Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Overnight rain, nothing much, enough to dampen the leaves and refresh the slugs

It's dull now, with sun expected later

Up & about early, couldn't sleep, I've already fed & watered the pots at the front and if it dries out a bit I'll do same at  the back this afternoon.

I also hope & need to get the new runner plants in, space is ready, just needs me to get my bum into gear & do it

I want to take a photo first, just for memory, in case the newly refreshed rain rinsed slugs chomp this lot like they did the first lot

My plant ring things arrived, maybe give them a go tomorrow, my grape is going mad and needs a prune. BUT, I'm a bit concerned, it has bunches of buds, but not a flower has opened so far and it's nearly July

Unfortunately because I've not had one blooming grape of it over the years I can't go by past results.

ArbitraryRandom said:

Farway said:

Before I forget, temptation time again . T & M have free P & P on seeds until midnight. With some seeds on offer.

Thank you kindly. I was given a £10 gift card for T&M, so managed to find £11 worth of discounted seeds  

One thing I'm enjoying growing this year (so far at least) is corn. It's about knee high at this point and satisfies my need for orderly lines Definitely want to grow more next year. I also picked up that tomato variety you recommended. 

Glad you could take advantage of the offer Arbs, and YBE, I am fully tom'd, but I think I could squeeze a Polish one in and could give excess to DS. Carefree bush ones should be ideal, if only they were self watering.

Arbs, is your corn in lines? It needs to be shoulder to shoulder in a block for pollination or no cobs. Its wind pollinated.

Nice pics YBE, I like the shield bugs one, have we moved onto bug "pawn" now?

I knew it wouldn't stop at bee bums

I'm not sure how I would respond to the “refer to me as They" 

If I had time to think about it, I think it would be "Can you refer to me as Sir?"

PS, just as pressed Go, Dusty pops in with some birds in the bath

Hope Mrs D X-Ray gets sorted & the journey turns out to be uneventful

pink_poppy

Lovely blackbird pic, YBE. Very sweet when you see babies being fed I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at with the shield bugs and then I realised what they were up to   

AR, I've had videos of kitties noshing on sweetcorn on my Faceache feed this morning, so keep an eye on your plants   

wort, our lovely black pussycat used to eat the flowers off an escallonia we had - I think that's a plant I'd like in this garden. It sounds like you're getting there slowly but surely with your recovery.

I love that tin bath, Dusty. And the bucket next to it. Wood pigeons are huge aren't they, but it obviously enjoyed having a splash around. Hope Mrs Dusty gets some answers after the x-ray.

twopenny

Love the photos! They are all just wonderful and very evocotive of what it's means to have a garden.

Envy for Blueys anti squirel dome and Dustys bath tubs etc. Funny that, pigeon having a bath in a bath tub.

Along with the domestic nonsense today which has me rushing around getting it done and I'm trying to make a seed catcher and pigeon deterrent for the seed.

I saw this in one of the gardens but it was made with two random things I can't get so I've been looking for substitutes

I've found a metal plate and got to measure up to see if a hanging basket will work heightwise and how to do the hanger and able to fill easily.

It should catch most of the seed and stop pigeons trying to perch. Ongoing project should be finished by the time the birds have fledged  

Farway

The sun did arrive, so the runners have been planted out, including their little blue mates

I've cleared all the weeds excess foliage from around them, so hopefully no handy slug hidey holes

Here they are before they went into the Pot of Doom

The garden is next door, I used the wall as a convenient photo stand

FIO, germinated on damp tissue 09 June 2024

twopenny

Looking good Farway. I hope it stays that way for you.

So you got sun?

Here it started black, went sunny, turned black, warm and cool, some wind - sometimes.

It rained last night and I move the pots for a soaking - but they're still dry today as is the ground.

