Category Archives: Raised Bed of the month

The return of the golden birch

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We had some nice weather during lockdown yesterday and during the lunch break (as we’re working from home) did a little bit of tidying up in the garden. Little and often as they say, even if it is just walking up and down the garden path wielding a pair of snippers and clipping here and there (cutting off the odd dead tomato and courgette stalk). It’s still gardening though isn’t it?

The stuff we sowed in the raised beds at the start of lockdown are still making progress, there’s some beetroot to be harvested, probably two parsnips and the odd tiny lettuce. It ain’t the good life for sure but it’s the life for us!

The upside down terrarium/fish bowl found in the street certainly gets used in the Weeds garden, it might have been moved yesterday to cover a pepper plant that is still going strong but previous to that it was keeping a bit of sprouting ginger and some garlic seedlings warm.

And just to prove it ain’t spring, our silver birch found in the street three years ago here is turning a lovely old shade of golden. It is November you know? The dahlias don’t seem to know it though! #lockdownlunchbreak

On the first weekend of lockdown Argos sent to we…

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It was a lovely morning, this the first saturday of the second UK lockdown so a bit of gardening was in order. It was only a light bit of gardening as we don’t know how long we’ll be locked inside for this time so we’ll make all the jobs stretch just in case. Anyway with gardening we at Weeds always prefer the “little and often” approach every time.

It was mainly a tidy up of the beds in front of the “Dad corner”, getting rid of the old tomato plants and whatever had self-seeded there. As you can see we’ve a new feature, (well we’ve had it for ages but it’s been hidden by self-seeded nasturtiums) part of the front wall that came down when we took out the ivy that was holding it up in the first furlough.

Also yesterday we threw out an Argos slow cooker we had for years that was on its last legs not before commandeering the inner crockpot as something to stick over the rhubarb crowns to keep them warm and come spring “force” the rhubarb to grow that little bit earlier. We know an old crockpot is not as good as candlelight in heated outbuildings (that’s the commercial way of forcing rhubarb. More about the practice here) but it don’t look too out of place in the garden. If they ask, we’ll tell people that it’s an expensive “dedicated rhubarb forcer/warmer” bought on HP from a specialist plant supplier (no mention of Argos either).

There were even a few forgotten spuds from the raised bed found too! Gardening during lockdown brings many suprises!

Tomorrow never knows (it’s going to be 34 degrees)

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It’s a Thursday night and it was still 20 odd degrees outside a couple of hours ago when we gave the raised beds a watering, not the best time to do it we know but the plants are parched and have you seen the weather forecast for tomorrow? They’re going to need all the water they can get. On the way back and forth to fill up the watering can we passed this sad cabbage (above) and for weeks we’ve been thinking it’s on its last legs but it seems to keep going.

As we keep saying, it’s been a mad old year with the COVID19 lockdown but it’s forced us to grow more stuff in the garden and even given us time to give the plants a bit of TLC as we couldn’t go out anywhere. The raised beds have turned into a jungle and there’s a good bit of garden anarchy going on elsewhere, dahlia’s partnered with cabbages and a courgette/zucchinni plonked next to the silver birch we found in a carrier bag in the street three years ago (here) and more self-seeded nasturtiums than anyone could ever wish for.

The other day we picked a few green potatoes where the sun had got at them thus making them non-edible. We thought we’d throw them on the compost heap then thought of all the times we’ve pulled up sprouting potato skins from the beds and remembered a tip from Bob Flowerdew where he sticks weeds, potato skins and anything that may sprout again into a bucket of water. Then when the stuff is beyond redemption he sticks the mush into the compost bin. We’re giving it a try too, that bucket alongside the comfrey liquid on the go is making it a place of strange smells at the bottom of the garden! #lockdowngardening #dontsmellthosebuckets

And news just in…

https://soundcloud.com/thisisamusicshow/this-is-a-music-show-075

Blimmin’ eck the sun’s out!

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https://soundcloud.com/thisisamusicshow/this-is-a-music-show-074

This blog post has been written whilst listening to this week’s This is a music show. We love the intro, over Max Greger and his orchestra’s Never Can Say Goodbye we hear Your Host with “Lot’s of different countries (played this week) including Germany, Brazil, The Cayman islands, Haiti, France…” Great stuff!

