Magazine style - all inclusive

[alp]

Good morning, Zenj! Wet, windy and I don't mind taking all your rain, but wind, NO! You can keep that!

£548! That's a huge dent! Running a car is very expensive. I paid, grudgingly,the remainder of my premium for the last car yesterday. Gee! Imagine you had an accident the beginning of your insurance policy! Thank heavens that's £160 plus for 3 months' premium. I thought no business was making money until I had an accident. I offered to stay on the insurance policy, but they asked for £2K plus! That's taking away my cheque for the last car. Any way, I need to forget this and move on. Bread and butter for me as well!

All the people have emptied the shelves of stuff! All looks very worrying! So happen that I am down to my last 16 tissue rolls. Not much fun joining in the scramble. Some people were so stupid, tracked some hand sanitiser and it was on the way to this person. But no, the seller recalled it and then raised the price! Crazy! All they need is to wash their hands with soap and get some wet wipes handy!

 

[Perki]

Afternoon rain rain and more rain.

I can't be doing with cards I see it as a waste of paper.

They wasn't anything but twigs to take a picture of and nope its not a typo £1900 , another client I do work for now and again bought a very large Japanese maple, judging on how thick the trunk were and slow growth rate it most of cost a least 2K + , to have money eh its like a different world for some. If I take the job on I'll take a picture , I were going to take my dad to have a look see if we can fit it in but it looks more like a saturday morning / day job for me.

MOT my bike due a mot soon , I hope I don't get clobbered with a hefty bill.
I don't class them as pot holes here more like craters .

I don't understand people panic buying , its stupid and selfish .

 

[alp]

We had a grey day yesterday and boy, wasn't it WINDY! It sounded like another vicious storm. I saw my bamboos flaffing its top leaves and was really scared.

The wind speeds seem to be normal today. It could have been over 40 yesterday! It struck fear into my heart.

I divided some Lobelia Compton Pink and some Hadspen Purple ones.

Today, I need to sow more seeds and really get going! Or I am too late.

Early in the morning, had to hunt for tissue rolls and rat killers.

Isn't that shocking!?

In the end, I had to go to Wilko in the afternoon to buy some tissue rolls and rat poison!

Perki Hope you take the Sat job or Sunday job - nice to be a buyer in a gc! Whoa! It's like a child let loose in a candy shop! What wouldn't you buy? Fancying going through all the catalogues and take your pick!

Bread and butter for me and I must lock up my credit card. Worse still, I need to stock up stamps. Every time I put stamps on, the rude post office people would say, don't do it. Before when post office was post office in its own building and not part of a corner shop or WH Smith, their staff were that rude or unprofessional. Now that I have educated the one up the road, I could actually get a proper certificate of posting even when I had had some stamps on.

Looks like a decent day! Sad that it's more rain for you guys up north!

 

[alp]

Awww! You've got to have a look at these weather photos

BBC - Pic of the Season - Winter 2019/20

Weather Watchers Pic of the Season

www.bbc.co.uk

The winner is the last photo and I have to say the composition is great, with stepping stones as foreground!

 

[Perki]

Afternoon fine this morning but damp , been building a dry stone wall for another client which was going along well until the heavens opened drowning me and turning everything into a mud bath .

I took the other job after another look yesterday evening , its not as big as I remember but plenty to do . Not sure when I'll get chance to do some work thereat this rate with covid 19, are we going to be quarantined like Italy . Bit worried both my parents have weaken immune systems dad in his 60s and mum 60 this year.

I liked the second to last picture most out of all of them.

 

[alp]

Snap! Just come in to google something - soil for canna and Crinum.

Make sure you get your parents multivitamins - one a day. It's no laughing matter. Yes, China has an annual nuisance for us ..

It's lovely here! A bit of wind, but it was sunny and glorious. sown tons of seeds - clematis, savlias, abutilons - very pleased until I saw Indian Mallow. The latter sounds like a let down. I'm no racist!

So lovely here. Amazing how you guys put up with the grey drip, drip, drip or drop, plog.. I'd run for the sunnier clime.

Yes, get a job with the council. That's what my late in law said. Sounded like losing your soul for stability. But we do need money to be happy! Gardener with the council! Or RHS or National Trust. Economic downturn is INEVITABLE!

 

[alp]

Son said the garage door nearly bashed his car because of the strong winds.

Lo and behold, 40 for wind gust again. Really shocking.

Looks like half a decent day.

Toppled the whole tray of thalictrum seedlings. Gutted. Sowed on 26 February and they were really nice and half of them on the floor.

Hepatica - I would never have believed it that I could grow this beauty here in hot and droughty East London! But this year, the weather has been crazy. Even the camera has been giving me a helping hand

All my erythroniums accounted for. Been looking for them in the wrong place.

Iris Harmoney

Anja Oudolf - the best look I have had so far!

 

[MargaretEvans]

Wonderful information for photo lovers, I am grateful to you and I am going to use it!

thanks!

 

[alp]

Mother's day been and gone! Well, 2 hours of TV and one whole box of Ferrerro Rocher ( the white ones which I really enjoyed). I sat there, totally disappointed with myself until I picked up a packet of beans and saw the dwarf beans hanging prolifically down the tiny plants. There and then I decided to extend my patch. From 4 to 6.40pm, I removed the grass and turned the clay clod and I was very pleased with myself. This morning I will incorporate some other material to the area and start sowing the beans and and cover the sown area to keep it warm.

This butterfly was the first thing I saw yesterday morning! A nice visitor! This could be a Polygonia egea or Southern Comma.

