Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

Thanks for the landscape fabric info & pic, Dusty - you've got a lot of ground to cover. Your project is coming on leaps and bounds - is the gravelly stuff going to be steamrollered or left loose?? Hopefully no more negative interactions with the angry neighbour.

If I was the angry neighbour, I'd be feeling a right numpty, but he's not me! No doubt it's all been rationalised by now as something dodgy we 'got away with,' probably because of a brown envelope or having the right handshake.

The sub-base will be compacted and probably left for a while before we finish it with chippings once everything's bedded in.

Farway

Sun's out & warm in it.

Went over to DS this morning, mainly to drop off DGD birthday stuff but did get around to planting the couple of plants I took along for the mares' tail infested mound at their front. It was sort of raining then so should be watered in OK.

One big surprise was his Golden Delicious apple tree, which I gave him years ago. 

He has mutilated & neglected it ever since, however last year he seems to have decided that it's OK to do some gardening and had a go at pruning it, or at least getting it into some sort of shape

LO, this morning I find it covered in blossom, I think it has surprised even him to find he got results.

We went on to a GC for tea & scone, price of plants frightening, with the tomato plants about fiver for two, disgrace especially as much too soon, some were yellow with cold

Nice bee + blossom pic 2P, a good time of year, as we drove along the motorway all the hedges are full of blossom, may, cherry, or apple

Went into Morries on way home, three trays of young bedding geraniums, 3 for 2, £7.50. I think most will finish up in the Volunteer pots.

I fell for the T & M devil , only went for a look and found six on offer fuchsias, three Roxanne hardy geraniums. Just as I was checking out, up popped a grab it quick, bare root Golden Delicious on M. 9 £6.99, what is one supposed to do? Can't leave that on the shelf, can we?

Actually seeing DS one today I'm glad I added to my basket, no buyer's remorse

Pic today, my plum, looking like another poor crop despite all the blossom :'(

Dustyevsky

Went gardening with Mrs Dusty this afternoon. Just for a change, it was her who snapped the cheap Chinese trowel.

We planted a Trachelospermum jasminoides and a Daphne bholua, then I wished we hadn't, because I have to spell them here! :'( I think the Clematis we also stuck in was dead, but as it cost £12.50, it was given a very optimistic chance to shake off the Norwegian blues.

I then made a serious error, deciding to split the Eupatorium 'Ivory Towers,' as there was a dandelion right in the middle. Wow! It's almost as tough as Miscanthus! It turned into a 'Bulldog fork with metal reinforced handle' job. Now we've some spare 'Ivory Towers' to try in the dell. The normal 'weed' Eupatorium struggles there, but doesn't actually die.

At least you have plums Farway. One of my two 'bombproof' plums/damsons lost all its blossom and buds to that frost we had. The other one (sorry, no names) next to it is fine and just finished blooming now. Or maybe the first is dead from all that rain? They were young trees, maiden whips really, still potted.

Forgot to add. Lovely sunny weather here, with proper fluffy clouds. No transatlantic jets seen.

twopenny

Morning everyone 

Sunshine and high easterly winds here today. Just a mix up of the same old but nice to see the sun.
Of course rain predicted for the next 48hrs or so from lunch onwards.

Pricking out brassica seedlings and disposal of fly infested kale are todays joys.
No signs of the beans and tomatoes germanating so maybe a trip to the garden centre.
I don't feel too guilty about that as I only need/have space for 6 of each but the bought in stuff never seems to grow as well as your own from seed.

The sweet peas too, i succumbed to buying some really healthy looking ones @ £1,75 as either pigeons or mice have eaten the 2 lots I've planted.

Gardening is a war and battle. Not the charming stroll it's made out to be.

YoungBlueEyes

Phew that was a big catch up, everyone's whipping along now the good weather's here  

Cousin is ok now. We went into the vets, she absolutely took the face off him made him aware of his poor performance, which helped her no end, then we dissolved ourselves in Eau de Vie and laughed and screamed and cried, so that's her (partially) rebuilt now. She's back at work this morning so that'll be a big help too.
 
Hurray for baby birds 2p And hurray for lab rat DGD Farway - get her on the compost conundrum quick! I'm fancying a bath/bowl pond now too, I'll have to look into that.... waiting to hear back from the fellah re the wall/rockery/something first though.

Well I don't know what happened to the weather but who ordered all that rain?? I got back and me garden's a bog Himself has done 'gardening' :'( which will test my Shawshank mantra, and there's certainly 1 and possibly 2 pairs of magpies moved in too. Hmmm. 

Sunny and cool and breezy here this morning so I've a load out and my washer is churning away again. Looks like not a bad week, possibly  

Farway

Sunshine and dry. Probably be a drought by the weekend, having planted two newcomers into DS manky garden bit and hoping rain will water them in properly.

twopenny said:

Morning everyone 

No signs of the beans and tomatoes germanating so maybe a trip to the garden centre.
I don't feel too guilty about that as I only need/have space for 6 of each but the bought in stuff never seems to grow as well as your own from seed.

