[telecom69]

Hi there Penny,nice to see you back in the thread again,I did ask about you some weeks back,wondering why you were missing but got no replies so took it that nobody knew why....I too used to grow roses years ago,and did for a number of years but finally got rid of them because they took up too much room I found,I still have a couple and I still get them flowering twice a year,great flowers for photography I think Ive had quite a decent year in the garden this year,but its been far too short,first it was a very late start owing to the Winter hanging around far too long and now alas everything is just about over this way,caused no doubt by that record heatwave we had a few weeks back ....most of the normal bedding plants have finished altogether apart from The bedding begonias and the Busy Lizzies,they are still going strong,the geraniums (pelargoniums) are still just about flowering,but the leaves are being decimated by caterpillars,both back and front gardens still looks sort of presentable but not for much longer Im afraid ...

Away from the garden Ive not had a good year Im afraid earlier on in the year I lost 20 pond fish,that were 10 years old and all of them quite size when a pump in the pond went faulty and electrocuted them,I have now started over but with smaller fish now of course ....

Worse than that just a few weeks back I lost my dog Tina,who was my faithful friend for 12 years,that damn heatwave started off her problems she never liked the heat, she stopped eating and in the end even drinking,it was as if she had just had enough and given up ....after 9 days it was felt by us all and also our vet that the kindest thing to do (seeing that she was getting very weak ) was to have her put to sleep,this we did,I had her cremated and her ashes returned,and she is now buried in an exclusive grave in my back garden where we spent so many happy years together....I was devastated at the time of course,but slowly things got a little better and now have rescued another dog from a home,mainly because the house just seemed so empty without Tina being here....he can never replace Tina of course but he has certainly helped in the way we feel .....franca was a big help to me at that time,thanks franca

So now with Winter approaching its down to doing what we can in the gardens and trying to keep them as presentable as possible,and looking forward to next year ....
Finally you asked about the snake picture,well Im not absolutely sure but I think my Grandson said it was a Burmese Python,he had brought it up to show us,he has several,he lives at Bulford Camp as he is in the Army.....

Thats about it for now happy gardening all,see you next time ...Bob

[franca]

Originally Posted by telecom69

Hi there Penny,nice to see you back in the thread again,I did ask about you some weeks back,wondering why you were missing but got no replies so took it that nobody knew why....
Thats about it for now happy gardening all,see you next time ...Bob

Hi ya Bob..how's Buster ????

I missed your post asking about Penny.. or I could have told you how Penny is, we e-mail all the time...... she's fine.

Rained like SOB all night here, first real rain we've had for months.... won't need to water today..

Gardens still looking good, do a little clean up every day to keep on top of things we find that way we don't have as much to do come fall

cu later, take care, pats for Buster........and don't forget, keep getting those hands dirty....

[Tuppence2]

Hello folks.

Woofs & tickles for Jaki, Frank.

Yes, I'm here again. I've called in to TSG occasionally on the technical side but thought it was about time I saw you all again!

Ah. The snake does look like a python. Beautuful! I'm very sorry to hear about your beloved comapanion. I always say to people that, of course, another dog will not replace the one that's gone but you do the right thing by giving another dog that needs love and care a home - and there are far to many of those. Hope to hear all about Buster. I had a "Buster" once. I looked after him for two years while his people were in Hong Kong, his owner was a cook in the Army Catering Corp. It was very hard to part with him when they came to take him back. He was a big black and white Lab X Collie who would have lived in the water if he'd been allowed.

I've just bathed Cecil the Lab. He has to be bathed every other day and takes lots of pills, etc. for his very itchy skin conditon - a secondary bacterial infection that is extremely difficult to clear. Here's his mug-shot. (p.s. As I was posting the photo "Lovejoy" called out to someone called "Cecil"!)

Here's a photo of the lovely rose (and I agree, they are beautiful to photograph) "English Miss", growing in a large tub in my front garden. Not all the flowers are double coloured or as pink as this. My latest climber, "Iceberg", has to flowers about to open; "Red New Dawn" just flowers and flowers and flowers and "Gloire de Dijon" has three flowers yet again. It's been in flower in flushes throughout the year.

Here are a couple of excellent rose sites:

http://helpmefind.com

I've photos posted on the above site and also in a gallery (meschuee) on the following site:

http://rosarianscorner.net

I've attached a screenshot of my latest posts there.

I also spend a lot of time at

http://www.bonsaihelp.com

"Lovejoy" is just starting so I'll say ta-ra. They're all repeats from way back but I enjoy them.

[Tuppence2]

I know he's not a plant, but he does spend a lot of time gardening!!