And we also love this tune by The (Fabulous) Wailers from Seattle (not Kingston, JA.) that was played at the beginning. That’s what’s great about the show, there’s always something great that you’d never heard before. Big shout to Your Host!

On a gardening note, we nipped out to the raised beds this morning to thin out the carrots (below) as it’s a bit of a jungle out there. We’re proud as punch as these were put in at the start of lockdown. We also found out the hard way that it was tons easier pulling out the carrots in the beds with the bought multi-purpose compost in them rather than the ones with London clay. We will rectify that come the spring!

We reckon that the carrots we pulled this morning were the early nantes free with Kitchen Garden magazine pre-lockdown in January. We’ll be getting some of them next year for sure. Anyone else having a bit of success with their veg? Do send us your pics! onedeck (@) gmail (.) com.

And on that note we have to say goodbye even if we can’t, we have gardening to do and the odd sunny interval to enjoy! #classiclockdowneweather #gardeninginlockdown

This is a pepper

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We filled some of those raised beds a bit tight at the beginning of lockdown and it’s starting to look a bit like a jungle in some of them now. Perhaps it wasn’t the correct way of using them what with all the plants fighting for space, soil and water. In the raised bed (below) we’ve two tomato plants and a load of peas at the back, a lettuce and two cabbages in the middle row and in the front row either two chilli peppers or more than likely two peppers PLUS some spuds. Can we put anything else in there? Talk about square metre gardening!

With raised beds they do tend to dry out easily so we’re forever giving them a water during the morning. The great Joe Maiden would say never water at night as the slugs and snails would be attracted to the moisture and suggested always early in the day is best for watering and we’ve also started giving the raised beds a comfrey feed once a week too.

The peppers or chillies or whatever they are, are flowering (top and bottom pics) and there’s some mini-fruits too! We love those raised beds!

About the weather (in June)

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Weatherwise it hasn’t been the best week this week but tonight looks like it may be taking a turn for the better as we had a little bit of warmth and even a hint of the sun an hour ago. It was nice to be out there.

The raised beds (below) have been doing great, there’s all sorts of stuff in them, spuds, carrots, beetroot, cabbages, tomatoes and even peppers. Talk about square metre gardening and sticking in as much as possible! They’ve come on a long way since that first week of lockdown when the local shop had the 3 spuds per person rule that made us think that we must obtain some seed spuds and any packs of seeds we could get our hands on.Now we’re off the furlough we’re only spending the lunchhour and after work gardening and much of the big work was done when we were off. Once you get a good headstart on yourself, gardening gets a lot easier but it’s getting that start. We managed to keep the bed on the right hand side (below) a lot tidier than usual and even stuck in some tomatoes, cabbages and spuds amongst the flowers. The comfrey we use daily, pulling off massive handfuls to stick in the compost heap and for putting in holes before we transplant something. That keeps the comfrey under control as it can swamp everything if it gets its way!

Something we forgot to do on most of the tomatoes was to pinch out the sideshoots of the variety we have, so the plant can put all it’s goodness into the trusses on the main stem. We’ve been through all of the plants now and there was only one that had two stems but that doesn’t matter, we’ll keep it as “an tomato experiment”. More on sideshooting tomatoes here.

And talk about best laid plans and all that, this bed below was supposedly going to be rested this year and was going to be full of the Thompson and Morgan wildflower seed mix. Well we sowed them at the back with the borage and we’ll see what happens. Can we now have the sun back please? It is June.

And here’s a wonderful piece of music to welcome the sun back when it does finally return from the great Blundetto called Paseo. Tune!

A mountain garden from across the pond

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You know we love seeing other people’s gardens and a friend of ours Thomas sent in some great pictures of his space atop a mountain in western North Carolina, USA and we love it!

His vegetable beds are at an early stage of growth he told us but they still look impressive, we love those logs! “We’re still not beyond our last frost date, so the veggie garden is still very young. Indeed, we even had a few snow flakes last night.” Being up in the mountains the garden is 2-3 weeks behind the valley below.

