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!
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.
Thanks to Debby H for sending us some recent pictures of her garden. This may turn into a two-part post as she sent us some great images.
We must start with the cosmos (above) that have been planted out and you can see still in the cardboard toilet roll inners. As Debby said “(it) makes the planting much easier, which is good when you have dozens of plants” and she’s right. The loo roll inners look like a part of the display too. A winner all round!
Here’s a couple of pictures of French lavender (one under the netting protecting some strawberries). We bought a plant of the same a few months ago and we do love the overall look of it.
And we love the blossom on her red robin tree (below). She said that it seems to have more blossom on it than previous years this spring.
“The peonies are doing well (above). Here’s a picture of one of the flowers just opening (below).” Great stuff!
Thanks again Debby and we’ll post your other pics later this week.
A big thanks to Debby H who sent us some pictures of how things are getting on gardening wise in north London. First are the cosmos (above) which are looking healthy. Those inner toilet tubes seem to be working well as plant pots by the way.
And above are the tomato seedlings which are sown in an interesting way as we usually sow one to a pot, but this method seems great. The tomatoes as well as the cosmos are ready to be repotted, and Debby has given us a great idea for further sowings.
Above is the azalea in her garden is looking great. As she wrote “I just found that the azalea is a type of rhododendron.” We didn’t know that.
And Debby has just got back from a break in Suffolk. “By the coast near to Dunwich the whole area was covered in the most amazing yellow flowering gorse bushes” “It went on for miles. I have never seen it looking quite so spectacular.” Brilliant stuff Debby, cheers for the update and we look forward to more pictures this year.
We’ve had an update from Debby H on her cosmos and some good advice. The seedlings are now starting to get their first “true” leaves, which are fern-like as you can see in the picture above. She said when they have 3 or 4 pairs of the true leaves, pinch out the next pair of leaves to make sure the plant grows bushy and not “leggy”. Good tip as we didn’t think of that, even though we use the same technique with sweet peas encouraging them to bush out more.
Also Debby’s germination method of using the cardboard insides of toilet rolls seems to be a sure fire method what with the plant’s long roots. She did say which is also important, “I think the cosmos will be ready to pot-on soon, but not ready to go outside yet. We learnt last year that these plants are very susceptible to slugs when they are tiny.” Good stuff Debby!
Cheers to Debby H for letting us know about how her cosmos seedlings are getting on in the last post. We took her lead this week and sowed some of the seeds on Tuesday afternoon and come today we are seeing some results. Wonderful stuff, it didn’t take long did it? Remember 2025 is the year of the cosmos!
And for this sunny Saturday morning here’s a track that was played on the great On The Wire (a radio show well worth listening to as we always say) the other week, a track previously unknown to us here at Weeds from Ijahman Levi called Chariot of Love from 1977 and it’s a great single and now re-released on 7″ with a great dub too!
With the pictures Debby H kindly sent of her garden in the last post, she also sent us some pics of how her cosmos seeds were doing. “I planted some cosmos seeds on Thursday afternoon. By this morning (Sunday), they had germinated!” (pic above). How good is that?
Then on Monday she sent us pictures of how quick the seedlings have grown (taken about 25 hours later after the original photographs). As she said “I find the growth since yesterday to be quite amazing” and we agree!
She also sent some useful information about the seedlings that we didn’t know “…cosmos plants have long roots, even when they are small, so egg-boxes didn’t work well last year. This time, I have tried to use the cardboard insides of toilet rolls. I put these in a plastic trug planter thingy to keep them upright and stable.”
Now that is a great tip Debby and good luck with the seedlings. We sowed some yesterday (Tuesday) and hoping we get some quick germination results too. Thanks again.
STOP PRESS: A picture from today (Wednesday). They are looking great Debby and ta for the update!
Cheers to Debby H for getting in touch after her time away in Tenerife (pictures of plants from there here) and coming back to a garden “that has sprung to life” in north London. “There are yellow primroses all over plus a few pink, red and white clumps. We had some last year, but nothing like this and the peonies (below) have sprouted and grown amazingly”. Ours are doing the same here too, which is great.
The below plant is called lamium aka dead nettle. “It’s really a weed but there’s only a small amount so far, so I am letting it stay.” We’re with you on that as it looks great.
She told us that her pear tree is starting to bloom after having some troubles. “This poor tree (below) suffered terribly last year from rust. I wasn’t sure if it would be okay this year, but it looks good so far.”
“The rhododendron (below) is Wine and Roses. I saw it in a garden centre last spring. I loved the colour and its name, and decided to break the habit of a lifetime and pay for a plant.” Brilliant stuff.
“When we moved into this house in 2023, none of the above was visibly growing, except for the pear tree. The plants had all suffered a long period of hot, dry weather. Everything in the garden borders looked dead, except for the trees. The following year, things started growing, and they haven’t stopped since!”
Now that is great to hear Debby. With gardening it’s really what you put in that gives you results, a bit of hard work, a regular water and adding nutrients to the soil etc. As we can see here, it’s all worth the effort. Cheers Debby, the garden is looking like it’s got off to a great start and let’s not forget the indoor plants either (below).
Thanks to Debby H who is away in Tenerife at the moment where it’s a lovely 23 degrees. She sent us some pictures of the garden of where she’s staying at and it looks fantastic. We love this view above.
The bird of paradise/crane flower (strelitza) there looks well established (above) and we did a plant search on the plant below using Plantnet and it came up with agave. If we’re wrong on that, please do let us know but it’s great to see all these brilliant plants on their home turf so to speak and in their full glory. Cheers again Debby!
Weeds up to me knees 