Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

goldfinches said:

Dusty that iris is lovely, you do take wonderful photographs. 

It's just a 'proper' camera, a bit of dew, and early morning light. Farway is probably the best photographer here. He still uses 'Manual' sometimes. Nowadays, to most of us, manual is just a character in Fawlty Towers.

Your lips will turn bicolour Bluey, just give 'em time. The battle of the wall is already in negotiation. One side is OK and will stay set in stone. The other side 'might' become a wooden construction. I've a lot of 6"x3" offcuts! 

Meanwhile, I'm mustering my resources to do battle with the council again; something anticipated since their enforcement woman labelled 90% of our rear garden 'agricultural land.' Yeah, well, it was, but some time in the 1990s a naughty person made it into a random area of floriferous pulchritude, until it fell into neglect, and then they went off to have some considerable chunk of her Majesty's pleasure. Put it another way, we inherited a garden mess, the cultivated equivalent of a Jackson Pollock done with a bad hangover, so we had no idea about its history, though 20' trees were a clue it had been around a while. There is nothing on our title plan to suggest what, or even where it might be. 

So we're innocent,  and as it's been well over 10 years since anything vaguely agricultural happened in our garden, we want it properly designated, thank you very much....and here's north of £600 in a not brown envelope for your trouble. Of course, we have our reasons, but that's for another time. 

Returning to the real world, Farway, we have friends with a ride-on train in their garden. As they live mid-terrace, it isn't what you'd call an extensive track, but there are points, so you can choose to visit the pond or the patio. A ride takes around 30 seconds or so, but there's the return trip. 

Due to global boiling, we hit around 6c overnight with some rain, but it's now a searing 12c and forecast to top out at 14c, so I'll be looking for shade.  Here's a plant which enjoys that:

Not 'Shaggy,' but equally 'Boombastic.'  

Farway

Sun was here, but now dull but warm enough

.

I'm glad we are all agreed on a train for the Lottery Acres, steam, with brass & copper pipes, plus tunnels draped in wisteria and laburnums, grapes etc

Perhaps a steep, Dusty, cutting with gabions for walls, alpines & other stuff hanging out of the gaps

A bridge over the frog pond, with irises at the edge, through the bluebell woods to the chug through greenhouse with cast iron pillars and rustic benches

Meanwhile, back to earth, I have the streptocarpus cuttings outside having a right good watering. If it keeps fine, I'll give them a tidy up, remove old leaves etc.

Not like T & M Arbs, sneaky, but I expect all will be sorted with free plug plants.

Which has nudged me into asking T & M where my Golden Delicious is? 

I'll do that later, other more urgent things right now, the front door lock won't let me take the key out . That's my Nationwide £100 bonus spent, I suspect.

Thanks for Campanula update, YBE, now I know the name I'll keep an eye open should I spot some in Morries.

I like the idea of trained kittens doing the weeding

twopenny

That's a clever photo Bluey, wall worthy I think...........

And I adore the Iris in all it's imperfections. And years ago I visited the national collection of Astrantias by accident and my friend fell in love with them. I had just one, think it was that one.

Campanula lactifloium is that? I had one growing by a pink rose years ago and it was my heart and joy for several years. Then one wet spring the slugs ate the shoots as they grew and I never wanted that sorrow again. Just begun keeping my eyes open for one now.

Stressed neighbour came out with me yesterday down Devon way and thinking about 'desirable' how about this for a greenhouse

It's about my gardens size   

Said neighbour came home nicely relaxed and 10mins later son returned having spent the night at his partners house.....aparantly now the fibres in her phone doesn't work. She needs that for her elderly mum care.

Family eh?

Rained overnight possibily but didn't make a dent in the dry veg beds.

Feeling cool to chilly in the stiff breeze though the sun is shining.

Managed to salvage a few small raspberries where the young blackbirds make a bee line for them even though they're netted they find a way. Must be inherited memory

pink_poppy

Just in case anyone is looking, Aldi had different colours of Cosmos in biggish pots this morning and pots of Jasmine. I can't remember how much the Cosmos was, but the Jasmine was £7,49.

Lovely pics, as always  

Cold, wet and windy here - I've got a big jumper on and two layers under that...

Dustyevsky

pink_poppy said:

Cold, wet and windy here - I've got a big jumper on and two layers under that...

It's been pretty good here in the Westcountry. We surely hit 14c, as I coped OK in a tee shirt. I was pushing a mower most of the time, though, which probably made it feel warm. By lunchtime, I had to stop and water plants in pots as the keen wind had dried most out.

That's a smart greenhouse, 2p. It looks like the sides are repurposed wooden windows. It might be all someone needs to get seeds and cuttings started etc. Then they could grow a few bush tomatoes and keep salad leaves away from birds and slugs. We've never had a problem with seedlings until this year, when even spinach has been pulled out as soon as it germinates.

