Magazine style - all inclusive

[alp]

Very cool and with a strong breeze, but very sunny. Lovely for working in the allotment later.Will go to Wilko to have a browse.

Very happy with the forecast!

Very happy. Just 10 minutes of heavy rain and one butt is nearly full, another one, half full. The best is that the ground is wet.

My only hen was telling me something yesterday. As there was so much left over, I picked it up and mixed it with mealworms. Hen protested and looked at me, with the usual moan! I exposed a bit of mealworms and she happily obliged. Next thing I knew when I checked again later, she toppled 2 of the drinking vessels. They are made of ceramic! And the hatchbox was wet with water. My instructions to my son was that NO morre mealworms. This morning the same. I bet she will stop laying egg or eat it. These 2 hens have been pretty nasty.

The Lobela Tupa have been pretty slow

In a bit to deter slugs and snails, I have put a lot of coffee grinds around and underneath the soil. Also a bit of woodash, and lo and behold, some animal excrement was taunting me! The offensive calling card has since been removed. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr! Need to go out to check for slug again. Just checked. No, that wasn't it. Just a piece of stick!

Harunite Claire Marshall has a plummy colour and a wonderful scent

Remember Me is stretching its colour palette!

My first sedum or hylotelephium as explained by Monty last night. Half an hour and even that I drifted into oblivion from time to time.

Always a big fan of alstroemeria

I was startled by the big blue green blob over NE. Hope you all have power!

 

[Zenj]

Rain and more rain Tricolour lillyout today

 

[alp]

Rain and more rain Tricolour lillyout today
View attachment 57268

The lily is glorious, Zenj! So pristine and perfect.

We have sunshine and more sunshine. Not a drop of rain, apart from us departing for the allotment this morning.

Wonder if you saw the tree lilies in Gardeners' World! They were so tall.

Amazing the bog sage or Salvia uliginosa could be propagated so easily. I have a flowering cutting in the allotment.

Finally, I have my first Blue Bayou dahlia! Yeah!

White echinacea

One of the Deer Antler Dahlia collection!

Absolutely thrilled. La Luna Salvia - raised from seed! Wonderful surprise!

Sorry for the blurriness of the La Luna - the wind didn't help!

As you can see, someone's once tall, proud and glorious sunshine is no more! All thanks to the winds!

 

[alp]

Good morning - a very good night's sleep! All thanks to the cooler temperature! Went to Wilko yesterday, but no more further reduction and all the pots in B&M had gone!

Went out to inspect my lettuce planter. Some critters seemed to have been crawling all over the planter and I suspect squirrels burying their peanuts from Tesco. This just confirms my control freak method is better than planting the seedlings outside

Might sow more beans today. Have a nice weekend, everyone!

 

[alp]

A very quiet and dull morning and there is no wind. Did a bit of watering last night. Need to finish it later.

Salvia Solomon's Dance is very happy. I have now about 5 of them.

Have now quite a collection of alstroemerias

Have taken quite a bit of semi-ripe cuttings. Viburnum P Mariesii, and this Chile Lantern (C Hookerian) are my targets

2 of these dahlias - 1 at the front and one back

Fuchsia - not my favorite, but I will keep it.

Gallardia has one of a most striking flowers. Just loud and impressive. I have never had any luck raising them from seeds. £1 or 2 I really don't mind.

Echinacea Purpurea

Well, this Emilia, Irish poet is a joke. Very small, but the orange just speaks to me. Well, it should have looked like this

The language of marketing is that - These beautiful and unique orange blobs should be admired CLOSE UP! We were googling a Cornus tree yesterday and the blurb said exactly that, ie. very small flowers!

I have now quite a good collection of alstroemerias and hopefully, they will give me seeds.

Watched Beechgrove yesterday and was stunned to see the new lady presenter literally plonk a perennial lobelia in the water. I wonder if Lobelia Tupa should be treated so. Needed to google a bit.

Osteospermums are just so photogenic!

Quite a few lilies on sale yesterday. One red one was completed edged in the fringe with white. On comparison, Zenj's lily is so much prettier! Amazing how people breed all these lovely details to make us part with our money. I also saw a yellow dahlia which looked like a Blue Bayou, but yellow in colour. Most beautiful!

A lot of gallivanting yielded very little result except for a SOUR GRAPES with lots of material to split into several plants. £5 not cheap, but it cheered me up. Another one was a miserable Lysimachia atropurpurea Beaujolais. I really like a cornus Wolf's eye with variegated leaves, but just a penny under a tenner was too much for me!

Just when you think it's not worth looking at the weather report

70% of rain??? I will let you know.

 

[alp]

I was wondering if the squirrel is conversing to something. On closer inspection, it seemed to making two very different distinctive noises.

About 9.30am, about 5 minutes of rain. 1.15pm, decent proper rain for less than 15 minutes. Now it's just very fine spits. Where have all the exciting blue blobs gone? Ah, I know! Gone to torment Zenj! Oooooops!

