Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Dustyevsky

LessImpecunious said:

Dustyevsky said:

If anyone is able to ID the moth, I'd be grateful.

It's not a moth but a butterfly disguised as one - a Skipper - I think a Large Skipper, but not sure

twopenny said:

It's probably a large Skipper - male.

The males hold their wings like that.

Thanks, both. That explains why I couldn't locate it among the moths!  I've learned to shoot a quick picture first, and then try to improve on it. As in this case, there's often no second chance. It vanished, and I didn't even see it go.

It's somewhat brighter now since waking from my siesta. This morning, I finally bit the bullet and improved a swathe of ground where the squashes are going, hopefully. They're still sulking.

No sign of my farmer pal, coming here to assess and maybe cut the hay. No sign of human life at all this week, in fact. Has war actually started without me being informed?   No reply from the council to tell us what terrible thing we've done following that complaint 6 weeks ago. No contact whatever from two people we want to pay serious £ to for planning assistance. There's not even an email from public health about the misuse of bins, which is something our local councillor promised a week ago.

Oh, hang on....Silly me, it's the Erection, as they say in Okinawa. (We can't mention the other thing! ) Got to get that out of the way first!

ArbitraryRandom

Proper busy gardening day today now the heat has past and it's been reasonably dry, so only a quick one to say I'm alive. Going to post the before and after pics on my other thread as don't want to clutter up this one with too many boring ones  

On that note, these are (I think) Maris peer or piper - much more pigmented blooms than the vivaldi pink blush ones I posted before and a lovely contrast with the gold. Shame they don't last long but nice and bright to see on a grey day  



Could I also ask for a view on this collection: https://www.thompson-morgan.com/p/potato-must-have-collection/wkc2240TM 

I think the kidney are what people are saying is a rebranded 'jersey' (plus seaweed!)?

I ended up buying my pots fairly late and don't think they were the best quality (a bit old and reluctant to chit) so I'm wondering if pre-ordering for Jan delivery will be the kick I need to get started sooner... though obviously weighing up cost vs return given this is MSE  

goldfinches

Lovely photos everyone and am very envious of all the gorgeous plants, anybody know a single man with a neglected garden who likes eating cake?

Thankyou for all the radish appreciation, am not feeling especially energetic and am snowed under with various appointments etc. so haven't managed to get up to the plot yesterday or today. Tomorrow and Thursday are both booked solid so won't be doing anything more until Friday.

It rained here yesterday late afternoon and then again overnight and it's so cold my heating came on this morning and we're all back in long sleeves and trousers, the tourists seem especially confused and all seem to have bought floral plastic tent like ponchos at the airport shop. I do wish they wouldn't wear them, they're making the place look common! 
Arbs I've eaten Charlottes bought from a supermarket and they were nice and King Edwards make lovely roasties but I'm not so keen on Desirees to eat but that might just be my palate so see if you can try some yourself before you decide. There's also the fact that fresh from the garden they taste very different from the supermarket ones so I'm not sure that tasting those is a useful guide now I think about it.

-taff

I'd say anything you grow and eat re potatoes will always taste better because they haven't been sititng around in cold storage forever...They might keep, but then they're either tasteless or have those black spots..International Kidney are what Jersey Royals are, except they're not grown on Jersey and they haven't been given seaweed to feed on, they haven't been rebranded There's an experiment for you, get some seaweed now and put it in the compost for next years tatties and see if it makes a difference to the taste with a control group...Then you'll know for the rest of your life what to do with potatoes ::) and tell us!

red rag to a bull there YBE, thistles? How very dare you

Farway, are you also a Herb Robert leaver? Do you like the smell? I hear it's a bit marmite and I'm a lover of it.

Damn 2P, if I'd known that I'd have asked you to make something for me..not going on the Pottery throwdown at any point are you? I confess I have a fine art degree but being rubbish at marketing makes all the difference, and I was rubbish at selling myself. So a studio for lottery acres also.

Just watering today, it kept threatening to rain but spattered a bit and then burgered off. Hoping for more of a deluge tomorrow...Need to get a cheapie drainpipe diverter because the expensive one is pure rubbish.

Dustyevsky

-taff said:

red rag to a bull there YBE, thistles? How very dare you

Farway, are you also a Herb Robert leaver? Do you like the smell? I hear it's a bit marmite and I'm a lover of it.

Damn 2P, if I'd known that I'd have asked you to make something for me..not going on the Pottery throwdown at any point are you? I confess I have a fine art degree but being rubbish at marketing makes all the difference, and I was rubbish at selling myself. So a studio for lottery acres also.

