Magazine style - all inclusive

[Zenj]

Good morning. Zenj

Someone has pinched my 2 pink roses from the front lawn. including the stick. I fashioned them into standards myself. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I'm returning all my precious plants to the back now.

That’s sad it’s amazing how low people stoop to !

 

[alp]

Yes. They were out for 3 days and someone must have seen me working. And today has not been a good day for me. The £1 lady harassed me to tell her salvia hotlips again. In the end, I sold her 2 pots for £2. Anything more than £1 struck fear into her eyes and I was worried that she might have a heart attack, right in front of my house.

Then I bought 3 in 1 lens for mobile phone - wide angle, fish eye and macro. I am only interested in Macro and lo and behold, that didn't come. I have no use for fish eye or wide angle.

Not my day today!

 

[Woollie]

Its been a glorious day today quite a hard ish frost this morning. I've been out on another trek over the hills opposite set off at 10.45 , first I want to one of the garden centres I go to which is about 7 mile away I went by normal footpaths by the road easy enough , I were looking for some dahlia's I've been after for a couple of years Waltzing matilda , they didn't have it like I expected so will order online, I did want some pots for some of my dahlias as well £4 for one 10 inch plastic pot outrageous price. They didn't have much in looked like they were just getting stock in and they extended the glasshouse, its part of another large garden centre group so you do find the odd gem but its never cheap expect for the sale section sometimes , I've eyed up the hellebores I expect to be in the sale section come summer .

I didn't get anything it were more of a scouting around before I put the bike back on the road tomorrow . I went and sat on the railway benches and had my sort of dinner , I carried on my long journey home back over the hills the extremely long way MUCH further than I thought it would be ,walked passed / round so many reservoirs / windmills which I barely saw moving so no leccy generated don't have solar panels round here . I didn't get home till it went dark about 7pm just over 23miles latter I wore my old boots as well my feet are sore with 5 blisters , I pop them I can't help it . I did take my camera so I'll put some pictures on later .

The red camellia looking very nice I think the frost has took most of the buds on my camellia again , i did move a redcurrant yesterday round the back of the shed so I'll probably move the camellia to where the Redcurrant was.

I don't know why the government hasn't been a lot more strict with plant imports from the EU with the amount of diseases harbouring there that have destroying native trees and landscapes here . They should do tit for tat in my opinion might concentrate minds . Shame really for a lot of EU citizens as well the British growers seem to have far more varieties of plants than any on the continent. I've seen on other forums EU citizens asking how to get there seeds from the UK cause they can't get them anywhere else it all a bit silly really it like who got the biggest stick diplomacy.

Just one point that is true...the trading rules have changed between the EU and the UK because the UK are not in the group any more so the rules that were... are now void.. until the UK and the EU make the same agreements they cannot legally trade with each other..example that affect me.. I can no longer receive anything from the UK directly and I cannot even send a gift to my own children right now, that is how it is....kindergarden governments....

 

[alp]

Woollie: Welcome to the thread. These trading rules are silly and just yesterday I heard on C4 news (catch up as I don't pay TV licence. Now that BBC will not be investigated over Martin Bashir dodgy cheques affair, I feel so justified, not to mention they have nothing but repeats on the BBC!) that:

The Government has moved to unilaterally ease another element of the contentious Brexit arrangements governing trade to Northern Ireland. A ban on importing plants potted in soil from Great Britain to the region has been temporarily lifted. ... The Government has now relaxed the prohibitions related to soil.15 hours ago

Government announces further unilateral Northern Ireland ...

Hopefully, we all can enjoy our plants. But I am sure EU will scream and kick. It's our governt's fault that they didn't read the small prints.

