Tag Archives: globe artichoke

Where were you in 1982?

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Over the last few days the Cardoon up near the house has been expanding on its neat purple tufts. We don’t grow them to eat but for their great punk rock-like hair arrangement. Talking of the loveable spikey tops, the other morning on Bandcamp we read a great piece on Crass and Anarcho Punk (here) and there was a nice quote from Penny Rimbaud “Crass said that there is no authority but yourself… You know, live your life, find your own garden, and then share it.” We love that quote!

Crass played Birmingham once and the story goes they brought their own PA, support band, fanzine stall etc making it a great DIY event. The only let down of the night was that the beer at the gig was awful. That led to a rumour that the band took the DIY ethic to the nth degree and brought a load of their own home-brew to the venue. We doubt that very much as how much beer would they would have to transport from Dial House in Essex up to Birmingham to keep a few hundred punks happy? If only Crass did produce their own lager. Imagine how good the graphics would be on the bottles/cans too?Another plant we don’t use in the kitchen is Marjoram. We originally bought a plant from Shannon’s as we thought it was an alternative to Oregano and it’s spread like crazy. The bees and all the other winged insects that flock to it in the hot sun certainly love it and it’s well worth having in the garden to keep those insects happy and the masses of flowers look great too!

Is there anybody out there?

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The bed at the bottom of the garden is always a bit of a problem as it only gets sunlight in the late afternoon. At the present moment the nasturtiums have taken over and so has the borage behind them. We haven’t had a hard frost yet so it’s looking a little wild to say the least!

If you can remember we were going to “rest” the bed and fill it with the Thompson and Morgan Beneficial Flower seeds mix then COVID 19 came along. We were so fed up that one of the local shops had a 3 potato per person rule we put in a couple of rows of spuds plus some onions and broad beans there (see the  bed in July here). After they were harvested in mid-August we gave the bed a good tidy up (here) and boy has it grown since!

The state of play at the moment is a Globe Artichoke root (1) we did a swap with a mate at a local community garden (for some Egyptian walking onion bulbs) is now starting to grow and the brilliant cardoons (2 and 3) we bought at Shannon’s a few years ago have starting sprouting again. Talk about value for money! And in the middle of the crazy nasturtiums are a couple of rows of autumn sown broad beans (4). When will the growing ever end?

On the other side of the world…

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Sweet CornA big thanks to our good friend (and musical collaborator) Paul Greenstein, formally of these parts now based in Melbourne, Australia for sending us some pics of his great garden taken last week. Just look at the healthy looking sweetcorn above!

I’m finding it hard not to be too jealous as it’s well dormant in our garden here and at the present moment it’s freezing and the rain is tipping it down! Paul was saying the other week it hit over 40 degrees and was leaving the garden looking a bit bedraggled. It looks good to us Paul!

Globe ArtichokesOn the great looking globe artichokes above he told us, “We left them a bit too late, so they’ve opened up, but we already ate a few and they were delicious. Apparently the second year is when you get a better crop, although they did pretty well for the first year. It’s been really hot, which tends to make the flower heads open more quickly.”

Aubergine

We love the aubergine above as well,  “We’ve got about five plants, but so far only one aubergine! Well at least it’s a big one” he told us, great stuff!

Below’s a kent aka jap pumpkin. “No actual pumpkins as yet, and it’s taking over the garden. We also have a load of tomatoes and courgettes just ripening up, so we’re planning to do a load of tomato sauce and various pickles.” Brilliant!

Jap (kent) PumpkinAnd finally a photo of a very hot looking cat!

Hot CatGreat stuff Paul, we’re loving your gardening pics.They’ve now whet my appetite and I can’t wait until the spring!

Have a listen to some good tuneage at his Soundcloud page here. Here’s a collaboration from a few years ago with myself (as Madtone) and Paul under his Audiovert guise.