Monthly Archives: October 2025

Towards the end of the growing season

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Cheers to Mike & Julia from near Coventry for sharing a towards the end of season photographic report (fantastic pictures as ever Julia!) This is going to be a two parter as there’s so much good stuff been sent. Their comsos are looking fine (above and below).

Their garden doesn’t half look fine even at this time of year. We thought our garden was looking beyond repair but last weekend with a bit of a lawn cut and a trim and pulling out of the tomato plants and some dead heading it didn’t look too bad in the end but nowhere as great as these pictures.

We also love what we think is an echeveria (below) as those angular flowers look great and also those aster flowers (lower below).

Next part will include some dahlias amongst some other things. Keep them coming Mike & Julia and thanks again!

A message from Kyiv

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As always, it’s good to hear from Wlad (US7IGN) in Ukraine. If you remember, Wlad was featured in a Radio 4 documentary called Lights Out in an episode called Call Signs (here) which was about life as a radio amateur living and working in Kyiv during the Russian invasion. He also has two books out about his experiences and they’re well worth reading if you want an insight on what is life is like out there. More about the books here.

Wlad was telling us that his good friend Sergiy (UT3UFD) is not only growing a banana tree (more on that here) and bonsai but he’s also growing seeds from fruit he eats. The photos above and below are his avocado plants, brilliant stuff. Thanks for keeping us updated, Wlad, and as always, our best wishes to you and Sergiy over there.

We’ve found something on the RHS website about growing avocados plants from seed here. It’s interesting stuff.

And now the end is near

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The back garden is in a bit of a mess at the moment as we haven’t been able to go out there as much as we would have liked to of late. There’s a still a couple of things that make us smile though. This morning we saw this cosmos (above), peeking through the broken paving slabs at the back of the pond after our “throw them everywhere” sowing experiments earlier this year.

The echinacea we got from B&Q (above) is still making a stand and hopefully if it don’t rot off over the winter due to the heavy soil here we’ve get more next year and the calendula (below) which was sown by the same method is great too. Do send us your end of season pictures (to one deck pete at gee mail dot com) and we’ll post them up.

 

A view from north London

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Cheers to Debby H for getting out in the garden and taking some pictures for us now things are coming to a close but you wouldn’t think it with these photographs though.

Above are the cosmos that are still flowering and looking great and below are some cosmos deadheads which’ll be used for seeds. Debby told us you don’t even need to break the seed heads up that much, just put them as they come in a seed tray in the spring. We have to deadhead ours actually, before it starts getting wet and the chance of things going mouldy on us.

Below “The sedum is now looking very pretty” she said and she’s right. It’s a nice plant and seems to do well in UK gardens. It loves full sun and can even tolerate a bit of shade and the bees and pollinators seem to love it.
Below, “Interestingly, one of the dwarf sunflowers that we thought was dead has grown three flowers where there was previously only one.” Brilliant stuff Debby! We look forward to more photos and thanks as ever for sending them on.

Gerry Hectic in another mix up style

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Big shout to our good friend down south Gerry Hectic, for including a couple of Weeds up to me knees related tunes in a mix he’s done for the excellent Dubmission show called “I blame the coal board”. The show includes all sorts of great stuff on it and so much we’ve never heard before, so tune in. Wonderful mix Gerry, ta for including the tunes and hope all is well in the garden!

The pic above (of Gerry’s fence during a well windy period the other year) is quite apt what with the windy conditions we’re supposed to be experiencing later today.

Gerry Hectic’s “I Blame The Coal Board” Mix
Azimuth – The Tunnel [Late Night Tales]
Leo Chadburn – Move Like a Freight Train [Library of Nothing]
Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet – Beautiful People (Slow Version) [NoPaper]
Radio Halesowen Town – Commenetary Grimbsy Borough vs. Halesowen Town [FA Cup UTY, 13.09.25]
Madtone – Interval Signal Jazz (Blossoms Kitchen)
Farda P – Catfood Supachunka (‘Wolverhampton’ Edit)
Rockers Hi-Fi – Going Under [!K7]
One Deck & Popular – Enrico (Hay-eer-yah’s Harmonica Cut) [Black Country Route]
Session Victim – Behind The Glass [Delusions of Grandeur]
Kuniko Yamada – Tetsugaku Shiyo (Viens Philosopher) [Rush Hour]
Public Enemy – Fight The Power (Robot84 Jazztastic Edit) [Robot Edits]
Pittsburgh Track Authority – Slide (7am Mix) feat. Brandon Markell Holmes [In The Machine Age]
Jean Jaques Smoothie – 2People feat. Tara Busch & Rochenko (Dubwise Mix) [Colour & Pitch]
Biggabush – This River feat. Jackie Walters (Gerry Hectic’s River Stour Towpath Extension) [Tru Thoughts]
Lynyn – 4m Hiero [Sooper]
Darren Morris – Deep Morning [Ramrock Noir]
Gerry B. Hectic – 10 Seconds Over Bournemouth (aka The Beginning Of The End)