The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[chrisbainbridge]

I was referring to Bank Of Scotland, but I've got Nationwide and Santander to look forward to.
Speaking of grumbles Santander said I needed to use mobile banking to pay their credit card rather than doing it from a Santander current account via online banking. Why is this stuff so shit?

generally I find bank of Scotlands websites both personal and business to be really poor but the Apps are much better.

[Mr Larrington]

Last time I checked Barclays wouldn’t let you use their app unless you have a Barclays current account.  Which in my case I have not got.  I didn’t have a Barclays account at all until they borged my ING one.  The bastards.

[ian]

I only have a Barclay CC (I'm not sure how, tbh, I think it was Egg once upon a time) and I use the app. Checking, it's actually a specific Barclaycard app.

I should just get rid of some credit cards, I have six of the bloody things and I use precisely two of them.

But generally, the apps are a lot easier since you can skip the entire security rigamarole by using FaceID on the phone.

[chrisbainbridge]

But generally, the apps are a lot easier since you can skip the entire security rigamarole by using FaceID on the phone.

This 

[The Family Cyclist]

This should probably make rant but last year the next door but one neighbours who's garden we go through to access ours said to help ourselves to apples as their tree which we had already been scrumping off was laden with beautiful fruit and they could store no more.

They sadly moved and I realised when ilooked this week that the new owner has chopped the tree down. I am utterly bewildered as to why you would although my other neighbours did the same with their two apple trees as only like golden delicious

Neither are gardeners but a tree giving you free apples seems a no brainer to me

[mrcharly-YHT]

That is really sad.

[ian]

Any senseless chopping down of trees makes me ranty.

[Regulator]

...
Neither are gardeners but a tree giving you free apples seems a no brainer to me

Apple trees take maintenance, but...

Any senseless chopping down of trees makes me ranty.

^^^
This!

Where people are applying for permission to remove trees, as a council we are requiring them to replace them with two new trees (and they have to be proper mature saplings rather than twigs)

[PhilO]

Every couple of years our neighbours to the rear drop hints about our apple tree, which TBF is rather tall (I can't quite pick the highest apples with a 5m pole). 

So I have some sympathy, except that they complain that it overshadows their garden - bearing in mind that their back faces NW and the tree is at the far RHS as they look at it.  Yes, that's right. It's due north of their garden.  Of the 4 gardens that come together near the tree, the only one that never gets any shade from it is theirs.

So, tough... 

[I am slowly thinning it and bringing down the crown height, but only to improve the crop and ease access for picking. And over the course of a few years.  And even then, I'm not going to sacrifice the shape of the tree.]

[chrisbainbridge]

We are in a conservation zone and limited in what we can do.  We had one really old apple tree that was mainly dead wood reduced and it is now sprouting again and may bear fruit next year.  A couple of other trees were a mess and we got agreement to remove them, reduce the beech and the magnolia.  In return we planted 2 rowan, 2 apple and 2 plums.  We are eating a few plums every day at the moment and have a crop of apple to pick with the Rowan trees adding colour with a wonderful crop of bright red berries. 

[andytheflyer]

Glad you have apples. Last year my 2, (a Cox and a Laxton) were loaded, couldn't eat them fast enough.  This  year the Cox has nothing, not one, and the Laxton about a dozen.  TBF, the Cox had no blossom, and we had no frost at the critical time that I saw, so don't know why I have no apples.  The trees look fine, so maybe next year. 

I have a huge crab apple tree between the 2, and it has very few crab apples too.  Normally, it's loaded.  Barely enough for a batch of crab apple jelly this year. Very unusual.

Is this a grumble or a first world problem?

[chrisbainbridge]

I have found the garden really strange this year. Some things have done really well and some things have just died. Even my dahlias have been poor this year.

[andytheflyer]

Dahlias - now that's interesting.

My late wife had a magnificent dahlia display last year and over the winter ordered 50 new tubers.  After her death in April I planted them out in tubs, expecting a good display in her memory.  They've done OK, but nothing like as good as the display last year.  Maybe it's just me - I don't pretend to be a gardener.  I have a good display of bedding plants but no skill needed for them I suspect.

[T42]

One of my cycling chums has a muscat vine in his back garden.  Last week he posted a pic of his harvest on FB: a heap of mildewed lumps.  His were just eating grapes, but the entire wine harvest has been badly hit this year.  More to the point as far as I'm concerned, though, the durum wheat harvest has taken a knock so pasta will be in short supply.

[ian]

I have found the garden really strange this year. Some things have done really well and some things have just died. Even my dahlias have been poor this year.