Didn't do much yesterday as the Kodak 3-in-1 lens took up a lot of my time to solve. I asked the seller to send me the 3rd lens. And got this reply

We can advise these 3 go together to create the 3rd lens

(THERE IS NEVER these 3!) Only 2 lens. Then I initiated return and ebay said I should either pay £3.25 or £4?? for postage) I phoned up ebay and the first person was adament that I chose the wrong category - it doesn't fit, rather than others and hence I had to pay. Then I decided to cancel the return procedure and phoned up again. This time, a man, Lee, with EARS and HEART actually helped me solve the problem. He gave me a refund and case closed.Now, I'm stuck with a Fish eye lens and a wide angle lens which couldn't even photo this laptop as a regular rectangular gadget - with sides wonky. I need to find a child with a mobile. phone and let him/her have some fun. But I shouldn't complain. At least, I don't have to return the item and get charged £3.25. I might turn the lens the other way round to see what happens or glue the 2 together to see if I get a proper MACRO.

Got Mr Fothergill's big mag again! This time I really leafed through it and boy, some items were so reasonable and yet quite a few soldouts. They have very reasonable plug plants, but there are not more obscure and yet fascinating products - no Helenium Rubinzwerg, no Rudbeckia Herbstonne... It's like going to Lidl, you get good value, but don't expect choices. In the end, I bought 10 Green Twisters and one Helenium. I love Helenium but my diabolical labelling meant I don't why where my Early Sahin or Mardi Gras is. It's a shame I didn't read it the first time. But very pleased and alarmed that even without going out, I spent nearly £30 on Halls of Heddons and Mr Fothergills each!

Last night C4 news reported the problems faced by Fountains Abbey. I was in awe of a building erected 1132 and is still standing. Henry VIII should have respected the building and shouldn't have destroyed our heritage. Now age and elements conspired together to bring about its demise.

This poor yellow hellebore is suffering big time!

My only one of this beauty

Selbourne Green tip

A new variety

This is not the prettiest, but no upskirting is needed

This could be Spring Promise MaryLou!

Wide Angle Macro

You can't see the distortion here, but if I were photographing this laptop, the edges would be wonky!

 

[alp]

Apparently, little emperor detached the wide angle from the macro lens and now there is a 3rd lens, but look at the state of my hellebore below. The macro lens just couldn't focus on the flower

Now this is the macro, but this macro is probably good only for this kind of close up ie I can't take a whole flower unless it's Hepatica.

It has to be really, really close. Here, only the pollens are in focus, not even the centre of the flower

Ah, well! probably OK for snowdrops and nothing else.

 

[alp]

Just when I thought there was nothing to photograph, out of the watering can came a pair of frogs in flagrant congress. Well, there is love, lust and life in the air! All is well - we need frog and froggies!

Bitterly cold and yesterday was a grey day. Weeded half a raised dwarf wall and moved about 8 bits of irises and hellebores to the raised dwarf wall, Fertilised the area and today, I'm going to fill up that area by 4 inches, using the soil dug up by the chickens. They kept flying out, especially the lame one! Most of them have got lovely feather bar one. She is still bald every bottom and backside. The poor thing. I will rub her again with the dust today. These chickens are powerful exfoliators - my fern is bereft of any foliage, all the tiny areas weeded and soil exposed as if I had worked hard there for 3 days!

Sowed a lot of seeds:
Penstemon Mensarum,
Salvia La Lune,
Salvia Macrophylla var macrophylla red (boring one).
took cutting x3 from Pasa Doblé
2 x collarette
One Fancy Pants

Today, I will sow all the salvia seeds I have: Lady in Red, Pink Jewel and even the giant Euphoria.; Hians as well. But it seemed to be it never flowered and I got fed up. The seeds are from Zenj! LOL! Did you have flower the first year, Zenj?

Gutted that Salvia Discolor from Middleton nursery died. I don't rate this nursery. The salvias are pot bound and literally came with no soil, like the hellebore roots.
I am still after Leucantha
Salvia Discolor
Romneya Coutleri
a tall white cirsium,
a tall sanguisorba and
a bushy Davidii Involucrata. I have a stick of the latter. A stick which cost me a lot and I am not impressed.

