Awful weather - typical Brits talk

pink_poppy

Lovely Aquilegia pics, Dusty and YBE. I did have to get into a yoga position to take mine and even then it ended up being an Aquilegia selfie because it was facing down 😁

We had a lovely sky last night, over an hour before the actual sunset. No aurora, although DD in Englandshire sent me one from above her house 😍 I’m looking forward to seeing your cousin’s pics, YBE. Loads on Faceache too. Apparently it started in the South last night and I was looking North...


Shame about the fountain, twopenny. I’ve actually been thinking about getting one so I’ll hang fire for now.

Hope the jag (Scottish for injection) goes okay today, Farway. A white lavender sounds lovely.

Beautiful sunny day here 😎

ArbitraryRandom

I'm seeing lots of pictures, but I think I was reading a book or sleeping - does explain why my neighbour woke me up talking/laughing loudly in his garden last night at about 2am   

Another relentlessly hot day today. I really should do some laundry in anticipation of my trip, but I think I have enough stuff clean and it's just too hot... plus the forecast is for rain tomorrow (finally!) so chances are by the time it's washed today it'll be too late to put out, then the rain tomorrow... just not worth it  

Watered the garden this morning just in case the promised rain is a lie. I ended up with far too many beans and peas given a number of the ones I thought had failed had in fact just been taking a month to show themselves! I think I'm going to put two per support pole - that sound about right? That would mean I've got space for all of my plants, and I think it's fine for the peas from my reading, but I'm a little worried the broad beans are bigger - should I do three or four peas to a pole and try to give the bigger beans their own? 

twopenny

Runner beans are greedy for moisture and food.
I'm not sure that having extra together will provide more beans as they will be competing.
I've done it in the past and got a lot of leaf that wasn't getting ventilation and the crop was poor but you know the space and aspect so could judge.

Farway

Back from my Jag [cheers PP]. I planted the lavender before I went, all done. 

My cunning plan on locating the spare crab apple has come a cropper , far too dense growth where I had in mind. I may try & sneak it in far border, I don't want it blocking light or causing problems in years to come.

A neighbour was working on his busted mower when I got back, so offered him some of my tom forest, which he accepted and swapped for rhubarb he recently divided up, in pot. See if I can keep this one alive, long enough to get a meal from next year at least.

twopenny said:

I now have a small woodland of tomato plants germanating. All the previous seeds plus the new ones.

Good luck with the jab Farway. Something nice to do afterwards is always a good thing.
And yes, some of my pots have got mixed up without throwing them on the floor.

The fountain is rubbish. The solar panel only works in direct sunlight so you walk past, it stops. A cloud, it stops, and of course no working in the evening. That will be another post.

Always happens, with seeds, nothing, sow more, then millions. Except for Aquilegia, which have an exemption from this law.

Thanks for fountain up update, I had pencilled one in once I get the pond sorted, perhaps you need the Tesla model with humungous battery back up in the kitchen /shed / garage / bothy /attic / servants' quarters?

twopenny

This is the one

https://www.gardening-naturally.com/solar-sunjet-water-pump-150

Cheapest I could get and on this site it's clear, operates in direct sunlight only......and the guy who sold it to me said that also.

But I'm  used to £2 solar lights in my garden that function year round, fairy lights also so to find the big panel really does only work in direct sun is puzzling. And in this country not useful.

All the reviews seem to come out 5* too.......yup, in 'direct sunlight' but really...............

Maybe I'll just get a recording and play it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvxOuBSVK-o

Come to think of it the garden from scratch cost me a small fortune. I could have just got a projection, had summer all year round and no blisters

LessImpecunious

ArbitraryRandom said:

 ended up with far too many beans and peas given a number of the ones I thought had failed had in fact just been taking a month to show themselves! I think I'm going to put two per support pole - that sound about right? That would mean I've got space for all of my plants, and I think it's fine for the peas from my reading, but I'm a little worried the broad beans are bigger - should I do three or four peas to a pole and try to give the bigger beans their own? 

Not sure whether you've got runners as well as broad beans (and broad beans don't usually need a pole to grow up?), but I often put two (runners or french climbing) to a pole - can't say whether they compete and reduce the crop as 2P suggests they might as I've not monitored that closely, but reckon its worth having the spare, and always get beans from both (often too many to keep up with...). Peas are often planted very close together (2" or so) so they should be fine, as long as they have sufficient water. Broad beans will usually produce multiple stems from one plant, so best planted at a reasonable distance...
 

YoungBlueEyes

That's a dreamy pic pp, aren't the colours beautiful? I've been told worked out how to put cousin's ones on, I'll put them on after I write this. I didn't realise yous called it a jag too, I thought it was just my lot. Do you call it 'Covik' too? 

How's the arm today Farway? That's a bu99er about no room for your tree, fingers crossed you'll wiggle it in somewhere. Oh and you didn't need to give me anything in return for CatWeeItis, especially not KnockyOverItis.... I've got a tray of echinacea and salvia seedlings in the conservatory that himself bumped yesterday - a carefully planted dozen of each is now 5 randoms I really wanted these so I hope they don't die on me. 

