5 Gardening Dairy: Happy gardening and happy snapping ..

[alp]

Wow! Work of the Week BADGE for @Upsy Daisy and Mr Upsy!​

I just hope your dad appreciates all the efforts your lovebirds put in! Sounds like you have put in a lot of hard work. That's why I am very wary of employing people. They always cut corners and there is never a contract which has been properly drawn up. That's why this old woman had a threshold of 3 to 4 inches tall installed in her bi-fold. As soon as she paid the money, nobody has been willing to do anything. She has got tripped over several times walking from kitchen to the living room. She was then told to write to the manufacturers, the warranty company and of course, nothing has been has been done but she has been totally worn down. Just how do you tell a gardener what to do and expect good value for money. Shame @Perki doesn't live near!

Yes, Dahlias are flowering their socks off, @Perki ! If I were you, I would definitely pour a foot of mulch on top of salvia amistad and put some shingles round the stem when they come up next year. My salvia amistad along the sunny border totally disappeared and I watered and watered. Every time new shoots were trying to come up, they were gobbled up by slugs and in the end, I put wood ash around it. Finally, they came up and were big and bushy until a storm came along and whacked the central stem off, which folded like a real brolly on the lawn. I took tons of cuttings and they are all in flowers. Black and Blue literally died. I bought a new one for £2.50 and have taken cuttings.

Next year, I should have Peter Vidigeon, Strawberry Royale, Nel, and some others. Can't wait to move.

Love your area, @Perki ! But not the weather! Constant rain and windy days will depress me no end and I don't like to moan (I have a lot to moan about already!), I like to break free. Watched CountryFile and saw Liz Earle living the organic life - keeping animals in 300 acres of land in Yorkshire! Incidentally, have you come across a Salvia Jeans Jewels please? It never flowers and I'm fed up waiting!

Have to say, the one-hour GW has been consistently good. Shame you have to pay to go into some of those gardeners. The one with a pathway flanked by big olive trees in terracotta pots was exquisitely masculine, understated and yet distinctive. Now, what am I talking about? Exquisitely masculine?? LOL!

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Afternoon all.

Thanks @alp but I think we all work equally hard in our gardens, being on this forum is enough proof of that

No @Perki I won't use weed killers as the worst of it is around his ponds and he definitely won't allow it. What we did with ours many years ago) was to weed it out as much as possible and then covered the area with plastic sheeting for a year....work a treat , no sign of it somewhere now . But I can't wait a year as I plan to give him a colourful garden next summer.....god willing, but at 93 ,time is not on our side

I will just have to pull it out as I see it emerging....that's my plan!!
I told my Dad to just say to the gardeners that his family were going to keep it tidy over winter for him and that he would contact them next year!!! Whimps way out

Well everything looks OK after their first cold night of the season.It's cold and grey out there today, so have done housework and went grocery shopping....tomorrow is set to be a little warmer so will attend to the gardening jobs then.

Have a lovely day

 

[alp]

It's wintry here! 6c outside earlier. Now is probably even lower. So I snapped some photos before they all turn black tomorrow. Just in case!

Turned the lawn mower to the lowest setting this morning and some newly grown grass got mown! Hope nobody calls me stupid or silly! I just don't want to mow it again if at all possible!

3 clumps of asters

Art Nouveau family

First two mixed flowers of this year. Opened yesterday officially!

Cacti dahlia family

Red and white family. Not a clue what it is called. I haven't seen my Edge of Joy or Tartan.. But this one doesn't resemble any of the two! Clueless!

Rajman Firecracker! My favorite this year! Loooooooove it!

Kelvin Floodlight Dinnerplate!

This is an interesting one, with redder and darker edges framing the petals!

Mixed darker red and white family!

Polka family

Yellow poppy!

 

[alp]

Rose a standard!

My border

Salmon Dance!

Salvia Hotlips and Night Moth

Easter Star

Boogie Woogie family

Gaura family

Big Pink family

Another big pink family

Pasa Doblé family!

Dahlia 'Tsuki-yori-no-shisha'
fimbriata dahlia - a family of 2 flowers

Blue Bayou family

Crazy Love family

White cacti family

Petunia Surfinia family!

Hope they still look pristine tomorrow!

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Your garden looks fab @alp So much colour !! I have just discovered some red poppies too

 

[alp]

Your garden looks fab @alp So much colour !! I have just discovered some red poppies too

Thank you. I still have a lot to do. 1/4 of the hellebores have been dug up.

 

[alp]

Good morning to a bittery cold wintry day - the lean to with the candle on the whole night registered 9c. Can't imagine what my plants have been through the night. I have put fleece on some plants and a dome on my beloved Inticancha Alstroemeria. Very nasty cold. Sweet surprise is that it is predicting rain although I can't see any. 3c outside. Oh dear! Really is serious.