The sweet peas too, i succumbed to buying some really healthy looking ones @ £1,75 as either pigeons or mice have eaten the 2 lots I've planted.

Gardening is a war and battle. Not the charming stroll it's made out to be.

I feel same about buying in plants, sometimes it is not cost-effective to get seeds, especially now compost is expensive & mostly carp plastic & mini dibbers and seeds not showing

Yes, I'm looking at you, Cosmos and Aquilegia !

Supposed to be getting warmer now according to forecast, but lies have been spun before. 

April was supposed to have been melting, with even Polar bears taking their coats off as they hunted Hippos by the Thames.

Anyway, hope it does warm up because my tom forest is growing now & it's time, by size, to get them toughened up for life in the great outdoors

YoungBlueEyes said:

Phew that was a big catch up, everyone's whipping along now the good weather's here  

Cousin is ok now. We went into the vets, she absolutely took the face off him made him aware of his poor performance, which helped her no end, then we dissolved ourselves in Eau de Vie and laughed and screamed and cried, so that's her (partially) rebuilt now. She's back at work this morning so that'll be a big help too.
 
Hurray for baby birds 2p And hurray for lab rat DGD Farway - get her on the compost conundrum quick! I'm fancying a bath/bowl pond now too, I'll have to look into that.... waiting to hear back from the fellah re the wall/rockery/something first though.

Welcome back and your cousin sorted and back on track

I think my baby bath pond will become a "Project" so I intend starting a new thread to show how it goes, much like Arbs one on Arb Park & Gardens

I'll take some “before” photos this morning, then my first task will be removing some encroaching ivy, probably followed by double dose of painkillers for my back

On health matters, Just had invite to get my priority microchip top up vac, at least I get first dibs on any car park plant pruning that may be required.

ArbitraryRandom

YoungBlueEyes said:

Well I don't know what happened to the weather but who ordered all that rain??

Sorry, I think they spilled some on the way to me - I've only got a bit of a drizzle today when I ordered two day's worth of buckets... 

I got about half my list done yesterday, planting out the onions and shallots, plus the peas planted and tied to supports. This morning, T&M potatoes planted and tubs prepared for the ones due to be delivered later today. I'm hoping for a proper soak this evening/tonight to bed everything in, then the forecast is for dry and warm Wednesday/Thursday. Plan is to finish building the rest of the supports today/tomorrow so I can put them on the beds to reserve the space for the beans, then I can hopefully plant out the corn, leeks and beetroot later in the week. 

NEED to remember to put the bins out. Should do it now probably... not going to, but should  

greenbee

Thanks for the reminder about the bins @ArbitraryRandom 🤣

YoungBlueEyes

Well you can nip up here with your buckets Arb, I’ve enough for everyone Quick before it all soaks in ha haa! 

I’ve very little movement on my aquilegia and cosmos either, and my toms are… *sigh* The ones I squidged fresh out of a little tom have decided to go for it while my back was turned, and the seed packet ones (yellow pear shaped jobbers) don’t care either way. The Love in a Mist I already moved on cos they were happy enough but the rest are pitiful - the green mossy something (?) is from himself’s ‘gardening’ 

Fresh toms that I didn’t really want - 

But the sun’s still out and it’s lovely here. Speaking of tidyings car parkii, I somehow came back with some gorse bits. Very sticky is gorse Cissie did me them so I’m hopeful I’ll get a good one going out the few I ended up with 🤞🏻

Farway

My T & M offer Golden Delicious bare root tree is on its way , I think it will have to go in a pot for a bit while I locate a space for it

YoungBlueEyes said:

I’ve very little movement on my aquilegia and cosmos either, and my toms are… *sigh* The ones I squidged fresh out of a little tom have decided to go for it while my back was turned, and the seed packet ones (yellow pear shaped jobbers) don’t care either way. The Love in a Mist I already moved on cos they were happy enough but the rest are pitiful - the green mossy something (?) is from himself’s ‘gardening’ 

Fresh toms that I didn’t really want - 

But the sun’s still out and it’s lovely here. Speaking of tidyings car parkii, I somehow came back with some gorse bits. Very sticky is gorse Cissie did me them so I’m hopeful I’ll get a good one going out the few I ended up with 🤞🏻

Always the way Blue, toms you don't want to grow do, but it does demonstrate how fresh seed is the best, I bet a lot of the packets are old before we even get them

No sign yet of my L in Mist , I'll check later when I'm on Lily Beetle safari

Where will you put prickly gorse? Pretty, but only growing somewhere else Shirley?

On coming back with bits, I think the forsythia bits I came home with have taken, at least not dead & brown, so I guess that counts