Awful weather - typical Brits talk

pink_poppy

Bee bum 🐝 (shh, don’t tell Farway it’s in an Aquilegia)...


And a sleepy, snoozy, fuzzy, buzzy bee having a wee 40-winks in a patch of soil I’d just been weeding. It flew down, burrowed its wee head into the soil and stayed like that for a couple of minutes before flying off again...


The thrushes were back this afternoon - two babies (one in the pond having a bath and the other one mithering the parent for the snail it was bashing)... We also had daddy blackbird feeding two babies and the robin finally made an appearance ❤️

It’s been a lovely day here 😎

Dustyevsky

I'm sorry about the loss of your niece, wort. Today, we drove to Bristol to celebrate the 9th birthday of our niece's daughter, who died in April after a long battle with cancer. She was an inspirational child who cared about others and bore the many trials of her illness stoically. Two other family members share the same birthday, so this gathering's an annual event, but this year it had added poignancy. 

We had a great variety of weather on the outward journey, setting off in dank mist and finding sunshine before reaching the M5. Just as we left Devon, it hammered down and visibility was terrible until the outskirts of Taunton, when the sunshine returned and the road showed no sign of rain. Bristol was mostly sunny and warm, but we hit more rain re-entering Devon, though only a modest amount. Back at home, there was no watering to do , so we guess it's rained heavily here at some point.

Your rose looked more like this one in reality, Bluey. This is a David Austin one: 'Lady of Shalott.'

YoungBlueEyes

I didn't buy the box of slug stuff Farway. As I was giving it a good shake little puffs of dust came out of the corners. I did wonder if it was a box of blue sweeties.... but it's clearly free range organic sun kissed road sweepings volcanic pebbles. I'll just keep going with my scissors morning and night, cos they do work  

Lovely bee bums pp I wonder what the second one was doing...?

Nope not a Lady of Shalott Dusty, it's this one - 



It was one of the pair I bought that I thought were kinda dear but they've turned out to be worth it. The other ones a bit behind it (buds not just open yet) They're both growing goodly and the fragrances are proper old school. When the sun gets round bit I'll take another pic.

Speaking of Beal - there's a housing estate just been built near my Lidl + Aldi by Beal Homes. They must not be shifting quick enough cos they've a big banner on the roadside fence offering 101% mortgages. It's like deja vu all over again. I thought they'd banned that nonsense...?!  

OT - Cool and slightly breezy and mild out there this morning. It's gonna be another scorcher, they say. I've told Lovely Neighbour not to bring me back anything at all from the Open Garden, truly nothing, not one thing. Unless it's a pure wonder, or a queer colour I don't have, or would look well in my garden in general. But all that said, not one thing is needed *cough* 

Farway

I'm the early bird today, failed to drop back to sleep so got up because in my head I was planting broad beans & just lying there.

The reason for the in bed broad bean sowing is T & M informed me my offer seed mail is in the post, so could be here tomorrow, and broad beans seeds are in there. 

According to the packet, OK to sow now but will be later cropping obviously, which suits me just fine.

The trial sowing of the 2010 broad bean seeds failed as anticipated, they went slimy so binned. Nothing lost but worth a try.

I may sow a few more climbing beans later today, on kitchen paper, in a vain effort to beat the slugs. I'd like at least one meal of my own runners this year.

Job for today is sort out a couple of half moon wall baskets, I think I'll put hanging fuchsias in them now I've re discovered I like fuchsias

I hope to liquid feed some of my pots as well, including my plum tree which has a few plums on so deserve a chance, again.

This is my Boysenberry, new last year and has survived with fresh growth showing now. Fingers crossed, these fruit and taste is excellent, I've never tasted one so into the unknown here, much like the Wineberry grown by, was it Blue? last year.

Dustyevsky

Wow! So much to catch-up on! I didn't really take it all in last night.

Grapes flowering already, eh? Ah, I believe if they're young grapes the flowers need snipping-off to encourage the vine to develop....but I can't recall exactly how old your plant is, Farway. Mine's very young. I will obviously do lots of snipping when it flowers. 