Imagine the shock sustained by plants from 20c to 3c!

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Morning all.

Definitely a cold old day today, I thought it was going to be a bit warmer than this We are down to 0C again tonight, feel very sorry for all my plants in the cold frames and greenhouse too @alp this time last week they were overheating in them!! Madness....on Fri we have overnight temps of 10C.....poor plants

Oh well better get wrapped up warm before heading outside.....think I have a sore throat developing too....grrrrr winter!!!!!

Have a good day ,keep warm

 

[alp]

Good morning, @Upsy Daisy ! Yes, it's so cold AND it's raining! Thank heavens as my hellebore patches need a lot of water to loosen the sol up and this will help. I used several pots and burnt a candle inside - a thick 5 inch tall one. It was useless as the outer pot was too big and very little heat has been generated. The outermost pot was cold to touch. AND there was a patch of wax on the floor. The whole candle is nearly finished. Now I have removed the outer biggest pot, the inner pot was warm to touch. Just lovely.

Same here regarding mini tom greenhouse. Last week when we had 19c, they were sweating and now they are freezing. I did put a fleece over most of the tom greenhouses.

Had to get up 5.30 to catch the E7. Mop the kitchen and toilet. and son hoovered most of the rooms. I am a bit worried as I didn't know I signed up to using Countr**** conveyancing and the bit about the commission is not included in the Vendor Pack. Fired 10 emails to the estate agents and was hot and bothered last night. He did say I could get my money back if I withdrew within 14 days. I should have used a calculator to work out the commission rather than agreeing to a flat rate. Also, I should not have signed on the laptop, but insisted on using paper document.

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Raining here now too.
Best to recheck all the details now before it's too late @alp , better to be safe than sorry

Yes I have fleeced up everything too ( that reminds me I must go out to remove it all ).

I've been time wasting this morning..... our youngest left this morning for his holiday in New York and I am following his flight.....so addictive!!! Love FlightRadar...often use it to see who is flying over us!!
I will keep looking in to check on our son's progress....still has about 6hrs to go. I 'watched' him take off and will 'watch' him land later....then I can relax a tad!! He is so looking forward to this trip, he does travel/ street photography and has been around the world , but this is a dream trip for him....so many things to photograph!

 

[alp]

Awwwww! Our children never grow up, do they? Yes, FlightRadar is exciting. The builder of the sunlounge showed us who was flying over us. And that's why Prince William's safety could be compromised. Not that he is a superior being, but anyone could do something nasty if they wanted to.

Logged in to find how to make the toilet bowl clean and white. Mine is clean, but never white and bleach does not help. Do you know how please? The sky has turned blue and I was cleaning all the windows. As we live next to a busy road, the dust and condensation from the west setting sun and cold night is serious. I just don't know how to whiten the window corners and wonder if there are tricks. Off to google now! Happy tracking! My sister told me that she was really scared when her son's flight took off amid thunder and lightning. So much to worry about when you have children. But I won't give it for anything else.

Ah, easy! White vinegar!

 

[Upsy Daisy]

I just use Harpic but apparently Coke Cola works well too, haven't tried it myself. Is it limesca!e?
Window corners are more tricky ,we have wooden framed double glazing so clean/ treat and paint over. I wish we had PVU ( or whatever it's called) but hubs and builder friend said no, best to keep it matching our neighbours!! When they died and it was renovated......they put in PVU!!!!!

Son is approaching Canada....hello @johnny canoe !!!

 

[Upsy Daisy]

White vinegar is brilliant...use it a lot

 

[alp]

I just use Harpic but apparently Coke Cola works well too, haven't tried it myself. Is it limesca!e?
Window corners are more tricky ,we have wooden framed double glazing so clean/ treat and paint over. I wish we had PVU ( or whatever it's called) but hubs and builder friend said no, best to keep it matching our neighbours!! When they died and it was renovated......they put in PVU!!!!!

Son is approaching Canada....hello @johnny canoe !!!

Oh, hello, stranger that is @johnny canoe ! Mac wouldn't complete the user name for me. How annoying!

Yes, Arm and Hammer needs to be order. How useful is the stuff! Arm and Hammer baking soda and vinegar again. Just like unblocking our drain. In the end, son bought a drain snake and it has worked a bit. I wouldn't put the baking soda and vinegar away though as I can use it to clean window corners.

 

[alp]

Went out 1pm and came in 4.45pm. Reckon I will sleep very well tonight. I am fed up with the sight of hellebores. They were massive and nearly impossible to dig up. Apparently, there will be lots of rain on Tuesday for me, too.