This was found in the skip the other evening. It’s a heavy old thing, some sort of sculpture just under a foot high. What is it? Where can it go in the garden? Any ideas?
What is it?
6
Around the garden in 80 words
This afternoon wandering around the garden we saw some bees going to town on a salvia (above) and noticed this nice wild flower (below) which Plant.id said was a form of mallow.
If we have to thin plants out of the pond we sometimes put them in micro ponds we’ve dug into the ground in the wild bit at the bottom of the garden. This time here’s some water mint in an old M&S plant container. Waste not want not.
This is (not) a veg patch
We’ve a couple of raised beds that have spinach, lettuce and onions in them or they did have until the poppies took over. You just can’t pull out a poppy seedling can you? It’s the same with the veg patch at the bottom.
Best thing about this is collecting the seed and passing them on to anyone who fancies some great looking poppies!
On a pink oyster tip
Big shout to Mike & Julia for sending us a picture of some pink oyster mushrooms that they grew in their loft. As Mike said “We used them for a stroganoff and a stir fry. Bit chewy but a decent crop!”. Great stuff!
Closer to home AKA fish food, courgettes and tomatoes
Things are looking great in the garden, the late sown Courgette/Zucchini plants are flowering and here’s one of them with a little fruit showing on the left hand side (above). In the picture is also some sort of wild geranium/pelargonium that came out of a wild flower seed mix we flung around the area beside it.
There are a couple of fruits starting to ripen on the very early sown tomato (above) we put in a broken food recycling bin that is up near the house. And (below) an ebay purchase (of £11) of fish food for the goldfish in the pond (50p for size comparison). Reckon this’ll last until the end of the decade! Does fish food have a “use by” date? Another silly question put to you by Weeds up to me knees.
Have a good gardening week and “may the comfrey liquid, bees and weather by with you” as they say on GQT.
International Report AKA a rose abroad
Thanks very much to Debby H for sending us some pictures from the south of France where she is staying at the moment where it’s been up to 34 degrees C since she arrived.
The first is of a lovely rose plant (above) and she said “This would be nothing special in the UK, but this plant rarely flowers after April or early May here. However, they had such a wet spring it seems that the rose is much happier this year.”
The picture above is of a strelitzia, the bird of Paradise plant which is looking well healthy, Debby has one in London that she started from seed about 6 years ago. It is a wonderful plant and we read that germination of the seed can be anything from 4-8 weeks to 6 months!
“The next is my prickly pear which seems to have gone bonkers growing along the ground instead of upwards as it should do.” We do love this picture, cacti are brilliant.
The above we think is a phormium tenax aka New Zealand flax.
And the picture above is of an oleander. Her own plant is still not in flower yet and we do hope it’s not long before it looks like the above.
Wonderful pictures as always Debby and do keep updating us. Have a good break out there! Ta for the “A rose abroad” headline as well.
Free seeds on Platform Two on Monday
Cheers to our good friend John F for passing this little bit of joy on. Free wildflower seeds from certain train stations this monday coming. Cheers Sadiq!
Suprise, suprise
Found at the bottom of the garden with the old saying “How the hell did that get there and what is it?”. We had no idea until we took a picture and fed it in plant.id and the result was Raphanus raphanistrum, “You what?” you ask. It’s more commingly also known as wild radish. We’ve no idea how it got there but it’s staying!
Did you know the pods are edible? Thanks to www.thekitchn.com
“Wild radish pods are crisp and peppery, much like the root of a true radish, and can be eaten raw or cooked. Young, tender pods are the most delicious and can be easily harvested by running your hand up the stalk to release a handful of pods.”
You learn something new every day!
SE23 update
We’re days away from the summer solstice and it’s crept up so quickly that we hadn’t even noticed. One minute we’re checking when the last frost will be and now it’s nearly summer, crazy business!
The random sown poppies are popping up all over the place (above) and that mullein plant (below) is sending up its mad flower stalk and it won’t be long until it flowers now!
How does your garden grow? Pictures to one deck pete at geemail dot comm please.
Life is something special
The other weekend we purchased a pink “dandelion” from an open garden in Blackheath. We didn’t think they even existed! The strawberry is there for comparison, that is a moderately sized strawberry by the way. More on different colour ones here. What’s good is they close up at night too.
And below is a tune released on John Peel and Clive Selwood’s Dandelion label. Guess what? One of the band members is Daft Punk’s dad!
Weeds up to me knees 