YoungBlueEyes

Escallonia, thank you wort I can add it to the 'keep my eye out for it' list. It does ring a bell, I might already have seen it... somewhere.... at some point. Glad you're on the mend, a shower is real milestone Is your V pillow a proper sized one? Daddy's was the length of his back from his neck to his bum. I couldn't tell you now if it was this exact one but - https://www.dunelm.com/product/dorma-full-forever-v-shaped-firm-support-pillow-1000047414?defaultSkuId=30151312  There's a few on there actually, some are in the sale. 

Arb I hope you've fully filled your corn grid, I still remember the gap in your lavenders When are we all coming round yours for baby tatties and fresh corn then?  

Love your pics Dusty, so clear you can practically hear that pidgeon shaking off the water! Lovely little photobomb too Hopefully MrsD will get sorted at posh hospital, yous are too busy to have dodgy knees slowing up the gig. Good to hear you're baling down there, means ours will be on it soon too, and it's one of my favourite smells in the whole world  

I wonder what's up with your grapes Farway... have you tried talking to them lovingly, like wot Lugs does? Or maybe Death Stare morning and night? Has whizzy GD got an opinion....? At least your runners are looking good   I know what you mean about the 'they' incident. I wish I could have something else but my brain wisely caught on before my gob opened. For once. It was the one time that Daddy's line wouldn't have worked. In literally any situation where he couldn't say what he wanted to say, in sonorous RP he'd say "Very good, dear boy. Carry on." That kind of thing annoys me though, it's the "look at me, look at me" undertone that puts my back up. It's irrelevant in a shop, and I don't like that I'm an outlier for saying these things out loud. Story of my life is that mind. Anyway. 

I know what you mean about my shield bugs pp. When I saw them I though "ooh you never see two together, best get a pic before they move". Then when I was checking to make sure it wasn't blurry etc I realised what they were at ha haa!  Ah well :rolleyes: 

Good luck with your project 2p. Squirrel dome isn't a dam bit of use, squirrels just launch themselves off the fence instead. Erseholes! And they're plucking my unopened rose buds like they're some sort of giant filbert. Grrrr. Speaking of which - the fat ball hanger is like my one, I got it in B+Q (I think). Meant to be squirrel-proof, which it absolutely is. Mostly because it's been sat on my conservatory floor since I bought it   I need more things to hang things from.

OT Too warm today, too warm yesterday, too warm last night. Beginning to wonder if I'll ever feel cold again Least I'm not in Amritsar - it's 39'c out there now, and the UV has dropped to 9   I can't believe I'm the only one with a load of different places on my weather apps!

Farway

Sun again. 

Which is good because I hope to go and, following advice from YBE above, give a Death Stare to my grape. 

I will also prune the brute, removing shoots past the bits that should be bunches of grapes if it got it's finger tendrils out.

I'll also try out the plant clips wot arrived, there's an apple near the grape that needs tidying, plus Helen the thornless blackberry is heading for the sky and needs tugging back towards earth.

Early check on the freshly planted runners, still there, . That's one night without being scoffed.

My new idea yesterday was to try to grow some carrots in a tub. I have seed on the way, was intended for DS, but I may have a bash first. It's years, decades even, since I grew carrots.

I've got a tub vacant, was earmarked as Emergency Bean pot, but that need has passed now

That will make four veggies this year I had no intention or inclination of growing at the start of the year

The Sweet corn, just 'cos plants were on sale in Morries. Impulse buy.

Broad beans, 'cos my runners were eaten by slugs & a seed offer

Carrots, 'cos DS said he can't find carrots that taste of carrots and seed offer

Courgettes, seed offer & opportunity to fit in with the corn

The lily beetles are back, found some larvae on the leaves and disposed off, plus two adults were "at it" so it was very fatal coitus interruptus once I spotted them

Never thought of a pic, a lily beetle peeping Tom paparazzi.

