h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi
for the delay in replying, getting the decorating done and finishing off the snagging took its toll, plus some other issues required my attention and I’ve had my head down for a while whilst I got them sorted.
How’s your seedlings doing, hope there are given the weather has turned.
I’m very interested in the weather and do my own predictions as I keep an eye on the jet stream amongst other things and I knew some days ago that the weather would become .
to hear you’ve been in for tests, hope all went .
I’m keen on all wildlife and its nice to see that the garden supports a wide range of insects and birds, we’ve got a new addition, a rat that recently appeared, he’s not that bad, young, very clean, amusing to watch, my girlfriend calls him Ratbag, he lives in the compost heap next door and enjoys coming out for a snack on the bird food and entertains us on a evening when we sit on the patio.
I still have not yet sown the bed, I hung off, firstly because I was too busy but I also knew that the weather was due to change, I have though sown my first sowings of my Night scented stocks.
I’m hoping to get away for a few days so I will catch up on my return, so have a good week, take care and we will have a natter at the week end.

Hi.
Are you back on top of things now? Did you enjoy your time away?
My seedlings are doing well. I borught them inside when i knew the weather was turning, so i now have trays of seedlings filling my kitchen windowsill. I will put them back in the cold frame maybe today or tomorrow.
Did you have any snow? We were lucky here in that we did'nt get any snow, but we did'nt get the heavy rain we should have done either.
I had a good result at the hospital Wednesday, my glucose levels are back to normal, so no diabetes On the other hand the damage to my wrists is not going to get much better
I have to say i'm not keen on rats, i've had them in my garden, but luckily they are only passing through. When I used to visit Richmond in London at weekends, there was an area where it was teeming with rats at night.
I'm off into my garden shortly, the sun has decided to appear and i want to make the most of it
Have a good weekend.

Hi, I’m glad to hear that your results came back ok .
I’m kind of back on top of things, the decorating is done as far as my involvement is concerned, and the new blinds for the conservatory are being fitted this Wednesday.
I’m not one for standing still and when one thing is finished another list of jobs appears.
We had a lovely time away, just two nights, the weather was changeable and gave us some sharp contrasts.
We went to Robinhoods bay, Whitby but stayed mainly in and around the hotel which was right next to the sea, situated amongst gorgeous rolling cliffs, rugged coast line, stood alone in its own bay and had a very interesting history as it was built late 1700.
I’ve still not sown my bed yet, the Night Scented Stocks have not yet germinated but as you rightly say its been a tad too.
We had a night of snow, I knew it was on its way although the weatherman didn’t seem too sure.
The rain as just started to make a useful impact on the garden, as its been so dry for so long and please be careful with your seedlings as April is not going to be a warm month.
Ratbag as not been out since we returned, there a noticeable increase in cats in the garden, I think they got a whiff of him.
It’s going to be later on this week before I get into the garden as I have some paperwork and business correspondence to catch up on, then as long as the soil as not become too wet, I can start on these years’ preparations.
Hope your week goes

Hi.
I've never been to Whitby, actually the furthest north i've been is North Wales a decade ago. It was very pretty with scenery to take your breath away.
My bee flower seeds have started to germinate despite the colder weather. We've had alot of rain this past couple of days which has helped the garden no end.
I have a busy week this week, which continues into a working weekend, not my favourite time to be working as it gets so busy.
Lastnight we had a get together for one of the chaps that has now retired. A meal in a small pub just up the road from me. The food was very nice and with 16 of us, we filled the small bar to capacity.
Have a good day and will try and catch up later in the week.

