Awful weather - typical Brits talk

greenbee

If I order Asparagus crowns now @twopenny I can plant in April and will be eating it in about 3 years' time. Hence the need to get on and do it. My dad grew asparagus, and despite it being pretty easily available here I'd like to have a go at growing it. 

I also need to get a move on with rhubarb and soft fruit if I want to be eating them next year (I have strawberries at my mum's which I need to take out of the planter and replant here). The gardener who is helping me get/keep things under control has suggested Heras fencing for the fruit cage so it has permanent walls, and then netting over the top of it. 

twopenny

Oooo fancy 

I bought strawberries with me when I moved and planted around Feb and got some fruit.
Bought some raspberry canes and they fruited the first year. Not massively obvs but enough to encourage me.

I got some kale and broccoli plants reduced at the garden centre and that was my first veg in a new garden. It was a chance but it often pays off.
Exciting 

YoungBlueEyes

That's a good tip about tetes etc in morries 2p, thanks muchly The majority of my (meagre) garden purchases have been lidl/aldi recently cos I'm in there anyway for food shops and morries is the other direction. Their plants have been poor/non existent recently though. They've primroses in now so I bought some for my hanging basket out front. Very cheery.

Not as cheery as your lacey raindrop-y flower Less, that is a fab pic! Many more to come now you've figured out your phone :fingerscrossed: 

Good luck with your fruit cage gb, I hope it's wildlife-proof. My ones are really low church - netting stapled carefully to the fence Worked last year though, she said, cursing it... Be interesting to see if a proper job works better.

Nothing garden related to report here. I've a daff considering opening, should be in the next couple of days maybe, hopefully. Shawshank Patch is a sodden mess, it rained right through the other day (when it didn't snow, disruptively or otherwise) and since then it's just rained. Was properly misty yesterday all day, it actually felt more like the clouds had given up entirely and just slumped to the ground it was that thick and pervasive. But it's just rained these last 12 hours and we've more to come. They say. Brighter and drier but still humid next week, possibly. Not overly cold though   I'll get my accurate forecast tonight when I ring Cissie  

Farway

It can't make its mind up here, blue sky, then clouds, then back to blue. Hopefully it keeps dry & mild at least.

Thanks for webcam link to Newquay area Dusty, at least they have a sunny start down there this morning.

Nice crocus pic Imp, now I have to try to get one of my purple one, this year I put mesh over to stop the birds & squirrels, so I maybe actually get to see it open. I say one of my purple ones, AFAIK it is the only one left after squirrel feast some years back.

YoungBlueEyes said:

That's a good tip about tetes etc in morries 2p, thanks muchly

Some of mine came from Morries, in pots. If lucky you'll find the dying, unwatered or finished flowering ones reduced. Still worth 10p though and bung them in the ground for next Spring.

Which reminds me to now have a look for snowdrops in pots

Before I forget, Garden Devil calling , T & M have the £10 off over £20 spend back until midnight. P & P still applies. No connection except as a customer: possibly now is the time to get ?? Probably not a fruit cage though.

Offer ends midnight 11th February 2024. Your discount will be applied in your shopping basket. £20 minimum spend. Excludes all products within our T&M Marketplace, Tool Shed, Outdoor Living, Buildings & Fencing, Lawn Seed and Wild Birdfood categories. Normal delivery charges apply. Use order code TM_TN4669W.

Managed to get fig notching yesterday in the sunshine, I've done enough now to see if it works or not. I have one failure to report, notched a bit too heavy-handed, and the branch has broken, boo hoo , but that's the way we learn, right?

More Spring, this is pear blossom bud, Beurre Alexandre Lucas, maybe early because my other pear, the hard red one, is not showing any signs yet

Dustyevsky

If we do get enough sunshine, I might get a shot of my pear later, though there'll be no bud notching here if Mrs Dusty has anything to do with it! Either concrete puddling or chainsaw snedding (look it up!) will be the order of the day. Or there again, it may just rain!

The pear to which I'm referring is 'Chanticleer,' which only lost its leaves in December. It's now with burgeoning buds, like yours, Farway. However, being ornamental, there's no fruity payoff as there would be with a Malus, so I'm still pondering another 'lawn' tree.

A shot of the stream area this morning, but from 3 years ago. I often mention slow-motion gardening, and down there in the shade, things happen s l o w l y. At the time of the photo, I'd just cut back a holly and some hazel to let in more light and exposed the very steep, ivy-covered bank. Since then, I've established some primroses, geraniums and foxgloves, so hopefully, there'll be an 'after' picture in a month or two

Must've had a lot of rain then too!

ArbitraryRandom

You are an entirely wicked man Farway... but I shall resist. 

Speaking of 'netting', I'm thinking about getting a sheet of this kind of stuff to lean against the back/fence for vining plants to grow 'up': https://www.sure-green.com/wire-panel-8ft-4ft-12-gauge.html 

Is there anything better people can recommend (not sure if the 12 gauge wire will cut into the fruit)? 

twopenny

If they are growing themselves they should be fine.
If you're tying in woody branches etc use something between them and the wire you use against the wood so it doesn't rub.
That's where my old socks go, cut into strips  . 
But you can get the posh stuff.

Sunshine and cloud with a spray of wet now and again. About 10c by now.
Rain yesterday meams I'm resisting more gardening. I've tramped the lawn down yesterday by getting enthusiastic which I'll regret later.

Loved the phrase about the clouds being too tired to keep up in the sky and plonking down on the hills.
That's just what it's like  . 

pink_poppy

Woohoo, I've actually been sort of gardening today   A friend suggested raising the canopy of a tree we have in the garden, so I've lopped a fairly big branch off this morning. Hard work as I only had a rusty saw and a pretty blunt small saw type thing. One down, one much bigger one to go, but I think I'll let DH do that one. It might need another couple of smaller branches lopped off, but the hope is to make enough space to possibly have a greenhouse. It wouldn't be sited right under the tree, but fairly close, I'm just hoping that's not a bad idea...
 
Twopenny, what was the moss killer that you used recently?? Our paths are really bad at the moment, plus I'm honestly thinking about using something on the roof moss because I'm sick of the mess the birds make. I've been out there this morning sweeping it all up again   

My two yellow crocuses have had babies and there are now six!! Interesting that they shouldn't be planted in the shade - these ones would only get the sun (what sun?!) late afternoon, in fact just before sunset really. I should probably move them at some point.

greenbee

I've filled up two garden waste bins with chopped bamboo, bagged up lots of leaves ready to go into builders' bags to await being mixed in with grass clippings in the compost bin over the summer, and carted lots of cardboard down to the greenhouse as I plan to use cardboard as mulch with compost on top in a no-dig approach to creating my new veg plot. 

There's still a LOT more stuff to be sorted/chopped/shredded/binnded/burned. But we're getting there. 

pink_poppy

Me again. Who else got an Amaryllis for Christmas?? I've just found mine, still in the box. Oops. It's already started to sprout, although the shoot looks a bit yellow. Anyway, it's now out of the box and watered, alongside the one I had last year that I found discarded in the garage this morning. We'll see.

I've had another look at the tree and I don't need to remove the really big branch, just another smallish one. Another problem I have though are tree roots. Are they supposed to be above ground?? They also seem to be longer than the tree height, iykwim. I'm happy to chop/dig them out, but am worried that will kill the tree - it's only on one side/quarter circle, if that makes sense.

I've been playing the Okie Cokie with the weather today - one minute it's fine, the next it's raining, so in and out of the house. So happy to be out in the garden when possible though