Because of the theft from the front, I think to grow veg there instead. Imagine all the exhaust fume sticking to your onion skins which you boil and drink the juice! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Went to Hayloft website and it didn't seem to work. All appeared in html format. No joy there!

Perki: Remember to sow your toms seeds!

 

[Zenj]

Morning alp I believe it flowered the second year it as been a very cold winter this year,I think Ihave lost a few plants time will tell,very cold last night and a dull day,I have held back on seed sowing ,even the frogs seem to have done a runner no spawn yet I don’t think the ladies turned up for the party too cold.have a good day.

 

[alp]

Good morning. Woken by when I felt hot. and it was 4am. I tried to sleep again, but just couldn't do it. It must be painful for those with insomnia.

Yes, I kept sowing them last year as the seeds were from you and kept asking myself where they were. Then I saw a label next to a salvia. Also, dug up a salvia in the middle of the patch and I couldn't associate the flower with it, so I thought it could be Hians. I just kept asking myself, "Haven't you sown some Hians but where are they?" I need to sow some more as I have found out that they germinate very well in polystyrene drinking cups.

As little emperor's car mileage is being monitored, we decided not to go out and we tried to raise the path by 4 inches and thereby raising the whole garden to stop it from being flooded. LE ended up using brick to lift up the whole path and was moaning non-stop. I just ignored him. I don't remember moaning so much when I was doing it.

The whole day was cold and grey and I was wondering why Met Office said it would be sunny from 9am. Any sun came out at 2pm and I took the same photos again. I couldn't help it as the sun was OUT!

Lovely sunshine did make a lot of difference - see so many more details.

This is such a delicate flower

Stained Glass from Hillcrest

Shades of Night from Summerhill

White ruffled anemome hellebore

I think this could be Melanie Broughton

Plummy ruffled anemone hellbore. See the clear fringed petals and yet fully blotched petals. A lot going for this beauty.

This year's happy find!

Spring Promise series Marylou! Spring Promise is a lovely series - always full of blooms, but the Anja Oudolf is quite buggy

Another fantastic new addition. Shame I think I might have lost the red double.

 

[Perki]

wet day so I've been in the greenhouse pricking out some begonia seedling and sowed some extra petunia seeds . Also potted up my begonia tubers which were already raring to go.

The David Austin catalogue arrived today oh the temptation . The front lawn I think will disappear this year I've got to many ideas on what I could do with all that planting space think a English garden prairie style

, Prairie plants like Eupartoriums - veronicastrums - molinia - sanguisorba and swaths of eryngium - salvias - astrantia add in a 100+ or so alliums and a few shrub rose and probably another climber/rambler on the fence , could do to stop thinking about it the lawn will be gone by the end of this week .

Ordered some plants the other day from binney plants , thought I were doing so well not buying any plants this year but for seeds - dahlia tubers and some other bits that don't count

I did sow my tomato seeds on Saturday I always so tomatoes on Bday , I had a sowing marathon sowed loads of varieties it just fitting them in the propagator what's the problem

 

[alp]

Very unpleasant day as I just couldn't find the Green Twister seeds, nor could I find Rudbeckia Amplexicaulis - my favorites

I have sown Costoluto Fiorentina and some other toms, but these days, I have been so busy and all my seedlings died because of heat, cold and dryness. The only thing that has been doing well is peonies, some showing buds - Premavera and Bowl of Beauty. Trying to do a headcount of the casualties and came across Shaggy which sounded like a dog. After googling, it said Astrantia and I have another bit of leaves which looked like weeds, I had to google the leaves as well. Now I know that it is alive. So glad that I buried nearly all of the labels. Most of the times, they just got dislodged by winds and myself and foxes.

