General Chat

good morning all overslept and woke at 0858 this morning I have never done that before as long as I can remember. Good job I am not going anywhere.

Ann 5 water butts, good heavens! Where do you keep them all?

Mandy, try harder! lol. :-D I think my rain dancing days are over now! Still no rain, but I think the forecast is for storms the next few days so we'll see. All our (5) butts are empty now.

Thank you for the list Vera. I will keep that until I start to buy plants.

We had quite a bit of rain so no need for me to water tonight thank goodness.

Vera, it's surprising what the thought of lugging a bucket to and from the kitchen sink will prompt :-D

Got lovely rainwater here ,bring your buckets and I'll fill them ,sorry to heavy to post :-D

Good thinking Island. That wouldn't have crossed my mind. When we moved here we got rid of our big water butts because there was nowhere suitable to put them. Instead we bought a slimline one that only holds about 100 litres and sits on the back of the garage wall. The top of it is high up so I don't think I could reach it to fill it. I suppose I could stand on the top of the steps dragging the hose behind me and hope there's enough power to make the water run uphill to the top of the butt. On second thoughts, perhaps not ;-)

Vera - it hasn't tipped it down where I am either. In fact, I've had to fill the water butt with a hose 'just in case'

Anng you might not have got out in the garden but you've got lots of other jobs done ,enjoy your roast chicken .


Ann I'm not sure I have any puff left after blowing the rain Veras way for two minutes :-D but I'll give it a go later as I'm full up from our meal now

Mel I love a nice fruit salad and yours sounds lovely but i haven't made one for a while
the girls like to make a fruit salad when they come and they helping to chop the fruit ,I usually put my fruit in orange juice .

We had Lasagne with salad tonight finished off with strawberries and cream .

Rain has stopped but there's plenty of black clouds about, one good thing is no watering needed tonight only the greenhouse.

Sounds yummy Mel though I'm not a huge fan of Pimms.

I wish all you lovely people would stop talking about the rain tipping down because it ain't tipping down here :-(. Around lunchtime there was a tiny little shower that barely wet the path. It was just a few drops and was over in about 2 minutes. The sun's out at the moment and it's 24 degrees and muggy.

AnnG, some years ago the plantswoman Beth Chatto turned a car park at her gardens into a gravel garden. It is never watered and has flourished and looks wonderful. Some of the drought resistant plants she suggests are:

Agapanthus
Ballota
Helianthemum
Hylotelephium (Sedum)
Iris
Nepeta
Perovskia (now Salvia)
Santolina
Stachys
Stipa
Thymus
Verbena

It might be worth you considering one or two of those.

Evening Gang,

24 degrees here and quite muggy but there is a little breeze. We had some rain in the night but most had dried up by the time we were up so I don't think it was much. Please blow harder Mandy so some comes our way too. :-) Lots of black clouds but they just passed over us all day. That's a good idea to put water out for the hedgehogs. I'm not sure we still get any but I will put a garden pot drip tray out with some water in, just in case. The Pigeons are turning up every day to bathe in the water feature if I don't spot them first. The poor water lily gets a bashing and they have 2 ponds in the field they could use instead.

Mel that does sound like a big fruit salad. The Pimms would be nice in it too.

I've cleaned the fridge and tomorrow we can put all the pots, tables and chairs back in place as our backs have had enough getting the food in and away today. No subs for once!

The Firework Agapanthus does look pretty AnnG. I managed to change the bedding this morning and have paid a bill and done little else apart from putting food away. OH seems to be taking over in the kitchen now (not the cooking unfortunately!) and changing where I put things in the fridge and cupboards so the things he uses are handiest! How very dare he, I have changed them back seeing as it's me that uses most of what's in there! lol. :-)

Sounds more like a punch Mel, that is a lot of fruit. And Pimms as well

O and its in pimms.

Iv'e just made a HUGE fresh fruit salad for tea. It has apple, melon, necterine, grapes, cherries, pear, blueberries and lemon juice.

yes Mandy and I did put water out for them yesterday, the dish will be full again now as it has just tipped down with rain for about 20 minutes. Stopped again now and still very muggy, 22 degrees.

Well no gardening today then that is three days I have not done any gardening. I have changed the bed, washed the bedding and re-made the bed, done the monthly accounts check, wrote a letter for a correspondence magazine and prepared veg for tonight's roast chicken dinner. I think that is my lot for today.

It really tipped down here for about twenty minutes now the suns out again and it's quite hot .

I was reading a bit in our paper about a lady who has a hedgehog rescue place she was saying about putting a shallow bowl of water out for them and food as in this hot weather they weren't getting water and as the ground is so dry they can't get the worms either she said mum's are leaving their babies trying to find food and as there's nothing for them they are really suffering, she had lots more hogs in than normal.
I expect that's why they have moved into your compost bin Anng there's worms in there for them .

Oh it's really black out the front now looks like it's going to tip it down again .

raining here now and very muggy. I got caught out in it as it seemed to come from nowhere. Not heavy but persistant.

Yes they were the ones Mandy 50p a pot from the lady up at the crossraods on the way to the shop.

Its 22 here and still raining very lightly. There are a lot of birds on the feeder this morning mainly blue tits and sparrows and the woodpecker.

Morning all,

We have rain :-D it rained overnight and filled the water butts and the old dustbin we have as an over flow was full too , now it's really heavy drizzle but nice and bright and really muggy .
Vera I'll see if I can blow some your way.

Mel those Gladioli are so pretty were they the 50p ones they were a bargain.

Anng I looked at the firework Agapanthus that's a pretty one ,I suppose the best thing with trying to find draught tolerant plants is to ask in the garden centres ,I expect there will be lots of people asking after all the heat we've had and lots will have lost plants in the heatwave.

Ann I expect your busy getting your things back in place after the clean ,did they manage to get the oil off .
Sounds as they will get more work from your neighbours after doing z good job on yours .

Family came this morning first Sunday for several weeks as they have both been so busy at work , we got son to adjust our front door as it had dropped a little and was getting hard to lock ,few minutes and he had done it so that was a good job done .

Oh Suns out now and I'd better soon think about what to have for lunch ,bbl

No rain to speak of yet Mel. We have had a couple of very light showers but we wouldn't have known if OH hadn't been outside and felt a few drops. The farmers are getting desperate now.. It was a very hot and uncomfortable night, even OH didn't sleep well, but it seems a bit cooler now. It's very grey out and quite a strong breeze has got up so I've opened some windows to try and cool the house down a bit.

I've just got a Tesco order ready for delivery tomorrow so I'll be interested to see hw many subs I get.

AnnG, I love agapanthus as you can see from my avatar photo. I've got 6 pots of them grouped together along the front of the conservatory. Mostly they are blue but I do have one white one. I'll look out for the one you mentioned. It sounds pretty. OH has just picked more blueberries. We left them for the birds but they haven't touched them which is unusual so OH decided to pick them for us. I don't suppose there are many.

I can't believe your surgery won't take back your tablets Mel. I know they cannot reissue them to anyone else but pharmacies are supposed to take back unwanted medicines for safe disposal. If I have anything I can't use or something I've bought over the counter and it's got out of date I always take them to any pharmacy and they always take them back. I'd be inclined to politely ask them how you are supposed to dispose of them if they can't take them. I hope your OH is feeling a bit better today.

I'd better get on with a few jobs before sorting out Sunday dinner. Have a nice day everyone.