Earlier this morning we passed on another container of home made comfrey liquid to spread the love/smell/word. The container this time was a well washed out non-bio Tesco washing liquid bottle.
On the way back from the exchange a massive plastic bag of daffodil bulbs were found sitting outside someone’s front wall with “Take me” on them. Is that what you call gardening karma? May be deemed a little late to put in but who cares!
It’s been a hot weekend to say the least here in SE23!
Yesterday was spent at a local “Midsummer Fayre” in the searing heat but a great time was had by all. Between the Taekwondo demonstration, a brass band (playing renditions of Dancing Queen and Anarchy in the UK) and the eagerly awaited results to the prize rafffle, various plant and bric-a-brac stalls were visited. A few bargains were acquired; some plants, a couple of rugs for indoors and a foot high plastic mushroom (above) for a pound. A right bargain!
And as you know we are suckers for any plant that is subtitled “Rare” “Giant” or “Unusual” in seed listings and it looks like the giant Sunflower seeds we bought on ebay are coming true to their word. They’re at seven foot now and not stopping. We’ll keep you posted on how high they get.
And talking of Rupie Edwards’ Ire Feelings here’s a couple of cuts of it, the second has a little bit of the tune Nite Owl from Tony Allen and the Champs and also later covered by Lee & The Clarendonians. More about that great piece of music from a post earlier this year here. It’s a small musical world. Keep cool and keep safe this week as it’s going to be a hot one!
It’s crazy the weather we’ve had the last few days, rain then sun then sun then rain so everything is starting to grow like billy-ho. We’re not complaining though as the strawberries we put in a tub we found in the street (after we gave it a lick of paint) are doing well.
Also the randomly sown poppies are coming along too. We bought more poppy seed from ebay over the weekend and just chucked it around whilst it was spitting today (that’ll help the seed germinate).
These pics we took yesterday are from our earlier “Chuck ’em and see what happens” experiments. Shame the actual flowers don’t last long on the plant.
Big shout to Gerry Hectic for sending us a pic of his dustbin fruit container conversion job which he did last year. It’s coming on a treat at the moment, look at those strawberries turning red! That’s a great idea Gerry!
And (below) here’s a few random flower pics from the Weeds garden taken this morning.
If you’ve got pics ofyour garden do send them in! Email them to onedeckpete (at) gmail.com and also send us a tune if you fancy it as well!
We had some nice weather during lockdown yesterday and during the lunch break (as we’re working from home) did a little bit of tidying up in the garden. Little and often as they say, even if it is just walking up and down the garden path wielding a pair of snippers and clipping here and there (cutting off the odd dead tomato and courgette stalk). It’s still gardening though isn’t it?
The stuff we sowed in the raised beds at the start of lockdown are still making progress, there’s some beetroot to be harvested, probably two parsnips and the odd tiny lettuce. It ain’t the good life for sure but it’s the life for us!
The upside down terrarium/fish bowl found in the street certainly gets used in the Weeds garden, it might have been moved yesterday to cover a pepper plant that is still going strong but previous to that it was keeping a bit of sprouting ginger and some garlic seedlings warm.
And just to prove it ain’t spring, our silver birch found in the street three years ago here is turning a lovely old shade of golden. It is November you know? The dahlias don’t seem to know it though! #lockdownlunchbreak
We’re a week and a bit behind on This is a music show and this afternoon listened to show number 084 and there were some great tunes played (including thrift store finds and more Polish records too) alongside a shout for Free Radio Skybird too (Cheers Your Host!) We loved The Lost Generation with The Sly, Sick and the wicked. We’ve never heard of it before and it’s one hell of a tune!
https://soundcloud.com/thisisamusicshow/this-is-a-music-show-084
And then a few records later Your Host plays the Leroy Sibbles version of Ain’t No Love which is another belter! The 12″ we own was obtained for a couple of quid a few years ago from the market around the back of Vauxhall Sainsbury’s which was not a place for the faint hearted! The only flea market that has heavy heavy security. God forbid it can’t be still there now.
Hearing that Leroy Sibbles tune we were brought back to a time when we used to own a cassette of the great Mikey Dread on his radio show in Jamaica from Christmas 1978. What a tape! Here it is in all it’s glory.
