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Funny old april (warning dull quotidian stuff)

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  1. gembo
    Member

    What with the clocks striking 13 and the winds consistently from the east.

    Tomorrow there is a west wind

    Next week some light rain forecast? THere was a bit of rain near the start of the month like one day of an april heavy shower and maybe some over night but since then it has been watering the plants every day.

    With the WFH scenario I find my battle against dandelions and ground elder to be less dispiriting than usual.

    A kind colleague who was visiting the office brought my winter suits home. That same night I killed a clothes moth in the kitchen,

    Posted 4 years ago #

  2. SRD
    Moderator

    agree on dandelions. cherishing my every minute outside in the sun.

    have a couple spare anti-moth things. can prevail on usual delivery person if needed.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  3. ejstubbs
    Member

    Dandelions not much of a problem here, but I do have to wage a constant battle against hedge bindweed coming through from the garden next door. Previously I've just pulled up the shoots when they started to come through on our side of the fence but this year I have more time so yesterday I spent four hours chasing out bindweed rhizomes from around the roots of our leylandii, not helped by said rhizomes being throughly intertwined with the ivy that otherwise provides harmless ground cover at the foot of the hedge. A pretty thankless job.

    I have spoken to the lady next door about it but she's elderly and suffers from dementia so obviously she can't do much about it herself. I've also spoken to her gardener, who claims to remove as much of it as he can, though I have my doubts as last summer there were huge festoons of it on the taller shrubs in her border. Short of negotiating access to her garden myself to attack the blamed things - which I suspect would be a heck of a job - there's not much else I can do about it. But grrr anyway...

    The annual visits to the house by foraging ants look like they're starting to get under way as well. Need to take some action to nip those in the bud.

    In terms of the weather, it looks like the high pressure off Scandinavia that was bringing the chill easterilies and no rain is finally dispersing so we may be back to some kind of normality during next week. Have kept telling myself to re-install our leaky hose irrigation for the borders but haven't got a round tuit yet so the sprinkler has been deployed a few times in the evenings. Will probably get the irrigation in just in time for the start of the wettest summer in living memory...

    Ooh, bullfinches just turned up on my bird feeder. I was planning to move it today to another part of the garden where the birds less likely to get spooked by people moving around inside the house. Will probably still do that - the one at the foot of the garden does get significantly higher traffic than the one nearer to the house.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  4. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Our lawn was wild for a couple of years. I have battled the dandelions for a decade and am getting on top of them. Long pointy trowel and gentle probe for the tap root. They are thinning and shrinking.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  5. gembo
    Member

    The tap root is a long way down

    THanks @SRD I found 2 spare tabs of lavender chemical from Lakeland so have them in the suits now,.

    Presume I can order more of them on line so will do so

    We also have snowberry which is invasive.

    Bit of dense fog out the Whang early this am, or maybe low cloud, certainly losing height brought better visibility. Twas the same last Sat.

    Woman running down A70 almost killed by Audi driver who saw her late. (This was approx 40 mins ago so visibility fine). Maybe 6 cars parked separately (well 2 together) couple of motorcyclists out together on different bikes and a couple on the same bike. So fractionally more infringement than last week.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  6. ejstubbs
    Member

    Hah, we also have snowberry from the neighbour on the other side (who is compos mentis but an @rse - although he did join in the clapping last Thursday evening in a rather hesitant and reclusive sort of way). Missus says she quite likes the way it masks the bottom of the hedge but I have to keep ripping out the suckers that try to spread in to the rest of the border.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  7. gembo
    Member

    @ejstubbs, you have to rip it out or one day it will come up through the floor in your kitchen

    Posted 4 years ago #

  8. wingpig
    Member

    We had clothmoths for years. They were finally eradicated by pulling up the bedroom carpet and throwing it out of the front window. Not fussed about dandelions on the lawn but try to stop them at the allotment before they reach the fluffing stage. Likewise the horribly fluffy weed stuff which is really easy to pull up but gets everywhere really quickly if it gets as far as seeding.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    “spent four hours chasing out bindweed rhizomes“

    There’s the problem, rhizomes like being chopped up so the can propagate more!

    (Generally) I think it’s chemicals, remove shoots/leaves or learn to like.

    “you have to rip it out or one day it will come up through the floor in your kitchen“

    Fortunately I’m not facing that (potential) problem.

    I like dandelions.

    This year I have a project to severely repress butterbur (rhizome) which produces massive rhubarb-like leaves and overwhelms a particular path.

    Will see how often I have to remove the leaves and how much it returns in successive years. (Also if any other plants grow instead).

