Magazine style - all inclusive

[alp]

We are having great weather as well. I need to switch on the laptop to ask for Viewxtension! I need to paint the whole of the lean to as the smoke from a piece of burning paper tainted the whole lean to. It's a nightmare.

Lovely weather from Newcastle, Zenj ! Great apricoty peachy daff! I wanted to take a photo of my single peachy, but the slugs had beaten me to it by piercing a hole through the trumpet! Grrrrrr! I should have my pagoda erythronium. I'd better get going or the Viewxtension will be in 2020!

 

[alp]

Supposed to have a viewing today 5.30pm. The lace curtain of my bay window (which is about 180 inches wide ??) has been shredded by the washing machine and we went to various areas to try to find a replacement. No such luck!

Bought a white shower curtain for £5 - a terribly thin flimsy piece of rubbish. I have no idea how a national company treats its customers like this. A piece of plastic which is so flimsy that I would be pleased if it last 6 months.

Buried a lot of peonies and divided Honey Gold into 3. Was pleased with the peony snippet in GW yesterday, but could have been better. Finally, this morning, I've got to sow a bit more tom - Lidl, Rosella and Shirley. Now I feel so much better.

Because of the viewing, I had to remove the trays outside, which is a bit of a nuisance. The fluctuation in temperatures won't be good for my seedlings, not to mention slugs. By the way, @Zenj Could you please measure the hole size of the size 14 watering rose. Went to B&Q and couldn't find any. Might have to enlarge the rose myself. Hopefully, I can do it after the rain tomorrow. Could you do it twice after the first applications please? I haven't read the instruction properly.

 

[Zenj]

Morning alp hard to measure holes classed as course you can apply again but I have never done if dry I water again they start multiplying when they kill the slugs underground you won’t see dead slugs as most slugs are underground but they will diminish the baby slugs so you will have less slug problems ,I used them twice the first year now I only apply once and I find a big difference.This is what a 14 rose is like.

 

[alp]

I think I know what to do. I just just something to enlarge the holes. Thank you so much. Now, need to clear the lean to. 5.30pm is the deadline!

 

[alp]

Good morning - got a postponement to viewing until Monday and it has been all quiet for the viewings. Not that I am worried. But yesterday, I had to remove all my seed trays with seeds into cold areas in the garden. I am still crying for my seeds/seedlings and plants, especially the Birds of Paradise. It's crazily cold yesterday whilst the day before, I thought summer was already here! Might go and get a purple tree peony and see if I can graft all three (red and white I already have) together. I have been trying to graft fruit trees and it's like 1 out of 6, there is a success. Early days yet, but I could see green the newly grafted materials. But most have been failed by the tape which came loose!

The eggs are still eggs! Got a cage for them free, but we don't know if the eggs will become chicks.

 

[alp]

After a whole day of shopping, eggs are still intact!


Ah, I exaggerated a bit. The success rate of my grafting is more like 2 out of 10!

Cuttings taken 2 weeks ago and it has already rooted.

Tree peony Red

Pieris

Yellow tulip Fimbiata?

Thalia Narcissus

Offiical: tulip with the biggest petal span in my humble garden!

Clematis macropetala

Beautiful markings on the iris. I must try my hand pollination tomorrow.

Frost damaged camellia

Camellia Brushfield

Fail 1 and Fail 2

Fail 3

Fail 4

Fail 5

Success??

Suuuucess 1?

Suuuucess 2?

Forgot to say that it has been raining since 11.30 and I took the photos when it's drizzling. Think the clock is wrong on the photo because of British summer time. So nice to be home .. Hopefully after tomorrow's rain, I can apply my nematodes.

 

[Perki]

Been having a look round some garden centre today 3 to be exact. Not much to be had just picked up some busy lizzie seedling but were tempted by some onion sets. The last GC I went in I rarely ever go in because they never having anything I want, they only had quite a few plants in I've been galavanting here there and everywhere for must of done going on 100 mile looking for some of these plants just to buy them online in the end, I've been past the place 4-5 times as well .

Got home and started weeding the rear lawn for weed grass and cleaning it off ready for a overseed, overseed the lawn and made up some topdressing mix and top dressed the lawn , why is topdressing so expensive £6 for a 25 litre bag, saved about £25 in making my own. Put sprinkler on the lawn to water it in no rain forecast this week coming .

Tidy up the buddleia and removed ivy from the top half so the clematis can climb up easier. Weeded the front borders, looking at one of the front border looks like a forest of allium leaves I've got a penstemon to fit in there somewhere.

 

[alp]

Good morning! Why is it so hot this morning - I'm in T shirt and sweating!

You must have a gorgeous day yesterday, Perki! Not so much for us! Cool and rain from 11.30 and didn't dry up until 5pm. Did a lot of food shopping. Tons of grapes as the one from Tesco was fabulously sweet. Got black ones from Lidl and Aldi. Hunt for lace curtain drew a blank. A lousy one costs £25!

Petrol has gone up in price exponentially (ah, I'm a poser! What does that word mean?)

Wish we could gallivant using a bike! When we came out of the market square, there was a bearded man in a posh black car, who refused to budge and on my left hand side was flanked by parked cars. I was so mad that I pointed the bargain hunter hidden in the posh car to go up the kerb. How dare he? Refused to move an inch whilst 3 lines of traffic were hammed in a 2 in and out lanes. We all wanted to use the car park in the market square, but the entry road was narrow and as we were stuck there, we should pool together and work out a route instead of sitting there pretty and wanting everybody else making the move! I dislike parking in the market square, but that's the only place where we could find some big charity shops. Luckily, the car behind him had more sense and upped the kerb and order was soon restored. We went there 5 minutes past 10 and the car park was already 1/3 full.

