Tag Archives: Night scented stock

Before Dave came

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Yesterday was a lovely day. We started on the garden early, around 7:30am, when it was still grey and a little cold but as the hours passed, the weather gradually improved. After lunch, the grass was cut and looked great in the sunshine. The top right-hand corner of the lawn is the “wild area,” a tribute to a cat who passed away last year and loved to sleep there among the longer grass. Now the cat has gone, a fox has been kipping there on and off.

The side bed towards the bottom of the garden was cleared, and in place of the weeds, wildflower seeds were sown. It’s still cold, so whether they’ll thrive remains to be seen as it’s a bit of frost pocket down there. We were also told by a neighbour a few doors down that an underground stream runs through the gardens around that area. Whether that is true or not we’re not sure, but the soil is a bit on the boggy side around there.

Talking of seeds, one of our favourites plants has to be Night Scented Stock (above). While they may not be the most visually striking of plants, their fragrance more than makes up for it, especially on warm summer evenings when placed by an open back door.

Something we picked up last year as a single plant from Herne Hill Market was Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’. It’s now doing well and starting to spread nicely at the bottom of the garden by the pond. It gets semi-shade there, along with a daily watering (without overdoing it), and it seems to love the spot. We’ve since added a couple more plants from eBay. They’re still quite small, but we’re sure it won’t be long before they begin to spread too.

Happy Easter weekend (gardening) everyone!

Continuing the Dave theme:

Walk like an onion

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The sun actually came out again today and it was warm, making it an alright day in the lockdown stakes. We noticed that the Egyptian walking onions (above) are starting to form their topsets. We really love these odd onions especially once they start to form their bulbils and drop to the floor ready to start their way slowly around the garden (below from a few years ago). Have a look at the website here to learn more about these strange plants!And through the post today we received a couple of packs of seeds  off Ebay including another favourite of ours, night scented stock. The plant and its flowers are nothing to look at and you could be easily be forgiven to think they were a weed but if you have some of these plants around a opened back door on a warm summer’s evening the smell is something else. Give them a go!

And give this a go, a bonkers version of Green Onions for your listening pleasure.

Don’t step on the cracks

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A trip down the garden path tonight produced this trio of pics. Above: The fiver’s worth of water lily we bought from the Lewisham pet shop (whose website’s by-line is “For all your reptile needs”) a few years ago has gone mad this summer. We counted nearly 7 flowers on it the other day. The fish are using it as shade during the sunny periods and the tadpoles as mini swimming pools. The pond need a bit of thinning out this weekend as it would be nice to give the inhabitants more room. We now get our fish food via ebay, and you get double or treble of the volume of food for the price compared to what you get in those supermarket tubs.

The pink flowers shown above don’t look like much and as a plant it’s a bit on the scrappy side but disregard that and grow night scented stock for it’s evening smell!

And somewhere in the middle of the tomatoes and broad beans growing against the garage wall and the dahlias is the Thompson & Morgan trial spaghetti squash. We reckon it’ll outgrow the space in no time!

And finally a dubbed out one for the warm night we’ll be getting tonight (where it’ll be hard to sleep even with the windows are open!), it’s from Masis called Unearthed Dub  and it’s the Frenk Dublin mix. Tune!

The seedy side of swapping

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We at Weeds like to mix it up when it comes to getting our seeds. We purchase them from our local garden centre, have more than a fondness for a ebay “vegetable seed job lot” (if it says “rare” or “unusual” then all the better) and do we love a seed swap. What’s nicer than passing on something you got a few of and exchanging them for something else.

Organised seed swaps are fun events to attend, you’ll meet like-minded people (great for exchanging gardening tips and information) and you’ll probably bag yourself something that you’ve never thought of growing before or some heirloom/heritage varieties you rarely come across.

One of our favourite seed swaps was in a pub in Hither Green on a Sunday night; a small crowd of gardening enthusiasts gathered to drink, chat horticulture and flick through boxes of interesting looking seed packets (some customised and hand-decorated, much more interesting than your average pack). That’s how a Sunday evening should be spent rather than having to put up with the likes of Highway and Antiques Road Show.

We never like to go to one empty handed and try to bring things as interesting as possible, these have included: chitted seed spuds, Egyptian walking onion sets and a couple of packs of night scented stock as we’re always trying to turn people onto growing those.

Once at a seed swap we saw a girl (dressed in a steam-punk style) pull out of her pocket a list of “what she had” consisting of 2 double-sided typed A4 sheets. Her black gothic style rucksack (with metal bits and all sorts) was filled with tons of numbered “dealer bags” full of seeds which came complete with home made labels and even sowing instructions. That’s a bit over the top for us here but that’s how passionate people are!

Sort of related are the annual potato day/seed fairs arranged by Pennards plants that combine a seed potato sale, heirloom/heritage seeds and sometimes have a seed swap section. Have a look at www.potato-days.net for your local one.

So save your own seeds this year (there’s lots of sites online that’ll give you pointers on how to do it) or see what you may have left over in your seed tin and next year have a look on google/facebook/twitter for a seed swap near you and go down and participate and see what you can bring home! Why not make a weekend of it and go to the big annual Seedy Sunday in Brighton (Sunday February 3rd 2019). Also have a look online as there’s numerous sites that encourage the art of seed swapping without even leaving your own home. Good luck! #onaseedswaptip

Keep off the Crass

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When it comes to sowing vegetables, straight rows abound in the Weeds HQ garden but of late we’ve got into a bit of anarcho-gardening. That don’t mean we slip into our favourite biker’s leather jacket and do the punk kicking dance on the lawn in the evening but rather we buy a few packs of seeds and scatter them randomly and see how they get on.

One of our favourite beds has a couple of tomato plants, a rhubarb crown or two, rocket and borage alongside all sorts including our favourite night scented stock. Pop down your local seed emporium and buy a dolly mixture type assortment of seeds packs and give it a go. No to (too much) uniformity in flower beds, unless you want it! #gardeningsnotdead

Take stock my friend

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Night scented stock 1Here’s a favourite of mine, Night Scented Stock that is dotted all around the garden. The plant itself isn’t that impressive but the smell of the flower in the evening is great, especially if it’s near the back or front door. I sowed a load of the seed earlier this year in an old plastic Post Office container (found in the attic when we first moved in) and what’s good about that, is that it can be moved about for maximum effect.

I originally got into Night Scented Stock when I first started buying packet of seeds from the supermarket/garden centre and discovered the great smell of the flowers. I now have gone a bit hardcore and buy a whole load of seeds from ebay (2,000 for £3.94 inc P+P) and sprinkle them all over the garden over staggered intervals. Even Kate Bush has done a track about the plant. Give them a try, you won’t be disappointed on a warm summers evening when the back door’s open! night scented stock 2