Re: Gardening Thread.

**Lamplighter** Tue Sep 25, 2012 1:43 pm

Oh Lawd you poor people. Sad

We have 28C plus oodles of sun and blue skies. LL sunny

**bb1** Tue Sep 25, 2012 2:52 pm

Some good pics on the slideshow here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-19714947

**Pedro Silva** Tue Sep 25, 2012 2:57 pm

My friends, this was taken from Sky News:

http://yourphotos.news.sky.com/galleries/all/

**bb1** Tue Sep 25, 2012 3:02 pm

Thanks, Pedro. From Sky, the scene in Morpeth;

Gardening Thread. - Page 24 8653766-1-1-778x437

**bb1** Tue Sep 25, 2012 3:39 pm

Some amazing film here of the seafoam that's been blown ashore down the North Sea coast:

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/191736-flood-warnings-issued-as-rain-and-winds-of-up-to-70mph-batter-scotland/

Flood warnings issued as rain and winds up to 101mph batter Scotland

**bb1** Tue Sep 25, 2012 3:46 pm

More here:

Gardening Thread. - Page 24 Article-2208269-15326105000005DC-70_964x560

Snow or foam? Stormy weather in Aberdeen has caused the sea to foam up and completely cover cars and houses in the Footdee area of Aberdeen

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2208269/UK-weather-Flood-warnings-North-foam-covers-Aberdeen-fishing-village.html#ixzz27VMBddod
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**lily** Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:17 pm

Sabot and Bonny, how's this? biggrin

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02360/tallest-sunflower_2360847k.jpg

**bb1** Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:19 pm

**lily** Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:35 pm

Oops. The photo came on when I reviewed it. embarass

Thanks, Bonny.

What a whopper. rofl

**Sabot** Fri Oct 05, 2012 3:53 pm

Wow. I think they are known as Mammoth Sunflowers. But they are going to be difficult to cut down without losing a lot of the seeds.
Mine are all drooping now, but they haven't turned to seed yet, and if you cut them down too soon they never will turn. But at least I can get at mine with a medium sized step ladder when the time does come.

**lily** Fri Oct 05, 2012 4:00 pm

Do you think that the birds will get the seeds okay up by the roof?

Sabot, I think you should never get any of those seeds. You might have to get a cherry picker up there if you can persuade a passing fireman to do it?

I bet you could.......... rofl

**Sabot** Fri Oct 05, 2012 5:45 pm

lily wrote:Do you think that the birds will get the seeds okay up by the roof?

Sabot, I think you should never get any of those seeds. You might have to get a cherry picker up there if you can persuade a passing fireman to do it?

I bet you could..........

The Flower Heads droop, Lily, so short of birds that don't need anything to cling to then they aren't actually going to get at the seeds until they fall to the ground. Which I suppose could be it. Some you win and some you lose. Birds feed and seeds go on to propagate. I was rather hoping to reduce my Bird Seed Bill, but thar you go. I expect to know better next year. At the moment Bird Food is costing me more than Dog Food. And my own food costs very little at all. But we have to keep The Planet going, presuming that The Planet needs it, which I doubt. The Planet will get rid of the likes of me before it gets rid of it's wild life. But that's okay by me.

**lily** Fri Oct 05, 2012 6:23 pm

Bless you, Sabot. We have to take care of our little friends and which you do so well.

**Sabot** Fri Oct 05, 2012 8:02 pm

lily wrote:Bless you, Sabot. We have to take care of our little friends and which you do so well.

What? I don't even like the little feckers, and they certainly don't like me. They are all gone before I even see them. This is a case of, "You sodding well will survive if it bloody well kills me." and "Now get off your arses and see to all of those Slugs that I can't bring myself to kill.
This is Nature, okay. Absolutely nothing pleasant about that. See you, Jimmy.

