Summer Weather?

These first 2 photos show just how the grapes have ripened recently despite the lack of sun. There are far too many bunches on the vine but the lad from next door persuaded me to have so many on. He loves them so hopefully he will eat most of them. The good thing is that although they all seem to ripen at the same time, there are a few days difference in most of the bunches.

This photo is of my Czar plums they are covered with netting as the blackbirds peck at anything. I was surprised because I had originally ordered a Victoria plum and it was labelled as such but I knew it was a Czar plum. They are as far as I am concerned a better tasting plum and although it is not  known as a dessert plum it is a lot sweeter plum than most. It turns almost black when it is ready and I think within a week I will be eating some.

 With the weather being so poor, in fact over the last 3 days we here have seen about 4 hours of sun, yesterday we had persistant rain, some of it reasonably light interspersed with some heavier periods. With that in mind today I have decided to lift my old Weigela bush Bristol Ruby. I had taken a couple of cuttings earlier and they seem to have taken so an hour ago I decided to uplift the bush, it had been there for about 20 years and I thought it about time to get rid of it. The ground was very wet and so it made the digging up of the bush easier but I did find that the spade and indeed the garden fork soil clung to them. The bush is now no more but the bad thing is that with the ground being ever soaked this last 12 months I have lost many plants. Watching Gardeners World on Sunday morning one presenter mentioned that Lavender hated wet heavy soil so I now knew what I had suspected, the ground over these last 3 years has had a pounding and the plants have suffered. I lost nearly all of my tulips an awful lot of Scabious but I set some seeds so although most of the established plants have died, I do have some young plants. Not so the Lavender as most have died during the prolonged wet spell. At least I do have a Hardstoft Pink which my Best Pal's Daughter bred. It was me that took cuttings and saved the plant for his Family. Now to a rest as I am buggered. More soon.