Magazine style - all inclusive

[alp]

Abutilon been flowering non-stop

Abutilon

Bougainvillea pale pink under £5

I name this Frisson d'Or / GOLD THRILL

Sorry for spreading misinformation. I THINK this is Jescot Julie!

Jowey Joshua

Have a lovely day!

 

[alp]

Well, went everywhere for organic chicken feeds. Some brand pays google a lot of money to say they are organic and when you go to the shop, the brand name isn't even there and then the bags said GM soya free and you can't find the word organic. Went to a pet shop and said one with ORGANIC printed on the bag. Asked how much. A girl said £16 and that had been ordered for some customer and so not for sale. 5 minutes or so drive to a horsey place. There saw the same bag and was told £10. I couldn't tell you how happy I was and am. With 60kg at the back, we went to Billericay to my fav gc after Clockhouse in Enfield. Bought a Cornus Golden Shadows Wedding tree. Not so pretty as the Controversa Variegata, but this one is also variegated. Full name is Cornus alternifolia Golden Shadows - Golden Wedding Cake Pagoda Tree.

Then I saw a Japanese Snowball with tiny pearl drop berries - it was like being draped over with tiny round tear drop green lantern. But at £30 and it was 8 foot all. Difficult to get it into the car. But boy, oh so pretty!

Now employee said he had pulled his shoulder and won't be in action for a while. Thank heavens the frames are up. I could just drape some big bubble wrap round them and tidy away all my plants. It's never good to rely on other people.

Mis-sent dahlia - still don't know its name.

Ongar British GC - new addition showing their moon tree and acers

Home again!
Frost lip

Some dahlias are just so buggy. Omega is fine, so is Myrtle's Folly!

Aster

Omega - I have 4 of these!

Joshua Jowey or Jowey Joshua?

 

[Perki]

Well its been a lovely day today the sun been out. I was cursing myself for not getting up earlier to go out for a proper ride out before the onset of winter, I decided I visit a GC I've not been to before so set off about half 11 but blimey it were still chilly. I got there eventually after the google sat nav were confusing me and missing roundabouts out etc . Only a small place but they had some bulbs were you can pick them yourself , I got some Flaming spring weren't cheap so only got 7 at 55p each ,I've always wanted to grow this variety but the price has always put me off taylors sell them for £4.99 for 7 . Picked up a few more tulip variety's and head off to another new GC which was described as a Nursery , thought I find loads of hiden gems but no waste of time nothing there not even any bulbs for sale. Called in a GC I regularly visit on the way home and picked up some daffs by this time it was nice which made it a enjoyable ride home.

That looks like a rather nice / expensive GC alp . I always say to myself - If you want something doing right do it yourself , can't rely on anybody including my own parents.

I've looked up that cornus before , no not as nice as the normal controversa . They are quite slow growing how big is it ? When I went up to gresgarth gardens earlier in the year they was C. Controversa ( quite small still ) and another which was quite large I believe that was C. alterifolia Argentea , it was still kind of tiered but more messy than controversa I did take a picture of it for future reference when / if I get one for myself.

 

[alp]

Good morning - not that cold this morning, but not so warm either. I can cope with a gilet and a fleece and no chill on my back.

October 1 will be the day I turn on the radiators.

Glad that you had an enjoyable ride, Perki. The ups and downs of the landscape must be very enjoyable! And Zenj had a lovely stroll by the seaside!

Yes, strangely there are a lot of varieties of plants this year. Normally, we would have tons of asters / hydrangeas reduced, but no. A lot of areas in the gcs are empty, but good news is that the Ongar British gc is actually expanding, as can be seen from the photo. This used to be Wyevale and used to be even more expensivve. I kept wanting to buy a vine, but the optics of tons bees buzzing and gorging on grapes in my greenhouses just can't bear thinking. And any way, I kept thinking Mary, the next allotment owner, has a lovely vine, why go and spend £20 to £40 to buy another one?