I think the battle of Gabion Dream is lost. Mrs Dusty had a look at the 6"x2" offcuts and declared them 'naff.' So it's back to producing a dry stone wall with non-freestone material. It will probably maybe look OK if I can grow enough plants in the gaps. And speaking of plants which grow in walls, mystery seeds supplied by Mrs Dusty are turning out to be Centranthus ruber, though she denies collecting them. It could be worse. They'll do very well in the dry hedge bank.

goldfinches

Weather quite tolerable here today after being just nicely bearable for a walk yesterday afternoon and then getting very cold in the evening, don't really understand it at all and the tourists are definitely flummoxed. I keep seeing groups with some people dressed in head to toe in cold, wet weather gear clutching an umbrella while the person standing next to them is dressed in floaty summer clobber, shades and sandals. I'm sure they think we're doing it on purpose to make them be dressed inappropriately for the day. 

As I was walking through one of the side lanes from the High here today my eye was drawn to this flourishing erigeron and so I snapped a photo just to make you all envious.



I included the bicycle so that you can see how far off the ground it is and that it evidently thrives on lime mortar and the loose rubble that this sort of wall has in the middle, there can't possibly be any other nutrients apart from the odd beetle and bird poo up there. Having typed that sentence it occurs to me that the pipe might have a small leak at one of the joints but even then it would only get the contents of a roof gutter which wouldn't be particularly high in nutrients would it and it hasn't rained here since Tuesday so there you are. 

I'm not so sure about Thompson & Morgan, I complained about the fumbled delivery of my tomato plants last week and haven't had any response so I wouldn't hold your breath.

2p I love the diddy greenhouse and think the colour is very trendy too. I'd love one of those for my plot if you find one at a good price.

Dusty lots of my salad, rocket and radish seedlings have been munched or pecked too so I just sowed tons more hoping that some would survive. I reckon that's why there are so many seeds in the packets. 

YoungBlueEyes

I love the diddy greenhouse too, there's something pleasing about the proportions of it And thank you for the compliment of my photo, I'll take you a pic of my irises in a min    You're racing ahead with your rasps 2p, mine are still thinking about maybe flowering perhaps. But they're not dying on me so there's that. 

That's a bu99er about your front door Farway, is it a locksmith job or a roll your sleeves up and ootoob job? My campanula wasn't from morries, it was a gc buy but it was still only cheap.

Dusty as a compromise for your wall, could you build whatever MrsD would like and then grow a myrtle hedge up in front of it or summat?  

While we're sorting out Rottery Acres could I request lots of gf's wall - complete with those plants - and I like the pavement/path cobbles too, and could we have some proper old fashioned street lamps like wot Fred Astaire would dance round  

It was sunny here yesterday but the breeze was cool, and it was almost cold last night. It was lovely and bright earlier but it's clouding over now and that's it for the day. Windy later too. They say. 

Edit - I'll put this in here cos I don't wanna make a fox's paw and have too many posts together. What was that about figs trees branches should be wide enough apart to sling a penguin through? Nailed it  
https://woldsweekly.co.uk/2024/06/penguin-chick-arrives-at-sewerby-hall-gardens-the-new-grandchild-of-the-famous-rosie/

YoungBlueEyes

Irises, and campanula label, and the view from my kitchen window earlier. Now I know I point out the sore lack of dogs on this thread (and this pic won’t do anything to redress that balance) but - shape of it! Indolent swine 🤨 

pink_poppy

That wall is gorgeous, goldfinches - very pretty with the plants growing up it.

Lovely iris, YBE. Your garden is looking good too. I'm guessing that's the squirrel eating pussycat.

Porridge for breakfast, homemade soup for lunch, thick jumper and fluffy socks. What is with this weather?! It was definitely cold here last night - I was snuggled up in my warm dressing gown with a hot water bottle. Someone tell the weather gods it's June, please...

Dustyevsky

Goldfinches, that's typical of E. karvinskianus. Grows anywhere, except where you plant it, when it dies within days. A plant with attitude! Great photo, too! 

And your iris is lovely too Bluey. It might be the one by the big lake at Rosemoor, but I can't look just now to check. I can't do much at all, 'cos I have a string of jobs today, but I must include a penguinarium in this wonderful garden we're designing in our heads. We could organise it, so visitors could throw fish to them as they steam past on the miniature train. No throwing the penguins, though!

Thanks for the wall suggestion, but it's a no-go. This is a wall end. Middles are easy. There's nothing to plant in beyond.

Today's photo shows how you can get away with almost anything in a cottage-type garden at this time of year. It's our lower border, which desperately needs a re-vamp. Grass has invaded, valerian's taking over, weeds have crept in, and some choice things have died, but it's still a riot. We'll try to sort it....later....maybe autumn.

Astrantia 'Buckland' in the foreground is a winner!