One butt full and that's my luck! This stupid obsession of mine with rain!

Separated the Penstemon Sour Grapes and got 5 new plants out of it. £11 reduced to £5. Saw the couple in front of us and they had about 5 plants and paid £13. All because of the vouchers. I asked my son to join up straight away!

Going to take a lot of semi-ripe cuttings. I never knew that August is late summer!

The goal post has shifted. 11am instead of 8.

 

[Zenj]

Yes alp torment is the word raining again now ,the lawns are like quagmires cannot walk on them ,will certainly need a long dry spell to dry all this up.

 

[alp]

Zenj I- need to send you a tanker or I need to practise witchcraft. Must be very depressing raining every day or for a prolonged period and you can't dry your clothes properly. That's the humdinger!

Just now extracted about 40 tiny Trollius Chinensis seeds. Hard work and only two flowers set seeds. Just watched a video about how to raise clematis from seeds. Can't believe they said the seeds needed stratification. I never bothered and they just germinated. Seeds are funny things. They either germinate any time of the year or they wait till the right time comes along and then they sprout, like my iris seeds which germinated in Spring. Going to watch Medical Detectives. Very depressing as I have watched most of the episodes at least twice. I think I'm getting old as I now have forgotten the plots. Before, I was quite sharp and could recall the story lines. Just made me think about mortality!

Today, my right hand hurt a nerve when I clipped the secateurs too hard, trying to trim the lower branches of my bamboos so that they could let in more light and enable me to plant more underneath. The secateurs was designed for men and my small hand was no big enough. It hurt so much that I had to use my left hand to help clip the hardened branches. Very therapeutic even though it hurt and the rain stopped play.

 

[alp]

It's very cold last night. I had to shut the windows in the lean to. It's greyish and the sun is trying to come out. At least, I was not shivering. Going to be perfect weather to take cuttings and any pottering in the garden.

Just consulted RHS

Climbers, including ivy, passion flower, Solanum and Trachelospermum, lend themselves to semi-ripe cuttings. Evergreen shrubs such as Artemisia, Berberis, Brachyglottis, Camellia, Ceanothus, Choisya, Cistus, Convolvulus cneorum, Erica, Hebe, Fatsia, Mahonia and Viburnum.

I would do layering for Trachelospermum and I have already done a bit of Viburnum. Today, I will concentrate on Camellia and plant out my peonies or repot them.

To add to the list - rosemary, lavender. penstemons, salvias and fuchsias.

 

[alp]

What a lovely day!

Some of my alstroemerias

See how tall the bag sages are! My camera can't capture the powdery blue beauty! Just a big blurrrrrrr!

Penstemon Mother of Pearl

 

[alp]

I'm very worried for the safety of the democracy crusaders in Hong Kong. Really admired their tenacity and bravery. Once China get hold of these protesters and extradite them to China, they will be tortured and die a terrible death!

Can't wait for these elusive yetis!

Yesterday, a lady freegler came for my rhubarbs and I gave her some to plant and some to cook. Then saw neighbour and quickly offered or
offloaded him some which he gratefully accepted.

The Black Beauty had become black Beast I had to cut this beast into 3 parts as it was too big to go into the fridge. He had the bit near the stalk!

I have yet another juggernaut in the allotment!

 

[Perki]

Morning raining again for the umpteenth time August has been a shocking month rain rain rain. To many plants flattened mostly by the rain but the wind as well from last week.

what are courgettes used for ? soups - sauces

I've got some seeds to sow so I may go and do that

 

[alp]

Yes, Perki! August is here! But summer is NOT! First day this year I have had prolonged rain, but it had more or less stopped and then started again; but then it's not proper heavy rain. Now it's just gentle rain.

The courgette was gross - too big. I cut it into 3 bits and found a victim, my new neighbour, Ray, too offload it to. Very pleased and I cooked some in the rice yesterday. Another giant squash went to my friend who helped me laid the lawn, the one with a hyperactive Russian student. You could actually roast the big courgette. Think you mum can teach you a trick or two. @Perki do you cook at all? The first time I taught my son to crack open an egg, it went underneath the frying pan!

I had cracked open alstroemeria seed pods with two side plates for more than an hour. Before, I used both of my thumbs. As my right hand is showing symptoms of Carpal tunnel syndrome, I had a brainwave and used 2 plates to squash the hard seed pods inside a plastic bag. It worked and it's much quicker.

What are you sowing please, Perki! I will follow your advice. Cleaned up half of the lean to. With these low temperatures, I'm afraid my Pied de Selno melon and the yellow mellow plants will be just that ie. plants. Not enough heat to form fruit and I have planted all of the them outside. Off to watch Escape to the Country.

Do let me know what you're sowing, Perki, please!

 

[Perki]

Do I cook at all not really , other than chips and baked beans pizza and other junk food if I can be bothered , I do make apple crumble sometimes or a cheese and onion pie / mince pie xmas that about it , I am a very fussy eater and to lazy to make anything.

