Whilst I have every sympathy for Baz and others who have been affected by
recent weather/floods etc., isn't it about time this newsgroup got back to
what is supposed to be about -i.e. GARDENING!!!

It seems that the majority of threads this month alone have been
non-gardening - and the same was true in June

Come on all you gardeners - let-s have your thoughts/questions on gardening
please please please

Jeanne

On 11/07/2012 14:44, Pete wrote:

Whilst I have every sympathy for Baz and others who have been affected
by recent weather/floods etc., isn't it about time this newsgroup got
back to what is supposed to be about -i.e. GARDENING!!!

It seems that the majority of threads this month alone have been
non-gardening - and the same was true in June

Come on all you gardeners - let-s have your thoughts/questions on
gardening please please please

Well the rain eased off on Monday afternoon for just long enough for me
to cut the grass. It was very soggy under foot even though the grass
being cut was dry(ish) in sunshine the ground was totally sodden.

It has been raining ever since. Main beneficiaries are the stickyjack,
bindweed and couch grass that can still grow fairly fast. It is quite
difficult and unpleasant to garden in torrential rain. YMMV

Hardly seen a butterfly at all this year despite having plenty of nectar
rich plants in flower now. House martins, swallows and bats are starving
to death. All in all it is really not a good summer...

On the plus side there is no need to water the hanging baskets.
(not strictly true some lobelia on the underside have dried out)

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

"Pete" wrote in
:

Whilst I have every sympathy for Baz and others who have been affected
by recent weather/floods etc., isn't it about time this newsgroup got
back to what is supposed to be about -i.e. GARDENING!!!

It seems that the majority of threads this month alone have been
non-gardening - and the same was true in June

Come on all you gardeners - let-s have your thoughts/questions on
gardening please please please

Jeanne








Yes, Pete you are right.
You start then? joking.
I don't suppose any of us has had anything worth shouting about.
A few strawbs and a pea or broad bean here and there.

Tell us anyway. Let us all have a laugh at this horrid year and put it
behind us.

Baz

Baz wrote in news:XnsA08D9ACFF9107bazfawltycom@
81.171.92.236:

"Pete" wrote in
:

Whilst I have every sympathy for Baz and others who have been affected
by recent weather/floods etc., isn't it about time this newsgroup got
back to what is supposed to be about -i.e. GARDENING!!!

It seems that the majority of threads this month alone have been
non-gardening - and the same was true in June

Come on all you gardeners - let-s have your thoughts/questions on
gardening please please please

Jeanne








Yes, Pete you are right.
You start then? joking.
I don't suppose any of us has had anything worth shouting about.
A few strawbs and a pea or broad bean here and there.

Tell us anyway. Let us all have a laugh at this horrid year and put it
behind us.

Baz


One thing, Pete, this is not only about me, Baz, its about all of the
others.

Baz

On Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:44:44 +0100, "Pete"
wrote:

Whilst I have every sympathy for Baz and others who have been affected by
recent weather/floods etc., isn't it about time this newsgroup got back to
what is supposed to be about -i.e. GARDENING!!!

What's this gardening thing? All many of us can do at the moment is
look wistfully out of rain battered windows at flattened and washed
out plants, rotting vegetables and pools of water where the lawn used
to be. In the odd dry interlude, all I can do is nip out to dig up the
stuff that's rotting in the wet. My clay soil really needs a few dry
days to drain a bit before I can step on it without sinking up to my
knees in the mud. There are only so many times I can say I've picked
a nice bowl of strawberries or raspberries, which is all I'm getting
from the garden at the moment.

It seems that the majority of threads this month alone have been
non-gardening - and the same was true in June

I left Giganews some time ago because I noticed a high rate of message
loss (resolved by switching to NIN). The vast majority of threads I am
seeing for June and July are about gardening. That it is the
non-gardening threads which are attracting the most input is merely
because the more active regulars in the group want it that way at the
moment as talking about gardening would be depressing.

Come on all you gardeners - let-s have your thoughts/questions on gardening
please please please

I'm thinking I'll get some done when the weather stops being so
abysmally wet.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.

On Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:44:44 +0100, "Pete"
wrote:

Whilst I have every sympathy for Baz and others who have been affected by
recent weather/floods etc., isn't it about time this newsgroup got back to
what is supposed to be about -i.e. GARDENING!!!

It seems that the majority of threads this month alone have been
non-gardening - and the same was true in June

Come on all you gardeners - let-s have your thoughts/questions on gardening
please please please


I heartily agree with you that politics has no place here, there are
more than enough places for that.

But the weather and its consequences are *always* relevant to
gardening. And as a respected member of URG, Baz deserves our support
for the devastating problem he is suffering.

And this doesn't stop or replace threads about plants and planting -
there is still plenty of room for them.

On Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:00:07 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:



On the plus side there is no need to water the hanging baskets.
(not strictly true some lobelia on the underside have dried out)

You forgot the other massive plus - all hosepipe bans have now been
lifted so everyone can put out their lawn sprinklers again and use
their hosepipes to water their vegetable patches.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.

