3: Gardening Diaries ...

[johnny canoe]

Oh I grow them but they are not common plants to find in garden centres. I have also grown watermelons as well. Very intense summers here.

I chase the critters into the yard next door when they are chasing each other around and scronking. lol I Saw enough animals mating on the farm, don't need to see it anymore.

This morning

My baby gourds, I love them you know!

 

[Perki]

Took a wheel barrow load of plants round to mum and planted up two trough this morning and plant the odd other plant. Back home and fed the tomatoes cucumbers and all the pots. Finally got round to writing out the strawberry / raspberry black plastic labels.

Had to go round and water a few plants in the garden which were wilting, still no rain forecast. I am normally very critical of how much it rains but I could probably count on one hand how many times it rained since late April. Some plants are enjoying the hot / dry weather but others not so much, the campanula pritchards variety has flowers half the size they normally are.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I got out the pole saw and limbed up the driveway crepe myrtles, the ginko tree, the crab apple, the cherry tree and 2 yard oaks. Becky hauled the big stuff to the road while I ran the chipper. I would love to use it all but I have piles of wood already. I could not believe how tall the crepe murtle had grown. They are proper trees.

 

[alp]

Oh I grow them but they are not common plants to find in garden centres. I have also grown watermelons as well. Very intense summers here.

I chase the critters into the yard next door when they are chasing each other around and scronking. lol I Saw enough animals mating on the farm, don't need to see it anymore.

This morning

View attachment 39794

My baby gourds, I love them you know!
View attachment 39795

Beautiful gourds. So curvaceous and shiny - Much better looking the than rotunda pumpkins. I actually went to bed thinking if I had confused zinnias with gazanias. I think I bought the latter ones. Need to check and report back. I have never had any success with water melon. Now, I don't even know if I had galia melon, watermelon or cucumber. The two cucumbers I planted out (I was too lazy to bother hand-pollinating them and I don't have confidence like you, I am scared of overwatering or underwatering them or turning them anaemic) have died or looked dead. In fact, what doesn't look dead in my garden!?

 

[alp]

Took a wheel barrow load of plants round to mum and planted up two trough this morning and plant the odd other plant. Back home and fed the tomatoes cucumbers and all the pots. Finally got round to writing out the strawberry / raspberry black plastic labels.

Had to go round and water a few plants in the garden which were wilting, still no rain forecast. I am normally very critical of how much it rains but I could probably count on one hand how many times it rained since late April. Some plants are enjoying the hot / dry weather but others not so much, the campanula pritchards variety has flowers half the size they normally are.

How about me? I was very happy that I had 8 or 9 butts to go round, but I emptied one 230L into some bamboo runners outside the house and it's the hottest place in my garden. Now I really regretted. I watered for 2 hours and put the French Cancan hydrangea into the flower bed. On the top of having no rain, I have had 28c. When I saw @Zenj 's blue skies and 20c, I was so happy for him. That kind of temperature is humane. One more month of this scorching weather. Garden is still very slow, unlike @Zenj 's dahlia beauties.

The lily trees are still very slow

Hydrangea paniculata, again

Unlike @Zenj 's plumes of florets, I only have this Astilbe. Those florets suffer from the drought and heat and died before flowering

This agapanthus Alba has got a big bud. Hopefully, it will put up a good show. 2nd year flowering

Yellow Tanz. Just love them.

 

[alp]

I got out the pole saw and limbed up the driveway crepe myrtles, the ginko tree, the crab apple, the cherry tree and 2 yard oaks. Becky hauled the big stuff to the road while I ran the chipper. I would love to use it all but I have piles of wood already. I could not believe how tall the crepe murtle had grown. They are proper trees.

It's so nice to have so much land that you can grow trees of various sorts. My beloved white-fleshed Italian peach has died! The tree is home to bird feeders and ex remarked that the tits were very bold now as they stayed on the dead tree as we approached.

I am dreaming of having a ginko tree. But the asking price is £19,99.

@DirtMechanic If you see seedlings, try to sell them - they can fetch good prices to the right people. Now they say it purifies the air - that phrase packs an emotion punch to my heart and I end up wanting to buy the stuff. Now my house is full of these so-called "air-purifying plants" .. The estate agent man said, "Not more of those plants!"

