Today we had some good weather so had a couple of trips armed with the odd teabag and egg carton back and forth to the compost heap. On the way back we spotted these three on the pond. We’ve just found out that it’s toads that lay their spawn in lines. Well you learn something new every day.
Thanks to Debby H who got in touch again to let us know that the cosmos seeds she put in a few days ago are now germinating (above). We will now experiment and start ours off, if we can find space on the windowsills. Cheers Debby, do keep us updated.
We can’t help being a bit paranoid with our chilli seeds (Prairie Fire Mini Bush Chilli Pepper and Lemon Drop Hot Citrus Pepper) below, we sowed on January 10th (post here). If you remember a few years ago we started some off and then we lost most of them to the dreaded damping off.
So, this year we spent a bit more on seed compost and took the lid off the propagator as soon as the seeds germinated. We’ve now moved them to the kitchen windowsill and keep checking the compost so we’re not overwatering them but they don’t seem to have grown much since January 30th (here). Have we just got a case of DOP (damping off paranoia)?
The moneymaker tomato seeds have germinated, and we’ve taken the plastic freezer bag off them. As long as those black fungus gnats stay away we should be alright! We’re taking advice from Gardener’s World: “Control them by allowing soil to dry out between waterings, using yellow sticky traps, and placing sand on the soil surface.
It’s been a nice dry bright day today for a change and it hasn’t been too cold either. Earlier a fox came through the garden just as we were putting an old bucket over the clump of rhubarb shoots. It weren’t bothered with us and the intricacies of forcing rhubarb, rather in the roof of the shed a few doors down. There it stayed for a good few hours.
Thanks to our radio pal Justin Patrick Moore across the pond, who sent us a wonderful seed catalogue from the US from Farmacie Isolde that has many “out there” seeds on it. Even though you won’t be able to order from them (unless you are in the USA), it will give you some great ideas and you could source a seller over here. Download or browse here.
There’s so many we have never heard of before but the above and below are real suprises to us. We forwarded the catalogue onto our mate Gerry Hectic who enquired about “Flat of Egypt (300 seeds for $3,75) or some Bulls Blood? on Page 31″. Isn’t gardening great?
Anyone started any seeds off on this bright Saturday? Pictures and stories if you have. One deck pete at gee male dot com.
We know we mentioned a couple of posts ago that you don’t want to be too keen on sowing seeds at this time of year, but we’ve started a couple off, seeing as both seeds need a few weeks to germinate.
This morning, we put 3 pots each of Reals Seeds Prairie Fire Mini Bush Chilli Pepper and Lemon Drop Hot Citrus Pepper in a heated seed tray. This year we’re using some B&Q bought Rocket Gro seed/cutting compost as the cheap supermarket shop-bought peat-free we bought a while ago just weren’t that good and we lost a load of seedings to the dreaded damping off.
On looking at the packets, the Prairie Fire takes 2-3 weeks to germinate and the Lemon Drop 3-4, now that’s a long wait. We will be training patience in this exercise and will keep you in the loop if we see any movement at all.
This week we bought some seeds from the great Real Seeds. They offer a fantastic selection of unusual varieties, from chillies and herbs to edible flowers. The last time we ordered from them was a couple of years ago, back when we were still getting used to growing with peat-free compost and lost quite a few seedlings but we’re trying again. We ordered some walking onion bulblets and seeds of lemon drop hot citrus pepper, prairie fire mini-bush chilli pepper, Korean mint and marvel of Peru (AKA the four o’clock plant).
As per sowing instructions for the walking onions, we opened the packet and stuck the bulblets in a pot of compost straight away. Technically, you only buy one bulblet but they generously include extras in case of poor germination, we received four! Along with every order, they send clear growing and seed-saving instructions, and even recipes where relevant. Real Seeds really has its heart in the right place. Their passion for sustainable growing and seed saving makes them well worth supporting so have a butcher’s here.
While browsing their site, we spotted a recommendation for the excellent Grow Your Own Vegetables by Joy Larkcom. We managed to pick up a second-hand copy this week for under a fiver and it’s an absolute bargain!
Comprehensive ain’t the word, this book covers it all: tools and equipment, choosing and preparing your growing site, composting, soil structure, seed sowing and planting, clever space-saving ideas, and even a full vegetable directory packed with growing tips and advice. It’s one of those books you’ll keep going back to time and again for reference and well worth getting your hands on.
Have a great weekend and hope you can get out and do a bit in the garden!
Last weekend we returned from a week away visiting some great East Sussex locations such as Camber Sands, Eastbourne and Brighton. Weather weren’t too bad (a bit of rain in the morning but usually sunny in the afternoon) but it has seemed to have changed when we got back home. Everything in the garden is now winding down, the tomatoes have their last fruit on them, the cosmos are still going (more on those later) and the giant sunflower (from seed bought off ebay) is doing great, following the sun as usual (more on that here).
We brought in the houseplants that were having a holiday outside, a chilli in a pot which will hopefully survive the winter and be back outside in the garden as they are technically perennials and even a couple of the pelargoniums taken from cuttings from the ones at the local train station. Why not? It’s nice to have a bit of the outside indoors.
Our north London correspondent Debby H has suggested we should get a page together of how people’s cosmos did this year and have a bit of a gallery going on and we think it’s a great idea. If the slugs got at your seedlings earlier on, don’t worry we will repeat it next year but any pictures of your cosmos to one deck pete (at) gee mail dot com please.
Also a massive shout and thanks to Jon Harris from the excellent multi-genre music show called Coughing Pigeon on Brum Radio here. On the 1st August show they played Madtone Safety Council V BiggaBush‘s Lock your bike at 01.15. The show continues in the usual unusual way with all sorts of great stuff from the dubby to this wonderful tune from Christie Laume called Rouge Rouge, wonderful stuff indeed.
As it says on the website “You should approach every Coughing Pigeon show with a degree of both certainty and curiosity about what you will hear. Household names feature alongside the relatively unknown in a quest to create a unique listening experience” and they are right!
Early yesterday morning we decided to clear the “wild” part of the garden (below) as yes it is wild but it just looked a bit of a mess. We cleared out all the weeds and now it’s a little bit bare but we can imagine that won’t last long. We’re expecting some rain later this week so that mixed with some sunny periods will be the right conditions for a mad growth spurt.
Whilst having a cup of tea admiring our good work, we were visited by a fox quickly passing through, two birds including the Robin (top pic) and then a neighbour’s cat came in either for the birds or the bit of catmint we are growing near the pond. We remember years at Shannon’s someone telling us it will bring all the locals cats in. Perhaps they were right?
Get much wildlife in your garden? Do let us know.
It’s great to hear that Gerry Hectic is taking on a new seed saving project after tasting a strawberry that was so nice he got given one that he is now saving seed from and trying to grow a plant from it. He is now trying the same method on the above!
We will keep you posted on how he gets on! Fascinating stuff though and more free plants if they take. We found a great link about seed saving here. Good luck Gerry.
Often short-lived, the flowers of the poppy are something to behold as they say. We took a trip down the garden this morning and took a couple of photographs and the two at the top are now missing a few petals, it’s a case of catch them when you can!
Those two are a result of randomly flinging the seeds about and the bottom is the oriental poppy (a perennial) we grew from seed a few years ago and it just keeps on giving. Poppies are go!
Weeds up to me knees 