Hi
I enjoyed our trip to Whitby, its one of my girlfriends favourite places, didn’t much care for the new town side but the old town end still had some charm.
I must have been there before as I remembered as soon as I tried to walk over the planks at the end of the pier, those gaps in the planks and the sight of the drop soon turned me around as I have this irrational fear of heights which suddenly started to effect me some 10 years ago.
It was surprising to see that my Night Scented Stocks have germinated too, there was the showing of green shoots in all the 4 tubs where I had sown them.
Nearly had a disaster yesterday, went in to water my thumb pots in the lounge and I was met with the sight of a window sill of very dry plants.
The combination of them getting a tad too big for there pots and a hot sunny morning nearly cost me the lot, so I prepared 30 12 inch pots yesterday, there already filled with compost for me to transplant the thumb pots over. I’m missing out the stage of planting them up into 5 inch pots so as to save time and to allow them to establish into there final pots now.
Whilst I was in the garage I came across 2 large pots of Gladioli, I had planted them up last year and had a very good colourful show of them either side of the bench by the conservatory, I remember cutting them down after they had died back and had put them in the garage late last year with a view to planting them out this year. As they were all shooting, I’ve topped them up with compost and they will stay in pots again this year.
I remember all too well the hustle and bustle of garden centre life on a spring bank holiday weekend, they were tiring but seemed to fly by, I always seemed to come home with some new addition to the garden as a result of putting on show that weekends plant delivery .
There’s nothing quite like a good knees up with some friends down at the local, hope you had a lovely time.
I'm hoping to get a bit more gardening done tomorrow, weather permitting, after doing my paperwork

Have a good day

Hi.
It's taken a while for me to be able to access this site, seems nothing's changed with slow loading and stuff despite being on the different platform.
You're not the only one with a fear of heights Funny how it affects us as we get older.

I'm very pleased with the way my seeds are germinating outside, when that bed flowers, it should look stunning.
There are lots more plants starting to flower now. me Epimedium grandiflora looks a picture. I bought it as a small plant a coulpe of years ago at the RHS winter show, one of the best plants i bought there i think. The tulips are starting to put on a good show aswell.

Health wise i'm not doing so great this week, i'm tired all the time and have no energy. This doesn't help the arthritis and is not a good start to a long working weekend. Oh well, such is life.

Have a good weekend and i'll catch up with you later in the week.

Hi
to hear you’re not feeling too well, I had a shock on Friday; I went for an Ultrasound scan as I had complained to the that the pain in my hip was getting a lot worse. I half expected them to say it was my hip joint; instead it appears I have a hernia which will need surgery to correct.
So I’m slowly coming to a grinding halt, for as much as I dismiss all my conditions, have the attitude that I will not be beaten and soldier on, seems there hell bent on stopping me from doing anything.
It was nice to hear that your seedlings are doing, I started work(gingerly) on the two bed on Saturday, we where at our local garden centre for 8.30am, bought some more compost and seeds and 2 water butts.
I installed the water butts first, nice slim line ones that fit nicely to the down pipes, my girlfriend sowed her Dwarf beans, Broad beans, Peas, Peppers, Chillies (there seems to have been a rush on these as we had to go elsewhere to complete the range she wanted) and then she sowed her Sun flower seeds she saved from last year.
Before I could prepare the beds I had to divide some red and blue Aubrietia, a very nice compact deep red Sedium, Dianthus and a plant that slips my mind but it was her dads (lime/yellowish ovate leaves, deep red flowers with a yellow frill and centre to them).
I like symmetry so they were divided and positioned either side of the steps that lead up to the top lawn, I had quite a few self sown plants to pot up, Amazingly I found 3 sea holy plants (don’t ask me how, can only guess they are stray seeds from my attempt from last year) and I had 6 Aquilegias to pot up as I have quite a few already established in the garden.
Needles to say when this was done I crawled up stairs and had to lay on the floor for half an hour whilst my painkillers kicked in, then a good hot shower and then it was to the pub for a .
I looked up Epimedium grandiflora as I was not familiar with it; it looks very stunning, architectural but delicate.
Hope your weekend shift goes , take care.

Hi
Wow! Seems i am doing slightly better than you in the health stakes. Sorry to hear you have antoehr op in store. It's amazing how we can convince ourselves that we can beat any ailment that befalls us, only to find out that getting old means we can't recover so quickly, if at all, it's really annoying!
I have one of those slim line water butts, it fits very nicely into a corner of my garden. I put all the run-off water into it as i don't have any drain pipes near my garden. It serves me very well.
There seems to be a shortage of some veg seed this year. I'm responsible for the seeds at work and i'm getting some varieties of carrots, cucumbers, courgettes, tomatoes and chilli peppers
That was a stroke of luck with the sea holly. I have tried planting some more seeds, had them in the fridge for a while too, still nothing so i give up with those.
I did by a couple of borage plants yesterday, another one the bees like. No idea where i'm going to plant them yet as the beds are getting pretty full.
Have a good day.

