On the first weekend of lockdown Argos sent to we…

It was a lovely morning, this the first saturday of the second UK lockdown so a bit of gardening was in order. It was only a light bit of gardening as we don’t know how long we’ll be locked inside for this time so we’ll make all the jobs stretch just in case. Anyway with gardening we at Weeds always prefer the “little and often” approach every time.

It was mainly a tidy up of the beds in front of the “Dad corner”, getting rid of the old tomato plants and whatever had self-seeded there. As you can see we’ve a new feature, (well we’ve had it for ages but it’s been hidden by self-seeded nasturtiums) part of the front wall that came down when we took out the ivy that was holding it up in the first furlough.

Also yesterday we threw out an Argos slow cooker we had for years that was on its last legs not before commandeering the inner crockpot as something to stick over the rhubarb crowns to keep them warm and come spring “force” the rhubarb to grow that little bit earlier. We know an old crockpot is not as good as candlelight in heated outbuildings (that’s the commercial way of forcing rhubarb. More about the practice here) but it don’t look too out of place in the garden. If they ask, we’ll tell people that it’s an expensive “dedicated rhubarb forcer/warmer” bought on HP from a specialist plant supplier (no mention of Argos either).

There were even a few forgotten spuds from the raised bed found too! Gardening during lockdown brings many suprises!

There are eight million stories (in a south London garden)

It was the last day of our six week furlough today (we can’t believe it’s June already!) and we’re back to working from home tomorrow so any gardening will now be done during lunchhour and after work.

Today’s final day of furlough gardening action featured seeing steam come off the compost heap and we could feel the heat, as we stuck a garden fork in to turn the pile. Those dalek bin’s ain’t great when it comes to turning compost but at least something is happening in there. #compostingduringlockdown

And we’re loving the poppies that are either self-sown or are as a result of our “chuck the seed anywhere” favourite method of seed sowing technique. #poppiesduringlockdown

Keep em peeled for the cooler weather later this week and for a bit of well needed rain just as we hear there may be a hosepipe ban in force soon. And thanks to that damn lockdown the side bed has never been so tidy! #gardeningthroughlockdown

Lessons learnt during lockdown: 1. To fix a pull-down cord lightswitch in the bathroom – just give it a tap around the sides with the head of a screwdriver. 2. Putting your bins out as early as 2pm on a “bin night” during these troubled times is acceptable, there is no stigma attached. #itslockdownbinnight