Tag Archives: Debby H

North London potato update and more!

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Following on to our potato post the other day, here’s how Debby H‘s in north London are doing. As she said “They were supposed to be earlies, but I think we planted them too early as they took nearly two months to show any shoots. However, in the past week, they have shot up!” They are looking great, we always think if you can protect the plants from the frosts (under fleece or plastic), it’s worth getting them in early as you can (within reason of course).

She also sent us a picture of one of her tomatoes (above), which is looking well healthy. Also, a couple of pots of dwarf sunflowers and the two right at the bottom what we think are a phormium tenax, which is about to flower! Thanks for that Debby, do keep us updated as we do love those reports from the other side of the Thames.

Please don’t tell us “summer” has ended

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We’ve heard today in true British Bank Holiday style, that the current lovely weather we’re having is coming to an abrupt end this weekend. Typical! But to cheer us up here’s a couple of great photographs.

The first (above) is Rich in the Lake District’s back garden. Doesn’t it look great! As he said, “The bluebells are really high now”. That’s one chilled out view there Rich, we bet it’s a nice calm place to relax in!

And above is Debby H‘s garden in north London, more specifically the cosmos bed. Debby told us “I can’t believe the number of flowers that we have already on our cosmos plants. They’re only small, about 30 cm high. We planted them out about 3 weeks ago and most of the flowers have come since then. In previous years we haven’t had these many flowers till late summer.”

“I planted the seeds in mid-February, whereas I have done it in March previously. I kept half indoors on a windowsill, and the other half were moved to our plastic greenhouse. It doesn’t seem to have made any difference to how they are growing.” It’s always good to experiment and see what happens. Thanks for the report Debby, we scattered our cosmos seed all over the garden this year and not sure if any have come up or those damned slugs have had them. We will keep you all posted.

And thanks to the great blog from Penny Golightly here’s news of some free herbs seeds here. Cheers Penny!

It all seems to have started up north

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A big thanks to Debby H. for sharing an update from her north London garden! While we sowed ours directly outside this year and are still waiting for them to pop up, Debby’s cosmos are already starting to flower even though the plants are still small (see her photos above).

It’s great to see that her seed potatoes are finally breaking through. There’s some really healthy growth on them already.

Elsewhere in the garden, the rhododendron is also blooming beautifully.

As she mentioned “The bluebells are still lovely, although unfortunately not the native ones” (above).

The garden is looking great at this time of year as well, what’s it going to look like later this year? We can’t wait to find out, keeping sending us the updates Debby!

In north London the gardens are certainly waking up

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Great to hear from Debby H in north London for letting us know how her garden is at this time of the year. She said, ” I have now planted the cosmos in the back garden (above), and we have hundreds of bluebells coming up this year (below)” There’s a big clump behind the cosmos above.

“I thought I would include a picture of our pear tree which has more blossom this year than I remember from previous years. To the left of the tree is the doronicum, which is also blooming well.” There’s a post about the doronicum from March here.

Thanks as always Debby and great to see that things are developing in the garden!

A report from north London

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We’ve heard from Debby H in North London whose sent us an update of some pictures from her garden. The first is of her pear tree (above) and as she said, “It seems that the winter wash has worked this year.”

Below is the salix flamingo tree, which is now budding after she thought it was dead and it’s great to see it’s back to life.

As she mentioned in her last post here, here’s the dwarf sunflowers (below) that are looking well healthy.

And below the peonies that are starting to grow. Thanks Debby, the garden is definately bursting into life!

A report from north of the river

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Cheers to Debby H for getting in touch and for letting us know that things are starting to hot up in the garden. “We have germinated about 30 dwarf sunflowers which will need to be potted soon. Also, our tomato plants have finally started to shoot.” Brilliant.

“The cosmos are ready to be planted in pots and put in the cold frame. We have already put some in our plastic greenhouse. We are going to see which environment they prefer.” Great stuff! Please let us know the outcome of that Debby.

She also mentions a plant we have never heard of before (pic above). “Last year our neighbours gave us some plants that we think are called Doronicum. We had seen them giving a good display in our neighbours’ garden and praised them, so they gave us some which we planted last autumn. They are all now beginning to flower. Lots of buds there.” They look a lovely flower!

We look forward to more reports Debby!

A report from north London

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If you remember, last month Debby H in north London let us know that the early sowing of her cosmos seeds had germinated (here).  She very kindly sent us a picture of how they are getting on now and look how healthy they look! “We will put some in a flowerpot soon and put it in the plastic green house.” Great stuff! We still haven’t sown ours yet and will have to do so soon.

So also sent us a great picture of some daffodils growing on an area of council-owned land, down the middle of a road near where she lives. Impressive or what? Thanks Debby and let’s hope spring is around the corner.

Damping off and fungus gnats please stay away

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Thanks to Debby H who got in touch again to let us know that the cosmos seeds she put in a few days ago are now germinating (above). We will now experiment and start ours off, if we can find space on the windowsills. Cheers Debby, do keep us updated.

We can’t help being a bit paranoid with our chilli seeds (Prairie Fire Mini Bush Chilli Pepper and Lemon Drop Hot Citrus Pepper) below, we sowed on January 10th (post here). If you remember a few years ago we started some off and then we lost most of them to the dreaded damping off.

So, this year we spent a bit more on seed compost and took the lid off the propagator as soon as the seeds germinated. We’ve now moved them to the kitchen windowsill and keep checking the compost so we’re not overwatering them but they don’t seem to have grown much since January 30th (here). Have we just got a case of DOP (damping off paranoia)?

The moneymaker tomato seeds have germinated, and we’ve taken the plastic freezer bag off them. As long as those black fungus gnats stay away we should be alright! We’re taking advice from Gardener’s World: “Control them by allowing soil to dry out between waterings, using yellow sticky traps, and placing sand on the soil surface.

A canna lily in north London

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Thanks to Debby H for getting in touch with a great picture of her canna lily and don’t it look grand!
She also let us know that she sowed the first of her cosmos seeds a couple of days ago and she’ll let us know when they start showing up. As she said “It’s a bit early to sow them, but it’s an experiment!” We are always up for gardening experiments here. Saying that most of our gardening experiences are experiments.

The first daffs in north London

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Cheers to Debby H for getting in touch again, with a picture of the first daffodil “about to flower in a front garden along my road”. Wow they are early! Cheers again Debby.

Any more pictures of flowers that shouldn’t be flowering? If so send us some pictures to onedeckpete at gee male dot com.