Tag Archives: cosmos

A view from north London

Posted on by
Reply

Cheers to Debby H for getting out in the garden and taking some pictures for us now things are coming to a close but you wouldn’t think it with these photographs though.

Above are the cosmos that are still flowering and looking great and below are some cosmos deadheads which’ll be used for seeds. Debby told us you don’t even need to break the seed heads up that much, just put them as they come in a seed tray in the spring. We have to deadhead ours actually, before it starts getting wet and the chance of things going mouldy on us.

Below “The sedum is now looking very pretty” she said and she’s right. It’s a nice plant and seems to do well in UK gardens. It loves full sun and can even tolerate a bit of shade and the bees and pollinators seem to love it.
Below, “Interestingly, one of the dwarf sunflowers that we thought was dead has grown three flowers where there was previously only one.” Brilliant stuff Debby! We look forward to more photos and thanks as ever for sending them on.

We had joy, we had fun, we had a season in the sun

Posted on by
Reply

Last weekend we returned from a week away visiting some great East Sussex locations such as Camber Sands, Eastbourne and Brighton. Weather weren’t too bad (a bit of rain in the morning but usually sunny in the afternoon) but it has seemed to have changed when we got back home. Everything in the garden is now winding down, the tomatoes have their last fruit on them, the cosmos are still going (more on those later) and the giant sunflower (from seed bought off ebay) is doing great, following the sun as usual (more on that here).

We brought in the houseplants that were having a holiday outside, a chilli in a pot which will hopefully survive the winter and be back outside in the garden as they are technically perennials and even a couple of the pelargoniums taken from cuttings from the ones at the local train station. Why not? It’s nice to have a bit of the outside indoors.

Our north London correspondent Debby H has suggested we should get a page together of how people’s cosmos did this year and have a bit of a gallery going on and we think it’s a great idea. If the slugs got at your seedlings earlier on, don’t worry we will repeat it next year but any pictures of your cosmos to one deck pete (at) gee mail dot com please.

Also a massive shout and thanks to Jon Harris from the excellent multi-genre music  show called Coughing Pigeon on Brum Radio here. On the 1st August show they played Madtone Safety Council V BiggaBush‘s Lock your bike at 01.15. The show continues in the usual unusual way with all sorts of great stuff from the dubby to this wonderful tune from Christie Laume called Rouge Rouge, wonderful stuff indeed.

 

As it says on the website “You should approach every Coughing Pigeon show with a degree of both certainty and curiosity about what you will hear. Household names feature alongside the relatively unknown in a quest to create a unique listening experience” and they are right!

North London garden report – August 2025

Posted on by
Reply

A big thanks to Debby H for sending us some pictures and an update of her garden up in north London. Just writing this now is making us think how fast this year is going, it’s nearly the end of August, it seemed like the start of the year not that long ago.

As Debby wrote accompanying her photographs “My Ornithogalum plant (above) now has 9 flowers. We never had 9 before!” It’s looking brilliant Debby.

The cosmos (above) are doing well. We have some of the same cosmos here and even the odd couple of plants we have it’s a welcome sight but a bed of them like above are well cheering to see. We need more cosmos growing everywhere!

“Finally, we have picked two of our pears. I didn’t know till recently that you pick them while they are still hard and let them soften up afterwards.” Brilliant stuff Debby, they look great. This gardening lark does reap rewards! Hope there’s more fruit to pick as the weeks progress, ta for the pictures Debby.

Cosmos fever

Posted on by
Reply

A big thanks to Debby H for starting this current wave of cosmos appreciation here at Weeds. Hers are presently looking great in situ (above).

We know a couple of us had some problems with slugs eating some of our seedlings but that’s not going to stop us trying again next year. We started off a good few but the only ones that survived were the plants under the dying cherry tree which are giving us a few nice blooms at the moment (above).

And above and below are from Mike & Julia‘s garden near Coventry. Great stuff!

Gardening is about having a go and if the slugs got your seedlings this year it doesn’t mean they will next year. Out with the beer traps and the copper tape and your other favourite anti-slug tricks and see what happens. Another good thing about the old horticulture is the practice of swopping and passing on plants and seeds. Keep the old circle going around! Cheers again to Debby H!

From the other side of the capital

Posted on by
Reply

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 by
Reply

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 by
Reply

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 by
Reply

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 by
Reply

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 by
Reply

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!