Tag Archives: Sunflower

Sitting here watching crows like themselves

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Early this morning we popped down B&Q in Bell Green for some liquid fertiliser as we’re not producing enough comfrey leaves to make the liquid feed we’re used to putting on our garden (Above: crow waiting for bus home like us at 8.30 am).

Something we should look into is the NPK content that comes on the side of the bottle denoting how much Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and K for Potassium (or Potash) is in the liquid. As we’ve always used home-made comfrey liquid and mixed in compost on the beds, that’s something we’ve got to research about more.

Back home we spent a good hour or so feeding the back garden including the giant sunflower which is reaching skywards. We’ve 3 sunflowers, this 8ft monster and another 2 that are about 5 foot. It must be all about where they’re placed and how much sun they get. We love the sunflowers as the tops do follow the sun about during the day.

And this week we were told about this video, 10 vegetables/fruit that we don’t bother with anymore. We’re talking skirret, alexanders, good King Henry, medlar, chickweed, scorzonera, welsh onions, lovage, tansy (“The punk rock herb…” “…that demands respect and attention” as the bloke describes it, we love that!) and turnip greens. We wonder as food fashions come and go, will any of these “old time something come back again” as the song goes?

 

And two tunes about flying winged things:
The first a nice dub number from Derajah meets The 18th Parallel called Dub Crow.

 

The next is an a excellent tune released by the wonderful Sublime Frequencies out of Seattle, Washington, it’s by Chhoun Vanna and called To Tea Yum Chlong (Birds Are Singing But My Lover Won’t Return). At 2.45, it just ain’t long enough.

“The birds are chirping, to and fro
My love, have you forgotten me?
As water can’t cut through the sand
I can’t cut you from my memories
The bridge (between you and I) has broken
The pathway is gone, and the water is so very deep
How am I to find you on the other side, so far away?”
Thanks to fleurmach.com for the lyrics.

 

If you’re missing the sunshine…

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Summer seems a million miles away but thanks to our good friend Paul Greenstein once of SE22, here’s a taste of the sun. Paul’s been based in Melbourne, Australia for some years now (we’ve featured his garden a few of times here and here) and here’s some recent pics.

Here’s a fine example of the Bramley Apple he put in his garden as he said “You can’t get decent cooking apples over here!” and here’s the fruits in all their glory (above).

The Artichoke (above) is looking fine under the Sunflower and it looks like it’s appreciating the shade. And (below) look at the Sunflower!

And he keeps Bees too and he tells us he may be getting a nice harvest of honey this year. Brilliant Paul, the garden is making us think of summer even more and it’s looking great!

And below is some of Paul’s musical output. This was his contribution to the Cities and Memory Shortwave Transmissions project last year called Another Universe. Like he says on the C&M site “Like the narrators, I have a fondness for all things space, astrophysics and the big questions like: is the Universe going to end, what are black holes, and why does Surf Guitar sound dangerous?”

Love the garden Paul and send us more pictures of the Bees please!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Autumn

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There’s been a right change of weather over the last few days. The sunflower (above) next to the garage has taken a tumble a few times because of the wind and is back up supported by some garden wire connected to various old nails in the wall. There’s been some damage to the main stalk so if we can get another couple of weeks out of it before the frost or parakeets get to it that’ll be something, finger crossed.

We’re also seeing some progress with the semi-open compost heap (above). We give it a weekly turn and there is heat in there and lots of brandling worms and the old bath mat does its job of keeping it covered. As for the dalek bin (below), the compost is now ready and it’s being used. It isn’t a short process but one well worth doing for some great soil improver for next to nothing.

And we’ve been doing a bit of “little and often” gardening at the side of the pond which can get a bit neglected at times but with a help of a brown Lewisham garden refuse bin (which is a boon, it really is. We pack it to its gills then leave it out in the sun for a couple of days for the stuff to dry out a bit and then add “just one bit more”) and regular watering we are getting somewhere.

For the bed in the front of the picture below we’ve just split the odd plant and found some self seeded volunteers and stuck them there. It’s mainly mint and it will go a bit wild but it better than just weeds. Any chance of a last bit of sunshine please?

While we’ve been writing this we’ve had this on in the background, another show worth listening to!

Sunflowers, snails, slugs and squirrels

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The weather has been a bit changeable of late to say the least. Some of the sunflowers have been attacked by snails, slugs or squirrels but there are some that have out outmaneuvered them like the one next to the garage (above). It’s so tall nothing can climb it without a bit of work and is a little way out from the garage roof so the squirrels can’t even reach it from on high. This one above is at least a ridiculous 10 feet or more! We’re going to try and save some seed and if anyone fancies a swap for something just as crazy we’ll be game. We go for anything labelled as “Giant” “Rare” or “Out of this world” so if you have anything to exchange, drop us a message via comments!

Another thing with this changeable weather is it is a breeding ground for slugs and these are the gits (above) we have to contend with in SE23. They’re sturdy old things and we think they’d return if we collected them all in a bag and slung them up the local park. These are not common or garden slugs these are south London slugs and they mean business!

At least the pond has been loving this present weather even though we haven’t. The fish and plants seem happy with the rising waterline and if you stand still for long enough you’ll see mini-frogs jumping about in the areas around it. Let’s hope they gang up all together and teach those damn slugs a lesson!

Feeling high, so high…

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It’s been a hot weekend to say the least here in SE23!

