This is the first mullein we've grown and we're smitten. Her superpower is that she's sprinkled in fairy dust- the white down dusting her blue-green rosette skirt, the flock of her flower spike; she's a charmed beauty and we and the garden pollinators have succumbed to her spell.
We took some time to wend our way through the winding paths of the restored ornamental gardens designed by John Nash to be integral to his architectural confectionery, the Royal Pavilion.
♥ Gulls, pebbles, salt water, sea breezes, pink mint rock and the galloping horses. ♥
The living wall of the Cambridge Botanical gardens P2P hub which is being used to trial Plant-BES (a plant bio electrochemical system) to generate a carbon neutral source of electrical current.
Plants harness solar power to produce organic compounds through photosynthesis. Bacteria that live symbiotically in plants' root systems feed on and oxidise the by-products of photosynthesis and release electrons and protons into the soil. The electrons are collected by an anode, the photons by a cathode. The electrons and photons are recombined by being passed through an external circuit which generates the current.
The P2P hub uses Pant-BES in combination with aSi-PV solar panels to harvest solar power to eventually be employed as a technology in building self-powered buildings and structures. Here is a link to further information about the project and a link to the logs of the output generated by the P2P so far.
Clicking through the University of Cambridge, Plant Sciences web pages we discovered a link to video demonstration of a moss "fuel cell" powered radio. Clever stuff.We ♥ living walls.
A-tishOOoo - more than enough forage to meet nectar responsibilities here.
The trellis is installed, the compost bin rebuilt and relocated, the buried paving uncovered and lifted, the soil levelled, the pond dug and the excess soil distributed so FINALLY, the spuds have been planted.
Geum 'Mrs J. Bradshaw' is out in her glory, she's a beauty - thank you J :)
Trials and tribulations: we've three broad bean plants out of the usual six showing promise, the other three have been replanted several times, having fallen to some furry, feathered or frosty jeopardy or other.
We celebrated the first of our spinach by making a favourite: Marcella Hazan's ♥ spinach and rice soup ♥ from her 'Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking' recipe book. We like to poach an egg per serving in the broth.
How sweet this meadow o' meadow sweet? View from Tottenham marshes towards the Edmonton incinerator.
Biotecture's green wall, Goods Way, Kings Cross looking luv'ly this spring.
We are everywhere surrounded by the sustained proliferation of fryscrapers by sclerotic architect/developer juggernauts, their futuristic visions museum-vitrine-cased arrogance, their creative talents an atrophied veneer to miserly property speculators' avarice. London's burning and they are hell-bent on further stoking the heat island.
We denizens of ye bricked and asphalted London boroughs, are heartened by genuine attempts to develop technologies and strategies to overcome climate challenges and improve the living experience of the 8.6m of us.
We ♥ living walls because they act as thermal insulators, reducing the need for air-conditioning/heating thereby reducing the consumption of fossil fuels, release of greenhouse gas emissions and associated damage to habitat and pollution of the environment. They provide habitat for urban flora and fauna. The plants act as acoustic dampers and improve air quality, they look good and mark the of passing seasons - what is not to love?
Our curiosity was piqued having walked along under the tall Lambeth Palace garden wall a number of times on the way to visit the Garden Museum. So we couldn't resist a peek when we found out the oldest continuously cultivated garden in London was open on the first Wednesday of the month.
We were able to purchase a Helleborus foetidus seedling and some pots of the Florentina Iris we'd admired in the chapel garden - we plan to plant them behind our new pond.
