Awful weather - typical Brits talk

wort

some of my geraniums Farway 

wort

love the white ones 

wort

YBE the shrub with the bee is quite an old one it was above my head sat out. Can't for the life of me remember it's name , it was probably come to me in bed tonight !! 😴 

twopenny

Still no cuttings done

Went to ask what doctors we had at the surgery as no info had come through since pre pandemic.

Aparantly none. You see whichever locum is on hand on the day you get an appointment which hasn't served me well so far so time to try and move. House if necessary.

Lovely blend of pink Wort.

I have a photo somewhere that I took from my nook while reading a book   

Poppy's on the mend and wondering when she can dig her potatoes, Farway has been exercising today and we await photo results and Bluey has a full garden when it only seems a moment since it was bare.

I could do the cuttings now, or deadhead roses or go to the beach for a barefoot walk and just chill.

Not even 3 guesses which it will be

-taff

2p, I would never have guesed buddleia, I normally hate that stuff but I have discovered I have a fondness for the orange pom poms. Watch this space. Glad you chose the chill...it's the only way to be sure

Dusty, thank you. When I was looking at it, not being a shrub expert or any kind of pert, I thought it was the rambling rose continuing across...Doh! But I am here to learn  too. That's very clever to keep a rolling use for the field. I expect it's another of those things that you think is perfectly normal to do and if I moved somewhere countryfied I would  not know at all. I love your valerian. That stuff hates my garden, even the ink and red ones don't grow there.

GF me too! I just had a look at Black Moon, if it weren't a hybrid, I'd be in there like Flynn, I will thow another one at you though. Wooly Kate. I've ordered some seeds for next year to try. Quite a lot of the darker black tomatoes seem to be based on the Blue OSU, where they go vlack where the sun touches them but not where they aren't touched if that makes sense. I had some seeds from a seed swap [from Zazen if anyone remembers her] when they weren't long out and I have to say, the looks were lovely but the taste was insipid. I can only grow 14 or 15 plants maximum in my greenhouse now so not much room to experiment except with the odd one or two so this years experiment will be Banana Leg and giving Crimean Black another go, after my Black Truffle/Piglet Willies French Black mix up...because if there's a mistake ot be made, I can find it no trouble.

YBE, nvidia! that's a big chunk of my computer! I feel like I know him already I must admit I laughed at the hanging baskets and rasied bed! I made the OH look at them too and he alughed too, he who is left cold by anything garden related

Farway, that's an impressive geranium feat! Talking of them, no, fuchsias, I managed to root a couple, a bog stadard one and a hardy pink/white one, I'd fetched one from someone for free for a friend and a bit broke off so I though nothing ventured etc, and did what my mother used tom in a small glass, poked through some cling film into water and left alone. I was not expecting the hardy one to root because I've never had my luck with semi hard cuttings but blow me it worked! I am really chuffed.

PP, happy almost tattie day!

wort, looks very sunny! Very impressive geranium field too!

Watered, planted out some stuff, am still waiting for the nigella to go over so I can clear some space in the front and put the geums in. I've decided to turn the veg growing bed into a flower bed for the rest of the year once the potatoes are out. I'm eyeing up what I can put in there already.

Dustyevsky

Love the geraniums, wort. You have ones I don't grow, so a visit to a nursery looks imminent.

The way we use our field is only what people did for centuries, taff, though they had no selective weedkiller and had to pull them by hand. We knew if we took on good land, we'd have a responsibility to use it properly. In a way, I'd rather have had some boggy or rough, stony land, as maintenance would be easier. No need for expensive fencing, either!

2p, that is the original, wild valerian. They grow in wet hedgerows near here. There's the other plant people call valerian, Centranthus ruber, which is a different plant and good in dry places.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/93739/centranthus-ruber/details

Good you have some surviving aquilegias Farway. If you want more seed, just shout.

Spent half the day up a ladder again yesterday. Still haven't finished the over-exuberant hedge, but my legs are actually feeling better for the exercise. Living in a bungalow, I really miss the sort of exercise stairs provide. Years ago, I was always being told off at work for running upstairs to my room. (“How can we expect the children to move about sensibly when you set such a bad example?”) Hmmmm...I rarely saw children running to lessons!

Here, we had a very striking dawn today. I hope it's not a portent of Things to Come!