There's another thistle that isn't a thistle: Morina longifolia. I'll have to steal someone else's photo because mine's pre-digital. We stopped selling it, once we realised it would reliably die in most English winters.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/11211/morina-longifolia/details

I spotted Farway's Herb Robert too. We have some here, and it's not a nuisance. There's a white version which will gently self-seed once introduced:

https://www.specialplants.net/shop/seeds/geranium_robertianum_celtic_white/

Retired potter here too, though not a thrower. Produced many weird unique sculptural pieces in the '70s & '80s, most of which Mrs Dusty seems to have 'lost' somewhere.    I had to stop when the council discovered it was one reason why our school's electricity bill was on the high side. (13.5kW kiln)  

Caught another mackerel last night. This time it looks more accurate. Light rain predicted throughout most of today.
Well, it seems appropriate weather for the run-up to that thing going on tomorrow. Any colour we like, so long as it's this one.    https://www.cleopatraceramics.store/product/davos-grey-2/

YoungBlueEyes

I'm not always brave enough to respond to them, but the ..uhh.. nawty comments on this thread do make me chuckle  

Sorry I didn't recognise that the Eryngium wasn't a thistle, seems my ignorance is still having it's depths plumbed. No offence meant folks 

That's a great photo bomb Dusty, that'd be a good one for a caption competition. Do they still do those..? Such a pretty sky too   How've you been mis-using your bins...? Were you taking the lids and going tare-erseing down muddy hills pretending it was a toboggan like wot we used to? Good fun that was, and nobody cared 'til one day I took granda's best ratter with me (who thought it was the Best Thing Ever!) then suddenly it was a problem. :rolleyes:

Your tattie flowers look so delicate Arb. The middles look like they're about to spout either a tiny hand of bananas or a ripe courgette

You might like my friend Nick gf. Plenty of land and plenty of money, but he's not the brightest button. He's lovely looking though, he's got the most astonishing blue eyes. If that sounds like your thing you'd have to move up here, he's never been more than about 50 miles from his house. Really nice bloke as long as you want to live in the 50's and never have another conversation in your life. 

Definitely need lots of outbuildings at Rottery Acres taff. Studios for sure, and I need kennels. Do we need stables...? Garages for the classic cars..? Boats...? We'll have to have a lake or least a big moat or summat. Unless we're getting a private beach Do you want a quiet garden office thing to write your book 2p?

Ot raining and cool. It rained yesterday aft as I was searching for my trowel and it's barely stopped since. Busy today, opticians in an hour and then I'm doing Friday stuff cos I need to be in on Friday for the hardcore coming to fill the trench things himself has finally finished. It's not forecast to rain all day but as ma was forever saying "ach just go. You're not sugar, you won't melt." God love her.

-taff

Funny Dusty, i bookmarked that site not so long ago in my search for a particular plant. Now that you've said it too I must visit soon The gardens look nice too and it's not that far from me..I'm doing a Jekka visit this Friday though [plan is to get one szechuan pepper that won't die this time because it'll be put in a glass case surrounded by armed guards] I'm also toying with the idea of going to Hampton Court on Sunday...white herb robert also sounds nice too.

Lovely sky, very forboding..is something wicked this way coming?

YBE, it still looks like a thistle though but a posh one that people pay for Cardoons, similar story, artichokes, same again - I would love a few artichokes but I don't have the room...but I am in secret sneaky talks with someone who knows someone who has an allotment workaround...sorry, leisure garden.... and my sister would probably like your friend Nick too Stables, yes, kennels, why aren't they in the house anyway? boats, meh...although...narrowboats?

Apodemus

ArbitraryRandom said:

Proper busy gardening day today now the heat has past and it's been reasonably dry, so only a quick one to say I'm alive. Going to post the before and after pics on my other thread as don't want to clutter up this one with too many boring ones  

On that note, these are (I think) Maris peer or piper - much more pigmented blooms than the vivaldi pink blush ones I posted before and a lovely contrast with the gold. Shame they don't last long but nice and bright to see on a grey day  


  
Could I also ask for a view on this collection: https://www.thompson-morgan.com/p/potato-must-have-collection/wkc2240TM 

I think the kidney are what people are saying is a rebranded 'jersey' (plus seaweed!)?

