Tag Archives: dahlia

Who says dahlias are boring

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Big thanks to Mike G and Julia (Ace photos as usual by the way Julia!) for sending pictures of their wonderful dahlias that have been loving the decent weather up there near Coventry for the last two days. The black dahlia (above) is really something else!

The one above is another favourite of ours, a classic of dahlias! And as for the orange one below… We’ll be buying some tubers for the spring, we will.

And these pictures have given us an excuse to repost up an example of that rare genre called dahlia dub from Madtone called A dahlia state of mind.

And another dahlia themed track this time by Asta Hiroki.

And a final one by Jean-Michel Serres.

Tulips from Lew-is-sham

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Yesterday we popped into that shopping emporium Lewisham Lldl and spied some gardening bargains. There were various variety packs of mixed summer bulbs and corms and we picked this one which was “Flower Masses Collection” for around £6. No idea if it is an actual bargain or not, but there’s 40 bulbs in there including one dahlia that went in a large pot near the house with a transparent plastic bag over it to keep any cold weather out. Also there’s some gladioli, lilly and african corn lilies that went in the ground probably a bit early but these things burn a hole in our pockets and we’re far too impatient to wait until the risk of frost is over sadly.

The bulb planting reminded us of a daft story from the Westminster City Council Gardening days that was covered in the Sounds From The South spot that we used to do many many moons years ago for the gardening programme The Dirt on Manchester’s Fab Radio International (show below). We wonder where Watford Mick is now?

There’s also a silly episode about when a gardener met some of his punk heroes in his council regulation Donkey Jacket here.

Best of luck with the weather and happy gardening over the bank holiday break!

 

One last tidy

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Yesterday while watching the weather forecast (the one the farmers swear by) on Countryfile we were told that this present mild spell in SE23 will be replaced with some “normal for this time of year” weather very soon.

This afternoon we spent an hour or two in the garden tidying up, not that you’d think we did looking at the wild patch at the bottom (above) but as we’re trying to cultivate a “wild” look we really don’t know what to do for the best. Do we weed or leave?

Last year we sowed some Bee Bombs alongside more wild flowers using our random sowing technique (aka chuck them anywhere) and considering the area doesn’t get that much light we did alright but we’re going to give it another year and see what happens. It does look messy at the moment and the two random stalks of brussels sprouts don’t help either.

We also forked up some dahlia tubers (top pic) we didn’t get around to lift after the frost, got as much mud off them as we could and now they’re indoors in the dark and dry until the spring. We maybe too late as we took out some rotten parts already but we’ll keep a check on them. More info on lifting and storing dahlias here.

The raised beds at the side (above) are quite tidy and nice to see the overwintering onions and shallots doing well. The usual bucket over the rhubarb is back, to try and force some early stalks out of it come the spring.

We moved a bay bush we got years ago which was not doing well in its old location and it looks like the move has worked wonders. And below is the pond that is looking quite bare at the moment but give it a couple of months and it’ll be back to its former glory. We’re still leaving the pea netting on top as that Ladywell Heron has been seen of late standing motionless at the bottom of the garden the other week.

That’s our update, if the weather’s okay we may do a bit more but we doubt it with what was said on Countryfile!

And in the background while we write this, is the latest Rhythm Doctor’s Waiting Room from IDA Radio (Tallinn). Starts with some chilled Jazz from Finland and then progresses through some nice musical genres.

Played early on the show is this wonderful tune from Brenda Ray called Space Dustin’.

After the frost has gone

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We just may be out of the frost danger zone here in London what with the forecast for warmer nights of 5 ºC next week. We’ve still got those teepees made out of broken bamboo canes and chucked out fabric on hand just in case as you never can tell with the crazy weather we’ve been having.

At the time of writing (9 am on a Sunday morning) we can hear the sound of a lawnmower which will not win the hearts of anyone living next door to them.

We here prefer to listen to the sounds of the above, a garden related tune called Dahlias by Asta Hiroki. Far more mellow sounding on a Sunday morning than an engine of a Hayterette. Enjoy the lovely weather we’re supposed to be having this week!

Spikey tops in September

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It’s a lovely day here today in south London as the sun has made a bit of a comeback this weekend. The dahlias in the garden are looking great especially the deep red cacti ones (above). We love this half opened one (below) too which has a bit of a punk rock look about it!

