This is the year of the cosmos

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With the pictures Debby H kindly sent of her garden in the last post, she also sent us some pics of how her cosmos seeds were doing. “I planted some cosmos seeds on Thursday afternoon. By this morning (Sunday), they had germinated!” (pic above). How good is that?

Then on Monday she sent us pictures of how quick the seedlings have grown (taken about 25 hours later after the original photographs). As she said “I find the growth since yesterday to be quite amazing” and we agree!

She also sent some useful information about the seedlings that we didn’t know “…cosmos plants have long roots, even when they are small, so egg-boxes didn’t work well last year. This time, I have tried to use the cardboard insides of toilet rolls. I put these in a plastic trug planter thingy to keep them upright and stable.”

Now that is a great tip Debby and good luck with the seedlings. We sowed some yesterday (Tuesday) and hoping we get some quick germination results too. Thanks again.

 

STOP PRESS: A picture from today (Wednesday). They are looking great Debby and ta for the update!

News from north London

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Cheers to Debby H for getting in touch after her time away in Tenerife (pictures of plants from there here) and coming back to a garden “that has sprung to life” in north London. “There are yellow primroses all over plus a few pink, red and white clumps. We had some last year, but nothing like this and the peonies (below) have sprouted and grown amazingly”. Ours are doing the same here too, which is great.

The below plant is called lamium aka dead nettle. “It’s really a weed but there’s only a small amount so far, so I am letting it stay.” We’re with you on that as it looks great.

She told us that her pear tree is starting to bloom after having some troubles. “This poor tree (below) suffered terribly last year from rust. I wasn’t sure if it would be okay this year, but it looks good so far.”

“The rhododendron (below) is Wine and Roses. I saw it in a garden centre last spring. I loved the colour and its name, and decided to break the habit of a lifetime and pay for a plant.” Brilliant stuff.

“When we moved into this house in 2023, none of the above was visibly growing, except for the pear tree. The plants had all suffered a long period of hot, dry weather. Everything in the garden borders looked dead, except for the trees. The following year, things started growing, and they haven’t stopped since!”

Now that is great to hear Debby. With gardening it’s really what you put in that gives you results, a bit of hard work, a regular water and adding nutrients to the soil etc. As we can see here, it’s all worth the effort. Cheers Debby, the garden is looking like it’s got off to a great start and let’s not forget the indoor plants either (below).

That garden’s looking good!

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Thanks to Mike and Julia from near Coventry for getting in touch with some super spring pictures taken by Julia and the garden looks thriving. We’re not going to put any captions underneath the images but let the camera work do the talking. If you need any names of plants etc we’ll get in touch for a run down. Wonderful stuff both and they really get us in the mood for the garden year.

Flyer of the week

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You’ve heard of “Ant music for ant people” but “Horrible music for horrible people”? This great flyer (above) was seen on the main drag of Deptford last week possibly not that far away from where ATV’s “Life after life’s” cover shot was taken (below).

Imagine if you were turned away from that event? “Sorry mate you ain’t coming in, you’re not horrible enough”. We do love the name, we bet they are all nice people and love their mum too.

Uses for broken brick walls and lemon scented suprises

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We took the plunge yesterday and stuck a couple of tomato plants out after a bit of hardening off over the last couple of weeks. Don’t worry, they will be protected even if the protection is a little on the basic side. This high-tech contraception features a plastic top off a seed tray and a couple of bricks from what was the side of the front wall. If you remember, one job in lockdown was to clear years of ivy off said wall. As soon as the Ivy was taken off, parts of the wall crumbled. Another gardening lesson learnt.

Also, we had a nice surprise this week when we saw some new growth on our Lemon Verbena (above) that we moved the other month, as we thought it was a goner in its former position. The leaves make a lovely refreshing cup of tea and there’s a nice scent when you brush against it. It’s worth getting one. Thanks to Haji MIke a few years ago (here) telling us about Lemon Verbena

Weather looks great this weekend again, so happy gardening whatever you’re doing if it’s tidying out your shed or putting one foot on your garden fork and staring into space (like we did at the council).

Radio Freedom

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Typically we finished a shortwave mix and just after it was sent off, we found another one we could have used while looking for something completely different. This one is from many years ago from Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry vs The Moody Boyz called International Broadcaster (feat. Roots Manuva & LSK). “Adjust your treble, get rid of the trouble.”

Wild wild wild youth

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Cheers to Mike and Julia from near Coventry for the picture of some wild garlic growing in their village. “Free stuff from nature!” as they said. That is one brilliant clump of it (above).

We bought some bulbs off ebay a few years ago after we spotted some on a camping trip in Cornwall and didn’t really know that much about it but thought it looked like an interesting plant. It still comes up every year around by the pond.

Anyone got any good recipes for using it? Mike and Julia mentioned they’ve used it in mango chicken and lamb kebabs, sometimes sprinkled on meatballs and have made garlic butter and garlic bread with it. We’ve found a couple on BBC Food here but we’d be interested if anyone out there knows more uses for cooking with it. Sounds great. Ta for the pic Mike and Julia!

Radio time machine

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Cheers to Karl S for passing on this flyer for a gig in the early 1980’s at Coventry’s premier punk venue The Hand and Heart. We were shocked to learn at the end of the gig a giant fight kicked off. A “ruck” at a gig in Coventry in the early 1980’s? We don’t believe it! Ta for sending us the flyer Karl.

Today we also picked up a repress of the original version of “Jah Heavy Load” by Ijahman Levi. It’s a “must have” reggae tune that a while ago would put you back the cost of a family weekly shop. It was first heard on this show below with John Lydon with Robin Valk on BRMB Radio in Birmingham many many moons ago. The version below is recorded in mono off the medium wave complete with distant stations fading in and out in the background. Radio connects us all.

What, sunshine in April? Never

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It’s like this every year, you’re waiting for spring to happen and then next thing you’ve got a load of plants to harden off (above). We’ve got some giant sunflowers that are over a foot high now and tomatoes, sweet peas and some chillies we were given over the weekend alongside the geranium cuttings from Honor Oak Park station. It’s only just turned April too!

Also, in the bed down the bottom we started lots of seeds off. The rocket can be seen taking off underneath small branches used to keep the cats and foxes off. The seeds were only put in the other day, or it seemed like it! Hope all goes well on the sowing front your side and the nice weather keeps on keeping on. Keep checking those last frosts dates and do remember nature plays by its own rules sometimes.