Tag Archives: Debby H

North London garden report – August 2025

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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

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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

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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

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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 report from north London

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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

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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!

Under Dead Wood

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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

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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!

Radio connects us all

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Cheers to Kit, G0JPS presently on a boat on the Grand Union Canal who told us earlier he was listening to the “Alt Universe Top 40” on 9670 kHz on his XHDATA D-808 portable. As he reported: “Lovely reception. Hot Butter’s seminal track, “Popcorn” is currently playing.” Brilliant stuff Kit!

Then around the same time we heard from Debby H who picked up a couple of pepper plants from a few streets away (there was a mixture of plants on a wall with a sign “please take me” on it) and guess what one of the varieties was called? Marconi Red. Radio (and gardening) connects us all!

North London news extra

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And we mentioned, here’s a part two from Debby H. She wrote “Here’s a photo of our tomato plants in our little Lidl greenhouse (above), plus one of a couple of them that we planted in a “Grow Zone” that we bought last year, also from Lidl (below).”

“Regarding indoor plants, I have attached a picture of my cactus which blooms every year with dozens of little red flowers, and also one of a flower that has appeared on a succulent that we have had for several years but of has never flowered before.”

Brilliant stuff as ever Debby! Thanks again.