Thanks to Debby H for this great (inverted) image of the partial eclipse last night taken in north London at the maximum at 7.13 pm. What an excellent photograph!
And here’s two eclipse related tracks, the first from the The Eclipse Band with a very aptly titled Daylight Robbery. And another, from DNN called Eclipse Dub.
Thanks to Debby H for sending us this great “geese crossing” road sign from her locality in north London. “The geese used to live by the pond in North London Business Park. That area has been (and is still being) redeveloped. We don’t know if the pond is still there, or if the contract work has frightened the geese away. We haven’t seen them lately.”
“When we first moved here, the geese would cross the road to go to a grassed area, then cross back again later, to go back to their pond in the business park. There would be a small procession of them crossing the road, and the cars would all stop for them. They didn’t hurry either!”
Brilliant stuff Debby!
Thanks to Adrienne for sharing these photos of her Cosmos that is looking very pretty. This was grown from seed passed on from our gardening friend in north London Debby H. This is what gardening is all about, sharing and passing stuff on! Cheers again Adrienne.
We heard from Debby H in north London yesterday as she sent some great photographs of how her garden is doing. She wrote “We grew Capri Red pepper plants last year and tried to keep the plants going over the winter. I was convinced that at least 2 of the 3 plants had died, but they came alive again in June and are now bearing large peppers again!” Wow they look great Debby; they are some large peppers!
We love her first harvest of potatoes (above) and the picture of her Cherry tomatoes that “have gone wild” (below).
She also told us about the greengages she harvested this year, “This is a tiny fraction of the many kilos that our one tree has produced this year. We have never had much off it previously. It must be the heat!” Whatever it is they are doing brilliantly. Cheers Debby!
Great to hear from Debby H in north London yesterday, she’s just back from a break away and sent us pictures from her back garden. She said what with the heatwave “Thanks to our indoor and outdoor watering systems, our plants seem mostly ok” and that’s good to hear! Sadly, “The cosmos isn’t doing so well yet, but there’s still hope for later this summer. It’s the same with ours too, none of the seeds took or if they did, the slugs took them right in front of our noses. Her Zephyranthes Robusta are having another flush of flowers (above). More on the vibrant Argentine rain lily here.
“The big daisies seem very happy” (above) in the tidy bed above. They do seem healthy and so does the lawn, not like ours at Weeds HQ!
The phomium tenax flowers are now mostly turning into seed (above).
And finally, “The dwarf sunflowers are now in full bloom” and look how great they look! Cheers Debby for sending us the updates and do send us more!
Here’s a few pictures and reports this week from our gardening mates around this island and globe of ours.
The first report is from Jesse Yuen in Perth, Australia who let us know that he planted a lemon tree this week (how good will that be, freshly picked lemons from the garden) and sent us some pictures of some flowering aloes (above) plus some nice cacti which are something that he is now really getting into. Love that large barrel cactus (is it called that?) in the tub, that’s a brilliant garden Jesse, ta for the pictures and we love cacti too!
Talking of cacti, the above is a photograph from Debby H in north London of her orchid cactus that has just sent out a flower bud for the first time in a few years.
She also sent us pictures of her dwarf sunflowers that are planted in food waste bins (great idea!) No flowers yet but look at size of those leaves. Cheers Debby.
Here’s a great pic of some gardening “work in progress” from Rich in the Lake District. He was in his garden, putting in these plants (that he started off indoors) into the rockery. What a view from a back garden. Cheers Rich.
Finally here are some wonderful rose pictures from Mike & Julia‘s garden near Coventry. Thanks for the great photographs from Julia as ever. As they said, “Attached are some pics of our roses, which have gone ballistic in the last couple of days!” Some nice colours there.
Thanks for everyone for sending in their pictures of their gardens in, we appreciate it and do keep sending them on as the season progresses.
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.
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!
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!
Weeds up to me knees 