Is it a queer year weather-wise? I'm sure my tom forest was much further along this time last year but they're so reluctant this year... I've barely got a handful and they're so slow growing. If we don't get an Indian summer I'll be eating diddy green toms. C'est la vie.

Was the honey hunting successful Winnie 2p? Will you buy another fountain or try to make your one work? Maybe position a mirror so it has light all day..? I've planted Ska (thank you ) and found a teeming writhing wriggling ant nest in the bottom of it The pot was sat over a hole in the grass (apparently) so they just moved right up into it. Made my skin crawl. Sick sorrowful pear was a different tree, that's the other half of the Tesco 2fers Lovely Neighbour gave us as a house-warming. Ska pear is an unlabelled gc bargain. I've planted Ska on the same side as sorrowful so hopefully that'll do them now :fingerscrossed: 

Devonians were right again yesterday and give the same forecast today - sunny with a few little clouds and a light breeze. Sobers say cloudy all day (they're wrong already) but the sun will appear around dinner time, which is what they said yesterday too. Galileo is showing the green bob a bit lower than the others. I didn't see the northern lights last night but I'm up anything like late enough. Did anyone else see them in the flesh...? 

YoungBlueEyes

These are the best of the ones Beloved Cousin sent me. She was down the shore road so even though she is in the North and was facing north the lights in the background are the South. 

There aren't many houses down the shore road, they're rarely for sale and when they do come on they're really expensive

Farway

Feels cooler this morning, but supposed to be really hot.

YoungBlueEyes said:

How's the arm today Farway? That's a bu99er about no room for your tree, fingers crossed you'll wiggle it in somewhere. Oh and you didn't need to give me anything in return for CatWeeItis, especially not KnockyOverItis.... I've got a tray of echinacea and salvia seedlings in the conservatory that himself bumped yesterday - a carefully planted dozen of each is now 5 randoms I really wanted these so I hope they don't die on me. 

Is it a queer year weather-wise? I'm sure my tom forest was much further along this time last year but they're so reluctant this year... I've barely got a handful and they're so slow growing. If we don't get an Indian summer I'll be eating diddy green toms. C'est la vie.
 

My jagged arm is sore today , and I have other bits, headache and soreish throat, tired but couldn't sleep , so I was up at 0530, woe is me, doomed I tell you, doomed.

Knocking things over comes far too easily, bummer though when fate's fickle finger stirs the pot seed tray

Odd about your toms. I was just patting myself on the back, with my good arm, looking at my toms, apart from the few I snapped the stems of. Hrrphf, we'll say no more about that episode. 

The rest look good and not drawn pale things.

The ones I planted out last weekend are now looking like proper toms, sturdy & dark healthy green. They approve of the move, obviously, all will die tomorrow when weather changes.

Good photos by BC YBE, unless something changes I think my chances of seeing the Aurora have gone from this life, maybe next time round I can arrive in Iceland?

Right! Who said "as some old geyser"? Come on, own up.

Here is a pic of my Sunburst cherries, set nicely. This year I hope to get a taste of more than a couple, I'm going to try & put fleece over the tree, but it's not birds, it's weather, wet, snails etc.

-taff

There's a whole plethora of pictures to admire here now aren't there? Cat wee, aquilegia, apple bottoms, sprouting potatoes, woodpeckers, gulls bums [ you were lucky to avoid christening there] ,no mows and northern/southern lights...How pretty! No wonder gardening is good for mental health, look at all the stuff we get to see every day

YBE, nice try, but I think you would stand out anywhere in the nicest possible way. No van either, had to come home for a bacon butty with all the trimmings [cheese, tomato, lettuce, fruity sauce and mayo] . If I had more bacon, I'd have another one now...but it's in the freezer...

I got myself a couple of jalapenos because my stash in the freezer is almost done and I do like them, especially the way the skin cracks on them, and they're not too hot either. And some  geraniums pelargoniums...colour unknown. I love a blousy geranium [ you know what I mean] 

Farway ouch, it's no fun is it, and no one gave me a lollipop or anything when I had mine done. We should protest. We want sweeties! [ I am deadly serious about the lollipops] SHame about the crab aple, I'm sure it'll be happy when you put it wherever you put it  

2p, you could have had a much cheaper one on the big river site, I just got a replacement one for the what the foxes decided to aet for nine quid. Also only in sunlight bit a big erse [thanks ybe] solar panel.

Arb, as above, you don't need supports for broad beans although they may flop over when they get very tall . And I normally put two beans per pole, I pick mine quite young, so that encourages them to fear for their lives and make more too.

For today, let the major potting on commence before the tomatoes shrivel up more. Pleased with the eryngiums, they have put on a lot of growth and managed to avoid being eaten, so they can go out next week, I will shoehorn them in somewhere, and there are some other things to join them in my quest to eradicate bare earth [only in the front garden though] Corssing ym fingers the echinacea make it through two leaf stage and avoid being munched. So...to the greenhouse and beyond!!!