The Saga of the Stinging Nettles -part two

 

So , with a change of plan and another slightly less challenging route in , I made a good start .

 

Armed with garden shears and two pairs of loppers , I climbed up there and painfully slowly made my way in to find the brick wall .

I had to wear clothes that covered as much of me as possible , to prevent myself from getting stung or scratched or bitten . There are lots of mosquitos about after all the rain we've had and I have already been bitten on my arm and my leg . So with my hood up too , I was absolutely boiling while I was doing this ! 

I found the brick wall and what will be the way into the Nettle-Lands .....tomorrow ! 

Picking Cucumbers 29 June 2022

 

                  The Cucumbers are very good at playing "Hide and Seek " .

  Moving some of those big round leaves , I found some lovely ones . 

   I am taking them at this stage so they will keep producing more  .   I'll let them get a bit longer towards the end of the season . Maybe even let one go to seed to save for next year . 

I'm not actually sure if I can save this variety " Tasty Burpless " Anyone know ? 

What a horrible name for such a lovely fruit  ! 

They are delicious though . I am quite surprised . I don't usually like supermarket Cucumbers, they taste salty/fishy to me . These that I have grown myself from seed don't taste of anything really , they are just beautiful , juicy and refreshing .

I will definitely grow this variety again and have already made a note of it .

I still have a few spares to plant out .

Yes  ! Alright ! I know I'm supposed to be pulling Nettles ! 

The Saga of the Stinging Nettles

 Up early , got my scruffy gardening clothes on. The plan was to climb up here  ...

.....carefully avoiding the Song Thrush's nest (I'm sure that they have fledged and gone now ) , climb in and along behind the red Acer ....

... find the wall .....there is an old and crumbling brick wall in there somewhere ....

.....climb over the wall ,  which should bring me out just in front of that telegraph pole ....

......and clear all the Stinging Nettles and Brambles that are now over-hanging our front gate .

I had planned to just throw them as far as I could and gather them up later ...but he wants me to throw them nice and accurately into a wheelbarrow  , which he is going to place by the gate . 

Well , I'll try , but I know my method is best .

It's about 7- 8ft high and I can't reach the Nettles from the front . Not safe to put a ladder here .

So I'm all ready to start and he says " Right , get in the car ,we're taking rubbish to the tip and then after that , off to the Garden Centre for a coffee . "

I didn't really need anything , but enjoyed looking around anyway .

Lots of fabulous tropical plants . 

I'd love to repair our old water pump , but to do that we would need to buy another one of these old barrels ....... which are a bit out of our price range !

We have one of these half barrels waiting in the wings to be planted up , but we have to wait for the old workshop shed to be pulled down and the new workshop shed to be built first as it is going to be placed at one end  to look nice and if we were to plant it up now , it would then be way too heavy to move.

I can hardly move this thing empty let alone full of earth and plants !

I had a look around in the Aquatics zone , with a view to making a pond with the grandchildren . 

I'd like to make a slightly better one than the one we made last time , although even that was fun .

I looked at these , but there is no way I can afford one of them ! So I might consider digging out the hole and lining it with pond liner . 

Then I got side-tracked when this beautiful Coy Carp appeared in the Nursery's  pond . 

It is nice to see them , but I wouldn't want to keep fish . I am quite happy for our little pond to just be full of frogspawn , newts , water boatman beetles , water snails etc .

We had our cuppa tea for me and coffee for him  , drove home , had lunch .

Went for a walk down the lane and as we left , so it began to rain .

Well , the rain doesn't really bother me and I love to see the wild flowers now in the hedgerow sparkling with raindrops .

...and the ancient Oak tree ....

with sage and gold Lichens .

They come alive in the rain !

I really enjoyed our walk .

                                       Runner-beans .

When we got back home I checked on the vegetable garden and I think everything is looking refreshed and happy after such a good drink .

                                          Courgettes and Sweetcorn .

I peeled off my cagoule dripping wet and hung it up to dry in the shower .

I don't mind getting wet in the rain , but there was absolutely no way that I was going to be able to put it back on again , all cold and  dripping wet , to go and pull Stinging Nettles .

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it !

The Nettles get to live another day .

Tomorrow..... they've had it ! I'm coming after them ! 

Early morning watering

 

Just been up in the vegetable garden watering everything .

....as best as I can with this dodgy hose ....

..with the broken doo dah . It just about holds together , if I'm very , very careful not to stretch it or walk about with it .

By the way , the inconsiderate man with his car has gone .....I turned him into a frog !

He will now be very useful to me , helping to keep the slug population down .

Feeling happier now , so lets get off to Band Q and buy some new edging sheers and a new hose doodah and see if there are any bargains in the garden department . Needing a few other bits and bobs too .

I'll finish with this picture that I took of the baby Buzzard sitting in the lane between mine and my neighbour's cottage .

He allowed me to creep right up to him ,very very slowly quietly ....

..then opened out his magnificent wings and flew very close over my head . Too close to get the next shot of him with his wings fully open , his eyes looking straight into mine , he took my breath away .

Have a beautiful day my lovelies ! 

One long hot day !

 

The Sun rising this morning over the Labyrinth and the African  Keyhole  Bed .

The Butternut Squash plants looked good first thing , but not so good as the temperature rose to 73 degrees F .  

I watered the tomatoes and cucumber  forest in the greenhouse ....and the ones in the shed . Cut a big bunch of lettuce and Cavolo Nero kale for later .

           Watched a pair of Buzzards for a while .

Had a little walk about while it was still cool . I'm pleased with this area of the garden ,even though it is not quite how I planned it .

The Giant Echiums found their own way there from just one plant a couple of years ago . My weeding out all the Ivy along the fence caused them to germinate . They are going to be wonderful when they flower..bee paradise ! 

 The only thing about this is that I had planted two Dahlias in there and it would be too difficult to climb in there again to dig them out . So they will have to stay there until next year probably . Unless the Echiums take off to flower and then there might be a chance as there will then be space around the bottom of their stems/trunks .

I need to give that Impatiens tinctoria a bucket of water . Even though we had a fair bit of rain , it is looking thirsty . 

It will be better when the Agave that I transplanted gets a bit bigger, so it can be seen above the pink rose . I'd like to move it somewhere else , but I,ve been told " No ".

So then I spotted this ....

                               Very pretty .......

                                      ....but evil !

                                                       Taller than me !

For this operation I had to go back to the shed , get sheers , loppers , fork, gloves and wheelbarrow .

..and I forgot the wheelbarrow !

Anyway it can lie there and slowly wither away in the hot sun and now there is space for the lovely Cyperus papyrus alternifolius . 

Look at this !   A lovely red Acer for £3.00 in Tescos !  It came in a very tiny pot mind and I have transplanted it in to this terracotta tub . I will plant this out next Autumn .  

            Ooh ! I really do love Acers !

What else do I have to tell you ?  Oh ! Yes !  That plane went over again ..the one with the missiles !

Last time it had four missiles/bombs carried on it's four underwing hardpoints . This time it just had the two....possibly sidewinder missiles .

Anyway turns out it is a Dassult Falcon 20/200 used for maritime surveillance and multi-role attack/EW Aircraft ...can you tell I did some research on it ?  lol !

It is Armed Forces Day this coming Saturday . We are so thankful and proud of all of them ! 

Then it became too hot for me and I spent most of the rest of this long hot day sitting in front of a nice cooling fan doing my embroidery .

I have pulled out my Bayeux Tapestry stuff again . 

That's all for now , got to go water the Runnerbeans and this Butternut Squashes . Byeeeee !