"Jake" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:00:07 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:



On the plus side there is no need to water the hanging baskets.
(not strictly true some lobelia on the underside have dried out)

You forgot the other massive plus - all hosepipe bans have now been
lifted so everyone can put out their lawn sprinklers again and use
their hosepipes to water their vegetable patches.

Even the flooded ones? ...
--
--

http://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

On 11/07/2012 15:38, Fuschia wrote:
On Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:44:44 +0100, "Pete"
wrote:

Whilst I have every sympathy for Baz and others who have been affected by
recent weather/floods etc., isn't it about time this newsgroup got back to
what is supposed to be about -i.e. GARDENING!!!

It seems that the majority of threads this month alone have been
non-gardening - and the same was true in June

Come on all you gardeners - let-s have your thoughts/questions on gardening
please please please


I heartily agree with you that politics has no place here, there are
more than enough places for that.

But the weather and its consequences are *always* relevant to
gardening. And as a respected member of URG, Baz deserves our support
for the devastating problem he is suffering.

And this doesn't stop or replace threads about plants and planting -
there is still plenty of room for them.

I find that the topic of exceptional rain is very on topic. While I
thank the gods that flooding, like Baz's, is almost impossible for me,
there have been, albeit minor, consequences. The rain was so severe last
Thursday that it funnelled down a sloping path, swung off the path onto
a bed then washed a large amount of soil off said bed and onto the
gravel path below. When, and if, it dries I will have to dig the gravel
out and sieve it returning the gravel to the path and the soil to the bed.
Another consequence for me has been for the first time I am having
problems with my raspberries, as they ripen they become mildewed.
Finally the strawberries have failed completely, however with help here
I hope to not have the problem next year, as I will plant into the
strawberry planters recommended by Jake; on an earlier thread.
Sorry to drone on about the bad weather.
--
Residing on low ground in North Staffordshire

In article ,
says...

It seems that the majority of threads this month alone have been
non-gardening - and the same was true in June

Come on all you gardeners - let-s have your thoughts/questions on gardening
please please please

Here's a better idea. Instead of sitting there waiting to be spoonfed
entertainment by others, why don't YOU post your most fascinating thoughts
on gardening to stimulate the rest of the group?


Janet.

"Jake" wrote ...

Martin Brown wrote:

On the plus side there is no need to water the hanging baskets.
(not strictly true some lobelia on the underside have dried out)

You forgot the other massive plus - all hosepipe bans have now been
lifted so everyone can put out their lawn sprinklers again and use
their hosepipes to water their vegetable patches.


Finally we have had the hosepipe ban lifted so yesterday afternoon I power
washed our patio in between the showers, forgotten how nice it looks without
all that green on it.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

Martin Brown wrote:
Hardly seen a butterfly at all this year despite having plenty of nectar
rich plants in flower now. House martins, swallows and bats are starving
to death. All in all it is really not a good summer...

There's a lovely red one that I keep seeing (or perhaps a family of them :-)
on the allotment. I've not seen one quite like it before.

Spotted my first caterpillars this week (one on an african violet! That's
a new one on me), but so far the brassicas are unscathed.

Baz wrote:
Tell us anyway. Let us all have a laugh at this horrid year and put it
behind us.

I'm in the middle of a currant-and-gooseberry feast, thankyouverymuch.
And I think the first semi-accidental courgette (which was grown deliberately
but has rooted itself into a garden planter before I could plant out on the
allotment!) has its first fruit forming

Jeanne wrote

Whilst I have every sympathy for Baz and others who have been affected by
recent weather/floods etc., isn't it about time this newsgroup got back to
what is supposed to be about -i.e. GARDENING!!!

It seems that the majority of threads this month alone have been
non-gardening - and the same was true in June

Come on all you gardeners - let-s have your thoughts/questions on gardening
please please please


Whilst I don't agree with you about the OT posts being prevalent I think the
problem is that gardening in this season is almost a total disaster, unless
you grow rice. My tuberous begonias got mildew before some had even started
in to growth, never seen anything like that before in many decades of
growing them. Whilst our little garden at home is looking pretty on our
allotment our potatoes have Blight, weeks earlier than I've ever experienced
it before and I've never had it on the potatoes like this year. Plants
aren't growing properly, Butternut Squashes are not much bigger than when I
put them out over a month ago, Courgettes are only now starting to flower
but again haven't grown as expected, Tomatoes only now have their first
flowers but I expect the blight will get them too despite spraying with BM.
The chillies and aubergines are a lost cause, just not growing despite
protection. Summer cabbages haven't hearted up, just blown. The list goes
on.

--
Regards.
Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

wrote in message
...
Martin Brown wrote:
Hardly seen a butterfly at all this year despite having plenty of nectar
rich plants in flower now. House martins, swallows and bats are starving
to death. All in all it is really not a good summer...

There's a lovely red one that I keep seeing (or perhaps a family of them
:-)
on the allotment. I've not seen one quite like it before.


Red Admiral I wonder?
R.