Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Me too Farway. I have most.
Started with Beetons Shilling Gardening, Pruning (also old) and Vegetable Book ditto.
Those old books were words, pen illistrations which were easy to see and not flash photos.

The Readers Digest book of plants.

One of the best was Your Kitchen Garden by George Seddon. Theres cookery in the back to use what you grow.

-taff

PP, that much compost is never to be sneezed at! And tht situation is probably the onyl time that joke would be funny, but i did ruefully chuckle too, weevils, ::snort::..

Dusty, yes, deifnitely greenhouse envy, although I may have sneakily convinced himself I need a much larger one and to put off making goth box mrk 2 and using it instead for a greenhouse for me...I have been casting my eye...And I am happy to look at pictures of lakes rather than the effort of walking them et too, well done on racing to get it And that's an impressive pair of gates. The cottage is a bit much for not a lot, more impressed with YBLs offering, drool drool...

Farway, i looked for the youtube stuff but only found from 2023, you don't have the links tucked away somewhere do you? DGHessayon, I can still see the books now...

YBL, loving the babby robin, it did indeed cheer me up.

2p, maybe growing on acers is your piggy bank?

So I spent yesterday and today Doing Things, which means we now have a water butt outside the front door, the two clothes horses I acquired are primed for pumpkin growing which would be nice except one of my black futsus have already been eaten at seed leaf stage and the portimarron are not even up yet. the erigeron got eaten by slugs, as did the something else wot OH requested flower wise, so I got some fuschia plants from BM today to fill gaps, six fairly large ones for 7.50 which I didn't think was bad. three will go in pots, three in the bed to cover what else the slugs eat. All rubbish either stacked down the side to go to the tip or put back where it should be. I have cornflower seeds to sow, and more marigolds but these are posh ones, from Sarah Raven , so we'll see how they do. Concrete slab yet to be angle grinded..but I did take apart the tables ready for wire brushing and painting [they will look nice in my new massive greenhouse what OH did not understand he was agreeing to ]

YoungBlueEyes

Got you Arb. You don't mind going off piste but you like to understand the fact of the thing first. And booo to slugs, I definitely feel your pain there. Fingers crossed for your runner beans, you never know your luck  

I can put up with the maythorn because pretty, and birds, but I don't fancy that caterpillar much. Research needed so I can hopefully spot it in time. I take it birds don't eat them, it wouldn't be a problem otherwise... There's that many beasties in my garden now (butterflies mainly but not many of each itms) and the wasps/hornets/whatever they were have all come up from under my grass now too. The place is abuzz. Oh and the ants are loving life too. Buy shares in ant powder companies! 

I'm grateful to whoever first mentioned Hessayon, I've got a few now cos I lift them whenever I see them in charity shops. Got himself trained to look too! They're very plain speaking and easy to follow, I love that. I actually eschew all other authors no matter how cheap they are... I haven't really room for any more books (god help me for saying that) so I just want ones that I'll get use out of. They're brilliant. Between him and Beechgrove and you lot on here and auld fellahs in morries, that's me covered ha haa!  

I'm glad yous liked the babby robin being fed, it was quite a good picture considering it was the quickest point and shoot ever. I'm still waiting on the blackies offspring though, no signs yet.... I'll give them a bit longer before writing them off for this year and calling Bob the Builder to start the wall.

Thanks for rasp spurring on Farway, seems that's another thing I done wrong You could hardly say paint buckets are shallow and wide but never mind. They've not died on me yet so there's hope of a few fruit possibly maybe perhaps.

Good luck with the conflab with your neighbours Dusty. They don't seem to understand the repercussions of their actions do they? Any chance a lanyard wearer from the council could sit in, lend an air of authority (a haa haaa haaaa haa!) to proceedings?

OT warm. Sunny or not today with high white clouds that may or may not break. A little breeze but it'll not last long, possibly. The bobbins in my Galileo globe are all different levels but mostly up. I really need to start shifting stuff out of my conservatory into the garden but slugs...  

twopenny

Morning Bluey. You beat me to it 
Sunny morning here, unpredicted by the auld fellows down country. Birds are feeding in a relaxed manner so I guess it's staying good today. 
Loving the warmth.

More dealing with various bits that keep dropping off in my life and such so won't be gardening sadly.
Bought some runner beans from a roadside stall, a couple weren't great and the gent rushed back with a couple of spares and long chat about compost.
Aparantly there's a company nearby and it's a by product of whatever they make and he gave me an empty bag with the name on. I'll post that later.

Also got a little book from the library RHS Wild Gardening to attract insects and such.
It's a pretty thing. We'll see how much useful info it has.