Talking about the blasted critter: I heard a commotion and saw 2 chickens trapped in wire fence and I put them all back in the coop. One missing. I used mealworms to do a headcount and yes, one pretty one missing. Gutted! I nursed from from bald bellies and butts and now with beautiful plummage, the fox had it, with only some feathers to confirm my heartbreak. I looked at neighbour's lawn, some black feathers of a pigeon lying around, too. I cried in my heart and just tried to move on by making myself work very hard. I felt like a very bad mother.

Neighbour had a leak in their water tank and water seeped through kitchen ceiling and they are so worried that they didn't turned on the kitchen electricity. Glad that he has his daughter and in law to help. But still, I feel sorry for him. Who needed this hassle at his age? Then of course, he bought insurance but that bit was not covered. That's why I never buy such insurances as the small prints bury all the vital costly bits that won't be covered. Only call out and basic repairs. Now they said there would be 4 weeks' wait.

In the coop, there has been excavating work done by foxes underground. I could see tons of earth moved and some corners cave in. We would put some polycarbinate board underneath as soon as there is light today. Once bitten, twice shy,

Back to plants. Perki, are you going to remove the lawn? I am removing the lawn and it has been hard work. Slow and painful and I felt like a fish in a glass bowl. All passers-by or bus passengers could see him labouring and probably deciphering which plants to sreal ...

This is a very plain snowdrop, but it's rare in the sense that it's still flowering!

Some Daphne

Very difficult to capture this tits

Pigeons are making a nest in the neighbour's holly bush! They are flapping in and out, carrying materials from a tree one neighbour but next

19 times magnification

Zenj took most beautiful wildlife photos! I bought sunflower hearts, but the best that I have are bluetits and nothing else! Gutted!

How big is your propagator, Perki?

 

[Perki]

I am not taking the lawn up yet I'll make my decision later on in the year depending on how well the lawn does over this year.
I have two Stewart propagators a 38cm and a 52cm .

Shame about the fox getting the chicken , it will keep coming back for the rest they are opportunist.

 

[alp]

Sunflower seeds are very popular with tits. But I don't have the other lovely that Zenj has! I think they are spoilt for choice here. Love to see Goldfinches, green ones and bullfinches. Here Tits are my greatest excitement.

I wonder how to smoke them out as they have been digging up a lot of earth at the back of my garden; indeed, all 3 gardens including mine have been plagued by them and son said that we should concrete it up. I could see holes near the edge of concrete. The previous owner concrete bits and pieces and dug a hole for his coal at the back or his boat. Any way, it was a terrible job, leaving soil and chance for the foxes to excavate.

Son and I started moving the coop at 6.45 and we finished moving the main coop at 7.45, so it was a pretty easy job. I treated the birds to tons of mealworms. Then I worked at the front until 6pm and felt asleep watching Evidence of evil.

This is one corner of my lean-to, with mould showing every spring! This is my biggest propagator. Of course, I have a Verio? What temperatures do you set yours at please, Perki?

This could be E G Waterhouse - Delicate beauty!

This yellow one turned out to have spots. I'm hunting for a green one with blotches. Oh, dear! Might have been killed last year

I bought one of these Snowflakes last year. After planting , it was promptly dug up by a fox. Bought another one and left them in the make shift greenhouse. Then last month, I was horrified that I had totally forgotten it. I only remembered it when the cat had ruined my labels - it used the only suitable spot for these dainties several times a day to go to my neighbour who fed it. Now all the Kondos got mixed up with others. I saw some leaves and that reminded me to look for this one. That's why it's flowering so early.

This is in the afternoon

Yesterday was the loveliest day of the year so far and of course, I was perspiring non-stop! I have sown tons of rainbow beetroots, onions, (both spring onion and round ones), dill, Angelica straight to ground next to the slabs and if the SS didn't get the seedlings, I might be able to have gluts of these. I'm banking on the rain which is yet to come to water the seeds well in!

 

[alp]

It's official: There are black holes in my house and seed packets just disappear into the void! Couldn't find 2 seed packets. Ah, I spent the whole day stuck in my chair sorting out all the seeds; and no, they were unwilling to be found or the black holes had gobbled them up.

