they aren't nesting in my cat wee tree any more. The long tail and blue tits have taken that over, popping and bubbling away to themselves. I'm sure it's big enough for both but apparently I'm wrong. Again   Take good care of yours cos you never know when they'll abandon you....  

Queer weather out there this morning. Warmer than it has been but cloudy and drizzly and so muggy. It reckons to be bright and sunny and muggy and windy, so we'll see. It wants to dry up because I've found some boxes of bulbs that I don't remember buying so I've them to get in the ground now too...

Farway

Everyone has been busy since I last looked, worn out just reading about it. I do love those autumn colours GF, worth growing just for those.  I had one in my last garden and loved it

I've been out watering already, in October, it's just not right, I'll have to go up to the volunteer place over the weekend and water the pots because it's supposed to be a scorcher this weekend and I don't want the newly planted pansies to suffer

Nice cobweb 2P, and a mice surprise [see what I did there?]as well, it's this time of year the little blighters start coming indoors, once weather gets cooler. I had them one year, eating the bird nuts bag, and had to use a break back trap to get rid of them

No gardening planned even though weather is sunny, it's start on tax form Mk2 day

-taff

@2p hope your legs come back again for your day out, so annoying when you plan stuff and then have to cancel last minute, especially if it's something you really enjoy.

YBL, ,I saw a video on youtube about taking cuttings, she was quite rough with them, so I thought, that's my style and copied what she did, I did have a pang when I yanked them out but it seems to have worked. Even the little tiny bits with the tiniest leaf have sprouted. I am impressed.

And yeah, sumac is a spice, kind of lemony, used in Turkey, Greece etc, looks like red fluffly lumps. Nice on hummus or on chicken. I think the sumac flowers are a bit like buddleia, conical type thing. Beautiful colours goldfinches. Farway, I might have to follow your lead and dig out the prunus whih is boring abd not useful and put one of them in instead.

By the way, can't remember if I said or not but I am seriously chuffed with myself. I grew a cypress tree from seed form the one in the front garden and it's it's only an inch high but still, I grew a tree!

Farway

-taff said:

And yeah, sumac is a spice, kind of lemony, used in Turkey, Greece etc, looks like red fluffly lumps. Nice on hummus or on chicken. I think the sumac flowers are a bit like buddleia, conical type thing. Beautiful colours goldfinches. Farway, I might have to follow your lead and dig out the prunus whih is boring abd not useful and put one of them in instead.

By the way, can't remember if I said or not but I am seriously chuffed with myself. I grew a cypress tree from seed form the one in the front garden and it's it's only an inch high but still, I grew a tree!

Learn something every day, I never knew you could eat sumac, is it same as the one we grow in garden though or different variety? Either way the tree / bush is very ornamental, and sort of exotic looking even though it's quite hardy, well hardy in Hampshire anyway, other locations may vary

Good news on tree from seed, not always easy because some can be tricky, others of course, like sycamore will sprout anywhere

in_my_wellies

Back 'home' now and finding so much work to do. Thankfully the main harvest is stored away, just the things I can collect as required left now (carrots, beetroot, etc)

I'm not a fan of orange chocolate or any of the weird flavours they keep inventing, just a bar of fruit and nut keeps me happy 

Fortunately not bothered by mice or rats (I'm sure there are plenty) because there are cats. But the cats also catch the birds so I've refrained from feeding all summer. My local fish catching birds of prey have long gone - good! means I don't waste time watching them 

Dusty, I thought the GC had a small outside plant selling area; smaller than I expected when viewed from the road, however, there is a good mix and appear in good condition. Actually, my local GC has a larger plant area but has tables/benches with big displays of the same plant. Hen food £2.40 bag cheaper in Devon so stocked up (my friend is looking after my hens) 

Taff, you grew a tree - I'm impressed! 

Today I aim to:
Check pots - done
Pot strawberry runners - not done but I picked 270g raspberries instead
Cut some hedge - done, luck ran out today - I clambered over the barbed wire fence into the empty sheep field in my gardening shoes instead of wellies, cut about 20 meters then noticed something on the grass. The heel of my shoe, then the other one, then the soles. The shoes had literally fallen apart and I was left stranded in a dirty field and a wire fence to climb over. Back over and realised I'd left my jumper, evidence! Change of shoes and back to retrieve it. Back to wellies!