Today is the turn of first toms to set, Bloody Butcher, own seed and outside

-taff

Lovely owl pictures Dusty.. I went to a nearby bird sanctuary where they did displays of owls, vultues, loads of them with a snake killing bird and all sorts. Very interesting day. I loved how you coldn't hear the owl at all. Lovely tin baths and photobomb, I quite like the look of the just had a bath pigeon

Loved the Garen of Weeden sign, might have to make one I have a sign with Place de Fetards on it [service station in France], but I might have to chage that about a bit...That's a good project 2P, you could have loads of those, the bird feeder thing

Yes, look at me stuff too ybe, I think I woud have probably gone along the line of well, there's no need at all to refer to you as that unless you can't help me and I need to talk about you to someone else, so if you already think you can't help me, get me your supervisor. It's like, mate, you're a shop assistant, i don't want a relationship with you, I just want my money back thanks. Get down off your self important erse.  And you didn't know what the shield bugs were doing? Right, well then, we need a serious talk....

wort, happy shower day!

Farway, it's the Paddington Bear Hard Stare you need, I think the death stare will finish it off....

I've finished cooking, the party has gone, I am doing a big fat nothing today. Except some potting on obviously. I've got Greek basil needing a new pot, a poorly geum, my blackcurrant bush has gone to the fjords, so lucky I had a small cutting which is now in the hospital bed. Shame, it was quite large...maybe it just hated the raised bed. I think it's time to remove the nigella now which means I can go and shove some stuff in the front garden tomorrow. I did say I was doing something to someone but I can't remember what it was...joys of ageing...

Dustyevsky

twopenny said:

So you got sun?

We did. Despite the imbibers trying to put us off with cloudy predictions, walking friend and I headed off in the afternoon, hoping to finally conquer the long, gooey woodland we barely got into in spring thanks to all the rain and horsey folk. Blow me, before we could put our walking boots on, who should arrive but a woman on an enormous horse! We got twice as far as last time, before giving up. Even in June, the place is a swamp.

So, it was off on a different, 'easy' trek from a nearby village, through a grand estate, down to the river and return. 

As soon as we entered the first green lane, a very large, stern-looking lady came out of her house and began marching along beside us! Fortunately, she was merely heading for her detached garden, but before parting, she said. “Be careful, the path becomes very steep at the bottom!”  It was about 1:5, so the woman either had no idea what we call 'very steep,' or she thought we were much too old to be attempting such foolishness.

Anyway we entered the parkland of the estate, which was deserted, apart from a young couple in what we call a 'Gator, (a small 4x4 truck) and their Labrador that ran by barking enthusiastically. All the farmyards were silent. It must be 5-day week farming there.

At the estate church, we got the distinct impression no visitors were encouraged. We couldn't discover any history, or even which saint it was dedicated to. There were just some cards with prayers on them, but it was too dark in there to read much. Churches are often dark, but this one was Stygian!  We left, none the wiser.

Outside, I could see the lych gate and the yew hedge were relatively 'new,' but what's the plant growing through the yew? It's not bindweed! Yes, I shoulda taken a close-up!

I wasn't convinced the path was original, either. Nice idea for a garden one, if the water worn stones can be obtained. I bet they're a price! The estate goes as far as the river....

More later.

ArbitraryRandom

Farway said:

Arbs, is your corn in lines? It needs to be shoulder to shoulder in a block for pollination or no cobs. Its wind pollinated.

Nope. It's in a block that's 3x4 (or was until one 'failed to thrive'). Most of them have put out two side shoots as well, so there's three stems from each - not sure what's going on there as that wasn't warned about in my research... but if it means extra cobs then it sounds good to me. 

Good news on the gardener front is that someone's agreed to come and clear the week of the 1st July. I'm hoping when they're here I can rope them into a regular monthly maintenance, but they're maybe a little far away so it might depend if they have other customers in the area (about a 20 min drive from where I think they're based).

Today is bright and warm but overcast. Forecast is bright, dry and overcast for the next week or so I believe, so I'm going to have to keep up with my watering if I don't want my onions to bolt on me.

Hope everyone is having a good day.  

YoungBlueEyes said:

Arb I hope you've fully filled your corn grid, I still remember the gap in your lavenders When are we all coming round yours for baby tatties and fresh corn then?  

As above, I am cursed to gaps - picking some peas today to go with those tatties