This morning while putting two tea bags in the compost heap (any excuse to get out there) we noticed it was quite mild weatherwise and also spotted what we think are some giant garlic bulbs (volunteers we reckon) resprouting. That’s a good sign but we won’t speak too soon as you never know it may snow next week (we hope not though!)
More cold weather is on its way but the parsley and the carrots we sowed late in the day outside are perservering. There’s also some oregano still out there hanging in despite the cold weather. What’s odd is that the pot of it inside on the kitchen windowsill isn’t doing as well. We really thought that those plants dislike the cold weather or prehaps they can tolerate them once they are on their way (until it gets to -4 as it’s supposed to tonight). Any thoughts?
Also we’ve just read about carrot tops (the green feathery leaves that grow above) are making a comeback as an edible addition to the plant. We’ve read in one of those Adam the Gardener books that you can lighty steam them and they taste like spinach supposedly. We’ve never tried them but it sounds good.
It was very sad to hear about Benjamin Zephaniah who passed away this morning. Thanks to Gerry Hectic for letting us know about this great tune. RIP Benjamin Zephaniah.
We had a dream last night that we were cutting the grass on a very large council estate. We were using a normal sized flymo with a very long extension lead which was plugged into one of the resident’s wall sockets with the lead trailing through their letterbox. A prophetic dream or just plain daft? Perhaps with the weather being nice today (but cold) we should get out there and tidy that back garden up before winter.
The micro-pond has disappeared so have the leak detection team alongside the Mole which is wrapped in a black bin bag at the back of their white van. We will miss you all and we don’t really want to be seeing you again (in the nicest way possible). Thank you LDT!
While at 2200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz via WRMI the Imaginary Stations crew bring you the Imaginary Stations Polka Party. Expect lots of polka classics, all recorded live in front of an all singing and dancing audience in Poland. Poland, Maine that is. It will be one polka party, possibly the greatest ever polka party broadcast on shortwave!
“Slugs, what are they good for, absolutely nothing” as the song goes. We can’t think of a good reason for having them in the garden. We know that slugs are important as they provide food for birds, insects and all sorts and if we removed them we’d mess up the natural balance but they drive us wild here. We’re sure Bob Flowerdew or someone else reckoned they collected them and imprisoned them in a 1970’s type plastic clothes basket containing salad and garden waste and made them work all day making compost.
We at Weeds would like to redress the balance, so if you’ve heard good things about slugs (apart from providing food for wildlife) we would like to hear from you. We want to hear your tales of slugs who have saved lives, foreseen the future or have helped people to find their way back home on a foggy night. Please email onedeckpete at gmail dot com with your story (do include an address) and the winner of the best story will receive a selection of what’s left over in our seed tin. You don’t get prizes like that offered on other blogs!
Yesterday with no plan in our heads we tidied up what we call the “wild bit” at the bottom of the garden. We used to grow veg there but it doesn’t really get that much sun so a couple of years ago we sowed some “bee bombs” and what other wild seeds we could find and the area went a bit wild.
We were very influenced by this wonderful pond made by Bill Shimmers at the time of sowing the wild seeds (above) and added our own versions in a smaller and cheaper way utilising a slow cooker crock pot, a dutch pot that only had one handle and a tupperware box. An example of “down at heel” pond construction at its finest and nowhere as great as Bill’s. We are sure at the time Bill replied to our tweet at the time saying kindly that even the smallest addition of water in the garden will help the wildlife. What is great though yesterday we saw the odd frog in one, a drowned slug or two in the other and some very strange moving things that could have just been the “floaters” in our eyes playing up or the effects of dehydration. That was without our glasses on as well so there could well have been more stuff moving about.
As it was very cool down there for most of the day (compared to the 32 degrees C in the sun) we just started and kept on going, taking stuff away and adding the odd different plants and herbs we have about the garden already. We reckon it will be an ongoing project as we can see a couple of plants we want to take out but we don’t want it too sparse as the wildlife needs a hiding place. There was no plan, make it up on the spot gardening innit?
Enjoy the last couple of days of intense heat as we’re supposed to be going back to the early 20 degree C next week. Here’s to more wildlife in the garden.
Here’s some mad pictures from a week around the garden and one from the locality of Forest Hill. The first (below) made us think of Wlad (US7IGN) and his good friend Sergiy (UT3UFD) in Ukraine who is growing a banana plant in his apartment (post here). We are sure that this is a banana tree growing outside in a front garden in SE23. God knows how it survives the winter here, we could be wrong but it looks very much like a banana with fruit on it as well. We love the flower as it looks like someone’s carved it out of wood or it could even open up and start talking.
And the other day we were complaining that we weren’t getting much action from the courgettes (zucchini) in the raised beds until we moved a leaf and found this giant in hiding.
And in the tiny bed at the bottom of the garden there is some sort of melon (we think) and some peppers and chillies. Now it looks like there’s a self seeded cape gooseberry in there too and it’s only a tiny bed as well. A good example of square metre gardening gone wild!
This Sunday 3rd September 2023 the Imaginary Stations crew bring you two shows via the ionosphere on shortwave. The first transmission will be beamed to Europe via the services of Shortwave Gold in Germany at 2000 utc on 6160 kHz and it will be WTBR, tea and biscuits radio.
Expect a teatime assortment of tunes, some musical crackers (without cheese) and a urn full of the finest tea money can buy!
Then later at 2200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz via WRMI we bring you another episode of CTRN for all of us who love that wonderful mode of transport, the train.
So tune in, make yourself comfortable, please don’t put your feet on the seats, do have your tickets ready for inspection and enjoy a nice ride across the country by shortwave radio.
Weeds up to me knees 