Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

That will look gorgeous if you get the sun behind it Dusty.
Good news on the builder too.

Bluey, your boss, they don't make them like that any more    


I'm into my toast and Heather honey of a morning. I love that stuff but have to travel to get it and costs an arm and a leg!

6c out there and wet. Sun is shining now but shortly a repeat of yesterday. Hissing down 

Farway

Raining again, a not so Good Friday for anyone on hols, or sitting on the M6 near the Lakes [insert other traffic hot spot here, nominations close at Midnight ]

 A lot of reading to catch up on since my last visit, hope I don't miss anyone.

twopenny said:

Everything in the garden is looking lush (from inside) and fingers crossed that the amazing amount of blossom on the plum got polinated. I went out with a paint brush in a dry spell but so many flowers I gave in.

Also had the delicious rhubarb my friend supplied. It was very sweet and tender that it was positively likeable.

Anyone know if this is just the amount of water we are getting or maybe the variety.

Stuff I've grown previously was very tart but from an old plant. Now we have varities! Anyone familiar with them for a sweeter taste?

Lucky you with plum blossom, mine has just opened and is getting a battering, any pollinators have probably drowned by now

Same with my pear, it's not self fertile and was cunningly chosen to flower at same time as two different varieties nearby, but they are still asleep while it vainly flowers it's guts out.

Rhubarb is variety sensitive, some are, allegedly, sweet enough to eat raw. My childhood memory of raw rhubarb is dipped in sugar, and even then it was puckering awful.

pink_poppy said:

How's your amaryllis coming along, Farway?? I think there's a flower spike coming up on my newest one (might just be more leaves) and last year's is just growing leaves, as Dusty predicted.

Mine just opened this morning , two flowers so far. I took a photo, but it was carp, so will try again later.

If the rain stops, I may squelch around and check progress, my Judas tree has a pink haze on the branches, and apple buds are pinkish, all out there waiting for warmth & sunshine

pink_poppy

An orange and black blobby bullfinch... 😂

ArbitraryRandom

Happy Easter all  

Builders poured concrete yesterday and now will be back on Monday. As the beds are taking shape and the dimensions somewhat fixed, I'm now looking at picking up a few bits so I can get things in the ground as soon as.

One of the things I'm looking at is bird netting and I'm wondering if anyone can recommend somewhere to buy decent quality hoops that would span a 1.2m bed (growing area in each bed is going to be roughly 1.2x3.5m)? 

The ones I've been seeing just now are mostly either flimsy looking plastic coated steel/have plastic connectors that don't look like they'd last or around 40cm and I don't really want two rows of hoops.

Other option would be fencing pins?

Seed update, I think I've now got 4 cabbage, a winter savoury, two beetroot (both in the same cell typically!) and maybe two leek... They really do seem to have needed that extra bit of warmth to wake up so thank you to whoever suggested I move them to the lounge  

wort

Snow Dusty wow! I used to eat rhubarb with sugar loved it. Always like tart fruit to pair with sweet custard or cream.
Yesterday was glorious and did 4 hours out in the garden, cleared a patch of allium they were after taking over, so difficult to find all the tiny bulbs in the wet soil. Moved a few primroses about, and tied in some clematis though managed to break a few buds off 🫣off to work now ,happy Easter 

greenbee

@ArbitraryRandom - I mostly use Harrod Horticultural for frames and netting. You can get cash back via Quidco. Some stuff is 10% of at the moment. Another option is Agriframes. Both good quality, reliable, and quick delivery. Not cheap though, but I’m still using stuff my parents bought from them years ago. 

Dustyevsky

ArbitraryRandom said:

One of the things I'm looking at is bird netting and I'm wondering if anyone can recommend somewhere to buy decent quality hoops that would span a 1.2m bed (growing area in each bed is going to be roughly 1.2x3.5m)?

I make my own out of black MDPE 20mm water pipe: https://www.plasticdrainage.co.uk/polypipe-mdpe-20mm-pipe-25m-black-11658

I screw it to a frame made from 38x 25mm battens:  https://hutchingstimber.com/product/38-x-25mm-treated-roofing-battens/

Nothing fancy, but can be made to measure and lasts for years.

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

An orange and black blobby bullfinch... 😂

Much better than the one that flew off just before I pressed the shutter button last week!  Not rare, but not seen close to the house very often.

 

Happy Easter folks!   It's sunny and promised to be almost rain-free here, which will be a nice change. Yesterday, we had to dodge in and out of the polytunnel, thanks to frequent squally showers. The pressure is on now to be organised by the time the major works start in a few weeks' time.   However, at least I'll not be labouring, or driving the dumper. Oh, it looks like 'fun,' but for the inexperienced, it's dangerous, and the amount of bouncing-around is no longer very age-appropriate!

This is the 'wee one.' 1.5 tonne loads. They'll be using the 4 tonner!

pink_poppy

Haha, they really were rubbish pics, but I thought I'd post them anyway    The bullfinches always appear round about this time of year to feast on the crab apple buds. Btw, that's the same tree that had the waxwings in a few months ago during a particularly cold spell. Another reason why I would really love to have one of those trees in my garden

I had another look at the magnolias in Lidl on Thursday, but the paler pink one just looked like a twig. The slightly darker pink one had a couple of buds on, but it was the lighter pink one I wanted, so no magnolia for me this time.

It's looking like a nice Easter weekend - but guess who has a bad back   so no gardening for me this weekend...

YoungBlueEyes

Yeah Mr Underwood was a good boss 2p, he had a lot of fun in him and I used to enjoy going to work God knows what would happen to people like him nowadays, we'll probably never see his like again. For better or worse. 

Same memory of rhubarb here, the only way to eat it was to slather it in sugar. Sis used to basically use it as a spoon for the sugar, she loved it. She's type 1 diabetic now. You can have my share of tart fruits wort 
 
So things are moving along rightly with your works then Arb, be no time now 'til they're finished.

Sounds like my apple is the same as yours Farway, they're in some kinda holding pattern but with some sunshine and warmth they'll go crazy  

Nice bullfinch pp, hopefully you've got a pair  

Buddy ell Dusty, that's some gig eh. Does look like a right bone-shaker though!

Sunny here and less windy than yesterday. 10' my phone says. It will/won't be sunny and/or cloudy all day, but no-one's given rain so I'm getting going in the garden. Oh and anyone else with a slug problem - I was reading a thing yesterday (can't remember where, naturally) that slugs love bran so you should sprinkle it liberally round the plants you want leaving alone. They'll literally gorge themselves to death on the stuff. So there's that :fingerscrossed: