Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Apodemus

ArbitraryRandom said:

YoungBlueEyes said:

Have you tumbled into a raised bed chasing bindweed roots @ArbitraryRandom? Do we need to send help?  

Help is more than welcome  

But no, after clearing the garden, I was sore for a few days (not like you lot used to hard work ) and been focused on getting indoors in order so parents can visit next week - plus there's not been much to report. Garden is looking much the same day by day at this point with regular courgettes and strawberries being produced, but not much else. 

In terms of runners, mine currently have a lovely showing of red and white flowers (painted lady) but only really in the last week or two and mine went in very early - the peas that went in at the same time flowered much earlier and have been producing a handful or so a week for a while.  

I was coming online today to ask another panicking newbie question... is this early signs of blight, or just normal blemishes/some other benign thing?

 

Hmmm...doesn't quite look like blight to me, but I'd keep an eye on it.  The black dots and lighter ring are pretty well spot on.   At this stage you are better looking at the underside of the leaves, where (if it is blight) you should see the whitish, downy stage before the whole leaf turns brown and rots.

EDIT:  meant to add that it could just be aphid damage, given the profusion of dots in the upper picture.

wort

Dusty sorry to hear Mrs Dusty is having problems with her leg, we women don’t like being idle 😉 good to know the knee is perfect though.
Grey day again , with the mizzly wet rain in bouts. It’s brought a flock of birds to the garden to feast on the bugs , luckily the furry guy was inside due to the rain.

My vacuum cleaner broke again🫣 it’s around 9 years old and I bought a new battery for it year or thereabouts, now rather than throw more money at it I ordered a new one. It came yesterday so I’ve done a good clean through this morning and cleaned the skylights on the conservatory from the upstairs window, was easier than clinching up a ladder and flipping the vellux around.

My crocosmia are out too, think it’s Lucifer ,I was given a bit from lovely niece, it makes a wonderful reminder of her each time things flower that were from her.

Farway I love your lily colour your bug patrol worked better than mine , I’ve not had 1 flower.
My B Baby is starting to flower 👏🏻
YBE the hydrangea would not have been expensive, I don’t do dear stuff, but had so long can’t recall where they came from.

ArbitraryRandom

-taff said:

DOn't worry too much about your foliage arb. How long have they been in now?

Thanks as always guys. 

Pots were planted early to mid may and that pot of Charlotte is going to be harvested next week when parents are visiting (I've promised them potatoes, peas and salmon for lunch), but I've another 5 early/second early tubs, plus 5 maincrop that I'd like to give to at least the first week of august, so I'm wanting to catch any early signs.  

IIUC, worst case scenario I can remove the top growth and make sure there's a decent layer of soil over the tubers to leave in the pot until I'm ready for them? 

Dustyevsky

I'd no time this morning, because we were off to a Plant Fair, and working out the logistics; one of us now having what's effectively a wooden leg!

Thanks for the car parking tips 2p and sorry to hear of your difficulties dealing with the batpoo bonkers laws (or lack of them) around car parking rip-offs. Nearly became a casualty myself in Okehampton Lidl a few months ago. Haven't been back since. Plenty of free alternatives for Wimbleball if walking near there, but again, very good to know in advance. That's a great variation on your wild poppy. It's smashing.

Ha! I remember that Charles Atlas ad, Farway. Even as a spotty yoof, I remember thinking those muscles would mean a lot more hard work than they were letting-on. I'm told I once socked some guy at a disco for groping a young lady, so I must've coped, even with my puny frame. I've no recollection of said incident, though, which means drink was probably involved.  Never heard of Black Cascade, but it sounds nice, trailing down a wall, perhaps like the one in taff's photo. Now the thorny question: is it?

-taff said:

That's poo about her knee, are you having to tie her down to make her rest or will she listen? Good job you're currently intact Dusty.

No, Mrs Dusty won't listen longer than a day or two, but she's loving the extra help and attention right now!

The Plant Fair was OK. We got a few things we were actually looking for and a few that just happened.

I agree, a sitoouterie like the last one wouldn't suit us, but some gregarious people in our village do similarly. Here's a rather special one the owner was justly proud of, and with no overlooking at all:

A calm day here, now even with some added sunshine and moderate warmth. No sign of the hay being cut.

