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    Ta muchly. I'd like to have got a couple with more depth of field, so the left antenna was sharper, but he/she fell off the side of the deck (at right) after this and disappeared.

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      Amazing.

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        Chilli plants








        Aji Limon


        Hotscotch 1


        Hotscotch 2


        Paper Lantern


        Why I have gone to war with the slugs


        First mini harvest of Super Chillies plus second lot of cherry tomatoes


        Sweet pepper plants


        Catmint






        Edit: Great pic of the antennae there AdC.
        Last edited by wiblflibl; 28-07-2017, 16:33.

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          There's obviously a nest in the maple tree above this picture but I'll be darned if I can spot it. The tree's not particularly large but it is fairly dense. I might have to wait until Autumn.



          There's other evidence — bird crap on the car mostly — but it's not as picturesque.

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            Birds often carry egg shells away from their nest sites to help deter / confuse predators, so there's no guarantee the nest is in the tree above that picture.

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              Very good point. Though, in that case, wouldn't it be rare to find two pieces so close to each other?

              There were a couple of doves in the tree this morning, and a couple of crows lurking close by on our roof (cue music from Ennio Morricone.)

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                Also a good point about the two pieces of shell. It'll be interesting to find out whether the nest is in that tree or not.

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                  At last something other than Super Chillies are starting to ripen! In the pic with the fourth mini harvest of SCs are a Bulgarian Carrot, three Paper Lanterns and an Aji Limon.

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                    Can we set up some kind of chilli mailing list system?

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                      Not sure what you mean, so - "I dunno".

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                        Originally posted by Toby Gymshorts View Post
                        Can we set up some kind of chilli mailing list system?
                        Now I'm wondering if this a subtle way of saying you're not interested in my chillies and would prefer if I stopped posting about them? If so, best to just tell me straight. I'm not too hot on correctly deciphering subtle comments.

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                          It was a subtle way of saying I'm extremely interested in your chillies and can I sample some, please?

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                            Quite the contrary, I thought he wanted to buy some!

                            Edit: cross post.

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                              ^ that.

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                                D'oh!

                                Are you UK based? I'm not sure if fresh chillies would survive the rigours of international mail, though some sauces and relishes made it successfully to a mate in Slovakia a couple of years back. Let me know what you're interested in and I'll get some samples headed your way later in the growing season.

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                                  More varieties starting to ripen.



                                  On the left are yet more Super Chilli, plus six Bulgarian Carrot. On the right are nine Red Scotch Bonnet, four Big Sun Habanero, two Paper Lantern, three Aji Limon, a tiny Chocolate Habanero and three Orange Habanero.

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                                    It's mighty impressive stuff wf. A guy in my office grows unusual hybrids of chilli, tomatoes and sweet corn - weird colours etc. But he doesn't really grow them for the eating; he's set up an online business selling the seeds and charges amazing amounts like $20 (about £12) for a pack of five seeds. People are clearly buying them as he has bought land and employs two staff. He's making more like that than he is working on our websites.

                                    But would you want to grow blue and red sweet corn, magenta chillies or tiger stripe tomatoes?
                                    Last edited by Sits; 16-08-2017, 22:49.

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                                      When I first started growing chillies I tried a few ornamental varieties but due to space constraints turned to concentrate on the ones we most liked to eat. There's an amazing amount of variety in the types of chilli - part of what got me interested in growing them in the first place.

                                      I once paid £5 for a pack of ten Dorset Naga when they were one of the hottest varieties in the world ... this year's seeds were all free - some through contacts of Mrs W, and some free with the Grow Your Own magazine. I'll be buying seeds again next year, I'm missing the Ring of Fire variety for one.

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                                        Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                        But would you want to grow blue and red sweet corn, magenta chillies or tiger stripe tomatoes?
                                        Ooh yes, it's much more fun to grow purple beans, brown tomatoes and so forth than just your bog-standard everyday varieties. I bought some seed for multicoloured sweetcorn the other month but never got around to sowing it. The below though shows half a dozen of the varieties of tomatoes I grew last year (they're not quite ripe yet this time, nor in such variation), plus a couple of the rather large Telegraph Improved cucumbers I got, some chives and a hazelnut or two:

                                        The brown cherry tomatoes are called Black Russian and were absolutely delightful. They looked like Maltesers, and tasted almost as sweet.

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                                          Doing my annual 'My wife's an amazing gardener' photo for viewing so thought I would share it here. She has done especially well especially bearing in mind this was a builders' storage space last summer. No filters and apologies for my crap photo which doesn't do it justice. Can't fit in the new pond including frog and newt.



                                          We also have a veg patch at the back now which has mainly had salad leaves in with varying degrees of success. The watercress has been mental and the runner beans are doing well.
                                          Last edited by Bored Of Education; 23-08-2017, 23:33.

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                                            That's amazing, especially if she's pulled all that together in one year. Love the path, the verbena and the sweet peas; kudos indeed to Mrs Bored. Is that a bright pink buddleia, or are my eyes deceiving me? And may I ask what the purpley-black leaved shrub is, please?

                                            And is that an actual birdcage hanging from the pole, by the way?

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                                              Thank you, VA, I have relayed that to Mrs B and she is pleased as punch. Spotters badge on the verbena, I didn't think that had come out well on the photo. The sweet peas have been amazing this year easily the highlight of the whole garden - especially the fragrance - producing a lot of home-made bouquets and flower arrangements. That is a buddleia and I have to say that that is my request. I love the fragrance, the colour and, to an extent, the shape. I seemingly have a fondness for flowers, almost always pink for some reason, that grow wild on the side of railway tracks. In our old garden, we had a beautiful pink mallow that was growing on the railway siding just the other side of our fence that used to shield us from the railway track (and, it being Kensal Green, airgun pellets from the other side of the railway line). That was until our bloody neighbour cut it down. I hate people cutting down trees. You may not see it from those photos but the garden backs onto a cemetery and there is a lovely shield of mature well-established trees along the back. Two doors down, however, a neighbour managed to get the council to cut down a couple of trees as it was over hanging their garden. They, then, planted a fucking banana plant in the garden which is massive. The purple-black plant is an ornamental elder and is another example of a type of plant which I love which is architectural plants. It flowers like this.



                                              Indeed, those photos are already out of date as, when I got home yesterday, Mrs B had bought a Albizia silk tree which is amazing looking just with the leaves.



                                              and, hopefully, has these pink flowers.



                                              To be totally honest, the elder and a couple of other shrubs and trees predate the building work that we had done that ruined the lawn and the patio-laying that we did to tidy it up and make the garden more usable. The sweet peas, verbena and veg patch are all new though. As a comparison, here is the previous year's picture.



                                              No, it's not a birdcage, I hate birds being caged. It's a squirrel proof feeder.

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                                                I hope you didn't leave the key in the lock, BoE, because those little grey fuckers...

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                                                  AdeC jr snapped this yesterday. No idea what it is, though it looks like a sock puppet. I suppose a caterpillar of some kind though, judging by other photos and vid he shot, it's considerably longer than most.

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                                                    Oh, it's an elephant hawk moth caterpillar. They are amazing and alarmingly large but the actual moth comes out a touch smaller but half the size of the palm of your hand.



                                                    We saw one a couple of weeks ago and I have seen a fair few of them over Facebook so I don't know whether they are particularly prevalent this summer.

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