 

[alp]

Ah, forgot to mention, sold the uPVC door. So happy, the place looks so much more tidier. I was dreading it not being sold as I would have to clear the blessed 2400mm door. Not funny at all. Now that it's gone and I have £40 to water my plants. All is hunky dory!

 

[alp]

Siesta justifies a peep into my thread. Read this and don't know whether to cry or loud - well, cry. More like it

Householder is forced to put duct tape on his windows to keep out 'unbearable' smell of dead neighbour who lay undiscovered for 10 DAYS in Britain's searing heatwave

• Genevieve Cheng, 82, was found dead in Laurel Street in Glasgow on June 18
• Next-door neighbour Archie McDonald says smell is 'unbearable' after heatwave
• Glasgow Housing Association cannot clean the home until relatives are found
  
  Sad that nobody cared if she's alive or dead. Compared with her neighbours' plight, mine seems insignificant. RIP, Genevieve Cheng! Imagine what it would smell like here in Essex!
  
  There is a breeze but the heat in the air is twice of that of yesterday. Even though I had watered the plants for an hour or more this morning, the searing heat has just totally erased my effort. I have never seen my hellebore leaves parting sideway because of the heat, exposing the dirt. The tomatoes are wilting, but there is no pointing watering them as the water will evaporate the minute it hits the soil.
  
  Some critter kissed me on the calf yesterday, leaving a 2 inch diameter red patch. So I wised up and put on trousers. 10 minutes before finishing watering, I noticed some blood on my 4th finger on the left hand. Now it is swollen and puffy! Another critter has been buzzing next to my nose every morning. Soon I will be like a Michelin Mascot - swollen but red!
  
  No new flowers apart from some lilies which have sprung from nowhere!
  
  
  
  

 

[alp]

Football celebration for this feline?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/embed/video/1718736.html

Other NEWSpapers are available!

 

[Upsy Daisy]

So sad about Genevive Cheng, after such a long life to end up with nobody missing her.....utterly heartbreaking

 

[Upsy Daisy]

A few pics from my weekend ....

Isle of Wight in the distance

 

[DirtMechanic]

[

So sad about Genevive Cheng, after such a long life to end up with nobody missing her.....utterly heartbreaking

What is heartbreaking is the social safety net was not there for an old woman who was begging her neighbor for food. And they call themselves socialist. The manure in my compost is of higher quality than these latest generation managers.

 

[Upsy Daisy]

I know what you mean , but we don't know the full facts. She may have been quite ' with it' and abled bodied and Social Services may not have been asked to provide a care plan for her.

For example my Dad is 93 next month, still lives on his own and looks after his personal needs himself. We offer him support than enables him to keep his independence. On the other hand my brother is in his 50's and does require the help of a Social Services care plan , he has a minimum of 3 daily visits to ensure he is OK and that all his needs are met.
So in this situation, if anything happens to my brother it would be discovered a lot quicker that it would be if it was my elderly Dad.

Thankfully though my Dad has family who live close by and check on him regularly, but not all people are as fortunate. As ,seemingly was the case for this lady . A sad fact of life today is that cash is in short supply to the NHS and Social Services .....but the needs and pressures upon them are ever increasing

 

[DirtMechanic]

I know what you mean , but we don't know the full facts. She may have been quite ' with it' and abled bodied and Social Services may not have been asked to provide a care plan for her.

For example my Dad is 93 next month, still lives on his own and looks after his personal needs himself. We offer him support than enables him to keep his independence. On the other hand my brother is in his 50's and does require the help of a Social Services care plan , he has a minimum of 3 daily visits to ensure he is OK and that all his needs are met.
So in this situation, if anything happens to my brother it would be discovered a lot quicker that it would be if it was my elderly Dad.

Thankfully though my Dad has family who live close by and check on him regularly, but not all people are as fortunate. As ,seemingly was the case for this lady . A sad fact of life today is that cash is in short supply to the NHS and Social Services .....but the needs and pressures upon them are ever increasing

It was, at the end, their job.

communists are always ineffective with money.

 

[alp]

Good morning to all and good night to DM! Human beings corrupt, whatever the ideology. My left hand is now corrupted by the mossie bite and it is now swollen and stiff. If, like me, you're a heat generator, it may be a good idea to source some mossie repellent or you feel that you hand is a block - puffy and alien and the skin seems to be exploding any minute!

Another hour of watering! No rain in Wimbledon season! How sad!