**Sabot** Sat Oct 06, 2012 10:42 am

Went shopping yesterday. Three total strangers were nice to me for no reason whatsoever. One person helped me with heavy Parafin containers without being asked. One shop offered to get what I wanted by today, from their other shop some miles away. My favourite crab faced bank teller gave me explicit instructions on Internet Banking, and not once did she suggest that my age might make it difficult for me, but then she is quite old herself. The checkout assistant who subjects me to a near strip search everytime I go there, was actually helpful, and nearly cracked a smile. And none of this can be put down to the weather as it is pissing down again.

I am now in the process of fertilizing my Growing Pots with Chicken Shit Pellets for over wintering. Chicken Shit Pellets are very cheap but I'm not sure what effect they might have on my Chrysanthemums, so I shall have to Google that one.

**Lamplighter** Sat Oct 06, 2012 10:45 am

Chicken Shit Pellets are very cheap but I'm not sure what effect they might have on my Chrysanthemums,

I think you only really have to worry when the chrysanthemums start clacking! LL rofl

**Sabot** Sat Oct 06, 2012 11:02 am

Lamplighter wrote:
Chicken Shit Pellets are very cheap but I'm not sure what effect they might have on my Chrysanthemums,
I think you only really have to worry when the chrysanthemums start clacking! LL

I shan't worry about that, LL. I just don't want my lovely purple ones to go brown and speckled, or start crowing at the crack of dawn for that matter. My neighbour has got the franchise on that.

**bb1** Fri Oct 12, 2012 3:37 pm

OMG!!! It's SNOWED in Australia!

If you have ever wondered what 'roos do when they see snow for the first time ever, just watch the video...and just think what a mess they would make of your garden, Sabot...

http://news.sky.com/story/996852/heavy-snowfall-across-parts-of-australia

**Sabot** Sat Oct 13, 2012 4:58 pm

bb1 wrote:OMG!!! It's SNOWED in Australia!

If you have ever wondered what 'roos do when they see snow for the first time ever, just watch the video...and just think what a mess they would make of your garden, Sabot...

http://news.sky.com/story/996852/heavy-snowfall-across-parts-of-australia

I can't say that I have ever had any desire to own a kangaroo, Bonny, although I could probably cope with an abandoned baby until someone came to rescue it from me.
Romulus, however, was a great disappointment to me. He hates snow because it involves him in getting his feet wet.
But my Afghans were always pure delight. They would charge around chucking it in the air. Strange animals are Afghans. Half wild to this day, but still mindful of the hand that feeds them. There is a lovely old story of wild Afghans attaching themselves to the guards that patrolled the Forts at night, and then going to the Cookhouse to be fed when dawn came and the guards changed. And no one taught them to do this.
I never did have much control over mine, which is why I always had ten foot fences with a sub fence on top, anything less and they could get over that with no problem. I have seen them scale six foot walls just by running up them.

**bb1** Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:04 pm

I have never had an Afghan, so don't know much about them. They do look awfully elegant, though I wouldn't fancy disentangling their coats.

**Sabot** Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:58 pm

bb1 wrote:I have never had an Afghan, so don't know much about them. They do look awfully elegant, though I wouldn't fancy disentangling their coats.

They really are something else, Bonny. And believe me, not at all stupid. They just ignore you when they don't want to obey. Many is the mile I have run to catch mine when it was time to go home, they just didn't agree with me about going home.
One of mine nearly had a Dartmoor Pony down on one occasion, and the beauty of the chase was phenominal. He went like the wind, which I could see, while I was actually having hysterics and running after him. I couldn't half run in those days. But I can still see what he was doing to this day. And I still don't know how I stopped him. Needless to say, he was never allowed free on Dartmoor ever again. They are basically Tiger Hunters, so some Pony was small beer.

Their coats vary. Some of them have very little coat at all, and just a short Saddle Back. I think this depends on their origins. Some are seated in the Plains of Afghanistan, and some in the Mountains. But Hamlet had the most glorious long black coat. He truly was the most beautiful creature that I have ever seen. He hated being combed, and it did get tangled, so I just chopped it off when it got out of hand.
He has been dead of old age for forty years, and I still haven't quite recovered.
I have had five Afghans, and the last was a fourteen year old bitch that I adopted here because her owners didn't want her anymore. She was past being difficult, and she lived for another three years, so she was always pure delight. Her name was Carla. And she was a Gift in so many ways. She had a long coat, and I chopped that off when it got tangled.
I did briefly do The Show Dog thing, mainly because Hamlet was absolutely perfect. But he hated that as much as I did. But, Oh My, The Lope and the swinging hair. They are a bit like Camels to watch. Pure beauty. But you never really own them.

I would always say that you will have missed something if you never have one.

**bb1** Sat Oct 13, 2012 6:14 pm

The menagerie is quite bad enough as it is, Sabot rofl

**Sabot** Sat Oct 13, 2012 7:44 pm

Well, I can't have any more at the moment because poor old Rom has gained what could be an unfair reputation. I only actually know that he has got crack hammer jaws, and gets a bit shirty if another dog growls at him, so I am not taking any chances.
He appears to quite like bitches, but we all know where that leads. And since he has never gotten his leg over, I don't really want to go down that road at his late age.

Shar Peis were solely bred as Fighting Dogs, 2,000 years ago, and like Afghans, they do not appear to have lost their original instincts, although I don't think that anyone actually bred Afghans in those days.
While Shar Peis were a mixture of Chows and Mastiffs, so not actually pure bred at that time. They also have black tongues from The Chow. The loose skin appears to have been bred in to prevent any great harm to the dog during a fight. You can plaster back their skin if it is ever ripped back for any reason.
Most of Shar Peis grow into most of their wrinkles, but there has been a spate of interbreeding over latter years, which I don't want to go into.
They also carry a regressive gene that causes an eye defect from ingrowing eyelashes which ultimately blinds them if it is not operated on. But believe me, being blind does not stop them from being awesome fighters, so I tend to think that this was done deliberately.
Rom has had both of his eyes operated on, but at a very young age, so no great harm was done to him from this defect. But he undoubtedly carries the gene, and should not ever be used for breeding purposes.

When these dogs first became popular there were only four breeding pairs introduced into Europe. And you can bet your sweet life that at least one of them had this gene.
And then the progeny were sent to America where this gene also prevails.
Some responsible Breeders are trying to eradicate it. But it can lurk for several generations.
Plus of course, there is far too much interbreeding between members of the same family. I only later found out that my bitch was the product of grand daughter and grand father.
I bred Romulus myself, albeit by accident from another Shar Pei that also came from the same breeders. Oh for my ignorance in those days. But I do believe that Rom has survived to the age of thirteen because of my total dedication to his well being.
You can keep dogs alive for very much longer than is supposed if you think about what you feed them. I will never feed any dog of mine on Commercial Dog Food ever again. Or any cat either. It is all too easy to just pile a load of crap into their feeding bowls, when you would have a fit if you knew what it comprises of.

PS. I have had a couple of really nice Pekinese dogs as well.

**Sabot** Sun Oct 14, 2012 5:55 pm

The Combines have been out cutting Maize since the crack of dawn today, Sunday, and still going strong. Not surprising since it has rained non stop for over a week. This leads me to suspect that it will start raining again very soon. No one works around here on a Sunday if they can possible avoid it.
This is Maize for Cattle Feed, by the way.

Took the dog for a walk and found about a pound of very good mushrooms. If you never hear from me again then you will know why.
However, Folk Law around here says that if the Slugs have been chewing mushrooms then they are okay to eat. So you see, Slugs do have their other uses.
I have left the worst chewed ones to reseed for next Autumn. But I will go back tomorrow because new ones tend to rise at dawn.
And if you have never eaten a wild mushroom then you haven't lived.

**Lamplighter** Sun Oct 14, 2012 5:59 pm

And if you have never eaten a wild mushroom then you haven't lived.

Oh, well, that's me back to being one of the Undead - I am allergic to them!! LL Hide

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