Hi
Hope the weekend shift went , was it busy, the weather up here turned out quite nice, plenty of sun from morning to mid afternoon then the clouds built up and we had the odd hail shower. Was a tad on the cool side though but as I kept myself busy it didn’t seem too bad?
We had another busy day in the garden on Sunday, my girlfriend cut the lawns (used to be my job until the hernia came along) before she went shopping.
I tidied, hoed all the borders, trimmed a variety of bushes, moved quite a few plants to new locations then at last sowed the beds.
I think I’ve gone a bit OTT, as you don’t seem to get as many seeds in a packet now and days. So I kept going back into the garage and finding the odd old seed packet of this that and the other, my girlfriend said I’ve put way far too much in and it will look more like a jungle by time it has all grown.
Ali re-potted the Rose of china in the conservatory, it’s been gorgeously colourful and I think it would now benefit by going up a few pot sizes as it seems to be growing very well.
The house is now starting to fill up with plants as Ali keeps buying new additions every time she goes shopping, she bought some new herbs ,more chillies, cucumber, courgette, s, pumpkins and a magnolia tree on Sunday.
I need to go and get some more compost and some new large pots as we have already used up the 7x 60ltr bags of compost we bought on Saturday. We don’t have any borage, looks nice with the blue flowers, we have quite a lot of herbs as we use them a lot when cooking, there all still in the greenhouse, all in separate 12 inch pots, I’m not putting them back into the garden this year as they became too big and invasive last year.
It’s another visit to the s today then hopefully if the weather holds out a few hours in the garden.

Have a good day

Hi,
I had a bit of a shock at the s on Monday, no more gardening or strenuous activity, I’m not to lift and have to be careful due to my hernia. I walked to the local pub today, not the wisest of moves, I’m so glad that I got done what I have as it’s not looking too good without a op.
The weather has changed for the good, lots of rain to help bed down my seeds and newly moved plants. How’s your seedlings doing, hope all is

Hi
Sorry for the delay in replying, it's been a hectic week one way and another.
It's not been any kind of gardening weather here for over a week now. The rain just does'nt want to stop. It's doing the plants a world of good and also the weeds that have shop up from no where I don't know when i'll be able to get out and tend to them.
You're right about the quantities of seeds in a packet these days. I did what you did and added some odd seeds i had from previous years. If the all come up it will be an explosion of colour.
Ooh a magnolia tree sound nice, I do like those.
How did you get on at the docs?
I bought two new plants for my garden yesterday, they are a bit more difficult than your average plant, Cypripediums. I love orchids and have several British native ones growing wild in the garden. These ones are hybrids and the flowers are much bigger than our natives. Hopefull with the right care they will thrive and go on for many years. I'm having to research about composts and the like for them. Luckily i have another orchid grower contact in my town. So we swap orchids and information about growing techniques. I think he has the upper hand on these types of orchids, so i'm relying on his information to keep them alive.
I havent even planted my borage yet, it's doing ok in the pot for now. I have herbs in the garden, but rarely use them, mainly because i don't like cooking and forget they are there. The flowers on them attract plenty of bees though, so it's not a waste of time growing them.
Have a good weekend

Oops i've just seen you message about the docs. Sorry to hear you're not to do anything for a while. Good job you finished the decorating eh! Have they given any ideas if they are going to operate?

