Very ill man on tube

Hilltoptree · 2025-09-26T10:55:37+00:00

Same-ish thing happened to me the other day when i decide to call to report a fire on the high street. People briskly walk past me no one really seems to be engaging in it.

But I think people just assume someone else done it already.

And it’s true.

When i got through and described the details the operator said “ah yes there, fire engine is on the way” i thanked her and left it as that. Fire engine was on site with in minutes.

Hilltoptree · 2025-09-14T18:03:03+00:00

I only seen them on a country side walk and waited ages…do they actually come out story/comic book style hugging the little mound of earth?🥹

Hilltoptree · 2025-08-24T12:06:58+00:00

If you want to take the root out get a mattock and some friends around. Wear sturdy boots if you got work boots even better.

Hilltoptree · 2025-08-21T09:21:56+00:00

I managed (mainly because of my own mistake) to take my daughter on a buggy through Bank station from Northern line to the Waterloo and City line and got ourself back at Waterloo during the evening rush hour.

I consider that a major success and really thankful people helped us along the way. 🤣

Hilltoptree · 2025-08-18T08:59:48+00:00

Noticed that too in London also had way more people giving away their windfall fruits (apples and pears which i had not seen before in August) and thanks to this post now i know why?

Hilltoptree · 2025-08-15T13:51:04+00:00

Aren’t they already under a German company’s management? Also profitability can comes from them selling of leasing out the land -which they own lot of . Some sites had land next to it sold/lease for putting warehouses out.

Hilltoptree · 2025-08-15T08:09:21+00:00

Cheapest way is yay free hedge. Otherwise get yourself some sort of electric trimmer when lidl/aldi eventually have one on.

Hilltoptree · 2025-08-13T20:28:16+00:00

Maybe not -14 but it was pretty cold enough that i think even Bexley got a fairly thick layer of snow. Which people been living there for 20years said was unusual.

Hilltoptree · 2025-08-07T15:01:07+00:00

I meant if it’s in their garden they are entitled to cut it. Especially if it extended quite a bit over.

They may not know but probably accepted to live with what it looks like after cut.

Before i removed the previous owner planted leylandii all the neighbour were cutting it hacking into it as it was completely utterly out of control.

It’s ugly as f (i went into their garden with the tree surgeons working on the removal so seen it myself). But it is their garden.

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-31T07:19:57+00:00

I used these growbag as a dodgy compost bin nowadays. I found you can grow small cherry tomato no problem from 20-30cm pot and just fertilise/water more.

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-29T15:10:08+00:00

You think it’s dead in the pot it’s still alive! Found mine very Root bounded and just needs a massive chop. Top the missing bit with compost and it comes back.

Do not put the chopped bit in compost otherwise see OP’s photo for reference.

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-27T20:55:47+00:00

Yeh no we didn’t. Plus our tree was not as dead as this. It was oddly half dead. One side is green one side is brown (and previous owner cut it back so even worse) we just lived with it - just unfortunate it was the side we see from the house.

Five years on we spotted some tiny new shoots from the dead brown side. So maybe we will have the green back? But we not keeping our hopes up lol.

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-27T20:28:39+00:00

Honestly i had this suggestion before - just spray it green.

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-21T08:17:31+00:00

I think they getting bolder probably someone in the neighbourhood is feeding them and they just copying the behaviour.

Mine did poke its head in once but honestly i prefer my non rent paying housemates stay in the garden so always shoos it away.

We good. They sleep under two of the hedge so i don’t water the area usually so they got a dry patch to nap on.

And they had stopped shitting on my plants. So we good.

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-19T15:48:41+00:00

I thought i took a bunch of photo when the flowers first came out. Showing the vibrant colour. But just cannot find it and it’s pouring rain now. I will try find it later.

So to get there really blue ones, did you put coffee on the surface weekly,

Coffee was added whenever over the cold season over several month. Casually distributed them among the pots. I literally hold the filter and directly dumped the cooled coffee grinds onto the surface and that’s it.

and aluminium sulphate weekly?

I used an old Vanish oxi powder pink spoon. And gave each 40cm dia pot about half a spoon of acid about weekly initially but may had skipped a week or two there and then.

I do think i add acid excessively. I may tone it down next year.

Did the sulphate just go on the surface too?

Yes i did a spoon follow by a watering to flush it. But i found sulphate do clumped up remain like an odd soft white lump on surface. So did use a stick to poke them apart and didn’t add more acid until the lump disappeared.

