Category Archives: Found on a skip or for the binmen

Belfast sinks and taking cuttings

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We’ve a couple of weeks off work so we’re trying to get some jobs done around the garden, weather permitting. The first job was done on Monday, which was getting rid of a load of roots of a climber that had taken over a large Belfast sink. Once they were taken out and transferred by a B&Q quid bucket to the wild area at the bottom of the garden, the massive sink was moved by hand using some bits of wood, a garden fork and spade.

The sink is now in its new position and we’re using all the space to the maximum. It now contains three tomato plants (complete with canes found in the street), a couple of Defender marigolds and some freshly sowed free herb seeds (thanks to Penny Golightly for the marigolds and passing on the information of the free seeds from the Wildlife Trust as part of their 30 Days Wild initiative. By the way, the offer is still on here.)

And now after years of not doing so, we are finally getting to realise that taking cuttings isn’t that hard, all you have to do is keep your fingers crossed that they take. Here’s some cat mint (nepeta) that has now taken and even flowering.

 

This evening going to hit the sack early as we’re off to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show tomorrow, we’ve never been before and have no idea what to expect. We’ll be bringing you a report as soon as we can. We’ll be the ones walking around the site with the large framed rucksack on our backs.

Potatoes’ progress

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We put some spuds in early this year and covered them with a bit of plastic and fleece if the nights got cold. They are coming on great now and we’ll start earthing them up as well so we don’t get any green potatoes. (Above) The bed on the left are the spuds and the raised bed to the right of that are a couple of chilli plants and some Egyptian onions.

Below, another raised bed that’s a bit full to the brim, perhaps too full?

How are everyone else’s spuds doing?

Bristol plant happenings

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Cheers to our gardening/radio friend Kit, G5KIT for sending us a picture (above) of a reecnt find. “These poor cacti and a lovely little succulent were just crying out to be rescued from a garden wall in Bristol. All dried out and the soil had gone crumbly. A little TLC and now they’re looking much happier!” Great to hear that Kit and they look great!

And he also let us know that he has some seedlings starting to appear: “They’re Chilli plants, a variety called Demon Red (nice ‘n’ spicy!) and apparently they’re attractive as well as tasty. The picture from the seed company (below) looks pretty good!”.

Thanks for that Kit and ta for letting us know. Any others finding stuff on walls and have seedlings appearing? If so do let us know at one deck pete (at) gee male dot com.

Influenced by Bob (sort of)

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It was funny old weather in SE23 yesterday, it started misty and kept like that for most of the day, followed by some sunshine at lunch and then by tea-time the mist had returned and it felt rather wintery.

At lunch we nipped out and did half an hour out in the back. We sowed some wildflower seeds in one of the raised beds and some veg in another and stuck some polythene on the top which we were going to throw out.

Earlier this week we saw on Facebook, Bob Flowerdew in his veg patch (that looked like the size of a normal back garden!). He was explaining that before the winter he put a load of organic material on the soil then slung some black covering over the patch. Over the winter it rotted away now leaving the beds a bit richer and weed-free rather then they would have been if he had just left them exposed.

We reckon that’s a great idea, but what would the neighbours think if half our garden was covered with a black tarpaulin (the likes of which goes over a car on bricks on a driveway). A few sheets of plastic over raised beds are enough for us. Hope all’s well in everyone’s garden and with any seeds that may be germinating! Pictures please.

Out with the fleece, newspapers and net curtains please

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Thanks to Debby H for the reminder to get the frost protection out this weekend as we’re in for a touch for frost. It’ll be wise to cover those plants that aren’t hardy or for those that think that spring has arrived what with this mild weather we’ve had of late.

Net curtains, horticultural fleece, plastic buckets or even newspapers can be used. Ideally, there should be some space between the plant and the outer protection, which can be as simple as a tent-like structure made from bamboo canes. That said, here are a few classic frost-protection contraptions we’ve used over the years. They don’t have to be smart, they just have to work! Send us your frost protections pictures, the more unusual the better.

Making mates in the garden

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We had a good load of things to do today but managed to get around an hour in the garden tidying up a bed near the house, pulling some old tomato plants out of the raised beds at the side and trimming a jasmine.

It was a bit cold but good to be out there doing something. Things we can tidy up now will be less things we have to do come the spring. We even made a mate in a Robin who was sitting very close to us for about half an hour (main pic).

We still have a Quick Fire chilli plant outside but sadly can’t find anywhere for it to be put inside over the winter so improvised with the terrarium we found in the street about ten years ago which is now on its last legs (above) but worth trying. And (below) a very odd shaped unripe tomato found on a plant that was being ripped out one of the raised beds that looks like a jelly baby to us! Anyone else been in the garden this weekend? one deck pete (at) gee mail dot com.

We’ve got a Barbara Hepworth in our garden (supposedly)

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Cheers to our mate Nic G across the pond for letting us know that the thing we found in the skip the other night is more than likely an example of sand-casting leftovers.

We’ve now got it as a sculpture at the bottom of the garden (just by the part under fence that is used as a cat/fox run) and with the sunlight on it this morning looks like a fox looking up at the sky.

We are hoping to pass it off as a mini-Barbara Hepworth next time Antiques Roadshow visits Catford and give the “specialists” some spiel about “Dame Barbara gifted it to my late father after he tidied up some flower beds in St Ives.”

We do think it looks similiar to a fox today. Who knows what it may look like at 3pm, sand casting leftovers perhaps? We do hope not.

Out with the bubble wrap, out with the bubble wrap!

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Sometimes it’s small things that make you think. We were just reading the “What to do in the garden in May” piece on Penny GoLightly’s excellent blog here. She mentioned “The month has started with a mini heatwave, but I’m not rushing to plant out most of my seedlings too soon” and we have a bit of a realisation and checked the weather forecast for SE23 and thought “Ahh, she has a point”.

Its looks likes there’s going to be a little bit of a change in temperature this weekend to say the least. From those glorious summer vibes to a humbling 13°C tomorrow. Funny enough we just found a pic (above) from May 17th 2020, look at those sophisticated forms of frost protection and thats in mid-May!

To be honest we did get a bit carried away and put a couple (and more to be honest) of tomato plants out and yes there are some chillies seedlings that have been repotted and left out overnight. We’ve even dismantled a cold frame (aka took the bricks off holding down the polythene and folded up said polythene and chucked it in the bin). Looks like all of that will have to change this evening, alongside the flip flops and shorts going back into the wardrobe.

We’ll be bringing the chillies in tonight just to be on the safe side as it may drop to 4° C and we have a massive roll of bubble wrap purchased initially for selling stuff on eBay that will come in very handy.

We feel a bit sorry for the bloke on Facebook the other week who put out all his 30 odd tomato plants saying there won’t be a frost. He may be alright, but it does seem a bit nippy in the evenings next week. Good luck and may the (frost) protection be with you and enjoy those rays of sun rays today as you may have to put the jumper back on tomorrow.

Redistribution of gardening wealth

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One of the best things about this gardening lark is when people pass on things and we’ve picked up all sort of stuff from out in the street or left on garden walls with a “Take me” note on it. We’ve found gardening tools, a very strange coatstand that works as support for climbing plants (here) and even our silver birch that is growing so tall now (here).

In the last week we’ve kindly been given some seeds (Cheers Debby H!) and the other night we happily received a couple of bags (pic above) of Russet Apples (Cheers Adrienne!) which we’ve never tasted before and were very pleasantly suprised when we had them with some frozen berries (found at the bottom of the freezer) with a sponge top.

So keep that circle-a-turning and if you’ve got something that you don’t need, pass it/them on!