Spring has sprung...let's Countdown to Christmas 2024 (Thread 2)

[NoWordForFluffy]

235

For the forgetful of thinking AKA me tomorrow, repeating the countdown!

I believe bamboo requires pots, @Magnoliasunrise!

70, starlings are excellent at extracting worms and / or bugs.

I was always told bamboo should be in a pot too.
Our behind neighbour has bamboo planted against the garden wall and it's a nightmare for us - we keep getting random shoots of it sprouting up through the gravel at the back of our garden that are an pain to dig out.
I wouldn't do it but the temptation it poison it is strong!

70 we used to have magpies like your pigeons. I have a great video somewhere of ddog wandering around the garden and the magpies either completely ignoring him or gently hopping away if he came close (he was almost totally blind so had no idea).
Pretty sure they were the same magpies that kept coming into the house to steal the dog food.

I haven't made it to the garden yet but I need to either today or tomorrow.
I'm going to have to alter a plastic pot for the cactus because the pretty ceramic pot I bought for it appears to be a weird size 🙄

220

Next we'll be into the two hundred and teens

Meeces our little boy cat can be easily swayed by the phrase D'you want to watch Magpies For Cats on the big screen
He is very interested even though these birds show up the size of a dalmation and scoots off behind the telly for a look.

Very puzzled that they Are Not There

We planted our bamboo with a root barrier but it seems to have bypassed it somehow so it seems you are right about the pots. Grrrrr..... Wish we had put the damn thing in a pot now.

Next we'll be into the two hundred and teens - time is flying, yikes!!

Another gorgeous day here. We spent a couple of hours in the garden before it got too hot this morning. I'm
now summoning the energy to clean!

First I'm going to pot my tomato seedlings on. They've stalled in growth, so I need to try something to get them going!

My toms seemed similar Fluffy so I've potted them up into med size pots and slung them in the cold frame (as you know, I'm a lax 'if it dies it dies' type gardener). Let me know how yours are getting on.

I am 🥵 It's been boiling here today and I've just come in from the garden. I've ripped up old rosemary and sage from their pots, replaced them with bay tree babies, ripped up lavender, put the lamp post in the big pot and potted in the lavender along with new herbs.
Also moved the cactus to his new pot. He needs something bigger really but I've gone for the same size in the hope he'll be happier but not grow because he's already taller than I want him to be.

We've also weeded the garden, DH did the lawns, I've inventoried the garden stuff I have and we've 'opened the garden for summer' (ie removed the covers from the table and chairs and put the parasol post in place 😎

I'm the same kind of gardener, Meeces! 50/50 chance, see how you go!

I'm hoping all of my plug plants grow well though, as I'm looking forward to my herb border. It will smell amazing if it works.

In our old house there was a built in (brick) raised bed that had herbs already established and it was amazing every summer. I think it had rosemary, 2 types of thyme, sage and something else that I can't remember now.
We never did anything to it except give it a good chop at the end of summer - fingers crossed that's what you end up with Fluffy!

We've just been out the front discussing ideas to make it pretty. It's a grey paved garden with a low grey wall. No greenery at all except for the pots we've put out.
It's north facing so I'm going to move my roses to the sunniest spot and consider some planters that I can put flowers in.

What I'm considering is using plastic pots that I can just lift in and out so I can be establishing pretty flowers out the back and putting them out the front when they're ready so it looks nice for a lot of the year (my retired neighbour does this and I'm so jealous of his garden)...

219

Now we're in the two hundred and teens

I am up un-heard of early ( day off ) to get the bins out ( they are collected about 7.30)
Defrosted the fridge/freezer which is never a favourite task , it isn't a frost-free model ( it's old)

Might do some wafting about with some secateurs later and top up the compost in the pots .
The Jasmine is growing well but no flowers yet . I have a climbing hop which is doing well but no flowers ( I'm sure they should flower but mine is bone idle )

Bone idle is better than dead though, 70! 🤷‍♀️🤣

Meeces, that's what I'm hoping for. And the bees will love it too!

Nice day today. Did 6k with the dog and it isn't too warm yet, so it was pleasant.

Little sit down then it's time to get ready for the day.

You're right about the bees - My thyme is flowering and yesterday I counted 5 on it at the same time.

It's meant to be another scorcher today so I'm planning on getting 2 loads of washing done.

I know we're in the two hundred and teens but Christmas seems very far away right now!

