How mad has this year been? If someone would have told us in January that we’d be spending 3 months indoors and that in July we’d be turning the compost heap once a day with a garden fork, we’d tell them that they were raving bonkers.
It’s nearly August and we’re still in lockdown, our mental health may be suffering but at least the garden is coming on well! We didn’t have much luck with the broad beans and peas this year sadly and with peas you really have to grow rather a lot of them to get a decent amount to have with your dinner. As Robert Wyatt once sang “Is it worth it?” Perhaps it is. At least one of our favourite flowers, the humble dahlias are starting to come out, well sort of (above). Give them time.
The broken up paving slabs we took up at the back of the house which were laid out at the bottom of the garden by the pond during a bit of furlough are starting to settle in a bit. We used the box of Beneficial Flower seeds from Thompson & Morgan we got back in March and sowed them around the slabs and apart from some confusion when they first started germinating (“Are they weeds or are they the beneficial flower seeds?” “That’s bindweed that is..”) we’re now seeing some results (above).
And the vegetable bed we were supposed to be resting (and originally where the beneficial flower seeds were going to go) and then due to the lockdown and the local shops having a 3 potato per person rule we put in a couple of rows of spuds, then onions, then broad beans and now it’s mainly nasturtiums swamping said spud plants near those tall cardoons. Next year, we swear we’ll rest the bed!
Oh dear, we’ve just looked at the weather for tomorrow. Looks like rain, that barbeque will have to wait until Monday night then! #gardeninginlockdown
One Deck Pete presents “The Purple Nucleus of Creation 001” which was broadcast on Radio Lavalamp on Sunday 12th July 2020 on 3955 kHz. This is the studio version of the broadcast. #shortswavesnotdead #radiolavalamp
It’s mad, the photo above shows the raised beds just before lockdown in March. My, how time’s flown eh? How many week’s have we been lockdown for? 14, 15, 16? The garden isn’t bothered how long though, it’s cracking on and with this present warm and wet weather here in London it’s getting on with what it does best. Look at those raised beds now (below), the spuds (Two bags of seed potatoes from
We’ve pulled out a few handfuls of spuds from around the potato plants making sure that the plant wasn’t disturbed too much and then we piled the earth/compost over the crown of the plant so any spuds near the surface wouldn’t have the chance to turn green. And here’s the spuds (below), we’re confused if they’re the first earlies, second earlies or premature maincrop ones. It doesn’t really matter, they tasted excellent and what did they taste of? Yes potatoes but real potatoes!
Weeds up to me knees 