Hi it’s nice to hear from you, I was getting a tad worried hope all is .
The weather up here is very good for the garden at the mo, not too by night, plenty of rain showers to give everything a good soaking and some lengthy periods of sunshine to warm things up.
My bed as not germinated yet, the wettish conditions are keeping thes off, otherwise they would be two big kitty litter trays,and blackbirds are happy at the bottom end of the garden turning over the soil in the beds looking for worms.
Ali said to me whilst she was sowing her Chillies that one packet had only 7 seeds in it, you think the manufactures would put a few more in each packet.
The Magnolia is a tad on the small sizes but I’m sure it won’t take long to get established.
I had a bash at helping in the garden on Saturday, no lifting, Ali bless herfetched and carried things around for me, I spent a good few hours sat in the sunshine on the drive potting things like s ,8x hanging baskets and all the flowering container plants into there final large pots.
The garden is, as Alan Titchmarch would say, looking quite “Bonny” at the moment .
I’m quite partial to orchids too, I used to tell folk when I was in the garden centre , not to fuss them, as they seem to thrive quite well if you don’t give them too much TLC, a good mist daily, constant tepid temperature and not too much sun, mine seemed to thrive better the less pampering they got.
We’ve got in excess of 20 herbs now, all in 12 inch pots, scattered around the garden in sunny spots, I save and pot up the ones you buy from the likes of Asda, at the veg counter, the ones your suppose to trim from and keep on your window sill, then dispose of when done.
As for the Hernia, I don’t have my consultation with a Surgeon until the 21st of May, so I have to be quite careful until then.
My girlfriend got her new camera today, a Nikon D3100 VR18-55Kit, this makes it 3 Nikons now, as she already has a Nikon F801?thread="smiley - ok" title="ok" class="smiley" src="http://www.h2g2.com/h2g2/skins/Alabaster/images/Smilies/f_ok.gif"/> too.

Hi, I noticed when I posted my last entry that the F801?thread="smiley - erm" title="erm" class="smiley" src="http://www.h2g2.com/h2g2/skins/Alabaster/images/Smilies/f_erm.gif"/>

Hi
Jeez, will it ever stop raining!! We've gone from drought to saturation over the last week.
The only flowers that are holding up in all this wetness are the for-get-me-nots. My tulips are all ruined and the double daffs are flat.
The 2 orchids are hardy outside orchids, not that easy to keep but i like a challenge. They need alot more care than the house orchids, which like you say thrive on neglect.
As you can imagine work is pretty dead just now. We should be really busy at this time of year. Still it gives me a chance to think about other things i want to get done soon.
I have a Nikon D3000, which i bought a couple of years ago. I'm thinking of upgrading to a D3200 which comes out in May. It has everything on it that i require plus loads more. I'm still a bit undecided as yet and will call into the camera shop tomorrow, to see if they have any more info on it.
The butterfly bed is sprouting all over now, i'm really pleased with how things are developing. The same cannot be said for the Eryngium seeds. I tried again with the last of the seed, left them in the fridge for 2 weeks then put them in the warm. Not so much as one seed came through. I think the seeds were dead.
Anyway, must go and face another soggy day at work.
Enjoy your week.

Hi
It’s not too bad up here, rain interspersed with good bouts of sunshine, though when it rains its certainly chucks it down.
The temp is still a tad on the cool side, so things are growing but not with much vigour at the mo. Still no sign of green shoots on the two beds as yet.
I was reviewing some of the pictures of the garden taken over the last two years yesterday, we are so far behind this year in respect of colour and anything that has grown so far, seems to have been stunted by the dry weather prior to the present monsoons.
I was reading the review of the D3200, seems to pack a punch, big jump in megapixels, Ali has got her D3200 up and running now. She waited to fit her Nikon neutral filter which has just arrived before she took her lens cap off, she now ready to go.
I was always annoyed when we had bad weather over the peak selling period when I managed the garden centre, my staffdid a brilliant job and it was disappointing that all their hard work did not equate to good sales due to the bad weather. Those manager meetings on a Monday afternoon were good to attend when our sales had gone through the roof, but my GSM took no pity on me when the rain ruined things.
to hear about the sea holly’s, the three I potted up are doing well although there not too keen on this prolonged wet spell where having as they like it to be dryer than it is.
Still taking it easy, had to use my Reveal implant the other day as the old ticker threw a wobbly, the hospital phoned me back after they had received the readings that my implant had given them and all was has it showed it was not a heart attack. I’m potting up some more Chillies today, ready for them to grow on the kitchen window sills then were all about done for the mo.
Hope you have a good week too