[eggplant43]

Been awhile, glad to see you all still posting. I've been moving since July, so not much time to play. The rally good news is that the lady who bought my house loves the garden, and will keep it going. I fee really lucky a gardener bought it, but that was it's great charm. I'll miss all the lush flowers, as I'm now living off a cistern, and the only gardening will now be xeric, except for some pots, and the veggies. The good news is the garden is now measured in acres, rather than feet

[telecom69]

Hi all, I always find it depressing at this time of the year to see the plants dying back dont you? even my Busy Lizzies that were doing so well last week have now started to go leggy,about the only things still going are some of the pelargoniums,and Begonias (they are still a mass of flower) and just one Delphinium is bravely trying to put on its second flowering,although they are never as good second time around .....Good to see Eggplant back again,have to admit I had to look up what xeric meant though seems you have had to move to a location that is not good for gardening? ....I have looked everywhere on the net franca totry and find out what the record number of flowers on a Dahlia would be but have come up with nothing Im afraid,they are very prolific flowerers though especially the smaller flowered ones.....I found out yesterday that Buster (my new dog) loves digging Ive had him just 3 weeks now and I was just tidying up the edges of the lawn,not much more to do at this time of the year, and he started to dig which surprised me because he had shown no tendency to do this before,he was at it for a full 10 minutes and the soil was flying everywhere just glad it was dry, or think of the mess he would have been in.....for you Penny I have added a couple of pics of Buster with a couple of them showing him doing a spot of gardening just hoping he doesnt make a habit of it ....we are enjoying a brief Indian Summer at the moment with temperatures up in the 80's but it wont last long though ....thats about it for now,more later ...happy gardening everyone







This last one shows him giving his celebration roll, seems he was rather pleased about it .....

[Bush Lady]

I just picked something up that I want to share..When you have started to cut the cabbage off in the garden during the summer. Just leave the rest of it in the ground. The cabbage is going to start to get heads again. Except instead of one head on each, there will be about three heads. If you leave them long enough, you will have three small cabbage heads in the fall. That you can still use.

[Tuppence2]

Lovely to see "Buster". I've photos of my "Billy" with her head in holes in the garden - I suppose it's an atavistic thing - burying food, etc. He's very handsome, looks like boxer or bull terrier in there somewhere. Oooh, you've got a greenhouse - I'd love one of those.

Excellent tip about the cabbages - thanks. The resulting extra heads could be used for composting if they weren't eaten.

This is a photo of my new rose arch. I've one in the back garden and had this in its box for ages, thinking where to situate it. It took me two hours to fit it because the joints weren't symetrical and difficult to slide together. The rose on the left, "Golden Shows", has been there for many years, growing against the wall, but the one on the right, "Perpetually Yours" has been waiting planting for a while. All the roses are flowering again because of the strange weather we've had the past few months. ("Rosa Bansai" is the one on the wall on the right, "Perpetually Yours" is the shorter one with pale yellow flowers that you can just about see.)

Rosa Banksai and a winter-flowering clematis with yellow flowers marked with purple inside are also near the arch. I've put a strand of wire between the wall and the arch and twined a tendril of the clematis round it.

My runner beans and tomatoes have at last decided to grow and ripen. I was too late with the few beetroot plants I put in and they didn't do well. I'm digging the last of the few potatos I planted - hope to plant more next year.

For the first time, I planted spring-flowering bulbs on Sunday - daffs and narcissus - a mixed "choose your own and fill the bag" from the Garden Centre. I suppose I just leave them to do their own thing, or should I water the ones in pots? I'm sure you'll know, Frank.

Bye for now.

[telecom69]

Hi all, very informative article about spring bulbs here http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basic...nt_bulbs.shtml Penny and yes Buster is Staffy Bull Terrier x Lab we think, but I think more likely a Greyhound because his speed has to be seen to be believed ...the arch will quite something when the Roses etc have got established,and a green door too,I well remember that song from the sixties about a green door,sung by Tom Jones.....I have had that greenhouse for 40 years Penny I seem to rember it was about £40 at the time I find it invaluable for very early Spring to bring on the plugs of various bedding plants that I buy at the time,such as Begonias,Busy Lizzies,Pelargoniums etc,so much more convenient than seed sowing I find,although I do sow some seeds such as French Marigolds,Cinerarias, etc and then later in early April I can get my Tomatoes into the grow bags in there to get them off to an early start....its a bit of a squeeze until I can get the bedding plants outside for hardening off,but I usually manage...we had a brief spell of quite warm sunny weather last week but now its back again to grey and rainy days at the moments,the bedding plants are declining more every day now and pretty soon there wont be any left,I might just yet go and get some Spring flowering bulbs like you have to have some colour over the Winter,till next time folks,happy gardening

[Tuppence2]

Lovely to have the greenhouse - you certainly use it to the full. I'm envious. When I work at the local garden centre I see their poly-tunnels which hold thousands of plan, and potting sheds. Lots of winter pansies and violas around for colour at the moment. I can see them growing there and think that I pricked-out some as tiny plugs, the same with wallflowers. I was potting polyanthus the other day. Some of the pansies flower within two weeks! The garden centre is a listed site for great crested newts and commong ones, too. I took photos of some the other day.

