WHAT ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY 2023

Potted up 30 large yellow crocuses, 3 in a 4inch pots.

 

Hi,

Spent most of this week in total frustration and still not finished. Virgin Media wanted to increase our bill from £61 per month to £78 per month shortly when our current contract expires but it turned into a nightmare; Bron and I don't use mobile phones; it's impossible to contact VM by landline because each time I tried they asked for my mobile number; hugely frustrating; I ended up on VM chatline it taking an hour and an half to finally connect; the new bill remained at £78; I offered to accept the same bundle we had for £61 and this was rejected and when I requested contract be cancelled I was transferred to another chatline to discuss options with a supervisor; I'd already aged a great deal so I closed the chatline in disgust.

I then thought I'll try BT and WOW BT actually have humans speaking to customers directly but out of curiosity I tried BT chatline; this immediately connected to my amazement and I chatted to the guy at BT for 45 minutes; new BT contract agreed and installation on the 12th. The guy at BT was brilliant.

Having agreed to the new BT contract a lady from VM actually contacted us on our landline wanting to discuss best VM bundles; I explained we wanted to close our VM account having already agreed a new account with BT; she asked how much the BT bundle was costing; I said £51.99 a slight pause now we could continue with the same bundle but at £54. I turned this down stating Bron and I once we agree to something we never ever change our minds; the lady said as you don't yet have BT installed you can stay with VM; what an unethical and underneath way for VM to do business. We've been with NTL/VM for over 30 years.

Then the real trouble began VM wouldn't close our contract when it expired. The lady I spoke with at VM said she would close the contract but she didn't. I then went onto VM community forum and dug in; on the forum once again I requested confirmation our account would be closed but now I also sent a letter by special post costing £6.85 stating we wanted to close our VM account; later I received an email from VM stating we now had a new bundle and we didn't need to sign for it; just how low can VM sink; all this was very distressing indeed but on the community forum I made it clear to the world how VM treat loyal customers who have been with NTL/VM for over thirty years; our account will be closed but I'll be watching VM do not withdraw unauthorized money from our account.

VM are going to self destruct; Bron and I are not alone in our disgust of VM who are totally nasty when it comes to closing an account with them they are despicable in the extreme.

Virgin Media is rated "Poor" with 1.8 / 5 on Trustpilot

This is associated with gardening because of it I've been on the keyboard for days unable to get into the garden.

Our new account with BT isn't even fully active yet no bank details requested but the account is set up; our new bundle includes basic Netflix; I've opened the Netflix account and we've already been watching Netflix for two days the account is paid by BT this is excellent service from BT.

I've now got way behind with emails etc and more yet to come because I'll lose my NTL email address so everything will need to be transferred to Gmail. The weeds love this.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

Hi,

Every time I think I'm on top of jobs something else torments me; here's today's wind up;


This manhole is on the pavement directly in front of our bungalow; about two weeks ago a large skip was delivered directly across the street the wagon shattering this manhole cover but it was a simple repair done very quickly indeed only needing a new cover.

The first skip was collected today and an empty skip replaced it once again the wagon destroyed the manhole cover but now also virtually destroyed the manhole and as I type it remains as seen.

I've just taken images of the damage and we also have it on our CCTV; four images have now been sent to the company involved politely drawing their attention to how serious this damage is; I'm unsure if the sewer is now blocked but it needs to be sorted even if the damage parts are removed and the manhole covered for safety; it's unbelievable this has been left like this.

Getting into my studio to play my violins or getting time to spend in the gardens is just about impossible; something always gets in the way.

I'm not touching this manhole because if I get involved it will become my job.

DIY=DON'T INVOLVE YOURSELF.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

This ought to be reported to the Highway authority immediately, as beyond the practicalities of drainage, somebody might fall/trip/sue/become rich for no good reason.

 

I had wallflowers germinating in a seed tray and slugs were eating them, so being as they were inside a shelter I sprinkled some slug pellets around them. However they were still being eaten.

Today I noticed two minute tiny little slugs had been winding their way around the slug pellets and so avoiding them. I was glad in a way because I don't like killing things, so I took the slugs and threw them into the garden outside.
I have other seeds germinating but it's only the wallflowers were being eaten.

 

It's well worth trying. It's a very mellow garlic flavour as none of the cloves are cut or crushed, which is what makes them hot. Loads of recipes for it too.

Planted another 8 cloves today as I think I found a couple more of the porcelain garlic "music" in my garlic supply and I hadn't planted enough of them. You only get 4 or 5 cloves per bulb from that variety

Also picked my first mooli/daikon winter radish today as it looked like it was trying to bolt. The rest are ok at least

 

Hi,

Many thanks infradig; having received my email with pictures the company involved were here very quickly; the debris is now removed and the open manhole now safely covered with four safety cones warning of the danger; I've since received a very nice email of thanks from the company for reporting it;

I was unaware but our next door neighbour has also reported it to the water board who are to come and inspect the damage. These things happen but the driver who caused the damage must have known about it but he didn't report it so the company didn't know; better to be honest and own up now he'll be in trouble.

Twice in two weeks this cover has been destroyed so will it be a third time when this new skip is collected.

The water company have just arrived.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

Looks as if the brick chamber itself is compromised, and will need rebuilding. Was never expected to carry 14 tonnes......

 

Today I repotted the 3 Cyclamen plants I bought on Saturday from Sainsburys. The went into the clay pots in the rings on the balcony railings.

Other than that I had to sweep off the balcony all the grass cuttings that had got into the balcony after the council gardeners cut the patch of grass outside our balcony. Some months ago I put some clear plastic recycle bags we get from the council along the bottom of the railing after they cut the grass for the first time this year. For more than 20 years I had 3 long plastic troughs on the balcony floor up against the railing & they kept the majority of the grass cutting out of the balcony. Last winter I got rid of them in part because they were breaking up & partly because changing the planting twice a year was now too much for me. I hadn't realized just how much work they had saved me over the years during the grass cutting season!

When I finished I moved some of the pots,(those without Morning Glory climbers in them), further into the balcony so if we got the heavy, thundery rain forecast for the night, they wouldn't get swamped like they did a few weeks ago when we had a storm that dropped an enormous amount of rain (at least for us!) & practically drowned my poor plants!
.

 

Hi,

Yes indeed infradig the chamber now also needs extensive repairs; speaking to the driver who came out and removed the debris making it safe I got a soaking it was pouring with rain.

Yesterday evening in the dark two guys from Yorkshire Water arrived to assess the damage and put in a report; the repair will be carried out today or tomorrow but this time once repaired it will withstand the weight of an heavy lorry. Of course it was bucketing down with rain again. I'll be interested to see what happens.

Many thanks shiney for your welcome suggestion; as the problem started to deepen with VM my initial thought was to cancel payments to VM but this could have been a big mistake; it could have compromised our 100% credit rating even though it wasn't our fault; on VM Community Forum a member in similar position to us pointed this out; he too absolutely disgusted with VM; he is now running both his new BT and VM bundles together; this gives him the opportunity to try BT whilst his VM bundle comes to an end. VM are totally unethical.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

They did that with us after we got fed up with BT and ditched them....despite our numerous phone calls. We cancelled with our bank .

 

Nothing today so far as I went shopping and had a slice of Drizzle Cake & Coffee at the local Café

 

My garden helping lady helped me put up some trellises. I'll put photos on my thread for my 'evolving' garden (after I've downloaded them to my laptop)

 

Removed some tomato plants and harvested a few more tomatoes and the last cucumber. Planted up freesias to grow overwinter and flower next spring.