Awful weather - typical Brits talk

-taff

Arb, hope the rest was forthcoming after moving stupid amounts of compost!

PP, that's some beautiful blossom, the colours are lovely and so varied.Your pic of the robin  looks like it's gone on holiday somewhere tropical Is the rhubarb in a sunny bit or is it in a frosty bit? I ould pull all the affected stalks and see what new comes up.

Farway, the lavender sounds good. I really hate the smell but if the bees love it then... I might have got some more stachys and eryngium ::cough cough::It  also looks like the larger seeds sprout well in the levingtons and the tomatoes and some chillies, but all the baby ones, are having trouble.

YBL, your dad had the right of it..I still have a mantra of WWDD, what would daddy do, whenever a morally ambiguous questions arises regarding the aquisition of objects, and the answer is always, just aquire it, you can always give it away or use it somewhere

I cartainly came back from the trip splitting pond lillies with a haul of things, hollyhocks, achillea, honesty, hellebore, the pond lillies and some other stuff I forgot the name of. Never got to a gardeners garden with a bucket, it will fill up. I feel guilty now for only giving a heuchera and some white lavender. And I also bit the bullet and ordered spent mushroom compost [ if it still has spores in it, free mushrooms, whoop whoop! ]

I have aa friend coming round tomorrow for lunch, I'm making greek salad and giant beans [ the beans are in a lidls tin]have to cram in some gardening between her visit, and then I hve to cram in reading the free garden mags before someone comes to fetch them at half four.. I thought I'd have time today but it flew by

ArbitraryRandom

2P. I love that lawn. I'm hoping this year I can use the cleared space in front of the beds to properly start my 'meadow' by suppressing the grass and encouraging clover/daisys etc. Not today as today is achey and I'm not doing much. Going to paint some rock labels so I still feel productive  

Later this week I'd like to get my 'insect heap' sorted, and there's no rain forecast so I'll need to remember to water my potted out plants. I've put some bean seeds in the window germinator I use for edible sprouts, so need to remember to keep rinsing them and will see if anything happens there. Internet is saying 10 days? 

greenbee

I get comments about my dandelions, @ArbitraryRandom, but just tell people they are for the bees. The front garden has had bluebells, aconites, and primroses planted and lots of wildflower seeds sown, including yellow rattle. And 25 yellow rattle plugs planted on Monday which I hope will help. I developed a really lovely mini-meadow at the last place and hope I can do the same here. I have another patch at the back that I want to do the same with.

Overcast and rainy here today, but it’s a work day so I suppose that’s OK.

YoungBlueEyes

You're right taff, WWDD. But daddy was a real bu99er so for an actual morally right proper answer I think WWCD (Cissie). They've stood me in good stead

How's the muscles Popeye Arb? Did you get that pallet in..? 

Farway you're gonna need to get yourself a parkland for all these plants they keep making you buy! Do you do the lottery?  

Aww lovely little robin pp. I'd have put up with a bit more pain for a serenade too. They're so joyful aren't they. If that was my rhubarb I'd pull it and depending what the stalks smell like and look like inside I'd probably bin them. It's producing more so the next lot might be fine if it's something infecting those leaves/stalks. It's not a bug or something on the leaves is it? 

Thanks for the reminder 2p, I need to check my cherry for more bugs. I hope you haven't woken up this morning to a kitchen full of the blighters 
And where did we get to on our calendar? I think your pic should be the April page. It's got a sitooterie and everything  

Sunny here now the (unforecasted) rain has stopped so my washer's on cos it's lovely dry wind out there. I've got to go to Big Town this morning so if I get talking to an auld fellah I'll ask about your rhubarb pp. I would ask the Oracle but she's never bladdy in!

-taff

2p, sorry I didn't mention your pic but I couldn't tell what it was, daisies, or clover or stones [ yes, me new contact lenses are coming soon!] so I was hoping someone would mention what it was and then I'd be able to confidently say

YoungBlueEyes

I took it as daisies...

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

Dusty knows I’m only being funny, he’d not do anything so major without being in the right first. Sadly being wrong doesn’t always stop neighbours of a certain stripe…

You know me too well! I wouldn't risk thousands of £ on something well-dodgy, but some neighbours think I would.  I'm so awful!  

Still very busy, despite our materials and the big gates only turning up yesterday after 16:00. Our builders went home at lunchtime. Today, it's all systems go again! I'll do some photos later, including one of the wonderful Moon last night; they're still in the camera.

Lovely morning here now. The drunks say cloud's on the way, but no major precipitation, wind, pestilence or other disruption in the offing....unless the peasants revolt that is!

I'm still reading.....

wort

Taff if you mean zebra grass not tiger grass , then mine is started sprouting now it grows to above my head in a season so over 5 foot 2 🤣 and it’s a bu¥¥er to split if you leave it too long as I did! 

That said it been in 15 years at least. And gets nice tassel tops in autumn.
YBE I’m across the Pennie’s from you in red rose county 😁
apart from grass cutting on Sunday after 2 days with no rain , not much done. The tree peonie is flowering, my tulips have gone over, I liked the colour of those in Dusty’s pic.
 Still bitter cold if you aren’t in the sun. Keeping fingers crossed for my sailing ⛵️ on Sat. 🤞🏻

Farway

Bright, dry and cold but must be warming up, I notice my pyracantha has a white haze over it now, with the buds getting ready to open

No gardening planned, may potter and lily beetle check but noting else planned for today.

YoungBlueEyes said:

Farway you're gonna need to get yourself a parkland for all these plants they keep making you buy! Do you do the lottery?  

Just P Bonds, quick OT rant, look away now , I stopped in the early days of the lottery as I foolishly thought it was for Good causes, like to build a scout hut, repair village hall etc. 

However, when one of their first moves was to buy Churchill's state papers from his family for squillions, I decided it was voluntary tax on the gullible, so never bought another ticket.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/sep/23/artsandhumanities.past

Back to gardening, My front bit is full of Sedums, very nice and easy, but I really need some space for my recent acquisitions. So very tempted to oik some sedums out and put in something like rudbeckia, I'll have to ponder on that a bit.

pink_poppy

Thank you everyone for the rhubarb info - I'll have a proper look this afternoon. I think I'm going to have to pull the affected stems up and bin them. I wasn't planning on harvesting either of them this year anyway - the new one is too young (only put in last year) and the parent stems never look that appetising. I did put BFB in with the new one last year, but will sprinkle more on after I've got rid of the manky looking stuff. I do remember a cluster of black bugs on the underside of the parent plant leaves last year - pretty disgusting - I can't remember what they were though. Nothing underneath any of the leaves now. Both plants get morning and some afternoon sun. When I was bringing the washing in last night I realised a well established ivy on one of the fences is looking a bit brown - I'm hoping it's not the same problem as the rhubarb...   I'm kinda glad I haven't gone mad with buying new plants now.

Talking of which, your new plants sound nice, Farway. I'll be looking at that T&M website once I've found out what's wrong with my rhubarb.

Dusty, keep on keeping on - you know you're in the right. When you have a minute, can you remind me what gardening gloves you get from Screwfix, please. Also, any weed suppressant recommendations - I seem to remember you mentioning one yonks ago but have long since forgotten what it was, sorry.

It's another beautiful day here, maybe not quite as 'tropical' as yesterday