Yesterday was spent at a local “Midsummer Fayre” in the searing heat but a great time was had by all. Between the Taekwondo demonstration, a brass band (playing renditions of Dancing Queen and Anarchy in the UK) and the eagerly awaited results to the prize rafffle, various plant and bric-a-brac stalls were visited. A few bargains were acquired; some plants, a couple of rugs for indoors and a foot high plastic mushroom (above) for a pound. A right bargain!

And as you know we are suckers for any plant that is subtitled “Rare” “Giant” or “Unusual” in seed listings and it looks like the giant Sunflower seeds we bought on ebay are coming true to their word. They’re at seven foot now and not stopping. We’ll keep you posted on how high they get.

And talking of Rupie Edwards’ Ire Feelings here’s a couple of cuts of it, the second has a little bit of the tune Nite Owl from Tony Allen and the Champs and also later covered by Lee & The Clarendonians. More about that great piece of music from a post earlier this year here. It’s a small musical world. Keep cool and keep safe this week as it’s going to be a hot one!

Every kind of weather to make what August’s about, yeah

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Well it’s been a weird few days, we’ve had a welcome bit of rain, then the sun returned back to “classic lockdown mode” and earlier today it was back to greyness. We’re confused, what month is it again? Well the sunflower’s out, it may not be of the giant variety but it’s great in that Fibonacci sequence style!

We did manage to do some gardening over the last few days. We dried out some of our broad beans earlier this year and we’ve stuck three small rows of them at the bottom of the garden. We don’t know if they’ll sprout but we gave it a go!

A few years ago we bought a dwarf blackberry/bramble bush and didn’t really have much luck with it and even moved it around a bit which probably don’t help matters. The last year or so we’ve left it in its present position and now it’s starting to fruit. There isn’t much there but a few blackberries are better than none!

In front of that dwarf bramble are the raised beds that we put together around the start of lockdown. In them next to the tomatoes and spuds there’s some pepper plants with fruit on them. They are out of the way and water is of the sparse variety unless we remember. We’ve given them some regular doses of comfrey liquid and a few of peppers on the plants are starting to get a little larger.

Just next to those peppers out of view is a cabbage that has been beheaded by them pesky pigeons. You win some you lose some. Well at least we’ll be having some nicer weather (supposedly) this weekend.

A big shout to Gerry Hectic for alerting us to this great track below from King Knut called “Spellbound”. Very Dub Disco band for the love of money, dubbed out weirdness and old cassettes of the Rhythm Doctor on Fantasy FM in the early 90’s. It’s a nice tune!

What a difference a few days make

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We know it’s only been a few days since the last pics of the Thompson & Morgan seed trials have been posted, but look what’s happened in that short time. The tomatoes have moved on a bit and all of the plants are doing well. We keep them regularly watered and feed comfrey liquid to them on a weekly basis and those fruits are now starting to swell!

And yes we’ve had problems with cheeky daytime slugs and the spaghetti squash (see post here) but for some reason they’ve missed this one!

And as for the sunflower, there’s more buds forming! It’s a value for money plant if you’re going to be buying some when they are released next year. Our specimens may be a bit on the small side but we’re not complaining! More power to the (vertically challenged) sunflower!

And thanks to whosampled:

And as we stand in the front of the jury today…

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We’ve been suprised a few times by the results of this year’s Thompson & Morgan seed trials, by the red/pink/purple nasturtiums (below) and what we think may be beefsteak tomatoes but we haven’t been half as surprised as when this sunflower (above) appeared the other day. How good is that? We’re not sure if it’s supposed to be a mini-sunflower or a full-sized one as our plant is quite short, but it could be where we planted it, but what a flower!

And the tomatoes are doing well! We gave them a good watering all week and also a good lot of comfrey liquid this morning. Fingers crossed for some nice beefsteak ones (if they’re not, no bother but it would be nice to have a tomato as big as your hand!)

The spaghetti squash is now romping away (below) but it looks like the slugs are getting to the fruits before they set, damn! We do love this seed trial!

Summer the first time

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A bit of a mish-mash of photo’s taken on the hottest night of the year we reckon in London town. It’s 9pm and it’s still about 28 degrees!

We do love a dahlia here and here’s a couple in the nearest bed to the house whose tubers were taken indoors over the winter and put in a new position in the spring. It’s early days but we’re starting to get some nice flowers on them.

The nasturtiums (below) from the Thompson & Morgan trial seed collection are just great and we’ve had a few comments about them too. It’ll be worth getting a packet or two of the seeds next year!

And here’s the first flowerbud of the sunflower from the T&M collection too. It looks like it’s a mini one but it could be just where we planted it!

The question is how hot will it get later tonight?

Seed trial update stardate 2.6.19

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It’s only been a couple of weeks since the last post about the seeds on trial from Thompson and Morgan but there’s been some changes. The spinach plants in the pot on the windowsill (below) are doing well. We’ll transplant a couple of them in the garden so leaving a couple in the pot and see how they get on. There’s a couple of patches of T&M’s spinach outside that seem to be tolerating our London clay soil.

A sunflower in its very early stages plus one of the tomato plants were transplanted outside yesterday morning with no hardening off. The both of them seem to have survived the searing weather on their first day outside too, let’s see how they get on with the local slugs!

The lewisham recycling bin has the nasturtiums in and they’re making progress, we reckon we’ll be leaving possibly only one in the bin and move the other plants around the garden.

And finally the spaghetti squash is doing well, no slug damage as yet and putting on some growth. Let’s see what the weather brings. Give us a few weeks and we’ll keep you updated with this and the other trial plants in the garden. Ta T&M for the chance of giving the plants a go!