Last night's GW on youtube was diabolical. No wonder Zoe Ball asked for a reduction in pay rise. It's ridculous. People are going to lose jobs, and yet people like Linekar and Ball has these obscene wages; all the time whilst their shows are full of repeats. I thought Monty is thinking about retirement when he came out, saying something for 30 seconds and cut into repeats; but no - even Adam can't be bothered to show how to do something in September. He just stood there, mumbled a few words and out came another repeat! So lazy. There is a lot to do in September: even Monty sowed some Ammi Majus. They should really show people what to sow or take cuttings instead of giving their thoughts on these repeats. The worst is they didn't even show any home videas, which has been a breadth of fresh air.

My friend went and bought the Japanese Snowball for £12! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Well, at least it's near me and my friend has got it instead of someone else. It's just so cute to see the green tear-drop berries, hanging non-chalantly all over the tree. She actually gave a correct figure 11 to12 feet tall! That's another reason as too tall for my car and can't even be put in between the two of us. Hope my friend takes my pics for our enjoyment!

A lovely blue / purple Aster

Firsoon d'Or - could be a repeat. I can't remember, sorry! Repeats from me - need to keep up with the BBC!

A very pale Targa

Seashell cosmos

Salmon Dance

Reblooming White Cottage!

All that money, the quality of the iphone is not a patch on my deceased Samsung PL70! This could be Diamond Blush

Forgot to talk about our scavengering episode: Employee told me that would be wood to be salvaged for the base of the greenhouses and told us to look for the stuff in a skip. We found the house and was surprised that there was no skip. Just a pile of roof tiles on top of tons of household rubbish and wood. We picked out some good wood. As a useful cot with some sturdy wire was buried under the tiles, we pulled and pulled. Then suddenly, out came a man! Ooops! He's in his bath robe, as if we had interrupted some fun. Very soft spoken, tall and good looking. Turned out there were people living in that building! Any way, he turned out to be Lithuanian, here when he's 5. He even offered to drive to wood to my place. But no! Any way, it's his house with his mum. Outside his house, tons of small granite blocs. About 5 sacs of 29 tons bags! We emailed him to ask him to keep some wood for the bases of the greenhouses. Have to say, quite got a shock when he came out.

Ooops! Forgot my repeat

Little Emperor was very annoyed with me as I kept asking him to photograph Joshua Jowey! Well, it's new to me!

 

[alp]

Yesterday, I gave Maureen some eggs in exchange of her fig cuttings. Maureen is a very nice lady. She makes a lot of face masks and sells them to the public via fb with money going to NHS! How nice is that? Well, I had never ever seen a fig tree with sooooooooooooooooo many fruits and she said it's the 2nd coming! Wow! Hold on! 2nd round of fruiting and the tree seemed to be on steroid, by the look of it. I asked her for 10 cuttings in exchange. She happily obliged. The poor woman had to strip each cutting of the fruits and in the end, she got so tired that she gave up and told me to strip them myself. I could understand. I felt so sorry for her. There were fruits on every single cutting!

I couldn't sell the eggs and after a dead branch hit a pot near the roof of the end of the hen coop, the hens have not been so prolific. That windy storm snapped a 9 foot tall dead branch and I intitally thought there was a saboteur in the garden, smashing the pot nearby into spiral strip, but when I looked again, I saw that dead branch with diameter of about 3 inches. Talking about saboteur or intruder, I thought someone had brought in a yellow cupcake holdere and placed it near my cosmos cupcake plants

See this cupcake image, the holder was sharp yellow plastic, like the pale yellow ribbed base here in the pic! I mean how accidental could you get. A cupcake near your cosmos cupcake plants??? Gee! I'm getting paranoid!

Another reason for the poor production of eggs could be foxes. The brood could be heard haranging the hens and running amok in my garden. There is now a route worked out by them. I raised my tiny green fence and put some stinky ash from the bonfire near the concrete path. They poo-ed on the stinky ash and went back and forth, killing a dahlia and flattening my Salvia Phyllis Fancy. Incidentally the latter is now in bloom. Will upload photos later.

 

[alp]

Thank you to my friend for her valiant effort. Styrax japonica is what she calls them.

Isn't that lovey!?

 

[alp]

Seeing the blue swathe of rain next to the west of the country really made me jealous. I need several days of that!

Joshua Jowey at its prime, probably one more day of prime today.

Phyllis Fancy and it's so blurry

Very small flower!

Teesbrooke Audrey - trying to get some seeds.

Perhaps I should buy another Samsung PL70! LOL!