    Posted 4 years ago #

  10. sallyhinch
    Member

    We're leaving our dandelions for the wildlife - the bees do seem to enjoy them and they come out early when there isn't much else around for pollinators (we have no neighbours so it's not as if anyone will get our seeds). They'll soon get their heads lopped off when we finally get the mower out

    Posted 4 years ago #

  11. gembo
    Member

    Other issues, foxgloves, though they come out very easily, sycamore seedlings, again come out easy but thousands of them (neighbour who was prof or botany has huge sycamore he can’t do owt with). Also a very large leaved weed that flowers nicely White and pink and purple. Very invasive but can be hacked back. Also a thorn that spreads up from the wilderness at the bottom. Flowers wild rose. Will take one hell of a beating from my hand scythe but returns stronger.

    THen the non accidental proliferating plants in the borders like poppies that come up through the stonework. Have to make sure the coast is clear when I go at these plants. I then get a row but you have to take a draconian hacking line with shrubbery and plants and where I have been prevented in the past I notice we are over run. THe actual gardener is more your Gertrude Jekyll type directing her artisans.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  12. chdot
    Admin

    “foxgloves, though they come out very easily, sycamore seedlings, again come out easy but thousands of them”

    Foxgloves are fabulous.

    So are sycamores, but not suitable in many places.

    Simplest removal process (when they emerge) is a strimmer - or a scythe of some sort.

    These are handy

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Steel-Sickle-Small-Scythe-Folding-Handle-Weed-Slasher-Brambles-Nettles/392309096605

    Good for out and about vegetation taming around paths.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  13. gembo
    Member

    In a less quotidian performance 40 years ago this month The Badger permanently lost the feeling in his fingers at Baston-Liege.

    Big snowstorm most bailed within two hours The Badger continued and was 10 mins up on the field at the end.

    He wasn’t that hard though as he did put on a long sleeved jersey.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  14. crowriver
    Member

    Was down the allotment yesterday, watering and weeding mostly but did sow some seed too.

    Constant battle to keep cultivated areas free of the following:
    - Creeping buttercup
    - Dock
    - Couch grass
    - Dandelion
    - Thistle

    And at the borders:
    - Bindweed
    - Nettle

    Nettle at least can be harvested for soup.
    Never tried to make homemade dandelion and burdock, maybe should look into it.

    On the plus side, following are doing great:
    - Rhubarb
    - Garlic

    Harvested some rhubarb, looking forward to a crumble soon.
    Radish seedlings seem to be thriving, apple tree in blossom, redcurrant too.

    At home on windowsill the following seedlings are doing nicely:
    - Parsley
    - Chives
    - Brussels sprouts
    - Leeks
    - Sunflowers

    Will be re-potting the last of these shortly, keep some indoors, transplant some to allotment. Brussels and Leeks will be thinned out, re-potted and planted in allotment next month sometime.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  15. minus six
    Member

    aye, a good scythe is a must

    tip of the hat to the badger

    don't make em like that anymore

    Posted 4 years ago #

  16. the canuck
    Member

    my rhubarb has already put up a seed head (I've thrown it under a bush, something will eat it), and i can't identify most of the weeds people are mentioning here, but I do know that dead nettle makes terrible soup. They are currently one of the few things doing well in my garden.

    we saw a sparrowhawk today, a first for us. wondering if our pigeon population will drop soon.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  17. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Pigeon is a big ask for the diminutive male sparrowhawks doing the bulk of the hunting right now. They are keen for anything up to starling size.

    Female sparrowhawk entirely capable of subduing a wood pigeon.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  18. gembo
    Member

    You need Tweed the Harris Hawk for pigeons he lives up on the Crags and is The Daddy. Scot Parliament bought him for their holyrood pigeons but after a day on the job he said it was beneath his pay grade and flew off.

    Bit like when EH White thought he had trained a Goshawk. Silly old booger.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  19. chdot
    Admin

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8472223.stm

    http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_buildings_s/0_buildings_-_scottish_parliament_control_of_pigeons_background.htm

    Posted 4 years ago #

  20. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    The pigeons round the parly were actually being controlled by the sparrowhawks. The guy who owned the Harris Hawk confessed to me that all he did under the contract was pick up the carcasses. Suspect the Harris Hawk got bored.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  21. crowriver
    Member

    @canuck, "my rhubarb has already put up a seed head"

    Yeah one of mine did that too. I chopped it off and put in the compost. I attribute it to water stress - happened last time there was a long dry spell too. Gave the rhubarb patch a good drink the other day.

    Posted 4 years ago #

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