3: Gardening Diaries ...

[alp]

Envious about your rain @BigC ........but you can keep your wind

Same here! Don't want any wind. Wish I had replaced my garage instead of my lean-to. Every time there is wind, I pray to heavens to keep the roof ON!

 

[alp]

Just started to rain here about 40 min ago, lawn showing signs of stress due to lack of water, Don't think I've ever seen gardens dry out this much before.

I have several bald patches on my lawn. Half of my back garden is laid to lawn. I can see cracks in the clay. It's that bad!

 

[alp]

Good morning to all. That's the problem with lanky tree. I bought a Mirabelle and it is always blown over by the wind blowing from nasty neighbour's side. I have now tethered it to a table. So now, instead of lying on its side, it's slanting toward my house.

@Perki Such a beautiful collection of plants. Those roses are so beautiful. That's the problem with irises. A worker in my favorite nursery said she couldn't stand irises. For me, it is not long flowering. I bought TWICE some re-blooming irises from a certain mail order company. So far, I haven't seen any Pass the Wine or any other. All I see is Indian Chiefs. The rhyzomes were so shrivelled and dry that they died or took 3 years to see anything decent. No more mail order for me.

Love the clematis - single and double flowers in one plant? The double is a screamer!

 

[Logan]

I've seen lawns go brown, but they've grown back again.

 

[alp]

I wish I could take your iris sibricas, @Perki ! I'm going to disappear until late in the afternoon. A lot of plants need to be hidden from the house. I have tons of Aechmeas and as the man in a programme said, they were pretty much indestructible and they all have babies.. Now I have tons of them. Couldn't help myself - 75p per plant! Even the lovely Indian checkout lady recognised me and said one, "No plants today!" She must have known my disappointment.

Logan - grass might come back, but the bold patches are cracking with fissures .. I hope so. I will give them a hand .. but it takes time. I just hope it rains today. I am desperate for it. Wonder if it's raining your way, Logan! I'd dying for rain!

 

[alp]

Keep safe, @BigC !

 

[Zenj]

Morning all very windy here not due to calm down until 5 ish this aft , Troilus as been flattened everything else getting battered .

 

[alp]

Winds picking up as well. 5pm is a long time in meteorological term!

An hour of solid work and more after this. The plants in the back of the garden are dying.

 

[Mark56]

@alp Where in Reading was the property? I have pretty good knowledge of the area, like any large town it has it's nice areas and not so persuasive places

 

[alp]

Mark56: Brunel Road RG30. What do you think? But I need to sell my house first. Or I need a bridging loan which will be a nightmare. Thank you.

 

[Perki]

Evening all , it been a windy day branches / leaves / rose flower heads blowing around. The lupin got a serious lean on it now, some of the allium heads were nearly touching the floor the poor sods, they didn't break though.

Yes it the same clematis with single and double flowers Alp,I couldn't name the variety though, it dud a disappearing act for a year. I did plant another clematis near it called miss bateman but that disappeared now or i haven't noticed it.

 

[alp]

I have killed quite a few clematises myself. Carelessness. Sieboldii is nowhere to be seen. It's just so hot here. We had gusts of winds, but not serious. Not a drop of rain and now I am crying... It will be weeks before we can see any .. Photos have been taken and we are one step forward. I have found out that a lot of houses are being sold with over 60s and hence a much lower price. Trouble with clematis is that the SS might get to them before the stems are up. That's why has happened to my Amistad. I saw a cluster of green, but no stems to speak of. I chucked some ashes from my bonfire and now they are getting a bit longer, thanks to @BigC 's reminding me of his grandpa! Thank you Mr Grandpa! Harvested quite a bit of strawberries. They are small as I couldn't afford to water them, but they taste quite nice.

 

[Logan]

Logan - grass might come back, but the bold patches are cracking with fissures .. I hope so. I will give them a hand .. but it takes time. I just hope it rains today. I am desperate for it. Wonder if it's raining your way, Logan! I'd dying for rain!

Put compost in the cracks in your lawn and don't cut it too short.In the autumn spike it and you can seed it then, before it gets too wet. Don't walk on it when wet and soggy, that will make it worse.

No didn't have any rain, might on Saturday.

 

[Logan]

Going to run out of rain water for the blueberries, what we have done in the past is add tap water to the half empty water butts to dilute the tap water. Even though we're on a water meter, still use it for the polyanthus, i don't water the summer bedding a lot.

 

[Perki]

Filled the two largish pots at the front door with compost / manure, they been empty for a few days so don't want to give thefts a chance to lift them. It took over 50 litres of compost to fill one, cost me a fortune in compost filling my pots / planters up. I've plonked Dahlia David Howard in the middle of each pot as a centre piece, not sure what to go with this year to fill the rest of the pot up with, I've got some tithonia plants so may try them and some trailing begonia or petunia what you think