YoungBlueEyes

Quick one this morning cos I need a shower and final titivate before we go to the airport.

What state was Boot Hill in Farway? Hopefully not neglected. I like the look of the bramble, the unopened buds look like sweeties Did you get to a gc?

Imagine your poppy changing colour 2p! I wonder why that happened... I'm not the expert on parking fines but there's a board on here I occasionally lurk round. If you get a fine I'd head over there and see if you need to pay it. It's alright being wrong but if they're wronger (you physically couldn't pay) you might get let off it. Maybe possibly perhaps.

Ooh I like that wall taff, possibly more than the wall I don't have yet. What's a goth box? Not a box you keep all your goths in? 

I know you were talking about potatoes @Apodemus, but would your info apply to tomatoes too? Is it basically the same thing? I've already lost 2 toms to blight so I'd sooner get ahead of anything else coming down the line.  

Woohoo for your new vacuum wort, and b baby starting to flower! :clapping: You back on an even keel now? My garden's full of cheapo stuff too, I'll keep my eye out for the hydrangea and I'll come across one eventually. My one's coming into flower now but I could definitely do with another, I do like them.

Sorry I can't help with your tatties Arb, but I hope you get enough up for a good meal for your parents. Salmon tatties and peas (in the steamer) is one of my fave meals  

Glad to hear the wooden leg isn't keeping MrsD down Dusty. Would she laugh if you bought her a toy parrot and a spotty bandanna and an eye patch, and started saying 'shiver me timberrrrs' a lot? That's a nicer sitooterie imo. I particularly like the table, even if it is near useless ha haa. There's a guy at the market in posh town who sells that kind of thing, jeez he knows how to charge  

OT not raining. CountryFile says a big swirling mass of rain here tomorrow, Wed + Thurs nice, Friday back to rain. Temps up into the low 20's, that'll do.

Apodemus

YoungBlueEyes said:

I know you were talking about potatoes @Apodemus, but would your info apply to tomatoes too? Is it basically the same thing? I've already lost 2 toms to blight so I'd sooner get ahead of anything else coming down the line.  

Sorry, I know very little about  tomatoes!  Are they outside or in a greenhouse?  Blight can easily get confused with other rots and you need a source of the blight fungus for it to reach your plants.  If they are outside, then there needs to be a source of spores, normally upwind from the affected plants.  If it is in a greenhouse, then I'd guess that it is much more likely to be a greenhouse hygiene issue.

ArbitraryRandom

Grr. Woke up this morning and had to take my antihistamines again. It's been a few weeks since I last needed to take them, so I thin that's telling me that it's going to be a nice day again - maybe I should put a quick wash on?

The forecast here is the same as you YBE - rain right when parents are due to arrive  

Sorry I missed the Mrs Dusty news, I hope she is taking it as well as you suggest. With these I think if you can keep your spirits up (not easy mind you!) you can sometimes figure out slightly different ways to do things 'around' the embuggerance (based on quite a few 'strong minded' people I've known over the years that point blank refused to let their falling apart minds/bodies stop them from doing things they wanted to do). 

Dustyevsky

YoungBlueEyes said:

Imagine your poppy changing colour 2p! I wonder why that happened... I'm not the expert on parking fines but there's a board on here I occasionally lurk round. If you get a fine I'd head over there and see if you need to pay it. It's alright being wrong but if they're wronger (you physically couldn't pay) you might get let off it. Maybe possibly perhaps.
Ooh I like that wall taff, possibly more than the wall I don't have yet. What's a goth box? Not a box you keep all your goths in? 

Glad to hear the wooden leg isn't keeping MrsD down Dusty. Would she laugh if you bought her a toy parrot and a spotty bandanna and an eye patch, and started saying 'shiver me timberrrrs' a lot? That's a nicer sitooterie imo. I particularly like the table, even if it is near useless ha haa. There's a guy at the market in posh town who sells that kind of thing, jeez he knows how to charge  

OT not raining. CountryFile says a big swirling mass of rain here tomorrow, Wed + Thurs nice, Friday back to rain. Temps up into the low 20's, that'll do.