 

[Perki]

Seeds I've sown are perennials for next year - Agastache Liquire white - Penstemon twizzle scarlet and purple - Echinacea pallida - Veronicastrum Album and Verbascum Nigrum Album . I got sent Verbascum by accident instead of the Veronicastrum so a quick email and they arrived this morning.

 

[alp]

Do I cook at all not really , other than chips and baked beans pizza and other junk food if I can be bothered , I do make apple crumble sometimes or a cheese and onion pie / mince pie xmas that about it , I am a very fussy eater and to lazy to make anything.

That's so sad, son! If I don't eat properly, my bones will ache and knees hurt. I have to have a stick of celery and carrot every day. Well, I guess we're all of different constitution. When I told another allotmenteer that I didn't like rhubarbs, she said I should try Apple crumble. Haha! I didn't even like rhubarb tart. But I will try it again, just to see if rhubarbs ease my pains and ache! When you have children, what are you going to do when they only eat chips, Perki?

 

[alp]

Seeds I've sown are perennials for next year - Agastache Liquire white - Penstemon twizzle scarlet and purple - Echinacea pallida - Veronicastrum Album and Verbascum Nigrum Album . I got sent Verbascum by accident instead of the Veronicastrum so a quick email and they arrived this morning.

My cupcake seeds have never germinated! So this year, I have no cosmos at all. I'm very annoyed with this exclusive supplier of cupcake seeds as I have nothing but normal plain white cosmos. Fancy being the EXCLUSIVE seed supplier for that variety!

I bought echinacea pallida seeds from another supplier and they turned out to be very similar to the normal purpurea. I have Green twister and Green Jewel, but none of them have flowered. World wide wait! Need to google your seeds. Where did you get this twizzle scarlet and purple please? I do like penstemon and have taken tons of cuttings. I have found out that all these stupid softwood, hard wood and semi ripe marlaky is a bit of waste of time. Best is to take sharp knife and cut near the basal bit, especially if the stems are fleshy. I now buried the root areas, hoping to be able to harvest the stems as new plants.

 

[alp]

Sunny day and I need to get rid of the greatest social medium in the plant world in the front lawn. I got rid of the dying acanthus mollis and now I need to fashion a hedge near the main road.

The best rainy day I have had for the whole year. I think after Sunday, the whole garden will have had a proper genuine soak.

Rain has certainly cleansed the air, plants and it's like a summer-big-clean.

Listen to the expert and pulled out the spent flower spikes

Salvia Solomon's Dance

Salvia Dyson's Joy

Night moth

Trying to capture the bumble

Glorious alstroemerias

 

[Perki]

I find my Penstemon Garnet layers itself when it touches the soil, I got my seed off Seedaholic obviously I cant say on germination rate yet . Nutsncones on ebay sell Penstemon Twizzle series as well . have you never grown Veronicastrum before ? I never grown them from seed before but I've got 3 varietys in the garden , they are great plants really easy but they don't like drying out.

 

[alp]

Totally agree as I can see roots trying to go inside the soil. They look like teeth. I have now Penstemon Pensham Eleanor Young, Arabesque F1, Pheonix Pink and some boring reddish and a very white one looked dying, but I think there might be life, Sour Grapes Bearded, Sour Grapes (split into about 6 plants from one reduced plant £5) So much better than the lone stem from the nursery in Ingate where she sold one or 2 stems from £2.75 to £3.65. The gray Sour Grapes she wanted £7. So pleased to get mine from Wyevale and it was full of stems.

I really want to have a go at Veronicastrum as the flowers are hilarious and I will do anything for a laugh! I bought 3 packets of Sensatioin Mixed but I have NEVER had any luck with the germination rate. I googled your Twizzle and I hope you will upload them when they flower.

Perki: How do you keep seedling overwinter please? I so want to do delphinium, but I'm dreading killing them during winter.

It's been very cool in the morning, but just now the sun was out and I was hot. Got rid of tons of weeds from the front. Hopeless, they are the one with leaves like strawberries, but much smaller and they network everywhere. Tried to pull the roots out whenever I could, but nearly fell down due to how deep the roots went. I'm trying to fashion a hedge in the front.

My layer hen has been talking to me. She jumped up 8 inches to the upper platform and her head must have hit the roof and toppled the whole plastic tub of 5kg mealworms - hinting that I SHOULD FED HER WITH THESE. Whenever I gave her something to eat, she would pick the mealworms in a frenzy and the next frenzy was to beak out all the pellets or cooked vegs. I used to think, "Oh, dear! She has no food and she's going to starve!" Now I realise her trick, I would just put 2 handful of pellets or vegs or rice. When I fed next door chickens, she would hiss like a horrible aggressive snake and run back and forth along the cage and would turn up in the hatch box when I arrived at her den. I have now made it a point that if she topples the water which is inside a heavy 5 to 6 inch tall ceramic pot holder for plant, she won't have any until she hatches an egg the following morning. Very fed up at her lousy manners! I wonder how good I'm at training her! Judging from my son's behaviours, I haven't been very successful!