You were right Meeces it was a scorcher today!! Although I am hot in anything above 23 degrees. I was v glad to get back from work.

My cucumber, tomato, geranium and salvia seedlings doing really well but everything else is just rubbish - some stuff <I'm looking at you aquilegia> has not even germinated.

@Magnoliasunrise DH is the gardener here and has been carefully nurturing multiple trays of seedlings. He lost trays of cosmos, rudbeckia and calendula - they started but the cold snap last month killed them off. They were indoors in un heated propagators and were fine during the day but it must have been too cold overnight for them. We have good sweet peas, delphiniums and salvias so all is not lost.

Good point Buck i think it might be temperature related.

Chelsea Flower Show on the telly at 8pm - might give us some tips.

I bought a new PassionFlower , it was looking at me , and the pot felt so light , the plant looked a bit wilted
It has been watered now and waiting for re-potting into a huge garden pot .

(I'm not a random rescuer otherwise I'd have 47 cats )

218

It is tipping down here I did a load of white washing which wou;d ordinariliy go out to dry in bright sun, but , no .
I have a top of DDs that didn't lose the strawberry juice stain off the front in the wash ( the sunlight would;ve shifted it ) ,sigh.

217

Morning!

Its tipping down here too again! Forgot my umbrella yesterday and got home looking like I'd been swimming. Got bloody loads of washing to dry too and I hate using the tumble dryer. Think its in for the day though, grrrr......

Was that our summer on Monday?🤔

I keep meaning to get a rainwater butt, does anyone have any recommendations? Or are they pretty much all the same?

@Magnoliasunrise, look at your water provider's online shop. They often sell them cheaper than elsewhere.

It's wet here too. We have a yellow rain warning until midday tomorrow, but the monsoon hasn't started yet. Yet! We had some rain after 6 yesterday evening, but not huge amounts. That's for today!

We're doing a small load of washing, to hang up in the downstairs loo, as we have a drying / airing rack on the wall (it's a massive room for a loo, so the ideal space for something like that!).

Our resident house martins have babies. Dear god, they're loud at 4am! 😩

magnolia I have 2 slimline water butts. One was on sale in Wilko's 2 years ago, the other was a lucky find of my dads - someone had plonked it next to a skip despite it never being used (turns out they had bought it, decided it was too small, binned it and bought a bigger one).
I think they're all as good as each other generally. My only advice would be to consider placing it next to a shed or something and using guttering to feed them.

We're forecast storms today and it's been raining steadily since I woke up.
Hoping there's a light spell near lunchtime as I need to walk to the shop and pick up a parcel.

I'm not sure what's happened to the birds here Fluffy but they're all going a bit mad. I used the RSPB website and the Merlin app to identify some of them as it's non stop noise here. Apparently we have a few different tits, sparrows, starlings plus the standard pigeons, crows and magpies. It was deafening yesterday evening.

Amusingly though, one of the birds has a whistle that seems to mimics the whistling sound of a bomb dropping in a cartoon.

I'm looking at pretty plants for the front garden planters (north facing but generally bright). Any suggestions? So far I've considered begonias and impatiens.

Amusingly though, one of the birds has a whistle that seems to mimics the whistling sound of a bomb dropping in a cartoon.

Starling. Nailed on cert. We had one called Firework Boy who did that!

Send a 🚤 It's very wet!

Thanks for the water butt ideas - I'm onto it. May as well make good use of all this boody rain.

Your house martin babies sound lovely Fluffy, but maybe not at 4am 🤔

Try Astilbe for north facing pots Meeces.

These are pretty and bright.

Hi everyone 👋
I know this is a "Looking forward to Christmas"
thread 🎄 🎁 and I'm here exactly for that.
It cheers me up a bit, because I'm one of these people who get really depressed during Spring and Summer, massively improve with Autumn.
Since childhood.
Would you believe, I still didn't get properly used to the TIME CHANGE? 😂
Btw, just found out about the upcoming General Election. 😐

I have astilbe in the back garden. They're just starting to get flower stems on, so I'm quite excited (I have a browny red and a cream one).

This rain is very persistent, isn't it? We're under an amber warning until tomorrow. Might be swimming with the dog tomorrow! 🏊‍♀️ 🐕 Good job labradors love the rain. 😩🤣

House martins sound like C3PO and R2D2. It's very odd to hear birds sounding so computer-like!

Hi, @GingerPirate!

This weather. Torrential here. Makes me want my Christmas tree up 🤣