Awful weather - typical Brits talk

-taff · 8 May at 9:35AM

That's one spectacular crown...I'm impressed. Having tried to make the odd sculpture before, my admiration is withthe crowds going wild...

Dustyevsky · 8 May at 9:37AM

YoungBlueEyes said:

twopenny said:

I wonder how much garlic I'd need to be sucked up by trees

I'm considering having a go at LG lettuce, my yogurt pot peppers aren't having it, so it's a kinda 1-in-1-out sorta deal. I'm not to buy any more anythings, apparently :rolleyes:

TBH I thought you were optimistic with the peppers. I do some chillies, but even in a polytunnel, peppers tend to come late, just around the time when night temperatures start falling and mildew can creep in. Getting them to stand is tricky, and freezing them....well, what would be the point? LG lettuce is much better suited to our climate.

No gardening here until the rain lifts, which it seems to be doing, a bit. It seems likely I'll have to travel to some consumer emporium today, as we're out of some items. Our first cut & come again is ready, though.

Last night I planted out our first courgette on the manure heap, heavily armed against slug attack. It's been watered-in nicely.

LessImpecunious · 8 May at 10:49AM

Dustyevsky said:

TBH I thought you were optimistic with the peppers. I do some chillies, but even in a polytunnel, peppers tend to come late, just around the time when night temperatures start falling and mildew can creep in. Getting them to stand is tricky, and freezing them....well, what would be the point? LG lettuce is much better suited to our climate.

Dusty is correct; but if you do manage to get some peppers to germinate, it's worth trying to treat them as a second-year crop - so overwinter them in the house and they may (with a lot of luck!) produce the next year, with a head start. Not always easy to do - they're prone to aphid attack in the house, or just dying... but I've manage to get one young pepper through this winter and it now has it's first flower - still on windowsill. Will go to the greenhouse with 3 chillies which have also overwintered, but no flowers yet, probably in 2-3 weeks when last frosts hopefully passed...

Farway · 8 May at 11:43AM

YBE, may I add my thirds to you trying LG lettuce instead of peppers? My pepper experience mirrors Dusty's, so I never bother now and Asda send me some frozen ready sliced if I feel the need to bung some in cooking

Dusty's rain is on its way, due later PM, but I have put the plants out in the fresh air for hardening off. I missed a tray of toms last night & it was out all night, still alive & looks fine so must have been mild

Wet all week though, so they say

I may need to re assess the lack of plum & cherry crops, when I peered closely yesterday it is possible some have "set", need another week or so and see if any swell

Picture time,

First is my Merton Thornless, buds just opening ready for the rain

Second is something I can grow, and a bit like I sometimes feel, past prime, seed sown & dispersed

Image: https://us-noi.v-cdn.net/6031891/uploads/editor/ec/xhxyp9au0w2y.jpg

Image: https://us-noi.v-cdn.net/6031891/uploads/editor/92/kg97gf0214m2.jpg

twopenny · 8 May at 1:13PM

Your photos never cease to Wow Farway. Making a blackberry flower look that good takes skill

Blue, the garlic question. It was suggested long ago on the gardening problems to plant garlic by roses to stop greenfly. It was supposed to flavour the leaves!

https://www.gardentips360.co.uk/get-rid-of-greenfly-on-roses-with-these-simple-steps/

I tried it once years ago and don't think the garlic grew. May try again with my fruit trees.

Very wet and windy here. I was alarmed as so many plants in full leaf tied to things I was afeared for my fences.

It stopped and dropped by everywhere is soaking again and not feesible to work on the garden.

Showing a friend my new pad yesterday it looks like the birds have done their job clearing the whitefly from the young box shoots ????

Grateful for some small mercies.

My new Helebore has produced massive and lush leaves! It's going to have to be moved later in the year.

Everything has burst into lushness which makes you feel good.

And the May is definitely out so you can cast a clout. Just don't make it your rain coat. Will it ever stop?

Dustyevsky · 8 May at 3:59PM

twopenny said:

Everything has burst into lushness which makes you feel good.
And the May is definitely out so you can cast a clout. Just don't make it your rain coat. Will it ever stop?

Don't forget the hosepipe ban!

It doesn't apply to me, so now I know what it feels like to be one of the elite, telling the plebs what they may/may not do.

