Category Archives: Raised Bed of the month

Hats off to all of the bus related gardeners out there

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We love a bus here at Weeds but it’s a different story when we think of bus stations. They never had a good reputation and they still conjure up scenes of just missing buses by a split second, waiting for the first bus in the morning in a different city after sleeping upright on a plastic seat all night after a gig years ago or aimlessly walking from stop to stop looking for the right bus scratching one’s head when on holiday in a different country.

Thanks to our good friend Debby H the reputation may be changing going by the photographs she took of the great flower display outside Nantwich Bus station (which has 4.5 star reviews on Google by the way fact fans!) Just look at those hanging baskets! We reckon there may be some comfrey liquid involved but we’re not complaining.

We love the named herb tubs under the massive hanging baskets (top and below image) and would love a cutting of the Mint Basil as we’ve never grown it before. Big shout to the gardeners/volunteers/bus drivers who maintain the patch as it’s immaculate, no deadheads on those hanging baskets we see. Thanks for those pics Debby, they are great. Now if only the Weeds’ garden was as tidy.

Spuds and signs

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This weekend we sampled our first potato harvest after putting the Maris Piper seed spuds in the garden back in the March here. We made sure to forgot all about them this year as we usually are looking to see if the potatoes are forming not long after the plant flowers.

Even when we were being very careful with the garden fork we still punctured a few and brought up the odd green spud. Now that’s something you don’t want to ingest, the same being for the strange tomato-like fruit that sometimes form after the plant flowers. Don’t go anywhere near them!

On our travels today we found some great looking plant markers on a couple of tree seedlings around Devonshire Road SE23. They look great, very graphic. Love the baby oak one!

And it’s summer solstice next week you say?

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How changeable has this weather been this weekend? It was tipping it down and windy as hell on Saturday and this afternoon we had clouds in the morning and then a nice bit of sunshine in the afternoon. This mad weather is going to send the garden crazy.

The picture above is on the side bed of some pots on a home-made old coat hanger type thing found in the street a few years ago. We’ve been trying to grow runner beans and sweet peas up it with no success over the years so attached a couple of pots near the top to see what happens. We’ve got cut and come again lettuces in one and poppies in the other in an attempt to stop the slugs from getting at them. What do you reckon, will it work? We very much doubt it.

And we’re trying to disguise the 1980’s crazy paving slab surrrounded pond with some pots and in between the broken paving stones we’ve put in some soil and going to sow california poppies and the like. Anything to disguise those crazy paving we lifted from the top of the garden to make way for some grass. How’s the weather been like around your way this weekend? As bad as ours?

More from (near) Coventry

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As we mentioned in our post here here’s a few more pictures from Mike and Julia’s garden near Coventry. The first is a perennial poppy (something we also have ourselves, grown from seed a few years ago). They really are worth having in the garden that will give you a good pop of red.

The rest are a close-up of a rosemary flower (above) and lilac (below).

And finally some black tulips with a black geranium (below). Thanks to both of you again for the wonderful pictures.

Can you take the weather forecasters to court?

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As we mentioned, the weather here has been odd but the combination of the sun and rain is making things grow like mad! The side bed up near the house (above) is getting off to a great pace with the assorted bulbs we got from Lldl breaking through and the sweet pea seedlings started off on the kitchen windowsill not being eaten by slugs.

Even the combined wild bed and vegetable patch (above) is looking a bit structured this year rather than the usual anarchic horticultural madness! We still are pondering what to do with the side of an old shed at the back. Any ideas?

As for the weather, someone once said to us “Wouldn’t it be great if it only rained at night and was sunny during the day. Us gardeners would be so happy”. If only life really was like that.

It’s been a long time…

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We obtained our new flymo yesterday and after a quick cup of tea got to work starting on the overgrown lawn in the back. After a cut and a rake and a couple of repeats we got the lawn down to an acceptable level. We even included a wild triangle at the top. The flymo certainly got a baptism of fire yesterday, no hard feelings lawn mower.

 

Spring must be here now!

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Thanks to Mike G and his partner Julia for sending us a couple more pictures of their garden near Coventry again this week. What we thought was a great looking brick wall is actually decking (above) and we love the raised bedding and can spy a great looking poppy getting ready to flower if we’re not wrong.

And look at their well colourful trees and bushes (below). They’re looking good Mike and Julia! Keep sending us those pics of your great garden. It really is good to see how other people garden. If you want to send us some pictures of your garden, balcony or windowsill gardening exploits drop us an email to one deck pete at gee mail dot com.

Get those buckets out, possibly

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This scene is from a couple of years ago but this weekend we may go back in the time machine and relive it as it’s going to be 2°C overnight on Sunday, supposedly.

We’ve got spuds that have sprouted and even some coriander seed that have propagated outdoors so it’s better to be safe than sorry. We reckon give it a couple of more weeks and we’ll be out of the danger zone but then again remember that snappy old-time gardening saying “Button to chin, till May be in, cast not a clout, till May be out. If you lose your seed spuds you will get angry and swear and shout”.

The sun’s out this morning, the sky is blue but it’s still nippy. Whether we’ll be in the garden today for long is another thing. So for this sunny morning, here’s a tune by Billy Hope with Riding West which has a bit of a Steptoe and Son vibe to it.

Spring must be here!

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Thanks to Mike G and his partner Julia for sending us some recent pictures of their garden from just outside Coventry and great pics they are! Top image features the great flowers of bleeding heart and also grape hyacinths.

Love the picture below, look at that clematis go! The clematis in our garden is nowhere as prolific. Ours has flowered poorly over the last couple of years so we used a tip heard on Gardeners Question Time a few years ago. Within earshot of the plant we said “If we don’t see any improvement in that clematis next year, we’re pulling it and sticking it on the compost heap as it’s the best thing for it”. It’s not a nice thing to do but sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind and funnily enough the GQT tip may be working. If it flowers as half as good as their one below we’ll be more than happy!Their peas look great especially so early in the season and we look forward to see how they get on. We don’t have much luck with peas, we know the trick may be all about keeping them well watered but these below look well healthy.

We had to look this plant below up on the web and used Plant.id here which is telling us it’s a spring starflower (Ipheion uniflorum). Whatever it is, it’s a striking flower!
So cheers Mike and Julia for sending in the pictures of your great garden and do let us know how things are going later this season!

 

Who needs patience when you have a bin bag or two?

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We’ve had those seed spuds for a couple of weeks now and they ain’t half burning a hole in our pockets. We’ve an egg box with a handful of them chitting away by the back room window, a couple went in in the cold frame (an old window frame found in a skip, balanced on bricks) and we’ve just put two in each raised bed down the side even though it’s a liitle bit early to be putting in Maris Pipers.

We stuck a bin bag over the bed, made a rough hole in the plastic so light will show through and stuck the seed potato directly under it. We then covered it with compost and now we’re keeping our fingers crossed that they survive any forthcoming frosts. On two of them we have put some old wire shelving from a plastic greenhouse to stop certain felines (ours) stop digging up the soil and leaving presents. Seed spuds we wish you luck!

And music today is one from a long time go from Cosmos called Summer In Space (Mark Harmonic 33 Mix). It’s a lovely chilled out number for a Sunday.

And as we have a lack of patience when it comes to gardening here’s Nish Wadada with Patience Dub. It’s a lovely bit of dub!