 

[alp]

Just how unlucky was I?! It was drizzling when I replanted the hellebores and turned up the soil to add organic matter. Then I went to feed my teenagers, the forever-hungry brood who is hooked on mealworms. It started to pour down and I was drenched. To top my misery, one top lid fell in and I couldn't apologise enough. I lifted the lip, only to see the hens nibbling away as if nothing had happened. I was totally caught out by the rain. As I was so drenched, I took a shower. By the time I finished the shower, NO MORE RAIN!

As I read that a dose of mealworms will increase their protein in-take and might help them to recover their feather and the shock of the disruption. They now ignore all other feeds - organic mesh, pellets and non GM mixed corns and every time I pass by, they will rush to see me, making low-whingiing begging noise, as if there was no food left. I even baked the courgette turned marrow for them, embedded their normal feeds and even mealworms for them to eat. At first, they turned up their noses, but now they love it.

Talking about marrow, it was a dangerous thing to cut. I promised myself not to let courgettes turn into marrows, but lo and behold, they had all become marrow. I was very happy that I now have another one marrow to bake for the birds. But cutting them is dangerous as the skin is so tough! I have now 2 pumpkins, 3 butternut squashes to feed them. I am not looking forward to cutting them; but the steady supply of natural and organic feeds is uplifting. I am always suspicious about pellets.

Read about this exotic bird yesterday and I really like this Fairywren! Amazing nature and this electrifying blue colour reminds me of my Salvia Patens of which I have 3 or 4.

I love this photo. My rooster is never this gentle! Who can blame him. I saw one hen giving him a back kick flick with her spur.

Finally, I succumbed to the cold and this central heating is ON! The forecast vindicates my decision!

When Perki mentioned Cornus Controversa Variegata, I was wondering where mine was. My heart stopped when I couldn't find it. Last time, I remember seeing green leaves. but the hated Duet Dahlia covered the whole area and I looked. Nowhere to be found. Then I hunted for it again. Well, it's there, but a mere stick. How sad is that. I will move it somewhere it will receive full sun. Still 8"! How sad is tha?

Thalictrum Double Hewitt
!

Penstemon firebird

Alstroemeria summer Series

From Wilko

Aster Monch!

Xanthos

Ph7llis Fancy

Very windy so quality is wishy washy!

 

[DirtMechanic]

@alp you are a treasure! Wisdom and Flowers! When I saw this short video gif thingy I thought of you!

https://www.reddit.com/r/gifsthatkeepongiving/comments/j1zxc1

 

[alp]

@alp you are a treasure! Wisdom and Flowers! When I saw this short video gif thingy I thought of you!

https://www.reddit.com/r/gifsthatkeepongiving/comments/j1zxc1

Are you sure it's me you're talking about! ?LOL! Whoa! You've made my day. The video makes me giggle, but I prefer the Gerbera to the Gaillardia any day!

 

[alp]

Took a lot of cuttings yesterday. I never really like Hotlips but was surprised when two ladies plucked up their courage and talked to me about them when I was gardening at the front. Very interesting. It's like I have a lot of antiques in the front garden, but passerbys asked me about my MDF table! (Sorry, table; but you know what I mean!) It's now raining seriously. And today will be cuttings day. I took the following

Phyllis Fancy - I bought about 3 of them. But they are flowering now and the plants are still small. I had to google the flower images to understand my avid and crazy impulse to acquire sooooo many of them. Now I remember seeing them as a huge plant in Hyde Hall. Covid really ruins everything. Can't go to Hyde Hall without the tedious booking.

Salmon Dance - a most beautitful peachy flower. Much bigger in size than Nachtvlinder. I really love it.

Nachtvlinder and I can't understand how I managed to harvest 27 seeds from my 1-meter length of these plants. I have the feeling that the bumblebees don't want the plants to set seeds so nectar keeps coming. BBees keep dragging the flower down (just imagine the weights of the giant and flea). Seeds are very difficult to catch.

Today is a day of cuttings. I have tied up the asters, And one Omega dahlia was flopping onto the alstroemerias and they couldn't set seed properly.

Last but not least, I think my cornus controversa variegata has died, all because the Duet kept flowering and deprived it of sun. My fault for packing in too many into too small a space.

