And the heat in there is impressive too! Look at the build up of brandling worms at the bottom. We’ve just seen on the web you can buy them, 100 for £11! All we did is put a wet piece of cardboard down the bottom of the garden. Two days later, worms! Thanks to the great Bob Flowerdew for that! #theuniverseinthecompostbin
It doesn’t take long for seeds to germinate in this weather. The above are from the mixed herb seed pack we bought from ebay and sowed on August 2nd, that’s been just a week! We kept the pots well misted/watered constantly especially in this heat. More on the seeds we bought here.
And this very odd photo above was taken about 11am this morning just after we watered a patch of grass that was looking well thirsty up near the house. If you look closely there are four cabbage white butterflies (we think, but we don’t know much about butterflies so it could have been any butterfly) who were in the process of jumping up and down and having a bit of a dance.
Or are they the Cottingley Fairies visiting London on the way down to the coast to have a break, who knows? #hallucinatinginlockdown #Isthelockdownoveryet?
Here’s a pic of one of the courgette/zucchinni flowers yesterday. We’re keeping the plants well watered, feeding them weekly and finding anything that resembles finished compost at the bottom of the dalek bin and sticking it around the plant as mulch. We’ve just found out this tip online as well: “Don’t use a fertilizer too high in nitrogen; it will diminish your yield.” We didn’t know that! Know any more good tips?
More on growing them here. #zucchinniinlockdown
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
It’s sweltering and it’s not even 12 noon yet! We’ve got KFAI on and tuned into the Echo Chamber and listening to the last few tunes of the programme played by DJ Baby Swiss AKA CAPNCOZY (who co-hosts with the one and only Dr Strangedub) and this one by Kliment & Tuatara called Super Moon was just played. Perfect for weather like this!
Thanks to our good friend across the pond Justin Patrick Moore for the sending us a photo update of his back garden. That’s what’s brilliant around this time of year, the garden seems to grow overnight and at a fair rate too. We all should really appreciate this time as autumn will be here before we know it. Above are the “Tiger Lilies gone wild” and below is entitled “When the Compost Takes on a Life of it’s Own” and we all know about that when we get those potato peelings and old onions sprouting! Is that a cucumber/courgette growing and are there a few mushrooms in there too?
And below a nice patch of borage that the bees love and the leaves are a good addition to comfrey if you’re making a liquid feed.
He also sent us a nice tune to accompany the pics from Anna Nacher & Marek Styczyński off the LP entitled Throbbing Plants (the title sounding very Genesis Breyer P-Orridge meets Percy Thrower.)
Thank you for the pics Justin. Please send your garden pics, no matter how small your garden is, even if it’s just a couple of pots on a windowsill, send them in! The address is onedeckpete (at) gmail.com we’d love to see your garden!
And here’s a wonderfult tip/warning from the “well interesting” or “well out there, man” (whatever your point of view about this kind of thing is) “Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs” by Scott Cunningham (Llewellyn Worldwide) about the herb that is Sage. Personally, we love this book as it makes us smile during another weekend of lockdown. #gardeninginlockdown #losingourmarblesandpersonalityinlockdown
The weather has taken a turn for the windy this morning. Those cardoons we bought out of curiosity from Shannon’s as seedlings are on their second year now and well over six foot at the moment are swaying all over the shop. The flower heads are now starting to form, they really are something else when they come out. As for that Giant Russian Mammoth Sunzilla Big Massive and Broad 12ft Super Size Sunflower we bought on ebay…
News just in off twitter of free streaming of the excellent film Spectres of shortwaves by Amanda Dawn Christie until 6pm on June 1st. If you love radio and drawn to antenna sites as we are here, you’ll love this! Pour yourself a drink, sit yourself down with some popcorn from poundland and click here.
Comfrey liquid, don’t we all just love it? Looks awful don’t it? Well imagine the smell is about 1000 times worst as how it looks and you’re close. Drain out the liquid from the above abyss into a bottle then transfer a capful into a watering can and add some H20 and you’ll have some top end plant feed, we kid you not. As well as being bunged into a 1980’s Boot’s homebrew bucket we’re use a leaf or two to put below tomato plants (and other seedlings) before they go in the ground. A very versatile plant and the bees don’t half love it!
The actual plants where we’re taking the leaves from are taking a hammering at the moment (and it’s not even June!) but they don’t seem to mind. If you’re going to get some go for the “Bocking 14” variety. As the song goes: comfrey, what is it good for?
Weeds up to me knees 