Forgot to mention that I have taken cuttings from various dahlias. It's so tricky to take a bit of the tuber materials, but one of out 4, I managed to do it. Sowed some Lapis Lazuli agapanthus seeds and will transplant my tray of seedlings later.

 

[alp]

Ah well, at least, I've the print screen. Son must have fiddled with my laptop. Always a nuisance. No wonder it's so dark. It's raining. At least, the rain has damped down the particulates from vehicles and moistened the soil.

Going to incorporate some sand into the clay

F Reddeana

Added a bit more and I have already finished digging this extra bit and incorporated some home made compost. When the weather has cleared up, I will sow some beans, beetroots and something else.

• Dug up a beautiful alstroemeria and planted some outside in the front lawn. Broke quite a few stems. Heartbroken.
• Taken cuttings of Penstemon Etna.
  planted out some little clumps of Stipa gigantea everywhere - about 6 of them
• culled 2 more hellebores
• had probably sown delphinium seeds together with salad leaves. Ouch!

Expecting a delivery of some plants today.

 

[alp]

That was yesterday's post!

Took some cuttings of my aster Girasol

Sowed some Elenora Express beans,
Some sweetcorn,
some salad leaves
Some Renegade Spinash - all these under cloche which spanned the area dug up above.

Also replanted some snowdrop.

Yes, very grey out there

Dahlia Variabilis Collarette Dandy repotted

All 6 of my erythroniums accounted for. But the most expensive Trillium Grandiflorum is still buried in the soil.

My double daff has already had a broken stem.

This is the beans which spurred me on. Organic, AGM, express and prolific. Hope they taste good.

Of all the nuts I have planted, Almond is the fastest to germinate : 2 in here already!

Replanted them in one bigger pot.

Incidentally, I read in Which? Gardening that growers or gardeners do not like peat free stuff and because it is costlier to produce, they don't sell well as those with peat content.

What kind of mix do you prefer? I happen to be using a peat free one with 4 months' feed ie. slow release pellets inside (not a lot though). In fact, what is your favorite compost?

Bought a magnolia at reduced price and was very pleased that it was showing buds, even happier when I saw the colour of the blooms

Lime yellow, but not white. So pleased that it's not a Susan or Stellata!

 

[Zenj]

Well a dry day but cold wind, staining all the back fence ,a bit at a time though to save my back, multi purpose compost Clover if I can get it not many stockists around here or Jacks Magic ,I all ways mix some grit in and seaweed meal.

 

[alp]

Jacks Magic is quite dear and only very knowledgeable gcs stock them. I will work out the cost and by the way, where do you get your seaweed meal please? A very busy day, from Enfield to Dagenham! Just finish meal and cutting my millennial's hair.

 

[Perki]

Well seen as football not on anymore I seem to have to much time to do some gardening .

I've been in the GH pricking out seedling Antirrhinum majestic / admiral - Petunia Axillaris - verbena . Sowing some more seeds with some second attempts on some, Salvia hastata / crassula seeds have been in the fridge for the pat 3-4 weeks trying to break their dormancy.

Potted on petunia cutting which surprisingly took really well , and re potted some pelargoniums / petunia which mange to overwinter in the GH.

I've been using jacks magic for seed sowing.

What plants did you get Alp ?

 

[alp]

Well seen as football not on anymore I seem to have to much time to do some gardening .

Feel very sad for you! My brother was an avid Man U fan - don't know why as I hate seeing Roy Keane and his ilk leaning on to the referees.. And it seemed there was an extra player on pitch for Man U. I felt so sorry for Arsene Wenger. Any way, when my brother was here, I didn't take him to the pub to watch the match and he missed his favorite team playing. I will never forgive myself for that. Well, perhaps, I'm autistic too.

It's a shame that the players have the symptoms or they could have played to an empty stadium (with fake noise from the tenor! LOL!) and football teams could still get money. As it is, small teams will go under. Life will be very hard for all.

I have got 2 clematis macropelatas double one blue and one pink (£7.49 each ). 2 territorial orchids. One penstemon .. Another Jackmanii! When I saw millions of blooms from someone's clematis Montana alba or Armandii, I so wanted to cry. I chopped mine off as I was worried that it would bring down the fence. As it is, not a bloom this year . Of course, more dahlias, iris and a one peony Prmavera. Love, love, love it!

This last one is the front cover Set me back £2.99. Wonder when I can see it flower. Not this year! As my tree peony has tons of buds and it's too late for it to form any buds.

Also, a Bishop of Dover! £1.99

How much are they a bag please, Jack Magic? Do you sell it a truck load? I saw some American sitting on his raised bed, advising people to line the first 5 inches with twigs, dead branches or even trunk and top soil is from a truck! Whoa! Someone freegled a ton of top soil, but of course, someone with a truck had got it before me. Top soil has not much nutrients.

Also, while the car was moving, I saw Myddelton House Gardens with the words created by plantsman E A Bowles and it said free entry. We drove in and it says pay and display. Neither of us had got £2.50 cash, so we drove out and parked the car nearby in a free spot and walked in. It was lovely, with a lovely pond and a terrace to sit to admire the fountain. Son said that it was originally a river. They stemmed it with spoils from Victoria Line to turn it into a lake. He didn't complete his rock garden, but it was like a park with rise and fall. He apparently had to stop his study in Cambridge and come back to look after his parents. I heard about him when I read E A Bowles snowdrop.

I didn't buy it - £50! couldn't afford it. Also it looks a bit bland, compared with Godfrey Owen

6 petals with something to upskirt to discover.

Margaret Owen is his wife

Margery Fish is more exciting and I bought this one.

Wish someone would name something after me! Hehe!