 

[alp]

Bought a washing machine. Yes, again! But the company said it wouldn't be delivered until 9 October and the order was placed on 22nd last month. I can't believe how other companies can deliver within a week and yet this national chain catalogue company will have to take so long. For some reason, they had my little emperor's name as account holder, but he wasn't there to pay, so I used mine. Then I saw a larger capacity machine on sale, so I wanted to change. When I facebooked them, they said the names were different and so couldn't talk to me. Yesterday, I decided to end the saga. I logged in to CHAT, but the clock registered 15 minutes and there was a perpetual circle round that figure which didn't change. I decided to google something else. By the time I came back, I was logged out due to inacitivity. Normally, you get a beep, a poke or a bell when the chat/message is on. The 2nd time I tried to chat, I just sat there, stared at the loading circle around 15 and got my turn. Then I cancelled the order.

Another saga was buying home insurance. I went to a comparison site and one company looked rosier than all the rest. A cut above!

Love the excess £50 rather than £100. Everybody else was asking for £100. All ticks above accidental damages. So I went to pay. I was asked to top up with UPGRADED Building accidental damage , UPGRADED contents accidental damage, I ticked no. The page refreshed and sent me back to the top of the page. Of course, I was confused by all these upgraded options, but by the time I had had 6 of these, I was fed up as every time the page reloaded, I had to find where I was before. And then I vaguely saw £50 excess might not be enough to warrant a pay out if I claimed. I refused to believe it. In the end, I stripped all the upgraded accidental damages and went to pay by direct debit. Surprise, surprise, after filling in all my bank details. Not a notfication!

I facebooked the company and was told the company DIDN'T offer any accidental building or contents damage. I was flummoxed and frustrated. I facebooked the screen-grab above to show her that she was wrong. She apologised and I was left in the lurch, not knowing IF I HAD BOUGHT my home insurnace and the renewal time was approaching.

I decided to phone up. A man operative told me that if I claimed Building or Contents accidental damage, there would be £250 excess upfront and that I had NOT bought any insurance. My quote was still A QUOTE!

The only thing good about this company was that they had not taken the money or sent me a confirmation. The optics of the screen-grab is just OPTICS, clickbait for me to talk to them. And whoever wating to buy insurnace will be tempted by all these already included ticks and the excellent much cheaper excess. A tick means YES!? Right? Not for More th>n! Things like these shouldn't be allowed. I will email their friend, the Ombudman! LOL!

In the end, I bought the policy with a little known company. Just keep my fingers crossed that I don't need to claim anything.

My handsome Polish rooster has been making up his drought BIG time! He saw him in action once this week. Yesterday, I saw him in flagrant act twice within 20 minutes. Later in the afternoon, he's at it, AGAIN! What a randy rooster! I think that's why I have never understood men or s ex! LOL!

I still can't reconcile the fact that a girlfriend/boyfriend is more than 30 years old. When I first landed in this country, a friend told me that a girlfriend in this country could be quite old. I have worked that one out. This boy/girl friend is like a meal, functional or well, emotional. But first and foremost, they can be very old, and/or with children.

Did a lot of cuttings yesterday. For some reasons, there hasn't been a lot of seeds to collect. The rain seems to have stopped and I must have 3 empty butts now as there was so much that I had to let it go to the gardens, front and back.

I am thinking of replacing my Cornus Controversa Variegata, but they are not cheap. The lady who sold me that lot can't be found. The man selling the Cornus had sold me a stick disguised as Edgeworthia. When I complained, he asked me to send it back and he would refund me. Of course, it died. Another thing that died on me was the Davidii Involucrata.

 

[Perki]

Well its a good job I've not been outside today may of got washed away , it were raining when I got up and its still raining now. I've barely moved off the couch really only 10 hours of football to watch I were getting a bit fed up in the end.

I were eyeing up a edgeworthia chysantha last week I just don't really have space for shrubs and small trees at the moment well not until the shed falls down . They were a cornus .C.V next to the edgeworthia only a small thing probably about 2ft maybe slightly bigger but still £50 .

I don't know what you mean referring to the boy / girlfriend thing , do people over 30 having a boy/girlfriend ? If you don't mind be asking which country did you originate from ?

I haven't done any home insurance don't like paying for it really unless I have to like motor insurance its dead money most of the time , and they are always out to rip you off. You'd think they would look after a loyal customers, they only seem to like new customers and then try and screw them next year.

