Awful weather - typical Brits talk

goldfinches

Frantic tidying up here last night in preparation for the plumber to come and service my boiler this morning, I got up early to be dressed and ready in case they arrived at 8am, guess what at noon they let me know they had to reschedule to the beginning of June! Grrrr!

Anyway, it's has been raining non-stop here since yesterday at about 5:30pm and there was a sort of extra downpour mixed in this morning so I hope some of my slugs have drowned! I love the camassias @Dustyevsky and am very envious of @pink_poppy and their beautiful aquilegias. I've bought some blue mix sweet pea seeds to start off on the window shelf and am hoping for great things to happen quickly (ha ha).

Hope your sister makes a good recovery @wort. 

YoungBlueEyes

Dreadful/fantastic news about your sister wort (itms). The things they can do now are astonishing, wishing your sister a speedy recovery  

Bladdy 'ell look at your tatties! They'll be ready for harvesting soon pp   Aquilegia envy here too, they're beautiful colours  

You step away from those flights Farway, that's not funny. 

I get black spots on some of my roses too, but having tried all the sprays I'm trying something new this year - gleaned from the OS board, JackieO iirc - collect dandelion leaves and soak them in a bucket of water for a few days, then use that water to spray them with. It's meant to be a bit of a cure-all so fingers crossed it works.

That's a bu99er about your plumber gf, they really don't care do they. I bet s/he didn't give an explanation either *grrr*

Well it rained near enough all day yesterday, it finally stopped to get it's breath and then started with the drizzle about an hour later and that continued 'til nearly bedtime. So it anyone's got drowned slugs/ants/squirrels it must surely be me. It's forecast cloudy, cool and breezy today (right so far) with a high of 14' late aft. Possibly. Good weather to get a bit more digging done, so standby for garden tools/Roman villas/oil fields/interesting stuff in general.  Blackies are almost certainly babyless this year, or if they had any they've.... gone

ArbitraryRandom

pink_poppy said:

I'm still reading, but have been really busy, so I know I'm missing loads of stuff. My tatties are going daft - they're growing a lot faster than I expected them to and I've had to earth them up two or three times. I'm regretting my choice of bag and won't be using them next year - I'll buy some proper tattie sacks.

I'm curious why you're not liking bags? 

I have most of mine in black tubs, but the 'kit' came with three potato bags (about 30L I think) and I'm really not liking them. They have no structural integrity until they're full, so the tops flop over blocking water and light getting to the plants, then when you do try to put soil in them to earth up you really need a second set of hands (which I don't have) as pouring from a bag to a bag means most of the soil has been going around rather than in the bags.

I don't understand what the benefit is supposed to be...  

Here, yesterday was flooded out - didn't really get any gardening done and didn't get any housework done as a replacement. Made lots of tea   

Today is thundery with wet/heavy cloud and quite cool, but the actual precipitation is holding off so far (as best I can tell while staying inside ) . 

Dustyevsky

-taff said:

Dusty, I had to google [or should that be duckducked?] to see what that originally looked like..That's like the god of otters with the looming presence.

Yes, there's a 'proper' one in Bideford, but it lacks the impact of Tarkosaurus. I think the kids designed him as a seat for weary walkers, but it's at child level, so if we sat in him, we might never get out again!

Farway

Rain arrived here mid-afternoon yesterday, and it tipped down forever. Supposed to rain again today, very dull at present. At least everything I wanted to be watered in has been.

Bad luck on boiler GF, at least he phoned, so hope there yet, and at least it's summer so not as urgent for any heating.

Dustyevsky said:

Black spot on roses is the result of this clean air we're not supposed to have, 'cos it's boiling.

I'm not sure about the cat. Often they look scary, and they're fine. Don't rush the relationship is my tip. Start slowly. A tin of sardines won't raise expectations too much. You don't want to get into Sheba, or anything like that.

There's no end to this global boiling is there? I even heard Beeb say the 'plane dropping thousands of feet, maybe due to Global Boiling causing more air turbulence.

And someone said the recent eclipse was due to boiling, that was corrected once they realised how daft that was

I'll stick with just looking at the cat for the moment, just let him/her/them guard against squirrels for now.

Apart from lily beetle patrol, I think my only gardening will be potting on my Coleus seedling survivors from the Great Knock on the Floor incident.

I have about four that came through and are now growing in among the remnants of the stuff I got off the carpet.

I'm going to take a gamble & sow a couple of courgette seeds, from my recent offer, I know it's late but growing courgettes is a late decision. Two chances as usual.

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

You step away from those flights Farway, that's not funny. 

l.  Blackies are almost certainly babyless this year, or if they had any they've.... gone

Farway knows, even Ryanair is dearer than a packet of seed. Remember, they don't all come up in the first year. If mine sow themselves, seed left to do its thing should work....eventually!

Your obs might be OK on the Blackie front. Mine have had one lot already...actually looking grown-up about a month ago!

Dull, 12c, and no appreciable weather here. Something bright from Rosemoor's needed:

Sorry, no name beyond 'rhododendron.' I'm still recovering from living on lime rich soil much of my gardening life! Still slightly amazed, our hydrangeas are blue!

The NW wind allowed me a good 'last' bonfire yesterday. As the hay comes up, the opportunity to burn anything reduces in proportion. This time it was the winter pruning (by chainsaw!) in the wee woodland and remains of deep beds in the old polytunnel that couldn't be re-used.

YoungBlueEyes

Ooh what I wouldn’t give for that rhododendron Dusty  

Nothing startling appearing in the trench so far, well unless you’re after a build-your-own-church kit cos there’s plenty of hulking big stones coming up  

Anyway I came on to say does anyone have a notion of what I should do with this poorly tree? It’s the most recent buy -morries Cox Orange Pippin - and it’s not looking healthy at all. I’ve DDuck’d it and it might be rust (?) which they say isn’t a fatal problem so leave it be. Which is fine but now the bark’s taken a funny turn too so any suggestions of what I should do? 

Does it want hoiking out before it infects anything else or Shawshank? 

Farway

That tree looks like it's off to the fiords shortly

Or maybe the South Seas version?

Have a look-up on Coral Spot and see what you think?

I reckon, as it was fairly cheap any way, and Cox can be a bummer to fruit, oik it out and get another variety

I'm told Lidl has some apples in if near you

YoungBlueEyes

Thanks Farway  I’ll get it lifted now. Not sure I want another one, I’m not short of them tbh and I did only buy it cos it was cheap. Ah well. 

twopenny

I wonder if it has no roots?

I can't get into the forums from my kindle any more. Just white screen. Tried all sorts. It's the only site that's not working so it's a problem with their 'tweeking'. Reported it twice but no response.

So I may be available occasionally. Frankly it's a pain to plug in, start, log in on the laptop so I'll be seeing you as and when. I can't even keep up with what;s going on.

I'll be laying into the garden at the weekend. Just tried cutting out dead wood on the Cornelia rose and lopped of what appeared to be dead Clematis only to find a couple of big flowers on the end   so a new fresh start tomorrow.

I may mow the lawn too.........can't stand it any longer and a lot of couch grass and weed coming in. Yup, that may be the idea but there's a limit!

Good luck, good health and see you when I see you