Hi,
Hope your week went .
for the typo in post 56, should have read “Ali has got her D3100 up and running now.”
Well its certainty rained up here; cool too, everything is well soaked but where missing that sunshine to make things grow.
My bed has just started to germinateand I’ve put some slug pellets down to stop those blighters from eating my seedlings.
We went to the garden centre the other day, Ali bought lots of other things to plant, more nasturtiums, Livingstone daisies, carnations, celery, an evergreen clematis (that’s to help fill a gap we have at the ed of the garden), an alpine (that name eludes me), more compost, some alyssums and a Aubergine (to go in the greenhouse with all her other stuff).
A lot of the other seeds have germinated too, most of the peas, beans outside and the chillies on the kitchen window sill.
Poor old ratbag bite the dust, the got it and Ali found it on the lawn yesterday morning, I know its no right to harbour a rat but he was a bit of a cutie bless him.
The clematis that I put on the side of the house has just started flower, very small pale pink flowers, would look better with a tad more sun but its an nice addition to have and is doing a lot better now its been moved.
The grape vine is still abit undecided, the buds on it have fattened up nicely but yet again it’s that key ingredient, sunshine that is missing, that is stopping it from bursting out.
How’s things in your garden!
We might go to the Harrogate flower show on Sunday, will give you the low down if we do, take care and hope you are having a good weekend

Hi
Sorry for the delay in replying again. I'm not having a great time just now, so i'm spending alot of time trying to sort stuff.
The weather has been god awful here and shows no sign of letting up. I havent been into the garden for days now. My orchids need feeding outside, the last feed has probably been washed out by the constant rain.
Yay! Glad to here the butterfly bed has started to germinate. All we need now is some sun to make the seedling take off. Mine are just sat there looking sad and not doing much.
Alpine clematis are really pretty, is it one of the white ones? There is one in flower now called avalanche, it's very pretty. I have an unusual clematis called napaulense (think thats how you spell it) Anyway, it grows during the winter and flowers then too. In the summer it goes dormant and looses all it leaves.
Awww poor Ratbag. I'm not a lover of rodents, but i don't like to see them get killed or worse still poisoned.
It's a working weekend for me again, they do come round quick. Yesterday was a total wash out and today looks like more of the same. If we don't get some decent weather soon, the season will be lost and we could start having some people laid off.
I hope you enjoy your day at the Harrogate show, i'd love to hear about it and see any photos you might take.
Better go now, time for one last before work.
It might be a few days before i reply again. Once i get things sorted i'll be about more.
Take care and have a good day.

Hi
Finally i have managed to get into the garden to see whats growing. It's still very soggy and spongey under foot.
I planted out some of my seedlings today, Salvia transylvanica and some trifolium. A few of the nicotinana langdorfii are now in their final possitions and the borage is planted. I still can't cut the grass as it's far too wet.
I even managed to get a few photos as well. All in all not a bad afternoon.
Hows things with you? Did you get to the flower show at the weekend?

Hi,
Unfortunately we slept in, we had discussed going the day before and we were both eager to go. It’s that horrible realisation when you reach for the alarm clock and see what time it is. So we had a lazy day instead, had a few ‘s at the pub down by the canal and then rather leisurely made dinner.
Ali cut the lawns on Wednesday (still out of bounds for me) , we had a dry sunny window appear so she got the mower out.
Be careful of the temperature this weekend as it is set to be just above freezing by day and frosty by night.
The low pressure that has influenced our weather for so slow has a sting in its tail, before we get warmer air from the south mid next week.
We are making provisions already , bought more paraffin for the greenhouse heater, I’m using fleece, newspaper and netting to cover the newly germinated beds and I have put off planting a lot of my more exposed tubs until next week.
Ali has stared to use her camera now, she still in those early days of mastering its controls but she’s glad she’s got it.
I’m not too bad, if I’m to be honest I had a bit of a downer day on Tuesday (everything seemed to ache, my IBS kicked off and my leg was so very painful), been to the hospital for a review of my Reveal Implant, all is going on that front.
I’m due for a hair cut, I know that, as I still have my Winter hair on, I keep telling my girlfriend that I will get it cut when it warmers up and the beard will go too until next Autumn.
Have you got anything lined up this bank holiday, were still a tad undecided, until we know better as to what the weather is likely to do, then we may just whiz off to the seaside for the day or even have a over night stay
Hope all is your end, watch out for that frostand have a good week