Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

ArbitraryRandom said:

Farway said:

Arbs, will your dog rose have nice hips come the winter? Rose hip syrup brewing? That fence is crying out for something, isn't it?

You know me too well  

I did some research - Rosa rugosa & Rosa canina are supposed to have the best hips for cooking, which is why I picked them. Plus they're both very hardy and the soil in that little bed is awful. The only thing that's been growing there for the last 4 years is bind weed and 6 inches down I swear it's just stone and ash - I dug out what I could, gave them a healthy scoop of BF&B topped with a spade of manure, and if anything has a chance it's them.

Rugosa does have big hips, sounds like a Carry on script, which look nice, but I've never tried cooking with them.

Rugosa Hips in the volunteer border, 2022

YoungBlueEyes

I'm not a sun lover either Arb, a bit of spring sunshine in the morning and some cool evening sunshine after a hot summer's day is fine by me, but nothing else really.  The dog rose will probably be ok there #Shawshank. Look at Dusty's elm - if stuff wants to live it just will. 

Did you figure out what to put in your volunteer pots Farway? No aurora last night but then I'm probably not up late enough to see them anyway. Tbh there's usually good pictures online/on the local news if I've missed anything... 

Anyway I came on to say look at this  - 



Sorrowful pear is sick! A bit of D'Ducking suggests it's blight I'll do the 'snipping diseased bits off and sterilising my scissors each time' thing. I've moved it up onto the patio so it doesn't infect anything else. Think I had all my good luck last year and it's downhill from now on  

greenbee

Envious of all those with decent weather. It's overcast here with a bitingly cold wind. I've had family friends over this morning so not got much done (kitchen waste into the hotbin with some grass clippings and bark, and turned most of the last remaining full compost bin (stuff from the last couple of months) into the big empty one and added the last of the new grass clippings. I plan to add in some more leaves/woodchip and give it a good stir then leave it alone. I just need to make sure that the gardener leaves it alone - I've started telling him to leave things bagged up so that I can deal with them as kept putting grass clippings on the old compost I was trying to use up!

The 'new' stuff is actually in pretty good shape, and I probably could have used it for the bottom couple of inches of some new beds, but I'm going to leave it a bit longer. I'm contemplating taking the panel off the hotbin to see what the bottom of that's like. I really do need to get my gardening clothes on and go out and get more things off the garden list!

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

Best wishes with the digger Dusty, and the tree stumps, will you call it a Stumpery and be poshly Eco, or will they be just tree stumps?. Actually not mocking, there is a good stumpery at Highgrove, ideal if you have space and turns what could be just dumped tree lumps into something useful & probably worth bug watching in a quite moment.

The first stumpery we came across was at a garden where we sold plants, so around the mid-90s. It was in a woodland, had been there many years, and was full of ferns. The elderly owners were obviously way ahead of trends.

Our mini wood isn't really suitable yet, and shade is at a premium elsewhere, but we could pop a few among the willows to have both sunny and shaded sites. The 'beetle log' I found in Cornwall was in full sun.

Just a thought, Bluey, our pear, where the jury's still out over pollination, has marked and wind-damaged leaves. It'll get over it. Could yours be similar?

pink_poppy

Thank you everyone for the positive redundancy and giving up work stories   I think the general consensus is it could be a good thing   It's inspiring to read that things have worked out for everyone in similar situations.

The Aurora was visible here last night, although not as strong as last time. I had a half-hearted look out of the window but nothing to see with the naked eye.

AR, your garden is looking amazing - please come and do mine   

Sorry to see your poorly pear, YBE. Hope the snipping off the bad bits helps. I didn't know pears could get blight.

It's a beautiful sunny day here and forecast to be like this for the next few days   

Farway

Took full advantage of the sun, the climbing beans are out & planted , only snapped one off , which may count as nipping the top out so it branches.

Slugs should strike and start chomping tonight. I didn't put pellets down 'cos I forgot.

YBE, your pear, could it be frost damage? Or, more likely, the glares you keep giving the poor thing.

Still not figured out the volunteer pot contents, see one thing, then another. Now I have some cheapo Morries fuchsias it could be a couple of them, or maybe the bedding geraniums?

Weeded the pots at the front, and sowed some Persian Jewels in them in case the cannas never made it over winter, but the dead stalks seem still attached to something below ground, so I have hopes

YoungBlueEyes

I honestly don’t know about my pear. It’s up toward the house now so it’s not infecting anything if it is infectious. Pear blight was one of the websites I was looking at, but there’s also wind/frost bite and too much water. It’s not that last one cos it’s in a well punctured bucket and was sat on bricks and only got a watering if it rained… We’ll see. Blight is properly and quickly fatal apparently - it moves at 2 inches a day *eek*. It also affects apples and roses, which is why it’s in Patio Quarantine. I’ve stopped giving it Icy Glares in case it’s that  

Hope your gardening clothes are thick and warm gb, it’s not at all warm today. Mind as Farway’s got his beans out <snigger> the weather must be about to turn round  

-taff

YoungBlueEyes said:

taff  What is this life
If full of care
We have no time 
For our sitooteries ...

That did make me laugh!

Bed is made and in, part filled, awaiting some more compost/top soil. I'm leaning towards a delivery now instead of buying little bags, there's a company here that one of my friends bigs up all the time so I'll try it.

OH repainted the fence with wht was left until we get some more, and the rubbish grass in front of it is because that used ot be a bed with hollyhocks but they all died. The philadelphus isn't looking happy this year but it's going in the bed too, along with the red and blackcurrant and whatever flowers I can cram in. Thise beds are not cheap but when I googled the make, it's the same one that SelfSufficient Me uses so I had a thrill of the whiff of fame.

YBL, sorry about your pear, but you'll soon know tomorrow if it's blight or not, fingers crossed not.

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

Thank you everyone for the positive redundancy and giving up work stories   I think the general consensus is it could be a good thing   It's inspiring to read that things have worked out for everyone in similar situations.

Things have a habit of working-out if we let them. Our eldest DD was on a disciplinary for something that was clearly insane, but “procedures must be followed thoroughly...” etc. After weeks with nothing to do, she started looking at alternatives. By the time her case was decided, and she was exonerated, she'd been in a completely new role and location for some months. It wasn't something she'd ever considered doing before, but it's suiting her well, and close to home, instead of 35 miles away, Win/win.

Today's prolonged sunshine and cloudless skies allowed me to gather the final pieces of detritus from the hedge bank. Two more dumpy bags! With luck, I may get half a day tomorrow, planting it up with anything that tolerates dryness and spreads.....Not Vinca major, though, it's a menace!

Almost forgot....Cheerful tulips from Rosemoor!

pink_poppy

Spot the robin keeping a beady eye on me as I was digging this afternoon... ❤️