2p's already taken action in the parking fines section, which is one of the most valuable parts of this site. These days, drivers are subject to all sorts of scams and intimidation with no basis in law, so the people who give advice there deserve a medal.  

I also wondered what a Goth Box was, but didn't wish to reveal my ignorance! That wall certainly looked the business.

Poor Mrs Dusty wasn't built robustly enough for the life she leads.   She takes comfort from the fact that it's possibly just a couple of weeks R&R needed this time. Luckily, her problem coincided with the follow-up to last years' op, so she was seen instantly, though having the hospital 80 miles distant is a little 'inconvenient.'

Those tables are a Thing just now. Son-in-law built one a while ago, and he has two tree sections a metre across in the barn to make larger ones. Back in 2015, a friend made the ultimate sitooterie table for some rich people down at the coast. It was so large, we had to transport the top in several sections. The load space on the van is 3.5m, and we couldn't close the doors. It's easily visible on Google Earth!

Rain has arrived here, and it's due to be heavy, so our farming partner was right to hold off cutting the hay.  Looking ahead, there might be a window of opportunity from Wednesday to Sunday, but there's no obviously settled period. If things go on like this, hay will be in very short supply and that will impact food prices. Keep your stocks up, folks.

Very different sitting spaces this morning. I suppose they could be called sitinsideries, being pews in the village church, fully decorated for the open garden event. Firstly, some wild flower arrangements in jam jars:

Also, some larger arrangements on a country garden theme in a window area. The whole church was decorated. People had put in a huge amount of work.

YoungBlueEyes

Thanks Apodemus. They're outside (I don't have a greenhouse) so I don't know where the spores came from. I slung them in the bin as soon as I spotted it and the rest are fine, thankfully. 

I've the bed stripped and washing now Arb cos I was itchy and full of snotters earlier - it's a reliable way of forecasting so get your wash on!   "Embuggerance" - thank you, I'm having that  

Lovely sitinsideries (sitineries?) Dusty, I especially like the second one with the wee gate. Isn't that charming Fingers crossed for your hay... Cissie will bring news from out west re ...the state of affairs... but it'll not be any better than here. Definitely get stocked up folks. 

Farway

Back home and returned to normality. Dull with Dusty's rain on the way for later today, according to Vensky it's having a breather over Dorset at the moment.

No visit to GC with DS yesterday, and I think only gardening today, with weather due, will be trundling the garden waste wheelie out for collection due tomorrow.

I like the sitooterie Dusty, looks expensive enough for me, 'cos I'm worth it

Dustyevsky said:

Never heard of Black Cascade, but it sounds nice, trailing down a wall, perhaps like the one in taff's photo. Now the thorny question: is it?

No thorns, so far, anyway. Supposed to be a hanging basket sort of thing, but unable to say if it would yet.

I bet, if it does trail & tastes good, hanging down Taff's pot wall would be nice

Hoping the rain keeps off for a bit longer, I want to nip out and get a photo of the new raspberry, the Heritage from Morries this year. It had buds when I last looked, so fingers crossed they are open by now.

And need to check on the carroty carrots, if they grow I'm looking forward to them now, watching a chap on YT who has grown the same variety, and was pulling them yesterday, they looked delicious. His had nearly three months of growth, though.

I had to disagree with him though, he was going to slice and cook, I'd cook whole, or even eat raw.

YoungBlueEyes said:

What state was Boot Hill in Farway? Hopefully not neglected. I like the look of the bramble, the unopened buds look like sweeties Did you get to a gc?

No GC, sort of sorry but not sorry IYSWIM.

Boot Hill, amazing, and turned out far better than expected or hoped.

Far from being a Mares tail disgrace, it is now an eye-catcher riot of daises and evening primroses. 

Even DS + DIL are pleased, especially as it involves no effort by them. I may have designed a Prairie Garden AKA Boot Hill.

All from seed, and transplanted a couple of years back, now maturing, and I suspect will only get better year-on-year

My addition this year was Cloth of Gold, which is in flower and will just spread and improve

If I were younger & fancied the arguments discussion, I'd try to do the same at the volunteer patch in pace of grass we have to pay to get mown [no one fit or able to do it]

Any way, I present Boot Hill