And you would think I would have 4 x 230L water butts full after seeing all the thick band of rain sweeping from the west. No, I have 4 inches at most and it was drizzly and spitty! So much for £1m bonus for the Met Office. Imagine a business having no customers because Met Office predicted heavy rain which turned out to be nothing but a fine mist! Based on the thick girth of the rain band, I let go of 2 x 230L of rain water. I must remember that rain bands always dissipate into nothingness before they reach East London.

First thing I did yesterday after feeding the chickens was to pick up the male which I should name Din (not Dean, but Din! It was constantly blackmailing me by non-stop crowing until I fed them! I reckon he was told by the ladies to make the noise so that I couldn't work in peace!); and he's always attacking the ladies. Whenever it's feeding time, he would start by attacking whoever feeding next to him. So I cut off a bit of its beak to stop him from being so nasty. Now, I have to feed the 6 chickens in 3 different places: one for the majority, one for the lame and one for the bald. I felt so sorry that the bald and the lame had to hold back in the fringe because the others wouldn't let them go near the food!

For the first time, I was actually willing to let go of seeds. I had to chuck some, especially those from China which said SKU???? and no name. I wonder if the customs office charges people extra handling fees for stuff coming from China now. Before Brexit, they enjoyed 3rd world developing country status and you can buy something iffy cheaply. But I wouldn't like to try buyng anything from China now.

This is part of the areas I have been working on. 2 weeks ago, it was all grass. I put the slabs in diamond shape to increase amount of warm areas and I have sown seeds all along the 2 sides and the diamond path. It's not yet done, but it is a start and it was hard work, mostly done by me. I haven't touched the soil on either side of the slabs, but it has been hard work, not to say I had to remove moss from the pavers on either side. I had had great plans for this newl area until my rose standards were stolen. I thought the rain would thoroughly drenched the soil. Er, no! But it's raining now and before, the winds were a bit excited and noisy, The winds must have been terrifying for those living in the west!

Some of the daffs - a bit boring!

Don't think I am going to buy any new daffs! All these are in pots facing west and the warmth must have started them early.

Nearly forgot about this beauty!

 

[Perki]

I've been garden centre today and picked up 10 bags of compost for me and 5 for next door , 2 bags of john innes no3 and one ericaceous JInnes for the blueberries I potted up this afternoon .

Had a look round for a pot for one of the DAustin roses I bought the other day , I bought eustacia Vye and Dedemona. No nice pots around I fancied but did pick up one cheap 15L pot for one of the roses to be planted in temporarily.

 

[alp]

Now. who's talking about Desdemona? My friend has one as well. Need to google to see why it's so popular!

I went to Glebe and saw some lovely fluffy compost with quite a bit of coir. The owner (8 acres) said he ordered them from Scotland and we saw lorry loads of about 10 of them. I have been very disappointed with my germination and cuttings as the soil I have used is quite compact despite adding perlite. Not impressed. Because of that, a lot of seedlings die, probably because I started too early as well. Some plants I bought from British gc had very light compost and the root mass was very happy. B&Q Verve is now full of lumps and sticks.

Well, it's official: I have not been able to find my tons of pirouette seeds, Green Twister seeds or Oriental Poppy seeds. Gutted. Turned the house upside down and no.

Sowed more salvia: glutinosa, Hians, macrophylla and even some Nachtvlinder seeds. Rudbeckia Amplexicaulis and wish I had Mexicanus. Today, I will try Penstemon Mensarum again.

One of my many seed boxes bought from Aldi. The compartment are too small!

Erythronium Snowflake

Scented daff!

Fritillaria persica Ivory Tower?

I wonder what this is!

This crown feels comfy and cushy!

Glorious daffs!

I am still waiting for Einstein!

Zenj: I wonder if you could give me the model of your panny camera please. I saw your trollius from last year and it was gloriously and gorgeously captured, something my little one can't do. Thank you.