YoungBlueEyes

Bluddy ell that's some dawn Dusty, you must have been up properly early to get that. Your hedge must be some size if you're still on with it - what response would you get if you asked the fellah for a hand  

Lots of lovely geraniums wort, I like geraniums. They're so varied and attractive, and like the smell when you rub the leaves

Aye my garden's really playing the game now 2p, I'm a bit surprised how well it looks when I'm on slug patrol in the mornings. Finding this thread is one of the best things I've done in a long time, it really is. How was your barefoot beach walk btw? Is it cuttings and dead-headings today before going back?  

Seems you just need to find the right hook to get 'em interested then taff, maybe Hanging Baskets and Flower Bed is what'll work for him! 2p's right, you need to inject some fun into the gig or it'd be too easy to go off it entirely. And hurray for cuttings deciding to take  

I took meself out yesterday and have good info to share. First off - Poundstretcher are kicking all their bulbs out with good reductions. They had all kinds of big fancy things like dahlias and daffs and wotnot, but separately they had all wee bulbs. Snowdrops, diddy daffs, funny wee tulips, scillas etc for 50p a packet so I emptied the lot into my basket Can't plant for a while yet, but you're better looking at 'em than for 'em. Secondly - I got talking to a woman in morries who said the best thing for clay soil (which I have she said, cos it was her niece who was our seller so she knew who + where I was ) is to mix in looser stuff like compost and horse doings and a bit of gravel before doing anything else. Bit late for that now like. Apparently that's why I keep turning up bits of pottery because niece's husband wouldn't listen and thought the shards would provide drainage. So there's that. Also - if you have a watering can with a rose on it (not the funny shaped ones you get now but the old fashioned round ones), they're designed to be a lid over the hole to keep beasties etc out when your can's full. I tried it when I got home and she's right. It's an exact fit! Why is that not more widely known? 

OT warm and cloudy now the sun's gone in, it'll be like this all day, they say. Bit warmer than yesterday with less of a breeze. Possibly.

YoungBlueEyes

Who knew?!

Farway

Sunny day forecast, no gardening though, off to a funeral later so just popping in to say Good Morning Folks

The funeral is over the border, in Wiltshire, a village near Salisbury

Looking on Google Earth, seems a typical village church , and later we are in a Country Pub with garden.  

Although not the subject of the day, I expect I'll be looking around at vegetation at some point. At least it will be dry & sunny, ideal for taking cuttings.

Cracking sunrise there Dusty, should be some good ones from Stonehenge solstice, probably a bit orange tinted?

It's the dry valerian stuff I meant, can't get it going here, despite it being "growing like a weed"

I'm OK for Aquliega now, thanks.

Taff, I like the sound of Woolly Kate toms, looked her up, and I'd think it had blight If I did not know. Sounds quite easy to grow, being bush & not  a lot of foliage. Maybe, but I've got enough already, really.

Good to hear the fuchsia cutting success. I've found they are quite easy to root, even the poke a stick it in the ground & hope method works a lot of the time.

twopenny said:

Still no cuttings done

Went to ask what doctors we had at the surgery as no info had come through since pre pandemic.

Aparantly none. You see whichever locum is on hand on the day you get an appointment which hasn't served me well so far so time to try and move. House if necessary.

Lovely blend of pink Wort.

I have a photo somewhere that I took from my nook while reading a book   

Poppy's on the mend and wondering when she can dig her potatoes, Farway has been exercising today and we await photo results and Bluey has a full garden when it only seems a moment since it was bare.

I could do the cuttings now, or deadhead roses or go to the beach for a barefoot walk and just chill.

Not even 3 guesses which it will be

You could come down here, no problem with my docs, so far, and beaches, a bit pebbly in places.

I like the book reading nook idea, a sitootery with a book nook, watching bees and listening to birds

Talking of geraniums, my Rosane [sp?] plugs are setting into their new pots, I wonder if they will flower this year?

Dustyevsky

Farway said:

twopenny said:

Still no cuttings done

Went to ask what doctors we had at the surgery as no info had come through since pre pandemic.

Aparantly none. You see whichever locum is on hand on the day you get an appointment which hasn't served me well so far so time to try and move. House if necessary.

You could come down here, no problem with my docs, so far, and beaches, a bit pebbly in places.

I like the book reading nook idea, a sitootery with a book nook, watching bees and listening to birds

Or you could live here. We still have proper doctors. At the Health Centre they know better than attempt to get the old farmers on-line!

“Cor, b*gger, woman, do 'ee spec me t'ave one o' they puters at 'ome? Don't be daft!”

Meanwhile, down the road in a slightly posher village, there's a telephone box converted to a free to use library. My walking friend borrowed John Brookes' “The Small Garden” last time we passed.