Wild Style

It’s been an action packed week out in the back with a good bit of watering in the morning and sometimes the evening. The late great Joe Maiden used to say the later hours weren’t the best time to water as it attracted slugs and snails but what can you do when the ground is parched and we do enjoy a stroll up and down the garden path with a watering can. It’s a bit of moving meditation innit?

The wild part of the garden (above top) where we put in some seed bombs plus additional borage, poppies (above) and nasturtiums is now looking a bit wild but not in the organised wildness of the great Horniman’s Gardens locally (pic below). As some gardening mates have told us, it takes time and a lot of care to make a wild garden look good. That’s a paradox is there ever was one.

That reminds us, years ago we stayed in an Airbnb in Ireland where the owners were very much into nature (not the stripping off in your back garden type nature but the bird watching type nature) and since they moved in (they’d been there 25 years) they just left their garden to its own devices to attract as much nature as possible (again not the stripping off in your back garden type nature but the bird watching type nature).

The space looked mad and a little unkempt to say the least but each to their own. What was funny though they did say “We do try and make a point of taking care of the lawn though. We have a farmer’s horse come in for a feed once every few months”. Oh that’s alright then!

Another Monday in lockdown

There’s been a few trips out in the garden today when we haven’t been working. It started with a pre-work water and ended with a 9pm sowing session of cabbages and lettuce! The pond looks a lot better after our mini clear-out and we may even do another little one next weekend. And as for the self sown purple poppy in the nearest bed by the house… 
And whilst listening to the latest This is a music show (068) we heard this killer of a tune. On first listen we thought it may have been The Stylistics, it weren’t, it’s Presidents with the fantastically named “5-10-15-20 (25-30 Years Of Love)” which was originally on the Sussex label. A wonderful record and there’s more about it here. Big shout to “Your Host” on This is a music show for playing the track! #musicialeducationthroughshortwaveradio 

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