He said “Keep your expectations low, this is basic gardening”, wow keep them low, how can we do that with all that lovely scenery! Thomas mentioned “We go for what I call a “National Park” look. The sort of landscaping we find here at national/state parks: basic, using natural materials, and almost exclusively native plants.” 

Thomas’s space puts us in mind of Zdenko Franjic (DJ Zdena)‘s garden in Zagreb, Croatia another lovely spot which we covered a few years ago (more on Zdenko‘s garden here.)

Thomas also included a photo of his wood shed (above) “I’ve been spending an incredible amount of time this year sawing down trees and splitting wood. What’s in the shed is a fraction of it. Kind of back-breaking, but somehow satisfying at the end of a day.” What a lovely looking wood shed. We live in a place called Forest Hill but sadly there’s no wood-chopping done around these parts but if there were, we’d want a wood shed like that.

“We have made a few paths through the woods around our house this year, too. We do so not only to have more hiking trails, but it also makes it easier to see our flowering plants like Trilliums.” Thanks a million Thomas for sharing your inspiring outdoor space, it don’t half look magical!
We’re always up for seeing other people’s gardens, plants on windowsills or balcony spaces so please send us your pics and we’ll gladly post them up on Weeds.

Can’t wait, won’t wait, will try

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Patience, that’s what you need when it comes to this gardening lark. Sadly we haven’t got any.

This week we took the dahlia tubers straight out from under the stairs (where they’ve been hibernating since late autumn) and into the ground even though there’s still a chance of frost. We also left a couple of them in the garden from last season as we couldn’t be bothered to dig them out. Why do we do these things when we know we shouldn’t?

We have got protection for them and the other plants that don’t do well when it comes to frosts though. There’s the seed potatoes under the black membrane that was used under the decking and lots of DIY plastic/wood contraptions (don’t throw out your jam jars!) over vegetable seedlings that are germinating so it ain’t that bad.

All the gardening books tell you to be aware of late frosts, they also tell you that runner beans seeds don’t like sitting in cold soils and “for god’s sake don’t put out your tomato plants out early as they’ll suffer if it gets cold” but we still do it (we’ve a couple of tomato seedlings in the ground at the moment we’re ashamed to say.) It goes like this, we see a period of lovely sunshine so the hoe is taken out from its winter hiding place and then it’s all systems go after that. We don’t think this lockdown has helped in holding back either.

Talking of lockdowns, there’s a new gardening-related game developing here. At least once a week on our (very) regular visits to the compost heap a gloved hand will be thrust into the mass of rotting vegetables, old ripped up leccy bills and single tea bags to “feel the heat”. That’s not normal behaviour is it? Early signs of “lockdown lunacy” perhaps?

A quick lockdown gardening progress report

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The seed spuds we put under the upside down terrarium and the small plastic cloche we found in the street are now starting to show (and look at that celery!) and so are the parsnips, cabbages and carrots (below). As long as we keep them under cover until the risk of frost is over we should be okay! Those Blue Peter style mini-coldframes made with some plastic sheeting tacked onto some old wooden palettes are working well!

And that lovely red nasturtium from the Thompson & Morgan seed trials has returned, we don’t know if it self-seeded or if it ever went away, it’s great in any case!

Do we still have to put our bins out during lockdown?

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The last couple of days have been cold but a few quick trips down the garden have been in order for a nice bit of sanity from a self-isolating worldview. A big shout to our good friend Nancy B who a short while back, suggested we get a Clematis Montana for the back fence. It’s now woken up and is starting to show a few flowers. The plant will be getting some of that comfrey feed when it’s ready!

Thanks to Thompson & Morgan (and Shannon’s and all the other plant and seed sellers of the world who are working flat out keeping gardeners supplied!) for sending us an order which included some Peas (Jumbo) and Lettuce (Little Gem) that have gone in one of our “Blue Peter” style, cut-price budget cold frames.

Earlier this year we mentioned we were going the “rest” the back bed and fill it with some wild flower mix. That idea’s gone out of the window now as we stuck in a row of peas behind the spuds we put in the other week. Best laid plans and all that!

But the question on everyone’s lips here is something we heard a passer-by the other day say into his mobile whilst on his daily exercise regime “Do we still have to put our bins out during lockdown?”