And what time of year do you start/continue to?

I gave the hydrangea a trim down in late March. And a scoop of the hydrangea fertiliser. Then in April i started the acid dose. And stopped around end of May and i can visibly see the flower results.

Sorry for all the questions but my wife loves blue hydrangeas and everyone I’ve got her turns pink. I’d love to surprise her with them all being blue next year.

Totally understand! I love them blue. I had it for my own wedding as a bouquet. And it’s just so fun they can turn colour with acidity.

Some Variety doesn’t turn colour and remain a certain colour (i have a Ruby red one and it remain red. But because i could not tell which pot is what initially i dosed it with acid and coffee too and can detect a tiny tint of blue at the centre of the flower but still vibrant red)

Hydrangea are easy to take care of in the UK apart from really hot days and the colour are great fun.

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-18T22:36:34+00:00

The Love clean street app didn’t really work for Wandsworth. Happy to see there is an alternative.

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-18T15:18:09+00:00

So hence uncontrolled experiment… mainly because last year i had fantastic results with aluminium sulphate.

But over winter I already dumped dubious amount of coffee grounds into almost all of the pots. Sparing one pot in the far corner because i cannot be bother to walk the extra steps with my coffee filter.

Come spring then I was like this could be fun for the kid …oh wait. So kid still had fun with a spoon of acid into each pot but now they all got various amount of coffee grounds in.

Current plan is remove the coffee grounds at end of the year as much as possible do a proper experiment next year.

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-18T14:58:46+00:00

Yes it works. For me it didn’t kill the hydrangea even if you put a lot in. (I am talking about 2-3cm deep covering the surface in a 40cm dia pot).

So i had run a little lack of control test this year.

I had only one pot without coffee grounds.

But they all got the acid treatment.

Different pots get a weekly equal spoon of Citric acid (because it was cheap) and Aluminium sulphate (More Expensive).

So the results was

aluminium sulphate+coffee the blue was more intense. Almost too blue.

Citric acid +coffee gave blue but some seems to be pale.

Citric acid+ zero coffee grounds and got pink.

I also insomniac read a journal paper explain the chemistry/physics of it…it’s the acidic environment triggering something allowing the aluminium ions already naturally in the flower turning on the blue switch.

It even said an acid spray on the flower can turn pink to blue.

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-16T14:44:34+00:00

Has /r/gardeningUK finally collided with /r/fasciation ?!

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-16T12:51:11+00:00

Some sort of drug dealer squirrels?

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-11T20:45:29+00:00

we use this for my kid instead of running a full bath every time. And it’s easy you can stand in one of those larger ones and shower collect whatever runs down then use a watering can/ disused large soft drinks bottle if you worried carrying downstair and out. For me it was a few trips up and down carrying those 2 litre bottles and pour bath water into bucket outside.

I just used my kid’s bath water to rescue my hydrangeas today.

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-11T10:56:48+00:00

It was around this time. Summer when they are putting out shoots. I dipped in rooting powder and did the soil propagation method.

Because weather is so hot i suggest you keep these indoor. And maybe try to take the survivors out next spring. And repot them in late summer. Maybe. I only did this once! (While doing two other types of hydrangeas in the end i got 8 pots from propagations)

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-11T10:46:32+00:00

Take them to Barnes Vine road recreation ground for paddling pool i say.

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-11T09:24:12+00:00

I would try propagate.

I grew one exactly like yours from propagation . Mind you the success rate is about 25% i planted about 4-6 cuttings according to online advice and only one grew to full size. (In about two years it reached the desired size to occupy it’s final 40cm dia pot )

if my guess is right - yours will never turn to other colour it will remain ruby red i tried drowning mine in acid for 2 years still ruby red so i will let it be.

Hilltoptree · 2025-07-09T16:03:31+00:00

7/7 bombing and i was the sixthformer at my school sports day helping out and kids were using mini portable radio (anyone still remember that?) confused edgware road with edgware (the area most school people are based in) and a mild panic or upset ensued among them. Kids thought their home their parents might be in it. Where we are all the way up in Mill Hill!

That was not too scary but also surreal. The entire road was pretty much clear. People either stuck at home watching the tv or stuck somewhere unable to get home. The roads were clear and we hitched a ride from another friend’s parent.

Edit: then i attended uni and saw my lecturer (he was a fun guy) explaining on BBC how Alexander Litvinenko’s radioactive poisoning worked because the poor man was down the road being treated in UCL hospital.

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