Watered and tied in the tomatoes. Made a start on a section of the garden where I had an obelisk, full of autumn flowering clematis, which was blown over in the Spring storms. I cut the clematis back in the Spring but it had grown vigorously. Weeded, unraveled, repositioned the obelisk, unearthed another clematis I had forgotten was planted there and lifted a peony which I had planted too deeply. Watered the marrow and sowed the last of my late sown veg. Some Moogli radish amd Chinese Cabbage. I was surprised to find the weedy clematis buried under the evergreen clematis has rooted itself in a few places where it was touching the ground. I am going to separate each plantlet and see if they will grow on into bigger plants. The area I sorted out is not very extensive but it took me 3 hours and then I was bushed.
Washed the gravel from the bottom of my aquarium. Weeded. Moved some of my large pots onto the top of a lowish wall. Hoping they will deter my dog from climbing over to next door to chase their chickens. Despite no longer being able to see them, board nailed onto the gate, he can still hear them. When I opened my front door last night, 4 of them were sitting in a row along the top of the dividing wall between my front area and next doors. Great temptation. He has seen my cat devise a way to jump onto the wall and negotiate the pots and is now pacing back and forth in frustration.
I know the weather has caused all sorts of problems this year, but this is a new one to me. My Golden Delicious apple has lost the plot, there are ready to pick fruit and new buds forming!! Does this mean no fruit next year, as these buds will get pollinated this month, but the fruit won't survive the winter.🤷♀️
You've got more Golden Delicious than I've got! I was looking up at mine this afternoon and wondering if I saw new buds, so it's entirely possible the trees are really confused this year. I'm not sure whether to start picking my apples before the expected heavy rain next week or leave them be for now.
I only put in an hour or so, @Joyce Goldenlily, so you put me to shame. I got the grass shears out and started to cut the long orchard grass down before it gets all wet and soggy. Didn't do much, as I'm nursing my shoulder along at the moment and didn't want to over it. Hopefully do another stint tomorrow. It's too long for the strimmer now. I don't think I'll grow it long next year, it's getting to be a faff and one job I can do without.
I took one and cut it open, the pips are brown, so they are ready. It also tasted good. So they are coming off before the birds damage them @Lizzie27 Some to eat and some for the freezer. It is a dual tree with Elstar, and they cook beautifully not going to mush after freezing, so apple crumble come winter.😁
How odd @purplerallim, I've got the same duo tree and whilst we usually have a very good crop of Elstar apples (but not this year), we've hardly ever had more than 2 or 3 Golden Delicious ones. The tree itself is probably more than ten years old I think. I didn't know that the pips had to be brown before the apples are ripe, so thanks for that tip - I shall investigate tomorrow!
I wouldn’t normally do pond work this early in the year but the water is so low it presented an opportunity so I’ve done some careful but fairly brutal vegetation management. I’m fastidious about picking species out of aquatic vegetation so that took most of the day, saving hog lice and snails.
Well @Lizzie27 my tree is younger than yours by about two years. We too have had one side not produce much in the way of fruit too, the Golden Delicious side, but the Elstar last year was the first year of a reasonable crop. I found out about the seeds this year, I think from Monti? certainly that or Beechgrove.
I spent an hour or more on my hands and knees cutting the ''orchard' long grass with lawn shears - jolly hard work and not recommended if you suffer from hay fever like me!. it's area about 3 m x 5 m. Not sure how to dispose of all the grass cuttings, is this technically hay? and if so, is it likely to be of use to anybody? I don't want to put it in my compost heap for obvious reasons.
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I was surprised to find the weedy clematis buried under the evergreen clematis has rooted itself in a few places where it was touching the ground. I am going to separate each plantlet and see if they will grow on into bigger plants.
The area I sorted out is not very extensive but it took me 3 hours and then I was bushed.
Weeded.
Moved some of my large pots onto the top of a lowish wall. Hoping they will deter my dog from climbing over to next door to chase their chickens. Despite no longer being able to see them, board nailed onto the gate, he can still hear them. When I opened my front door last night, 4 of them were sitting in a row along the top of the dividing wall between my front area and next doors. Great temptation.
He has seen my cat devise a way to jump onto the wall and negotiate the pots and is now pacing back and forth in frustration.
My Golden Delicious apple has lost the plot, there are ready to pick fruit and new buds forming!! Does this mean no fruit next year, as these buds will get pollinated this month, but the fruit won't survive the winter.🤷♀️
I only put in an hour or so, @Joyce Goldenlily, so you put me to shame. I got the grass shears out and started to cut the long orchard grass down before it gets all wet and soggy. Didn't do much, as I'm nursing my shoulder along at the moment and didn't want to over it. Hopefully do another stint tomorrow. It's too long for the strimmer now.
I don't think I'll grow it long next year, it's getting to be a faff and one job I can do without.
O/H did lots of pruning
I didn't know that the pips had to be brown before the apples are ripe, so thanks for that tip - I shall investigate tomorrow!
I found out about the seeds this year, I think from Monti? certainly that or Beechgrove.
I'll try the strimmer tomorrow now it's shorter.