So do yourself a favour and tune into This is a music show if you like good tunes and across the board business! #thisisamusicshow #freeradioskybird #dreadatthecontrols
It’s funny how the days all melt into one during lockdown but certain days bring certain pleasures. Yesterday we spotted our first courgette/zucchini flower even though the plant was sown very late as the ones we sown earlier amounted to nothing. We’re going to be keeping this one watered and fed a lot so we can get some decent fruits.
And after a delve into the compost in the raised beds (making sure any small marble sized spuds were covered over as they turn green in the sun making them poisonous) we got a nice amount of small new spuds!
And we found these two fibreglass tubs in the street to be chucked out for the binmen. They’re about a foot high and needed a wash and a lick of grey paint (which we found in a half opened tin under the stairs, we didn’t even know we had it) and they are as good as new. There you go, something good to report in lockdown!
#gardeninginlockdown #lostandfoundinlockdown
It started cold and bleak today so we stayed indoors wielding a paintbrush this morning. The weather did improve and come about 1pm it was beautiful as this bee on the borage can testify.
We have borage popping up everywhere this year, we bought some seeds a few years back and it now self seeds all over the garden. It’s a plant well worth growing for the bees to enjoy and for the flowers you can put in Pims and also salads (and it has herbal medicine uses too here) but we love it for the leaves that can be chucked in into the compost heap or comfrey liquid for a bit of extra goodness.
Everything in the vegetable beds are cracking on at a good rate. We are packing a lot into the home-made raised beds but why not? The ones above contain potatoes, tomatoes, peas, carrots, peppers and whatever else can be crammed in. We only have limited space so we’re taking a chance on what’ll grow.
Also don’t be fooled with this present run of sunny weather, next week it goes down a few degrees and it always good to be aware that you may get a late frost which can wipe out a lot of stuff so regularly check the weather forecast just in case.
We’ve still got protection over the top of the tender plants at night (we close them up about 6pm so any further heat that the sun produces can be trapped in until the morning) and it ain’t anything fancy. We’ve got large jam jars, plastic cloches, an old window frame and recycled polythene tacked onto the cold frames. With this gardening malarkey you can’t take anything for granted, especially UK weather!
We hope the growing is going well in your garden. Anyone fancy sending us pictures of what they’re growing so we can post them up on the blog which’ll give us all more encouragement during this lockdown. Do get in contact if so.
#gardeningduringlockdown #lockdowngardening #sleepinginlatertocombatlockdown #sniffindisinfectant
Patience, that’s what you need when it comes to this gardening lark. Sadly we haven’t got any.
This week we took the dahlia tubers straight out from under the stairs (where they’ve been hibernating since late autumn) and into the ground even though there’s still a chance of frost. We also left a couple of them in the garden from last season as we couldn’t be bothered to dig them out. Why do we do these things when we know we shouldn’t?
We have got protection for them and the other plants that don’t do well when it comes to frosts though. There’s the seed potatoes under the black membrane that was used under the decking and lots of DIY plastic/wood contraptions (don’t throw out your jam jars!) over vegetable seedlings that are germinating so it ain’t that bad.
All the gardening books tell you to be aware of late frosts, they also tell you that runner beans seeds don’t like sitting in cold soils and “for god’s sake don’t put out your tomato plants out early as they’ll suffer if it gets cold” but we still do it (we’ve a couple of tomato seedlings in the ground at the moment we’re ashamed to say.) It goes like this, we see a period of lovely sunshine so the hoe is taken out from its winter hiding place and then it’s all systems go after that. We don’t think this lockdown has helped in holding back either.
Talking of lockdowns, there’s a new gardening-related game developing here. At least once a week on our (very) regular visits to the compost heap a gloved hand will be thrust into the mass of rotting vegetables, old ripped up leccy bills and single tea bags to “feel the heat”. That’s not normal behaviour is it? Early signs of “lockdown lunacy” perhaps?
Nothing was really done in the garden this morning apart from putting some vegetable peelings in the compost heap (that’s still gardening isn’t it?) but come the late afternoon the sun came out for a short while. In that time some plastic sheeting was tacked onto the other two palettes, making them now a home for spuds and some rows of carrot seeds. This simple construction like the other couple we made this week will give the plants protection from the forthcoming cold days & nights we’re supposed to be having so the weather report on Countryfile tonight reckoned.
A left over stick of celery was stuck under the terrarium to see if it would grow and a wormery was hastily put together using an old butchers bucket that used to be a home for worms a few years ago. A bin bag and a concrete slab was put over it for good measure. On the last two subjects, will anything happen you reckon?
Weeds up to me knees 