Odd, the two holly trees we have out front have (mostly) died. They don't look obviously diseased. Everything else is fine.

[robgul]

I have found the garden really strange this year. Some things have done really well and some things have just died. Even my dahlias have been poor this year.

Odd, the two holly trees we have out front have (mostly) died. They don't look obviously diseased. Everything else is fine.

Another oddity - we have what is alleged to be the largest walnut tree in Warwickshire* immediately behind our garden fence - last year loads of walnuts, this year almost none??   The upside is that the bloody squirrels wont be planting walnuts in the lawn.

It has a TPO and has some other sort of listing too.

[Polar Bear]

Just the one rather small cucumber this year.  Last year I couldn't eat them fast enough to keep up. 

[Tim Hall]

Dahlias - now that's interesting.

My late wife had a magnificent dahlia display last year and over the winter ordered 50 new tubers.  After her death in April I planted them out in tubs, expecting a good display in her memory.  They've done OK, but nothing like as good as the display last year.  Maybe it's just me - I don't pretend to be a gardener.  I have a good display of bedding plants but no skill needed for them I suspect.

Friends of mine run a flower farm and grow many many dahlias. They're behind compared to last year with the damp not so warm weather as prime suspect.

[L CC]

Glad you have apples. Last year my 2, (a Cox and a Laxton) were loaded, couldn't eat them fast enough.  This  year the Cox has nothing, not one, and the Laxton about a dozen.  TBF, the Cox had no blossom, and we had no frost at the critical time that I saw, so don't know why I have no apples.  The trees look fine, so maybe next year. 

I have a huge crab apple tree between the 2, and it has very few crab apples too.  Normally, it's loaded.  Barely enough for a batch of crab apple jelly this year. Very unusual.

Is this a grumble or a first world problem?

Biennial bearing

[ian]

I have found the garden really strange this year. Some things have done really well and some things have just died. Even my dahlias have been poor this year.

Odd, the two holly trees we have out front have (mostly) died. They don't look obviously diseased. Everything else is fine.

Another oddity - we have what is alleged to be the largest walnut tree in Warwickshire* immediately behind our garden fence - last year loads of walnuts, this year almost none??   The upside is that the bloody squirrels wont be planting walnuts in the lawn.

It has a TPO and has some other sort of listing too.

I have a feeling that the cause is the heat and drought last summer.

[rafletcher]

Everything is pretty late. We have no ripening tomatoes, still plenty of flowers. The sweetcorn is a major disappointment, I ev3n pulled out two runts, and the cobs we have are small and unrepentant. Cherry blossom and plum blossom got frosted. All the pears bar one, and all the apples have dropped. Even our chard, which is generally prodigious and indestructible, has struggled this year. The only good things are parsley, which always seems to go well, and the chives.

[TheLurker]

...the durum wheat harvest has taken a knock so pasta will be in short supply.

And given the fires all around the Med. together with ongoing disease probs. olives and olive oil are likely to be very much more expensive in the near future.  Oh and of course the, "New Economic Arrangement", hereinafter the NEA, that now exists between the (dis)UK and the mainland will very likely aggravate matters even more.

On matters horticultural in general, we too have noticed a good deal less flower and thus fruit on plants than we have been accustomed to in previous years.   
 April really was the cruellest month this year.  The local apple trees are particularly interesting.  One out the back which is normally heavily laden, almost devoid of fruit another out the front within 50 or 60 yards of the first has more or less as much fruit as usual.  All very odd.

[andytheflyer]

Glad you have apples. Last year my 2, (a Cox and a Laxton) were loaded, couldn't eat them fast enough.  This  year the Cox has nothing, not one, and the Laxton about a dozen.  TBF, the Cox had no blossom, and we had no frost at the critical time that I saw, so don't know why I have no apples.  The trees look fine, so maybe next year. 

I have a huge crab apple tree between the 2, and it has very few crab apples too.  Normally, it's loaded.  Barely enough for a batch of crab apple jelly this year. Very unusual.

Is this a grumble or a first world problem?

Biennial bearing

Thx for that.  I suspected that there may be a year on/year off phenomenon, but that seems to confirm it.  I'll have to see what next spring brings. And it's obviously not just me and the dahlias.......

[ian]

When everyone talks about climate change they're always going on about sea-level rise. I'd be more worried about the impact on global food supply – plants are very sensitive to climate change and, well, we're kind of dependent on crops.

[Mrs Pingu]

I was going to say earlier, are we all going to be starving next year?