July in the garden!! - Page 5

yeah really am loving those poppies...

lillylouise.. cant wait for the guided tour this year.. showed my mum your otehr one she was as impressed as i was.

My strawberries. They seem to have been just like this for weeks...

Though many commercial strawberry growers have had a bumper crops:

http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/ruralfocus/9803091.Strawberry_crop_is_a_bumper_one/

http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/update/2012-07-10/the-summers-rain-boosts-strawberry-crops/

My wild strawberries are fruiting OK, though not as prolific as good years. I leave these for the birds...

There are just a few apples. This tree is normally loaded...

And these are the only two plums I could find, on a tree that is normally loaded...

We have plum pocket on a fruit tree in our new garden (I think its plums):

I would have thought those affected fruits are very unlikely to be useable.

But you also appear to have quite a few unaffected plums in those photos, a lot more than me. Would it be wise to remove the affected ones. That might reduce the potential for the spread of infection, and the nourishment could then flow to the good ones.

Two snaps of my pear tree. On the left last year, and on the right, the same branch today. I can't see a single pear...

We seem to be o.k for Apples but I can only see a couple of Pears on our trees

Pam x

Out bramley apple tree is doing very well this year.. more fruit on it than in previous years.. my bottlebrush is absolutely covered in flowers this year.. have taken picture but once again my camera and compter are not talking to each other.. will ave to get hubby to take look at it.. gettin gon my nerves now it is

out of interest has anyone heard from wintersong.. she is not posting.. is she on her holidays in a sunny place? hope she ok.

Gary, do you mind me asking what the orangy/brown colouring is on your strawberry plant leaves in the top picture. A couple of leaves on my baby plant have started like that, but as yours are fruiting, I presume it is nothing to worry about?

I removed all the affected branches after taking the pictures and I have a few 'clean' branches with fruit on that I am keeping my eyes on to see if they too become infected.

The downside of taking on a new garden I suppose.

@Insomnia - I'm not absolutely certain what the red blotches on my strwberry leaves are, a strawberry expert might have a more authoritative answer.

There are a lot of viruses that can affect strawberries. I'm guessing it's Strawberry Leaf Spot or Leaf Blight. Those viruses are made worse by wet conditions and lack of sunshine. They reduce the vigour of a plant, and are best removed, if they are getting too extensive.

There's more about strawberry leaf problems like these here:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/YGLNews/YGLNewsJuly152007.html#strawberrydiseases

This is Lychnis chalcedonica (Jerusalem Cross), brightens up the garden on the dullest day...

Ok Gary. Thankyou. Mine suffered from leaf miners a couple of weeks ago, which I removed them leaves, and really don't want to remove anymore! The poor thing would be naked.

I'm leaving my leaves on. The plant needs leaves to build it's food. I'll clean it up in the Autumn. Several plants around it are unaffected. I think that's one of the older plants.

Yeah, exactly. She's a skinny little thing anyway. It's her first year. But she's throwing up some lovely new shoots at the moment, so she's alive and well.

@gary.. i hve just sowen some seeds for the maltese cross plant red colour sowed the orange one otehr week and they are coming through.. cant wait they are supposed to be nectar abundant and loved by bees and butterflies.. so hope they grow well and next year hopefully flowers.

can i ask.. are they easy to maintain.. any special things to be done.. say winter time etc..

@insomnia - doesn't look much wrong with that little plant - apart from lacking some sun.

@g/f - Lychis chalcedonica/Jerusalem Cross/Maltese Cross is very easy to grow and long lived. I grew mine from seed. No special Winter treatment required. It was a popular medieval plant, hence the interesting common names.

The stems are very sturdy and upright, but they have a tendency to topple over from the base. I try to grow mine up through supports. It's one of the few plants where I make an effort to put some supports in, like this...

I grow that gorgeous red lychnis with purple / blue echinops, looks wonderful together, though not for very long as the lychnis is over before the echinops gets into full stride, but for a while it would have made Christopher Lloyd's heart sing. 

Gary, our strawberries have looked like that for what seems months also - I suppose they will redden if we get any sun that lasts for more than half an hour.  The redcurrants are very red but I'll bet not sweet as there has been no sun to turn the starches to sugars - they'll still cook up well for jams and syrups I expect. 

For once I think the North West has had the benefit of the better weather - still wet and lacking sunshine but we've had more than our fair share of the sun when it's around and no flodding. 

I sowed a meadow and nursery cornlower mix this year and the flowers are up to my armpits and glorious.  The 2 new beds I planted in spring have done really well too - only problem being a friend mis-labelled some lupins so I've got pink in the hot border and red in the cool.  Hey ho - the best laid plans and all that.

The red lychnis has been glorious indeed and conincidentally I've planted an echinops nearby which is budding up nicely so hopefully my heart will be singing too

 It's taken 5 years to get to this point and the joy and pleasure it's given this year has more than rewarded the har work and wait

Really must invest in a better camera

HyppyByker wrote (see)

Really must invest in a better camera

There's nothing at all wrong with your camera. The first shot looks a bit dark, but that's only because there is too much white cloud in the photo, and the camera is exposing for that. If you view the image using Windows, then click on Fix along the toolbar, then you can Adjust Exposure, and make the photo lighter and brighter. Or alternatively there may be some other photo-tweaking software already on your computer. You could easily make the other pictures brighter too.

And waiting for some sunshine would help enormously.

I like the lawn too.