We’ve sadly not been out in the back garden for a good while mainly due to the bad weather and also been busy elsewhere (rediscovering the joy of building crystal sets, contributing to Free Radio Skybird and DIY jobs indoors). We’ve missed being out in the garden! Yesterday was cold but the sun came out after a well misty start and it gave us an opportunity to see what’s what!

The lawn we sowed after pulling up some of the rubbish 1980’s crazy paving in the August bank holiday has taken really well and it’s had a couple of cuts with a flymo and it’s looking good (above: before, during and after). The Dahlias to the left of the lawn don’t seem to have gone black yet (have we actually had a hard frost yet or are the plants getting a bit more tolerant?) but very soon we’ll be digging them up and drying them out for keeping indoors all ready for next year.

The veg bed at the bottom of the garden is looking a bit sorry for itself like an allotment that’s been forgotten about but an hour or two spent pulling up the Nasturtiums and a fork over should do the trick. The Cardoons down there that did so well this year (below) have now died down and the local Parakeets are using the dry heads as food but lo and behold there’s more greenery appearing at the bottom. Brilliant stuff, a plant and a half!And right by the house and up against next door’s extension (so getting the benefit of the heat) are the Garlic we bought back in September here (alongside some succulents and a Egyptian Walking Onion or two) stuck in the great South Suburban storage box we found in a skip up the road. Roll on spring. Please!

We’ve just had a look on the web for any mentions of London based seed swaps, free seeds, garden give-a-ways to cheer us up at this time of year, nothing as yet. But there’s news of a couple of Potato Days that are worth going to:

London Potato Fair
Sunday 9th February 2020
11.00am-2.30pm
Roots & Shoots,
Walnut Tree Walk,
Lambeth SE11 6DN
http://www.rootsandshoots.org.uk
Free Admission.