 

[alp]

It's raining very heavily in the morning and then stopped at 12noon. The garden was flooded again and I found 4 wellies of the left foot but none a pair. In the end, one size 9 was found and it was used as waders to navigate the "pond"!

Was thinking of going out as Sunday's prediction was even worse. But we needed to change the position of the shelf and propagator and we moved one tall shelf to the other side. A lot of tidying up to do. In the end, we didn't go out. I managed to take more cuttings and one shelf was positioned to the other side.

We are using rugs to reduce the coldness of the tiles. Those freegled looked so pretty. It seemed a shame to cover them with dust and dirt in the lean to. So cardboard is out in force. Ordered tons of bubble wrap even though I don't have a greenhouse yet and might not even have it, judging by the reliablity of others. Any way, I don't go begging. I only offered a small sum and if I don't have them, I will put sheets and bubble wrap around one big one. Who wants to be at others' mercy?

When we say girlfriend/boyfriend, it's more like teenager rather than over 30 or 40. Where I am from, people are more committed to marriage as children are supposed to perpetuate the family tree line.

Been watching the old All Creatures Great and Small. All blurred and luckily little emperor showed me how to view it on youtube on TV. The old one is much better. Nobody except the locals speak with a Yorkshire accent. Robert Hardy was excellent and I like Peter Davison. I prefer the new James Herriot as he's more fresh faced. The new series lacks the depth and breadth of the old one, too much flirting, not enough vet life and Farnon's love interest is too flirty to my liking. The new Helen is too saccharine. Sam West posh accent doesn't sit well with Yorkshire and his character is not half as interesting as Robert Hardy. There's more meat to the old series.

Salvia phyllis fancy - been stripped of materials for cuttings!

Fancy Pants

A new yellow dahlia

Aster Island

Arabesque Red

I have had tons of nerrine bulbs down, but this is the only flowering one here!

A very buggy new Dahlia

Dahlia Honka Black or Verrone's Obsidian

 

[alp]

Monday was maniac! I was so busy that I skipped breakfast. Any way, another 2 rolls of bubble wrap arrived and there is nowhere to walk. Did another 2 trays of cuttings. Sowed some Echinacea green Twister seeds. Some 3 have already germinated from a previous sowing.

Why is it that they always show you the cutting techniques LATE? I got tons of cuttings from Margaret, the mask-maker, and did all the cuttings and THEN Monty showed his way of doing fig cuttings. Well, too late now. Hopefully, they take. Another thing bugging me is that I can't understand why he used pure perlite to root his hydrangea. We all know hydrangeas cuttings are easy to root and perlite is expensive. Or more expensive than dirt. I just don't see the point of using perlite to take hydrangea cuttings. It's like using a brand new VW van to transport illegal migrants. No insult to migrants! It's just that if these gang masters wanted to make money, they would use a tatty van! Or in our case, a leaky dinghy, not a yacht! Humanity versus money! We know the score! Mind you, one migrant whisked out an iphone and called, "Mum, I'm here!"

The last GW episode was great. I was pleased they cut out Arid's visit to German greenified discarded industrial town. It was a great episode but I had seen it once and another repeat wouldn't be necessary. It was refreshing to see how they greenify Singapore. Vital that they have green plants everywhere as it was basically a concrete jungle - small, densely populated and full of tower blocks.

And then, Monty said we didn't need to plant tulips bulbs so early. Do it November! Ooooops!

Bought some lovely narcissus from lidl under £2 each. I just love that dainty held up by George in Beechgrove - a delicate pale green corona.

The storm, Alex, has brought a lot of misery and loss to France. It's very sad to see! I can't wait to see the back of 2020: nasty unmanageable contagious viruses, misery, mutiny, inept and evil political menances everywhere.

Yesterday was a decent day. I washed my towels at 1pm. By 4, they were more or less dry because of the wind and the lovely warm sunshine. Very pleased that we have now 8 clean sweet-smelling towels to use.

Before I go, Lidl advertised that they will sell peony roots at £2.99 on Sunday. They even put the pic of Bowl of beauty! I checked and didn't see the word FROM! If so, I will be the first one in the queue! Now, where have all my BOWLS gone?