I ended up buying my pots fairly late and don't think they were the best quality (a bit old and reluctant to chit) so I'm wondering if pre-ordering for Jan delivery will be the kick I need to get started sooner... though obviously weighing up cost vs return given this is MSE  

The foliage in the background looks glossy enough to be Maris Peer.  Peer has a more prolific flower than piper and tends to be a lower-growing plant, also tends to look a more glossy, richer green than piper.  Of course, all these differences also vary by location so while two crops side-by-side would be easy to tell apart, it can be difficult to be certain for a couple of individual plants in a garden.  Peer is a second early, while piper is main crop, so if they are peer they will ripen off soon and give a good crop of numerous smallish tubers.  Piper will keep growing for longer and give you fewer but bigger potatoes.   Peer was the variety traditionally used for canning as it gave consistent small round potatoes (ideal for getting numbers into a can) that remained firm and clean when cooked.

As to the T&M  "must-have-collection" , I'm afraid that T&M are on my "must avoid" collection.  Much better to buy from a local source if at all possible or perhaps from RHS. Interesting that while their picture shows International Kidney, the description includes Charlotte instead.  To be fair to T&M, their collection list is actually a good selection of varieties (if you can insist on the International Kidney), but I'd look to buy their list from a reputable supplier instead.

International Kidney is an old variety that is indeed popular in Jersey.  It is actually a main-crop but arrives earlier when grown in Jersey, giving the "new potato" mark-up with  main crop levels of yield.  As a garden variety it can be susceptible to scab.

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

I'm not always brave enough to respond to them, but the ..uhh.. nawty comments on this thread do make me chuckle  

Sorry I didn't recognise that the Eryngium wasn't a thistle, seems my ignorance is still having it's depths plumbed. No offence meant folks 

That's a great photo bomb Dusty, that'd be a good one for a caption competition. Do they still do those..? Such a pretty sky too   How've you been mis-using your bins...? Were you taking the lids and going tare-erseing down muddy hills pretending it was a toboggan like wot we used to? Good fun that was, and nobody cared 'til one day I took granda's best ratter with me (who thought it was the Best Thing Ever!) then suddenly it was a problem. :rolleyes:

Nawty comments? I must've missed those. This is a thread about good, wholesome gardening activities and the appreciation of nature's wonders. Anyway, I'm really into self-censorship now. It beats self flagellation, and it's altogether kinder on the skin.

You don't need to worry about mis-classifying eryngiums as thistles either. Indeed, if I were an eryngium, I might well identify as a thistle, if only at weekends. Besides we don't want to unintentionally cast slurs on thistles, do we? There was even a time when Mrs Dusty and I grew a Scotch one deliberately, although it was in the garden of a rented house, not on our own property. Just as well, the seedlings were still appearing over a decade later! 

Misuse of bins isn't the thing you were thinking of. Wheelies don't make great toboggans, and with global boiling, the chance of sufficient snowfall down here is as remote as that win on the Lottery we need.    Our bin problem is someone not recycling or using their own bin, but filling others' up with carp at the dead of night.

I'm rambling, mainly because it's raining gently, as predicted, so I can't get out there and complete the planting of our squash. It seems very late to be doing that, but the memory isn't what it was. Anyway, despite predictions of more wind, they surely have to go in asap  and take their chances.

As the previous picture was evocative, but dull, here is a cheery one of our pots at the front, planted to distract the eye from the 4 (yes, 4!) recycling bins.

Farway

Late to the garden party, mundane stuff like Asda delivery, the only garden related item on the list was tomato fertiliser, and it's out of stock. Not a problem because I have some, just seemed easier to get it delivered along with the groceries.

Some nice photos again, those spud flower ones would look good as Dutch Old masters. That Van Gogh chappie painted spuds.

Just searched and found one "Potato Eaters" looking at it, and not being rude, I can imagine that as us lot sat around yakking in the Bothy on Rottery Acres

https://smarterpotatoes.com/from-palette-to-plate-potatoes-as-the-muse-in-art/

Scroll down a tad for pic. You can add the name to whomever you like.

-taff said:

Farway, are you also a Herb Robert leaver? Do you like the smell? I hear it's a bit marmite and I'm a lover of it.

Not a lover, more putter upper with it. It grows very well here but not an issue and easy to oik out if it gets too pushy. If only it had radish roots, all would be well.

Rain was forecast, but none arrived, I was hoping it would do the biz on my carrot seeds. 

I've done my back in somehow, nothing specific but makes me wince if a stand or move a bit normal, so I'm lop sided for the moment.

I expect a bit of zombie & canna watching will sort it out, I have also spotted Rosemary in Zombie land

Nice dahlias there Dusty, I have some that have survived the wet winter outside, but not in flower yet

Today is catch up pics,

The Aquilegia are now looking like them, and the lavender is doing OK, TBH I never expected much and trying from seed was more of an experiment

It'll be next year before I pant out or do anything serious with both lots

Lavender, with guest appearance of Bitter Cress

Aquilegia