Bees and their bums weren't cooperating at Rosemoor, but I spotted some Solomon's Seal. Like mine, it's just reaching the lovely stage where the leaves are freshly unfurled and the flowers drooping serenely, just before the sawfly emerge to shred them, literally in a day or two! "Gather ye polygonatum while ye may," as the saying goes.

That big, fat, tree, looking like lots of trees stuck together, reminded me of Evergreen Oak. I wonder if that's what it  was, wort? That one might be hundreds of years old. They're used a lot in coastal places round my way, but also grow happily here at 500' and make great windbreaks.

Volcanic ash seems to be a variation on the theme of diatomaceous earth, which is useful to keep chickens free of external parasites. It's microscopic, but very sharp dust, that gets under the skin plates of invertebrates, and then sandpapers them to death. Like d. earth, it'll need replacing often....which is good for sales of volcanic ash!

101% mortgages? Well, why not? Just print more money until it all goes paridae-up in a year or two, when they're ready to bring in the digital currency. Then you'll get your FSC guaranteed pobble beads exchanged for nice shiny new, programmable Gov-beads. Me, I'm spent-out anyway, and I'm not telling you where the rest is buried!

What else....? Oh posh mate's blue aquilegia's nice Bluey. I would say that quietly, but there's no sizing facility in Vanilla Land that I'm aware of.

Speaking of vanilla, here's a peony from Rosemoor that looks the same flavour.  I'd better use the photo early, because they don't last very long, or at least my Paeony moloskovcii  mloksewitschii 'Molly the Witch,' don't. 

YoungBlueEyes

Yep it's me with the wineberry. Based on last year's harvest it wasn't worth the bother for the amount of fruit I got (3 or 4 if I remember rightly) or the flavour of them. Mind it was it's first year so it might be different as it matures? I'll give it this year then swop it out for something else if something takes my fancy, or maybe even hoik it out to leave a bit more room for the normal rasps. 

Good luck with your fuchsias, I like them and honeysuckles #CommonThingsWotMakeMeHappy

That's a lovely camelia Dusty, it looks like it smells creamy  

ArbitraryRandom

Morning all, just managed to catch up with you. Work trip was good (busy) and I didn't really manage to take many pictures, but home now and (mostly) recovered. Another busy day away from home tomorrow so trying to get ready for it today.

Building up a small list of things to do in the garden when I've 'got time' - including earthing up the experimental potatoes and feeding things as about half of my tomatoes have developed flowers (the half I bought rather than grew. My self sown ones look similar to YBEs from a few pages back at a couple of inches tall!) so I understand I should now be feeding them weekly. Was also quite surprised to see one of my courgettes has started flowering already. Only male flowers so far, but nice to see  

Foggy this morning, but that's burnt off and it's now 17ish with blue sky. Forecast is hot and sunny/dry for the next few days, with torrential (4cm) rain due on Thursday. 

Farway

Turned out hot & sunny in the end.

Dustyevsky said:

Grapes flowering already, eh? Ah, I believe if they're young grapes the flowers need snipping-off to encourage the vine to develop....but I can't recall exactly how old your plant is, Farway. Mine's very young. I will obviously do lots of snipping when it flowers. 

Bees and their bums weren't cooperating at Rosemoor,

My task now is to get a bee bum sticking out of a grape flower.

I suspect nearest will be a wasp face stuck in a grape

Managed to feed & water the pots as required, plus potted on some fuchsias, and even more, the extra climbing bean seeds I poked in to compensate for the slug scoffed ones have germinated. 

Of course, they may well get eaten, but I can only hope the slugs get indigestion and stop at some time.

And even better, my neighbour offered & has mown my grass from me , another job that is beyond me these days.

Farway

A.I seems to need some working on.

Bee + grape flower

twopenny

Farway, there were some tips on grape growing on a tv prog tonight and I thought of you.
Marcus Warring kitchen gardening or some such on the food channel.

Glorious day, went round a beautiful garden, got the hose on the strawberries and pots and the blackbirds were singing till 10pm!