Hard to find plants in gc unless you live very near to some decent good ones, Like the ones in Bedfordshire! Another incentive to go to the zoo! Shame that even the sin bin was mired in greed! I do think that gcs suffer from ageism! Plants like hellebores were all gone from the gc in the next town. and tree peonies were all reduced on one Sunday. If you blink, you miss it. There your next year bliss is no more!

We are going to have days of rain and on Wednesday or Thursday, I will unleash my weapon against SS!

Saw a property near us with my name written all over it. Garden with 92 foot garden and a long front lawn to the place with a garage! £350K with tons to do - all needed to be replaced.

Line of Duty was distinctly poor this series. Even an idiot like me knows the boss is the baddy - H for Hastings! Amazed at the handsome crop of hair Adrian Dunbar still has on his crown. Most people just resort to skinhead to hide their shiny skull. Some people are born lucky!

 

[alp]

Thought it would be raining, but no! The weather report is just so useless. The house that I like is now under offer! What was I thinking? Should have gone and viewed it! Another sob story!

The eggs have been through some acid tests and 3 sank and will be discarded and 3 little ones are showing sign of being in limbo .. Might start another batch!

Some nice surprises

Heurcheras are doing very well

So are the beans, indoors though!

Pak choi can be eaten as salad

Kale

Cerinthe

What a creepy tulip! LOL! What was I thinking when I bought it?

Turandot?

The first cistus bloom in my whole garden

 

[alp]

Read this article yesterday

As scientists warn of the rise of resistant 'superfungi', JANE FRYER reveals what could be lurking in your compost heap that could KILL you!

In its most lethal form — 'invasive aspergillus' — the spores of the aspergillus enter the body via the bloodstream and invade the lungs, where they grow.
The first inkling that Karen Hook, a 50-year-old horticulturist and mother-of-two from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, had of her condition was constant fatigue, a persistent cough and bad breath.
Then she started coughing up lumps of green fungus. In an operation to remove it all, part of her lung was destroyed.
In another case, Sandra Hicks, a 51-year-old pharmacist from Dorset was diagnosed with aspergillosis in 2008, and was told her infection was resistant to the drugs prescribed and would eventually kill her.

.... According to Stefan Buczacki, a former chairman of Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time and a past president of the British Mycological Society (mycology is the study of fungi), another sensible — if not controversial — precaution is to avoid 'turning' your compost.
********************
Well worth a read ...

I am a sucker for pink! Love the colours!

Primula auricula

Hellebores on the way out! So nice to see these flowers!

 

[alp]

Was out edging and weeding from 2 to 4.20pm.

Saw a bamboo runner trying to migrate to my lawn! The runner was about 5 foot long and I cut it into 2

They are now potted and will be planted out tomorrow.

Suddenly, flowers and shoots have sprung up.

Moisture loving orchids bought at £2.99 reduced from £21.99 have shoots but those at the posh gc had shower stems last week. I will be laughing if they flower this year. This is dry east London and these just grow by stream. But how could I resist them? I hope I have some slipper miniature orchids amongst them. Not likely!

Little geranium says its annual hello. So beautiful and so full of lovely details and markings.

Such zenny hellebores!

I can't wait to apply the nematodes

I have about 6 buds from this more than 7-year wait peony - and look what has happened?

Except for 2 small buds, all the buds have been kissed by some nasties and I don't even know what!

I feel like SCREAAAAAAAMING!

Very, very annoyed! Going to apply some slug pellets as son has just enlarged the watering rose.

 

[alp]

Aha! Woke up to sunshine! Well, Woke up 7.45 instead of 4.45 or even 5.45, but hey, sunshine - not been known for more than a week. It's the misery and cold which really got me when it was grey! Not a lot of rain.

I think I will water the area to be treated, just to make sure. The nectarines seem to suffer from fungicide. Oh, dear! Had to buy some very expensive stuff to treat them.

Another sad story is that I don't have skunky Fritillaria Imperalis flowering this year. One was attacked by SS. Those in pots crowded with others are puny and weak. No chance to see flowers, let alone blue tits flitting around! There are too many posh eateries around for them to do so.

I have heard gold finches twitting all the times and yet I can never see them.

 

[alp]

Amaryllis Dancing Queen from Peter Nyssen

The only one I have which is willing to flower!

Home made watering rose

 

[alp]

Light at the end of the tunnel! Neighbours win FIVE-YEAR battle with pizzeria boss and force him to lop his 33ft Leylandii trees that left their home in darkness and 'ruined their lives'

• Yacine Titi, 42, has been told to chop down the trees in Thorntonhall, Lanarkshire
• Stewart and Linda Shankland said the trees left their property in darkness
• But Mr Titi said the trees provide a barrier between his home and a railway line
• A government reporter issued an order for the trees to be kept at a new height

I would boycott this pizzeria!

 

[alp]

Have to postpone the nematodes treatment as the temperatures are going to plunge until Tuesday! This morning was cold but in the afternoon, the strength of the sunshine has really made up for it. Did more weeding and also concentrate all my clematis. Now I have about 5 big buckets/pots of clematises.

Tonight's green - land cress - most delicious

Last year's iris seeds from hand-pollinated pods.

Tulips Fest 2019

This one is most spectacular as it has shards of darker red in the petals