Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Sunny sort of, trying hard to make a go of it. 

I was up the volunteer place this morning and noted the pots are drying out, looks like hose time next week. I had time to quickly water using a watering can, but with my hobbling around it's not as easy or efficient as a hose.

That's a lovely wild style border Dusty, very floaty

I like the idea of chucking fish to the penguins from our train, and on penguin chucking, perhaps a variant on dwarf hurling could be introduced, perhaps in non PC corner? The Devil's Kiddies Korner.

Nice wall photo GF, could make an Impressionist French painting out of that, may have to take the plastic saddle cover off first and string some onions over the handlebars

YoungBlueEyes said:

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.

The door needed a proper locksmith, turned out not just the barrel, but the gubbins inside, is way past sell by date. The kind of job if attempted would require a thousand trips to B & Q etc only to find that bit is so old it is no longer made.

LS has ordered bits and will fit tomorrow, all being well. Now there's a job you never heard of at school, but one that cannot be replaced by Ai & a robot and is always in demand somewhere.

And if your public facing persona is rubbish, there's always burglary as a side hustle. [jokette, just in case someone can't see it]

My runner seeds on damp paper have started to geminate, I'll get snapping once more advanced

Here are my surviving coleus, ex knocked on floor as seedlings, these are the survivors

ArbitraryRandom

Good afternoon all. Lovely looking coleus there farway. I think I remember there's a plain green 'lemon sherbet' coleus that smells tasty when the leaves are bruised (though I don't think they're considered edible). Does your colourful variety have a nice sent as well as beautiful leaves?

YBE, you asked the other day I think if the bindweed patrol was having an effect... doesn't feel like it sometimes (every day I'm digging out at least three or four new shoots - 10 some days), but I have to remind myself that if I wasn't pulling these shoots out how bad the beds would be already/later in the season with them strangling my plants. Plus I think it's a long game. I was watching a charles dowding video the other day where he was saying he's got them in some of his beds but after 2 and a half/3 years of pulling the shoots whenever he sees them it's more or less eliminated  That said, still no sign of local gardener man to mow the rest, so it does feel a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic I'm going to have to decide how to tackle the rest of the garden eventually, but this is a manageable chunk I can do this year. 

On that note, no word from T&M as yet re my 'missing' plugs. But on the assumption they'll be sending them on eventually, I have now arranged enough tubs (and maybe enough compost) for them all. If they end up refunding me instead (or if I have to escalate to eBay, which is the same end result) then no harm done and I can try some winter cabbages or kale  Glad to get it done now as it's supposed to be wet all weekend. 

One word on blue sweeties. Had a chat with someone this morning and apparently the main chemical that was in them was banned in the uk not that long ago (or it was banned a while ago but you could use what you had)? Which is why the ones now available aren't as effective. Like peat I guess? Good for gardeners but not good for birds/wildlife that eat the poisoned slugs. It's apparently still for sale outside the uk though I would expect it would be banned in the eu as well in the not too distant future. 

ETA:

Oh, and I forgot - these are the plants I mentioned the other day that I've been trying and failing to convince myself were lemon balm (as that's what the label told me I'd sown in there!) and have now been moved into the squash bed. You can see an actual (verified) lemon balm on the left of the image for an idea of the strength of my self delusion... 



And these are my lovely new taunton deane kale that didn't get a mention yesterday as they were delivered the same time as the T&M order  

Paspatur

Just back from holiday and caught up with everyones news and lovely photos
Here's one from me, never seen a foxglove do this before!

pink_poppy

How strange, Paspatur, I wonder what's made it do that, it looks like a completely different plant and quite 'alien' looking.

Well, I've been wondering where to put my Hollyhock that I bought ages ago and now I know...


It's off the Fjords...

It was fine and looking very healthy a couple of days ago...

BEWARE CUTE BABY BUNNIES!! Honestly, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I saw it  

Farway

ArbitraryRandom said:

Good afternoon all. Lovely looking coleus there farway. I think I remember there's a plain green 'lemon sherbet' coleus that smells tasty when the leaves are bruised (though I don't think they're considered edible). Does your colourful variety have a nice sent as well as beautiful leaves?

On that note, no word from T&M as yet re my 'missing' plugs. But on the assumption they'll be sending them on eventually, I have now arranged enough tubs (and maybe enough compost) for them all. If they end up refunding me instead (or if I have to escalate to eBay, which is the same end result) then no harm done and I can try some winter cabbages or kale  Glad to get it done now as it's supposed to be wet all weekend. 

One word on blue sweeties. Had a chat with someone this morning and apparently the main chemical that was in them was banned in the uk not that long ago (or it was banned a while ago but you could use what you had)? Which is why the ones now available aren't as effective. Like peat I guess? Good for gardeners but not good for birds/wildlife that eat the poisoned slugs. It's apparently still for sale outside the uk though I would expect it would be banned in the eu as well in the not too distant future. 

