From the other side of the capital

Posted on July 21, 2025 by onedeckpete

A big thanks to Debby H for sending us some garden updates over the weekend. Above is of the cosmos that is now coming into flower and will hopefully give a good show over the next few weeks.

The daisies (above) are doing great and attracting butterflies and bees and the above picture includes a gatekeeper butterfly.

As Debby told us “We have 3 ornithogalum flowers coming. These grow up to about 2 metres in height!” Here’s the link to what they looked like in September last year (here).

And above’s a picture of one of her dwarf sunflowers that has opened (it looks much better than our giant ones that went up to about 3 foot and had a small flower then just withered away) and (below) her first Capri Red Pepper. Excellent stuff Debby!

Answering the call of the cosmos

Posted on July 19, 2025 by onedeckpete

It has finally come, the day the first cosmos flower appeared. We may have lost a few plants to the slugs earlier on this year but the few we started off in pots and are now undernearth the dead cherry tree have got buds on them and this afternoon one actually opened. Cheers to Debby H for starting us off on this cosmos journey. Anyone else got any cosmos pictures to post up here? One deck pete at gee mail dot com if so.

And today also saw one of the cardoons showing their first purple dyed spikey top with more growth to come in time we hope. The bee on it seems happy enough.

And for a Saturday evening here’s a couple of excellent tunes, the first being from Cantoma (AKA Phil Mison The balearic fare dodger) called Light Before – Ambient Outro. It’s one piece of ambient chillout to end the day with!

And a lovely bit of dub from a set called Mid City Dub Encounters Vol.1 by Irie One and Lord Sekou on Jah Thunder Records and this track is called Kalimba Dub.

A butcher’s around the garden

Posted on July 16, 2025 by onedeckpete

After a bit of rain last night in SE23 we viewed a few things this morning, the first being a small water lily on the pond. It’s been taken close up and looking again we’re still not sure what that is in the top right hand corner, micro frog spawn perhaps?

We’re seeing flower buds on the cosmos. We did sow a few seeds in various places but these are the ones that survived. There’re under an old dead cherry tree and they seem have taken well. In a few days there should be flowers (Cheers Debby H again).

And this look like a couple of the Thompson & Morgan seeds here. The above must be the Quick Fire Chilli Pepper to the rear and in front the Quick Snack Cucumber.

We’ve bought some plant feed now to supplement our ever dwindling amount of Comfrey liquid and with the supposedly 25 degrees C today, all should be the right stuff for these plants to grow well. Or so we hope!

To the top of Forest Hill

Posted on July 12, 2025 by onedeckpete

Watering the garden early this morning just after we got up we noticed some great sights before it started to get hot. The echinops are now starting to flower and what flowers they are too.

We also now think these are the cosmos not the love in the mist that are beside them, the leaves are similar but not exactly the same. Shouldn’t be too long now before they flower (Cheers Debby H!)

And we are sure now that these are the Thompson & Morgan‘s Quick Fire chillies. It’s only a small plant but they sure are producing a lot of fruit! We also think beside this (not pictured) is their Quick Snack cucumbers. Ain’t gardening great?

Cheers to Gerry Hectic for sharing this very nice mix from Alina Bzhezhinska and Tulshi called Whispers of Rain (Continuous Mix) and boy wouldn’t it be nice to have some whispers of rain this week?

A report from north London

Posted on July 11, 2025 by onedeckpete

A big thanks to Debby H for sending us some pictures of her garden that’s come on a bit since she went away for few weeks. The above is of the first cosmos flowers.

Above is the radio related Marconi red pepper which is doing very well and her second pepper plant (below) is looking good too.

And her giant daisies (below) are coming along nicely!

There’s been a couple of suprises, one being a fuchsia that she thought was dead has come back to life and her ophiopogon (below), which is now flowering (little pink bell-like ones.)

It’s good coming back from being away and seeing how much has changed in the garden. Cheers for those Debby!

A view of the cosmos and the lakes

Posted on July 10, 2025 by onedeckpete

Cheers to our friend in the Lake District Rich R for sending us a picture of his first cosmos flower, brilliant stuff. It’s fantastic about all this passing on seeds that gardeners do and a big cheers to Debby H for starting all this cosmos mania off in the first place. Ours are still a work in progress, but we may know more in a few days time.

Rich also sent us a pic of Bassenthwaite Lake from the other evening, looks great. Cheers for those!

Seen in the garden this morning

Posted on July 9, 2025 by onedeckpete

Morning! While we were giving the garden a comfrey feed this morning we noticed that the Thompson & Morgan‘s Black Moon tomatoes are doing well (above). There’s a little bit of green in the underneath of the fruit but they are mainly black on the top and look great.

And on the poppy tip (from the anarchically sown “thrown them anywhere” method) here’s a couple of nice ones that have sprung up this morning. Poppies are well worth it!

Also we may have news about our cosmos but they are so planted so close to some love in a mist we’re a bit confused, more on those soon.

Under Dead Wood

Posted on May 24, 2025 by onedeckpete

After posting up Debby H‘s cosmos update we’d thought we’d check on our own seeds we sowed a good few weeks ago. We also added a couple of seedlings we had in a tray beside them so hopefully this’ll turn into a cosmos corner if all goes well and the damn slugs don’t have their way. They’re all under a (very deadish) cherry tree but they will get sunlight most of the day and we will be on hand with the watering can.

And for the past few months a good few love in a mist plants have sprouted up at the bottom of the garden by the rosemary bush we moved a few years ago. We’re not sure if it’s self seeded or if it was the result of one of our anarchic seed sowing experiments. Who cares as long as the flowers look good!

Here’s to the return of the sunshine next week. Enjoy the bank holiday!

Flowers at the end of May

Posted on May 24, 2025 by onedeckpete

Thanks for Debby H for getting in touch again and sending an update. She has just sent us a picture of her Zephyranthes Robusta and said “Each year, I store the bulbs in the garage over the winter. In late spring I bring them out and they grow again. Isn’t nature wonderful!” It really is Debby!

And what is fantastic is she has attached a picture of the first flower on one of her cosmos plants. How wonderful is that for May? Cheers Debby!

North London Report

Posted on May 18, 2025 by onedeckpete

Thanks to Debby H for sending us some recent pictures of her garden. This may turn into a two-part post as she sent us some great images.

We must start with the cosmos (above) that have been planted out and you can see still in the cardboard toilet roll inners. As Debby said “(it) makes the planting much easier, which is good when you have dozens of plants” and she’s right. The loo roll inners look like a part of the display too. A winner all round!

Here’s a couple of pictures of French lavender (one under the netting protecting some strawberries). We bought a plant of the same a few months ago and we do love the overall look of it.

And we love the blossom on her red robin tree (below). She said that it seems to have more blossom on it than previous years this spring.

“The peonies are doing well (above). Here’s a picture of one of the flowers just opening (below).” Great stuff!

Thanks again Debby and we’ll post your other pics later this week.

Weeds up to me knees

Madtone, gardening and life

Tag Archives: cosmos