The greens, bronzes and yellows of the new foliage and wild flowers are stupendous this spring.
Time for evening sunny drives 
My favourite thing.

YoungBlueEyes

Morning 2p Looking forward to fresh info on slug and ant extermination (if any) if you have it to share from your library book :fingerscrossed: Hopefully the bits dropping off aren’t important bits..? 

pink_poppy

Dusty, I wasn't being serious about the jealousy - hope the chat with them goes well (fingers crossed).

Pussycat had another (unprovoked) go at me this morning   he's an ex feral tom cat and used to do this with my youngest DD, but he's only done it with me a couple of times in the past. This is the third time in just a couple of weeks, so there's obviously something wrong. I don't know if it's the time of year (lots of birds around) or his hormones, although he has been snipped. If it continues I'll contact the vet for advice.

It rained overnight and it's still raining this morning - it actually makes a refreshing change. We're still hoping for BBQ weather on Saturday though - the burgers and sausages have already been bought in anticipation   

twopenny

Bbq,s. Hmmmm lovely.
I'll get the umbrella out Saturday then   

Ants - my neighbour used to put powder under flower pots with one edge slightly raised.
I'm more aggressive seeing that they'd have the run of the place for many years.
I buy the ant traps with 3 holes in the side. When finished I reuse with drops of nippon gel
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nippon-Ant-Killer-Liquid-25g/dp/B000TAUBSC
Though the little tubes I got from Amazon were £4 or under.
Put on their trail.
Bleach/jeyes fluid (I love that smell) anywhere you see scouting ants going so they can't leave a trail to follow.
This year the little brown birds were eating them 

Farway

Beautiful sunny morning, which is Good because I gambled and left my toms out all-night last nigh, last frost date has gone here, and it was mild so seems to have been the right choice.

I've given them all a very dilute feed this morning & all being well I'll get some planted outside today, time ran away with me yesterday, or I would have done it then.

pink_poppy said:

Pussycat had another (unprovoked) go at me this morning   he's an ex feral tom cat and used to do this with my youngest DD, but he's only done it with me a couple of times in the past. This is the third time in just a couple of weeks, so there's obviously something wrong. I don't know if it's the time of year (lots of birds around) or his hormones, although he has been snipped. If it continues I'll contact the vet for advice.

We had one that DS came home with from university , it adopted him, in much the same way as The Alien adopted John Hurt, and the soft s0d bought it home. 

The thing used to sit on the landing and forbid access to the stairs without a blood sacrifice.

Eventually it realised we were quite harmless, gave it food, were generally beneath contempt, and we were thus permitted to go about our daily business unscathed. Provided we kept out of the way when it Had Work to do, and opened doors as required etc. the household was normal.

After years of ignoring us, it gradually realised we had soft, warm laps and stroking fingers. And finished its life as a soft, soppy, cuddly cat. RIP Big Smokey.

Seems a few of us are crossing fingers for our runners, maybe it's false memory, but I'm sure they used to grow like weds, and we had carrier bags full of them later in the year.

Here's my cannas, some any way, they survived the winter . My new Asda hand fork for scale, before I lose it.

Farway

-taff said:

Farway, i looked for the youtube stuff but only found from 2023, you don't have the links tucked away somewhere do you? DGHessayon, I can still see the books now...

'ere you go, hope they work

https://youtu.be/JewVGvSicBE?si=NspkqBhF4L7tUWux

https://youtu.be/eQs2Lq5wBcg?si=GGNbLTrh-9wd0R4U

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

Good luck with the conflab with your neighbours Dusty. They don't seem to understand the repercussions of their actions do they? Any chance a lanyard wearer from the council could sit in, lend an air of authority (a haa haaa haaaa haa!) to proceedings?

It's not a council matter, though as you probably know, the council come with a hefty price tag these days. We never achieved the amicable discussion sought, and with them, it's best if communication leaves a paper trail. Put crudely, if a body with some sort of constitution insists your deeds are a pile of poo, without evidence, that can't be allowed. Won't say more here, as it's not relevant, but this and other stuff have made it a tough year or so.

Changing the subject, yesterday evening, I decided to follow up Farway's comment about our Hawthorns being late into flower, and made to take a photo, when there appeared something rarely seen around these parts, and a Virgin, no less! So, I chose to combine the two. It was especially lucky, swallows and house martins also entered the frame at just the right moment., doing their evening acrobatics.

As you can see, if you open in a new tab, the flowers on the bog-standard hawthorn are just opening. The others are even further behind, but it's 'normal' for us. No boiling here.