ETA:

You can see an actual (verified) lemon balm on the left of the image for an idea of the strength of my self delusion... 

I'll have to have a sniff of the coleus, I don't think it smells, but I've never really tried.

I did spot some with very fancy shaped leaves, maybe next year? And I'll try not to knock them onto the floor again.

T & M items, I've just had a reply about my apple tree, now will be shipped Jan 2025 or do I want a refund? Yes please, I've asked for money back via card used to pay for it.

The blue slug stuff, I think commercial growers can still use them, like they can peat. No doubt until a real viable alternative turns up.

Danger Danger Arbs, once you have lemon balm it is with you forever, like the Force. And despite the hype, it makes rubbish "tea".

I have it, and it's seeding down the road. Does no harm, and a better option than bindweed I guess.

Unusual foxglove Pas, is it two flowers together or one.?

Pink P, cute bunnies, could you become a Bunny Boiler? Run rabbit run run run

Would it recover undercover, maybe?

Paspatur

It's one flower and is apparantly a peloric mutation

twopenny

I'll give a tick for the lemon balm. Easy to pull out when it self seeds.

I used to make a lemon water out of it as it's relaxing. Also works well with Lemon Verbena (the shrub) if added to normal tea.

Never seen that on a foxglove before!

I'd plant that holyhock. It will shoot back up if you protect it from bunnies.

Love Dustys border.

No news from me today, it was chilly and then warm, dry then rained, been out photographing and saw a weird little egret with head plumes that he seemed to like waving about.

But the garden some dead heading and looking at the dead heading that needs doing on the climbing rose - I keep putting it off.

A little bunch of small purple clematis made it through to the top of the fence despite me pulling bits off thinking it was bind weed.

Some serious business to do out there - tomorrow?

Paspatur

Here's another photo from holiday where I let a local do some pruning while I supervised from my sunbed

pink_poppy

Brilliant pic, paspatur - I love tortoises

I won't give up on the Hollyhock, twopenny. The problem is finding somewhere to hide it, now I know it's on the bunny menu. Talking of which, I haven't seen baby bunny for a couple of days, so maybe it's hopped off into someone else's garden.

I think I've seen coleus as a houseplant, Farway?? I would say it had an 'earthy' smell. Pretty sure they had some in Lidl a week or so ago and I'm wishing I'd stopped to have a proper look.

Same with lemon balm - I'm sure I've seen it grown as a houseplant (actually an office plant at work) with that lovely lemony scent.

Another day of cold, wet and windy weather - we had the fire on last night because it felt so cold and will probably have it on again tonight...

Dustyevsky

ArbitraryRandom said:

One word on blue sweeties. Had a chat with someone this morning and apparently the main chemical that was in them was banned in the uk not that long ago (or it was banned a while ago but you could use what you had)? Which is why the ones now available aren't as effective. Like peat I guess? Good for gardeners but not good for birds/wildlife that eat the poisoned slugs. It's apparently still for sale outside the uk though I would expect it would be banned in the eu as well in the not too distant future.

The original ingredient, metaldehyde, was banned for a while, but due to protests and a loophole, it was unbanned until 2022 when it was finally put on the unlawful list. To my knowledge, evidence of harm to wildlife from home garden use was very thin. The amounts used by farmers seemed to be the main issue, being way higher than what a sensible gardener would need to use. There was, of course, some warning of what was about to happen, so some far-sighted people may have stockpiled metaldehyde pellets.

Farway said:

The blue slug stuff, I think commercial growers can still use them, like they can peat. No doubt until a real viable alternative turns up.

Danger Danger Arbs, once you have lemon balm it is with you forever, like the Force.

Even commercial growers can't use metaldehyde now. As for Lemon Balm, it's another of nature's survivors, but the variegated version is much the nicest form, and probably a little less vigorous. We have it in the dry, impoverished hedge bank, and it hasn't got around much.

Hmm, bindweed....I almost eradicated it in the hedge between our streamside wild garden and an aggressive neighbour, but only by denuding the bottom of the hedge for a time, so I could get the sprayer in. Now, I'm not for denuding and I see it's back in small amounts this spring. So I plan to make a second hedge with our cotoneaster spares, about 5' from the first, and create a no-go zone of mown grass to keep the bindweed in check. Then the neighbour can enjoy his bindweed alone.

Paspatur said:

It's one flower and is apparantly a peloric mutation

Yes, there is that, or could it be fasciation.... and does it matter?  Great spot with the tortoise picture.

pink_poppy said:

Another day of cold, wet and windy weather - we had the fire on last night because it felt so cold and will probably have it on again tonight...

We're due to hit 4c tonight!  :#Time for a warm-looking picture from the local open garden almost 2 weeks ago now.