A big thanks to Rich in the Lake District who took the above picture at 7.46 am this morning and as he said, “I would assume that the shepherds were suitably panicked.” Yes we couldn’t agree with you more. He told us “We had 9cm rain yesterday and the wind speed on Skiddaw was recorded at more than 100mph. I’m staying indoors!”
We’ve just been in the polytunnel thinking it was a good idea to do some tidying up while the wind was rattling around us, never again!
Before the bad weather came to SE23 this afternoon we did a bit of tidying up in the polytunnel, giving the bench a good wipe down, making sure water weren’t building up in the plates/trays under the pots, lifting anything we could off the floor and general cleaning up as we’d hate to have any disease or what have you, especially on our first year of having one.
We looked online and it’s poor ventilation, lack of airflow and hygiene, that brings in the diseases so we’re a little paranoid to say the least. We heard via Facebook that Bez lost a load of seeds due to rats in his tunnel and he has only recently put the thing up as well. You’d be well disheartened if that happened.
We covered what we could with some spare bubble wrap and even put a makeshift cloche over some seedlings. We even put a couple of polythene bags over the ginger, lemon grass and basil plants on the bench. In the foreground is a tub where the garlic has been planted. We’ll lift them off every now and check to see how things are under the bubble.
It was 14°C in there today so we had the door open a little bit to get some air in but not so much so it brought the temperature down. It’s supposedly sunny tomorrow with a bit of wind so we’ll try and open a couple of vents but the door will certainly not be left open if there’s wind about! Told you we’re not paranoid (much).
As for the Star-of-Bethlehem seeds that we were kindly sent by Debby H, they are doing well on the kitchen windowsill. We’re chuffed that they germinated and can’t wait to see what they turn out like.
Hope those storms (Steve Austin and Bolero) subside soon, and they aren’t causing havoc to our gardening mates around the various part of the UK, so we can all enjoy that extra hour in bed and a Sunday tipping around the garden.
Just a little reminder that while we kip tonight the clocks will go back causing all sorts of havoc to sleeping, shortwave radio programming schedules and the like. So come 2am tomorrow morning in the UK, those hands of time will be turned back automatically (or manually when we wake up).
Cheers to our good mate Gerry Hectic for letting us know about Gardener’s World
It really is bonkers stuff as Jason uses a biofeedback device to come up with some ambient soundscapes by hooking up plants to a laptop. Tune in above and below for some top biosonification business.
And we love this tune. Thanks again Gerry and wonderful stuff Jason, it’s well up our street!
The above picture was taken just the other weekend and since then we have had days of drizzle and 6pm type darkness at 9am and the clocks haven’t even gone back yet!
We heard a good thing this weekend from a gardening mate. They were saying don’t expect miracles from a polytunnel as the temperature inside during winter is only a couple of degrees warmer than the outside but those couple of degrees do make a difference when it comes to frost etc. We are making sure during the colder spells we only open the ventilation flaps at the side for small amounts of time and that no heat can escape thanks to some bubble wrap around the door frame (above).
The more delicate plants in there are going to covered too so we can create a greenhouse within a greenhouse type effect. We have already lifted some of the plants in pots off the floor on pieces of wood and even stuck some on some old tea trays. Anything to stop them touching the cold ground.
Last week we noticed that a seed tray in there with a lid on the top is now home to some germinated star-of-Bethlehem seeds that we were kindly sent by Debby H earlier this year. We have now moved them to the kitchen windowsill, and we will keep you posted on how they do. They are usually propagated by bulbs but we’ll give the seeds a try.
Also started off from seed, we have a couple of Korean Mint (Agastache rugosa) plants and the leaves taste and smell of aniseed. They supposedly have some great purple flowers which the bees and butterflies are attracted to as well. We don’t want to lose these to the cold weather (even in the polytunnel) so it looks like the bubble wrap/net curtains will be draped over these too when the cold comes. Please weather, be kind to us!
Cheers to Rich in the Lake District for another two great pictures. He took these from a couple of walks he’s been on recently, taking advantage of some good weather. He even managed to see a couple of Deer on his travels. Great stuff Rich and it looks lovely up there!
Cheers to The Rhythm Doctor for letting us know about a great LP called David Rodigan’s Dubwise Shower on BBE bandcamp here. There’s some classic stuff on there including the above horns cut of Delroy Wilson‘s “Have some mercy” that we haven’t heard before.
Also a version of Gregory Isaacs’ “Walk right in” by Sylvan Morris & Andy’s All Stars.
And talking of said tune and thanks to Steve Barker playing it on On The Wire a while ago, here’s some Banjo Dub!
Cheers to Rich up in the Lake District for sending us some pics taken above his house when trying to capture the latest aurora activity up there. He may not have caught the northern lights but the milky way counts as some heavy stuff. Lovely pictures Rich!
He was telling us that last week was wet and windy in the week. I wonder if we’ll be getting some of that weather down here this week?
And a couple of skyward related tunes for you.
Thanks to Debby H from north London who has just come back from Fréjus in the south of France. Before she left she took a couple of photographs from there. The first (above) is the sky at dusk, looks wonderful Debby! Red sky at night and all that…) and a cork oak tree (below), as she said “There’s loads of them around Fréjus where we go. Apparently they were the original source of cork, at least for Europe.” We didn’t know that and Wikipedia reckons they are the source of the core of cricket balls too.
She went onto say “Since we returned, the zephyranthes bulbs have given us one last flower of the year” (below).
“We have brought indoors our ornithogalum plant as it’s now getting too cold for it to be outside at night. We only got one flower from it this year but last year we had loads.” (below).
Thanks to Mike & Julia (Wonderful pictures as always Julia) for sending some updated pictures from their garden near Coventry at the weekend. As Mike said “It’s actually sunny today. Not sure how long it will last though!” We are with you on that. Thanks to plantnet.org we’ve got some Michaelmas daisies and some dahlias. Lovely stuff!
