Awful weather - typical Brits talk

LessImpecunious

twopenny said:

Less, that sounds sort of weird  couldnt you just stew the 3 fruits together for the same flavour?

Only need room for the one plant though Mind you, mine are getting on for three times the size of a normal Ribes bush (but that's coz I've been pruning them wrong...)

LessImpecunious

YoungBlueEyes said:

Good job you gave us the answer to your first pic Less, it sure fooled me ha haa! I've not a clue about you're 2nd pic either, is it.... a medlar...?

The answer, given above in the thread, was Jostaberry, your lurgy possmade you miss it! Medlar flowers are big (much bigger than apple or pear), while all the "berry" or currant bushes have very small flowers - but I'd taken this with the macro facility on my phone, to make the id more of a challenge . Will try for a medlar flower if the buds escape the effects of today's hail and gales (plus the odd mis-aimed frisbee - for the dog) and actually open...

ArbitraryRandom

I'm always amazed by how time seems to progress differently on this thread depending on where the poster is  

My medlar has a profusion of buds, but all of them are quite firmly green and sleeping for at least another 3 or 4 weeks I'd guess. 

My pear is getting towards the end of blossoming, one cherry has set flower, and one apple just waking up - the other cherry and apple are, I think, too small for flowers this year (both unfeathered maidens) and are still considering if they should unwrap any leaves. 

One issue I might have is with my two honeyberry (Eisbar and Altaj) - one plant has flowers and the other barely a bud, but you need a compatible pair for cross pollination. I'm considering picking up an Aurora, which I think has a longer blossom time than most and is also apparently at least partially self fertile, but finding specific information online is challenging... 

LessImpecunious

My medlar in much the same state as yours Arb; while my Cherry (Stella, against a SW wall but shaded by greenhouse), first opened its flowers yesterday; a pear is in full bloom, the other is still deciding whether or not this is the year it finally heads for the fjords; no hint of apple blossom yet...

Farway

Wet, windy & cold here now I'm back raring to go.

I had planned to sort out my large pots at the front now the daffs are over, weed, fertiliser etc but not doing that today now. I think I've got a touch of YBE lurgy, a bit of a cough, and the shivers.

Now I'm fretting on my cosmos after reading about the hundreds popping up, no sign of mine, zero, zilch.

My poor apple blossom, and the cherry, just as it was opening nicely up turns gales. My plum blossom luckily has nearly finished so maybe this year it'' jsutify being there.

wort said:

I’m miles behind again as work gets in the way of gardening, and there’s been a few nice days too, one of which found me in Chester cathedral I had been many times to Chester but never gone inside, so that’s been rectified.

I've never been inside that one either, like you walked around the outside a few times, walking along the walls around the river, all very pleasant.
We used to stay at the Plantation hotel, & eat in the Witches Kitchen, no doubt long since gone.

Rose cutting and runners delivered to DD yesterday, weather was a bit cooler but dry

And hooray, the Purple Haze apple I bought as house / garden warming, in flower & looking good

I have high hopes for this one

Spot the bee

twopenny

Oh goodness Farway, now I want one of those!
I'm loving my apple blossom, it's just got to a decent fluff after 5yrs.
A deep pink one nearby would make my garden sing 

Farway

twopenny said:

Oh goodness Farway, now I want one of those!
I'm loving my apple blossom, it's just got to a decent fluff after 5yrs.
A deep pink one nearby would make my garden sing 

Obviously early days for DDs PH apple, but from its description I reckon you'd love it, red blossom, red apples, red flesh, red leaves, upright growth and no pruning required.

Got DDs one on offer from T & M and if the offer comes back this year I'm getting one for me this time

sammy_kaye18

@ArbitraryRandom I am trying to make a point of putting feed in several places. I do have a rather large flat shed roof that is tarped at the minute which has a slight indent that fills with water that larger birds seem to enjoy having a morning bath in and a drink, but it also has space that I throw some bird seed etc up there for them and so far they all seem quite comfortable feeding up there. I do think I will get a few hanging basket hooks and add them so I can hang a few feeders as well. Then I have a bird feeder that has two small trays and hanging points so maybe I will try and encourage smaller birds to that.

I do have house sparrows that visit the front garden a lot though. The Jackdaws are quite bold though. I was potching in the garden yesterday which isnt huge and two landed on the floor about 2/3 meters from me and were wandering around grabbing worms and another two were on the fence less than a meter from me just watching me. Gurmpy Gus just sits happily and waits for me to move worms aside or to have a stand off with idiot dog. 

@twopenny ah yes youngest (but largest) idiot dog has a habit of zoomie - ing in the garden , down the garden and round the washing whirlygig. I made sure to leave space so he could still do this but he obviously didn't see the new fence and spectacularly catapulted himself into it at full zoomie followed by an even more spectacular backflip over the thing. It had been up all of about 20 minutes. He hasn't done it since though to be fair so I guess that is lesson learnt. 

@Dustyevsky what a beautiful birdie to have in your garden. So far the only thing I have seen in mine is house sparrows, magpies, too many jackdaws, pigeons. We do have red kites that fly over our garden daily and I had a sparrowhawk last year. 

It seems to be drying up here in south wales after some big gusts last night and a very sporadic downpour that lasted minutes, I did try to sneak out at 6.30 this morning to make sure my seedlings were ok and touch wood they were all still where I left them at that point. Still getting some big gusts occassionally but there is sunshine and blue sky out there at the minute so I might try and weed the strawberry bed and I do have another fence I want to get put up which will just be chicken wire etc. Id hopefully like to grow some sweetpeas over it at some point but for now its more about tidying the garden and dog containment! 

I did get a fair bit done yesterday which I was happy about. I do think I am going to try and weed the strawberry bed today, and then plan to use the bed for beans and peas as well, so Ill have strawberries underneath and then use some bamboo to make support and have beans and peas growing up after I read they were good companion plants yesterday. 

twopenny

Now I have visions of you on hands and knees crawling through the been tunnel to pick strawberries     
Beware, dogs like strawberries too. Mine could squeeze the choosen biggest through netting. Feet either side to make it pop through.

Interesting about raising a feeder for small birds. Sparrows are rare.
I need more small birds.

Btw, you are in line for Dusty, then me then you for weather if it's from the south so useful.

And you've made me think. My solitary crow. A couple of years ago I had a baby crow fly under my small ladder trying to escape magpies. I defended it and gave it water as hot day and it was distressed.
I wonder.

sammy_kaye18

twopenny said:

Now I have visions of you on hands and knees crawling through the been tunnel to pick strawberries     
Beware, dogs like strawberries too. Mine could squeeze the choosen biggest through netting. Feet either side to make it pop through.

Interesting about raising a feeder for small birds. Sparrows are rare.
I need more small birds.

Btw, you are in line for Dusty, then me then you for weather if it's from the south so useful.

And you've made me think. My solitary crow. A couple of years ago I had a baby crow fly under my small ladder trying to escape magpies. I defended it and gave it water as hot day and it was distressed.
I wonder.

Ah yes - I learnt that dogs like strawberries last year after I had a continuous fight with themto keep them out of the veg patch even though I had netted it, trying to remove a frightened sighthound from pea netting is no fun. Daft dog. So I have gotten a proper large hoop house thing now and secured it properly all the way round but I went around first before closing the top and made sure at the sides to link the netting onto nails so I can still lift the netting if I need to so I wont be commando crawling through the tunnel at any point - well hopefully! 

Im down in Swansea area - where are you and @Dusty?  My sister is east of me so I regularly give her a heads up what weather is heading her way so she knows to batten down the hatches or take her washing in!