Category Archives: Indoor gardening

Views from France and north London

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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).

“Each spring we prune our indoor geraniums, let the cut-off parts root in water and then plant them outside. We generally get a good display, and they are still going strong now. A photo is attached. This also shows our sedum in flower” (below).
Great stuff Debby and good to hear from you, do keep us updated on how things progress. Thanks again!

All we need is peas and chips

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A big thanks to whoever it was (it may have been Penny Golightly) who told us the best way (and the cheap as chips way) to grow those expensive culinary delights called pea shoots, is to get the seeds from those packs of dried peas that have the salt tablets in them. Discard the seed tablet and then sow away. Above are a few we sowed a couple of weeks ago, get those scissors out!

Also, we are confused as what is the best way of preserving chillies as we are having a glut of them (a nice glut to have by the way) here. As you recall we have tried the “hang them out to dry” method but we’ve been told about the freezing method, which we are trying. Any other good ideas for preserving chillies?

More polytunnel business

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We managed a few hours in the garden this afternoon and it was nice to be able to spend some time out there. We picked our beef tomatoes (above) from the polytunnel, and a couple of hours later a sauce was made (then later frozen) with a couple of chillies added to give it some heat.

In the tunnel we gave the workbench a bit of a wipe down, as we’re a bit paranoid that diseases and the like can spread quickly so we always check there isn’t a build-up of water on the plates below the plant pots, cut off anything that looks dead or damaged and also check any that we may have missed out while watering. The tunnel is starting to fill up now as we’re bringing in anything that could be damaged by the frosts (in a few weeks’ time?) and starting off some vegetables including parsnips, carrots and some onions and garlic in large tubs.

We also stuck some onion bulbs outside (above) after clearing an area in the side bed and made sure to put down protection from any birds and squirrels who fancy nicking them.

And we just seen on Facebook that Bez has just got himself a polytunnel, good stuff. That’s a nice sized one!

Polytunnel business

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The polytunnel is now up and we are in business! There’s nowt much in there now apart from some assorted chillies, a few different types of tomatoes and some freshly sown spinach but we’re sure that’ll change in a week or so.

It took us a good morning and a bit of “That isn’t the right piece, where’s 5B?”, the thing falling apart and it looking like a skeleton of a whale on the lawn, and parts moving when they weren’t supposed to but we got there in the end. After a good tighten up, the frame was put into place (above). Thanks to Alan C for lots of tips, especially this great one: “I put a layer of woodchip under mine but some use wood strips or gravel/stones. This gives a nice evenly flat base and slows the frame rusting – the woodchip quickly dries out and separates the poles from the soil.”

As soon as we put the cover on we dug a little trench and tucked the excess of the cover into the ground and put broken concrete slabs, bricks and whathaveyou to weigh it down and then backfilled with soil and more woodchip so it is hopefully stays put in the wind.

As we said there’s not much in there at the moment but we’ll update you. Cheers to Alan C again for his tips and advice. Big up all Polytunnel crew!

 

 

Please don’t take our sunlight away

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Thanks to Debby H for this great (inverted) image of the partial eclipse last night taken in north London at the maximum at 7.13 pm. What an excellent photograph!

And here’s two eclipse related tracks, the first from the The Eclipse Band with a very aptly titled Daylight Robbery. And another, from DNN called Eclipse Dub.

More marvellous business on the street

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On our travels this morning, we passed a plant we’ve seen a good few times. It finally clicked, it’s actually a Marvel of Peru, and a huge one at that, can you believe it? We didn’t know they can get so big!

 

Standing stones in a yard sale style

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Cheers to our good friend across the pond Justin Patrick Moore, for sending us the flyer for his yard sale that was on Saturday that featured some standing stones “Callanish Stones I think..” There’s some great standing stone coincidence vibes going on. Cheers Justin!

Tomato fruit puller. Puller, puller

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Whilst researching a future post, we found this great variety of tomato from Seed Spring Seeds (website here).

As it says in the blurb on the site:
A Romanian tomato producing large, roughly heart-shaped fruit that weigh an average of 365g and measure about 8.5cm in diameter. Captain Beefheart’s big taste is combined with a juicy flesh, tender skin and few seeds, making it one of the best large-fruited tomatoes you are likely to encounter. The plants are good growers and will produce fruit well into the autumn.

A pepper called Frank Zappa anyone?

The above is a fantastic Beefheart tune as played on the excellent Andrew Weatherall – Live at Antenna Studios mixtape here.

It all seems to have started up north

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A big thanks to Debby H. for sharing an update from her north London garden! While we sowed ours directly outside this year and are still waiting for them to pop up, Debby’s cosmos are already starting to flower even though the plants are still small (see her photos above).

It’s great to see that her seed potatoes are finally breaking through. There’s some really healthy growth on them already.

Elsewhere in the garden, the rhododendron is also blooming beautifully.

As she mentioned “The bluebells are still lovely, although unfortunately not the native ones” (above).

The garden is looking great at this time of year as well, what’s it going to look like later this year? We can’t wait to find out, keeping sending us the updates Debby!

Waiting in the (roots) garden

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The Rhythm Doctor’s Waiting Room on IDA radio is a wonderful mix up business of a Monday morning radio show and as you know, we love it here. This week’s show is a bit of a first, and features a great interview with Rakesh Rootsman Rak and a lovely reggae selection featuring Ernest Ranglin, The Twinkle Brothers, Aswad, I-Natural, Culture, Prince Lincoln and The Royal Rasses, The Natural Ites and more.

In the interview there’s talk of Rootsman Rak’s work which involves growing food, forest gardens, working with nature, permaculture and (as Gerry Hectic mentioned on his Facebook) “ethical gardening ideas”. Well worth tuning in and having a listen. Do have a look at Rootsman Rak’s site here and bit more about him here.

Cheers for The Rhythm Doctor for having some gardening reggae business on his show and Gerry Hectic for letting us know about it this morning.