There’s a tall old plant at the back of the bed that seems to have shot out of nowhere. We did a Plant.id on it and it turns out to be Fullers Teasel. It’s a plant that initially stuck out to us on a walk on the wildside (the river path from Sydenham to Catford) but not so sure we want it in that part of the garden.
We’ve just read up on it and it says it not that good for the plant to move it about, as it has a bit of a large taproot so perhaps we’ll leave it be. It’s good for the birds and bees anyway and the flower don’t look that bad. We are sure we either bought a plant last year or took some seed heads off a plant. Who knows, we just have to check on it that it don’t take over the garden.
Thanks to Gerry Hectic for sending us a picture of his first flowering lily in his pond complete with Belfast sink in the corner filled with some water plants. Lovely flower and that water looks a lot clearer that our pond at the present moment too Gerry!
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.
Cheers to Spike from Morschen43 in Le Puy-en-Velay, France for sending over these great gardening ideas. We love the use of tiles as frost protection (above and below), an old trick learned off his grandfather. All you do is leave the tiles in sun all day beside the plant and in the late afternoon before the sun sets, put them over the plant for some great protection from the cold.
And another great idea, using a part of an old staircase to put window boxes on. Picture below of Annette and human. Great stuff Spike, some useful ideas here!
Cheers to Gerry Hectic also in Dorset for sending us a picture of his potato plants, he said “think I might have got a bit enthusiastic about the spuds, I’ve some in an old water butt and a big plastic pot; got a bean growing up the fence too!”. We think they look great Gerry, you can never have enough potatoes!
Cheers to Alan in South East Dorset for getting in touch last week and sending us a report of his allotment activities. We initially heard from him last year when he passed on that valuable tip about adding some home-made compost to peat-free compost “to help germination and early growth”. As he added when he reminded us “I still mix in garden compost and the growth of seedlings this year have been mostly excellent, much better than previously.” We’re with you on that Alan, we now use it all the time.
He kindly sent us a couple of pictures of the spuds (a variety called Lady Christl, first earlies) doing well in tubs (24 of them in total!) The reason he puts them in tubs is “having learnt my lesson that you can never dig up all of them if they are in the ground and end with volunteers everywhere the following year.” That is so true, no matter how careful you are with taking potatoes out, they’ll always be one sneakily left in.
“I hadn’t heard of the variety before last year, but it gives really good new potatoes. Personally, I don’t bother with other types, but first earlies are really much nicer fresh from the ground.” “We don’t store them, just tip out a tub the day that we intend to eat them.” Brilliant, you can’t beat the taste of freshly pulled-up potatoes.
“You will also see behind them my polytunnel, which has tomatoes, cucumbers,
aubergines and peppers all coming on in small pots. Potted up a few
tomatoes this morning into tubs. Also, a few purple beans, peas, beetroot
and dahlias in there too.” “There is also my fruit cage (still a work-in-progress) with 2 grapevines and some blueberries in the large red-brown tubs.”
And finally, he sent us this great tune by Dub Syndicate featuring the late great Lee Scratch Perry with the dub master Adrian Sherwood at the controls. Brilliant, cheers for sending the report Alan and do keep us updated as the season keeps on and send us more tunes too.
A nice bit of dub from Madmax Hifi (ft Sir Jama and Couleur d’Opium) out of Peypin D’Aigues, France. As it says on their Bandcamp, “the track moves away from war, greed, and the chase for money, reminding us that true wealth lives in love, peace, freedom, and the heart.” Too right mate! Wishing a good weekend to all the dub gardeners out there! (Above: crazy shapes by the pond this morning)
Thanks to Rich in the Lake District for sending us this great picture of a hanging basket he has there with a Lewisiain it. He said they had forgotten all about them, “these popped up while we weren’t watching.” We’ve never seen them before, but they look great! Possibly a plant to acquire here we reckon.
Cheers to Spike from Morschen43 for sending over his latest track, ‘Résurgences’! It starts off with some guitar and vocals before going into a energetic, catchy punk groove. Big thanks, Spike!
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?
Cheers to Spike from 
“You will also see behind them my polytunnel, which has tomatoes, cucumbers,
A nice bit of dub from 
Weeds up to me knees 