OT: Lovely and sunny but very windy 

-taff

Farway said:

Learn something every day, I never knew you could eat sumac, is it same as the one we grow in garden though or different variety? Either way the tree / bush is very ornamental, and sort of exotic looking even though it's quite hardy, well hardy in Hampshire anyway, other locations may vary

Good news on tree from seed, not always easy because some can be tricky, others of course, like sycamore will sprout anywhere

I'm not entirely sure, there are versions you can eat but a quick google tells me those with red berries are edible, thoe with white, not. But I'd have to get more in depth to be absolutely sure. I think the one with the leaves as above are edible but don't take my word for it...

I know, I know, but I grew this one from seed after sticking it in the fridge for weeks to fool it into thinking it was winter...{cougjh] I did sow about fifteen but only this one came up...

in_my_Wellies, thank you

twopenny

I've heard of sumac used in cooking in the middle east which was a surprise but I remember climbing ours and then heard that it can make your eyes burn if you rub them after touching it so best get it right   
Beautiful tree though and huge applause for growing trees from seed!

Sorry to upset people with the meece thing. For me it was funny. But I have huge areas of grass and hedges round me so I just released them into the wild where they came from. I wasn't hanging around to do anything else. I was once helping get one out of the bath and it ran up my arm under my hair. No panic until no one would take it off 

Meant to photograph my beans to prove i do have some still....but I forgot and ate them.

Bluey, are they alpine then? Both sorts worth keeping.

Farway, pansies still £2 I see. Just expensive slug food in my garden.

PP cat flees, i used lavender and pennyroyal in the dogs bed. Werent impressed with the pennyroyal but accepted the lavender. Wormwood is the thing but it smells awful.

Wellies, feet up at home I hope.

Weather here amazing! Sunny and warm ehough that I've been wearing a tee shirt right to sundown.
More of this please.

-taff

@YoungBlueEyes this was the one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpFo4hGQV4Y

YoungBlueEyes

Ooh thanks for the link taff, I'll have a watch of that in a min. Mine's are smaller than that though so I might wait a bit 'til I start pulling lumps off em!
Did you say you grew a tree? An actual tree? Here's trumpets - parp prp prp prp parp parp parp paaaarrrppp Have you got a spot for it yet? 

I've not been to Greece but I've had sumac in Turkey, in a rice filled roasted pepper sort of dish. Jeez it was good. I'm not one that'll try to recreate dishes when I get home cos it's never anything like. I'd rather have it once and remember it as delish than have it 10 times and 9 (mine) are gopping. 

Gawd that made me laugh wellies, did you forget your username?! Nothing nicer than running round in your bare feet in wet grass though  

I don't know what the strawbs are 2p, they were here when we moved in. My wee ones in pots are Alpine, I remember that. They'll have to be hacked back though cos that's the area I want to Do Something with... I'll lift some and pot them, there's enough of them out there. When I say they've developed into a mat I really mean it's a big flat area they've taken over. Getting too late in the year to be doing Something with that area now though, even if it is unseasonably warm.... Next year... next year....!

Sorry I can't suggest anything for cat fleas. Lovely neighbour was battling fleas the other month there. She took His Holeyness to the vet and got an all-in-one injection for fleas and ticks and worms (I think?), it's only brand new and it was dear she said but it did work. Do I remember something about lemon essential oil for fleas..? Tbh whenever my dogs had fleas I went in hard and fast down the full chemical warfare route. 

Lovely and mild here, and less humid than it has been. Back to little cotton tops and linen trousers! In October! If this is cos of that Global Boiling I'll take it. Fingers crossed it ripens the rest of my tomatoes too, I've not many left but they're nearly there, just a few more days please please please. I did snip some off the plants that I binned and they're in a tub on the windowsill but they're not ripening. It's a shame cos they're so tasty. I'm sorry I did it for they would probably be ripe now if I'd left them on the plant Cest la vie.