-taff said:

That's one spectacular crown...I'm impressed. Having tried to make the odd sculpture before, my admiration is withthe crowds going wild...

We don't get crowds here, but people were appreciative. The makers were pleased to be asked to contribute, being new to the locality. I remember the same thing happening to me in 2011, only I was asked to don a peasant outfit and play the part of a yokel, which was obviously all they thought me capable of.

I'm still doing it!

It's all plywood. The trick is having the kit, the patience, and the skill to bend it. I'm more of a chain saw man.

Finally managed to hand over 2 oak trees to a farmer friend this morning. I'd grown them for him after supplying two mail order trees in 2020 which failed. They'd cost over £100 and the nursery which dug them out badly refused to refund, as I was supplying a third party.

Did a silly thing this afternoon. Drove to town and discovered my cards were still at home.

Then, even sillier, returned home to find I'd £40 in my back pocket.

O.T. It has rained most of the day, so far. When it hasn't, it's drizzled. No high winds like 2p, though.

YoungBlueEyes · 9 May at 6:59AM

Well it did actually rain all day yesterday, except for when it drizzled, except except for when it stopped momentarily to get it's breath back and start again. But the garden conservatory party was good fun cos everyone brought their dogs

So the consensus is no peppers for me then. I honestly thought they'd be as easy as toms to grow cos they sell all the wee plants together - toms/peppers/courgettes etc in supermarkets, and toms were no bother (watch them all bladdy die on me now I've said that

).

I didn't know that about garlic 2p, makes sense of your sentence! I've heard of planting something (roses..?) at the ends of vine rows to save the grapes so I spose that's the same thing.

I love your pics Farway, that bud looks like a beautiful rose. I wonder if my bramble patch will produce anything...

I'll have to bob out and take some pics. The £1 coin-for-scale mystery plants are growing well and look happy, and wee my mys-trees have produced lots more leaves and look happy too

Maybe even enough to be identifiable now :fingerscrossed:

YoungBlueEyes · 9 May at 9:00AM

Here’s a few pics. The happy little £1 for scale mysteries

The mys-tree, with bugs under the leaves at the top and a wee slug on the small branch at the bottom. Will the slug eat the bugs?

I’m the background of that pic are my rasps/strawbs that I dug up and planted. In the pot on the left are some tulips called Bright Gem which were all little and colourful

Here’s my apple tree with a soggy feather and an queer looking big on it. I hope it’s not some breed of aggressive foreign something for I didn’t kill it and it’s gone now…

Oh and a very pretty weed

twopenny · 9 May at 9:43AM

Love a mystery garden! They're so much fun.
I was the same when I started. Bought all sorts from the WI shop on the way to work. Lasted years.

It rained so hard and so much yesterday that I thought it might be an idea to have a water feature outside the patio doors instead of a patio.
Still raining this morning so I've ditched the idea of group walk across the fields. It's going to be very wet and muddy. It's a fair bet my friends won't go either.
Mowing the lawn is off the cards as is any sort of gardening.

I've started storing water again ready for the drought

Blue, still no idea about the mystery plants. The tree has enormous leaves though.
Have you given your raspberries some bfb? I may chuck some round the strawberries which are looking like they hate the weather as much as I do.

Farway · 9 May at 10:09AM

Another one with rain forever yesterday, only stopped sometime overnight. It was so dismal I had a touch of s0d it and left the hardening off plants out all night, except the runners & a dahlia, so mild & wet.

Still there this morning, so I'm very tempted to get some toms planted out, but it's far too soggy right now

Blue, top pic, the ones with upright jagged leaves, if they are a bit hairy it's thistles

Second pic, I spy Hazel, [not 100% certain] thank your local squirrel

. If only slugs ate aphids, I think that's only in Garden Heaven

Third pic, it's a lady bird

, foreign one, but they do eat aphids as well as anything that moves, a bit of double-edged sword. Personally, I'd leave it to live out it's life

Last pic, very interesting one, worth seeing what it turns into with the variegated leaves

Your bramble patch should produce, of course it's pot luck if you get big juicy sweet ones or small seed ridden sour ones. A wild one climbing over my shed is yummy, but has thorns like daggers

A watery sun is trying hard, I'll try & get some toms planted in the conservatory later

Awful weather - typical Brits talk

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