Below are some plum tomatoes that are a bit of a mystery as we don’t even remember sowing them. Perhaps they were left over seed from the ones had a few years ago? The delights of a non-named seed envelope at the bottom of the seed box eh?

The sweet peas were a bit of a disappointment though this year (below) god knows why that happened. The sunflower beside it weren’t that brilliant either, perhaps the soil needs a good bit of organic matter?

Whilst on a jog come fast walk around the area this morning these great cacti dahlias (below) were spotted in a front garden near Catford. How good are those?

We hope the weather’s good your side and you’re enjoying the last little fling of summer!
#septembersunshine #haslockdownendedyet?

Dahlias during the day, Perseids later on tonight

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Big shout to our good mate Marc B for passing on a tuber of this lovely dahlia earlier this year. Look at it now! Ok it’s a bit thirsty looking and is a bit droopy but don’t we all feel like that when the temperature’s as mad as this?

Remember it’s the peak of a meteor shower tonight (or thereabouts.) So if you’re thinking of sitting out the back later on (it’s far too hot to sit in or even for trying to get to sleep!) have a look at this site here (and their twitter account here) it’s “Dead good” as they say. We’ve had many a happy evening looking at their twitter feed, looking up at the night sky, looking at their twitter feed, looking up at the night sky (Ad infinitum).

Can’t wait, won’t wait, will try

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Patience, that’s what you need when it comes to this gardening lark. Sadly we haven’t got any.

This week we took the dahlia tubers straight out from under the stairs (where they’ve been hibernating since late autumn) and into the ground even though there’s still a chance of frost. We also left a couple of them in the garden from last season as we couldn’t be bothered to dig them out. Why do we do these things when we know we shouldn’t?

We have got protection for them and the other plants that don’t do well when it comes to frosts though. There’s the seed potatoes under the black membrane that was used under the decking and lots of DIY plastic/wood contraptions (don’t throw out your jam jars!) over vegetable seedlings that are germinating so it ain’t that bad.

All the gardening books tell you to be aware of late frosts, they also tell you that runner beans seeds don’t like sitting in cold soils and “for god’s sake don’t put out your tomato plants out early as they’ll suffer if it gets cold” but we still do it (we’ve a couple of tomato seedlings in the ground at the moment we’re ashamed to say.) It goes like this, we see a period of lovely sunshine so the hoe is taken out from its winter hiding place and then it’s all systems go after that. We don’t think this lockdown has helped in holding back either.

Talking of lockdowns, there’s a new gardening-related game developing here. At least once a week on our (very) regular visits to the compost heap a gloved hand will be thrust into the mass of rotting vegetables, old ripped up leccy bills and single tea bags to “feel the heat”. That’s not normal behaviour is it? Early signs of “lockdown lunacy” perhaps?

Summer the first time

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A bit of a mish-mash of photo’s taken on the hottest night of the year we reckon in London town. It’s 9pm and it’s still about 28 degrees!

We do love a dahlia here and here’s a couple in the nearest bed to the house whose tubers were taken indoors over the winter and put in a new position in the spring. It’s early days but we’re starting to get some nice flowers on them.

The nasturtiums (below) from the Thompson & Morgan trial seed collection are just great and we’ve had a few comments about them too. It’ll be worth getting a packet or two of the seeds next year!

And here’s the first flowerbud of the sunflower from the T&M collection too. It looks like it’s a mini one but it could be just where we planted it!

The question is how hot will it get later tonight?

Tuber, tuber, tuber

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We usually lift our Dahlia tubers in the autumn and stick them under the stairs in a paper bag to dry out and then return them to the ground in the spring but this year we didn’t and feared for the worst. We shouldn’t have as the two plants are giving us a spectacular display this year.

We’ve had a bit of blackfly on them but they’ve now seemed to vanish. We’ve given them a bit of TLC in the form of regular watering and a weekly feed of comfrey liquid and loving the results. All from a couple of tubers bought in Shannon’s a few years ago! Anyone out there got any nice varieties we can show on Weeds? Pictures please…

A risqué Dahlia

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BurlesqueIn the winter months it’s almost easy to forget you actually tinker around in the garden what with the weather and that. Today braving the cold, I popped into Shannon’s to spend a couple of quid and remind myself I am a gardener. And look at this great looking dahlia (with a brilliant name too!) they had in there amongst some great tree lilies and the like.