Staffie's are quck dogs with a lot of energy and "bounce". I love greyhounds and whippets. My dear "Freddie", a greyhound, is still missed. He died a few years ago.

Thanks very much for the link to the bulb site. I'm going to have a look now.

[Tuppence2]

Hello everyone. It's sunny now, 5.34 p.m., on Wednesday, after a dull day. I've just staked my standard rose as the winds lately have been rocking it at the roots.

I was looking at a thunderhead pine at the nursery this morning - nice! I killed the one I had by over pruning and potting it on: it wasn't at all happy and died on me.

There's a shrub in a garden nearby with lovely maroon hanging racemes that have cream flowers at the tips. I'm trying to find out what it is.

I almost brought home another rose, Empereur du Maroc (Emporer of Marocco), but on researching it on the net find it's not very resistant to disease. Will look for something else.

Hope you're all happy in your gardens. I've finished the few potatoes I grew and hope to plant a larger number next time. The tomatos are ripening slowly and the runner beans have finished. My yellow squash went berserk but only one of the fruits was eatable as the others mildewed very quickly on bringing them indoors.

The Chaenomeles I planted in the spring (Japanese Quince) produce a crop of large yellow fruits, around the size of plums, which surprised me.

[telecom69]

Hi to everyone, nice to hear from you Penny,you can see the difference a greenhouse makes,regarding tomatoes, when I tell you that mine have now finished,I picked the last of a couple of days ago and there was only about 3 that were left green,but all the leaves had turned yellow by now and were showing signs of mildew so I cleared them from the greenhouse,its earlier than they would have normally finished I suppose but put that down to the very hot summer we had,not my best crop this year by any means but there was still plenty,lots have been given away ....my runner beans too have now finished cropping picked the last lot last weekend,had a great crop and lots have been frozen for later use,the leaves are still growing strongly but there will be no more beans except for some that I leave on for seed next year..as the season wears on with beans I find the taste decreases from the earlier ones I picked .....As for your chaenomeles,they used to have one next door and it grew to 6ftx 6ft spread despite drastic pruning each year,and it always looked so good when covered with its flowers followed by the fruit,watch out for those thorns though as they can inflict some damage (I used to prune it for them) ...Im told that jam can be made from the fruit but never had any.

The weather is now showing signs of going downhill,its quite cold now especially first thing in the mornings and lots of rain forecast for the next few days,Thats about it for now,se you next time,happy gardening

[franca]

Hi ya all.still lots of color around here took this pic yesterday just as it was going dark.......

Keep getting those hands dirty now My Penny Rose.......

Buter still helping in the garden I see tel.........

cu.......

[telecom69]

The Dahlias really do look great franca, they almost remind me of fireworks at the end of the Summer season ....and your right about Buster still helping in the garden,he has done more damage in 5 weeks than my previous dog Tina did in 12 years because unfortunately ...HE DIGS... still its the end of the season here now and will try to sort out a way round that next year...take care

[Tuppence2]

Hello everyone. Very wet here. If I wanted to cut the grass, which I ought to do, I wouldn't be able to get the mower on it - it would either sink or float! Some of the roses are still in bud and flowering. I planted a bush anemone a few days ago, a white-flowered variety, and the acanthus I had in a pot.

I love the dahlia's Frank - you grow such lovely ones. Do you have Cosmos as well? They've been excellent this year, the ones I've seen in other people's gardens - very tall.

The holes my dogs dig, Telecom, are filling with water! It's the clay soil - what sort do you garden on? Do you grow tomatos outside? I stil have some that are ripening.

Yes, it's quince jam that's made from the Chaenomeles fruit - I know what you mean about the thorns! I have mine growing up a flower arch and will keep it pruned. Coincidently, after I'd desposed of the fruit of mine, someone at the Freecycle Group I belong to was asking for them to make jam.

Have you heard of Freecycle? It's a world-wide organisation and there's a branch in the town next to me. To save filling landfill sites, etc., and to not have the bother of going to the Recycling Centre, you join on-line and then offer anything you have to recycle. If it's wanted by someone, they collect it. I got an excellent "Micromark TeaExpress" that way. It acts as my alarm in the mornings.

http://www.freecycle.org/

I pruned all the buddleia at Palmer Gardens' Nursery the other day and also the climbing variety. I hadn't known there was such a thing - Buddleia alternifolia. The standard roses I pruned there a month or so back are budding.

I got so wet out with the dogs this afternoon that I decided I'd stay out in the rain and plant red onions ready for the summer, a variety called "Electric". My vegetable plot needs digging over. I planted three strawberry plants some time ago and they are taking over the vegetable garden - hope to have yummy strawberries next year.

Does anyone know the flowering nutmeg? I passed a plant with maroon bracts with white flowers at the end and identified it on-line. Will take a photo tomorrow. It's a striking plant.