Category Archives: Found on a skip or for the binmen

Seek and you may find

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Found last night amongst a pile of books on a garden wall with a “please take” note beside them was this one called “Delphiniums for All” published by The Delphinium Society. The address of said organisation as stated on the back is “Takakkaw, Ice House Wood, Oxted, Surrey”. What an address!

Any book that starts with “The title of this booklet is not a joke, nor is it a meaningless catchphrase made to snare a few extra members for the Delphinium Society” has got to be good in our eyes. This bit is classic too: “No, every gardener can grow Delphiniums and, indeed, millions do; the catch, if catch there is, lies in the subtitle “A guide to growing good Delphiniums”. Brilliant.

It’s not a bad book actually, containing 48 pages of info from obtaining the plants, soil preparation, planting and cultivation in some great detail. It must be from a long time ago though as the advice on slugs and snails is mostly about using chemicals that you don’t want get your hands on (and definitely not get on your hands) and probably not available anymore as they are well on the wrong side of health and safety.

They do mention anti-slug methods like using “abrasive material such as, sifted weathered ashes, sharp sand, egg shells, holly leaves as the slimey marauders detest gritty surfaces” which sounds a good idea unlike the nuclear waste-like chemicals.

As we always say, keep em peeled when you’re on your travels as you’ll never know what you’ll find.

… you’ll sing again, shal-lots in Forest Hill*

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We’ve had some shallots sitting about in a bag for weeks and noticed they were looking like they had to be put out soon or they’ll go mouldy, so yesterday (on the eve of the official start of spring) we undertook a little job in the garden.

Years ago we found an old window frame on a skip and over the years it’s had many uses but since lockdown it’s been lying up against the back fence in retirement. The weather’s so changeable at the moment we knew those shallots had to be put in under cover, so the window frame had a bath in warm soapy water and is now back in service.

We got some bricks to make a simple support to put the frame on and then dug out a good bit of soil out of the space within, then made a small compost trench with a little bit of kitchen waste pinched from the top of the compost heap (whilst we were there, we gave the heap a bit of a fork over and a mix). Also using a trowel, we fished out about two buckets worth of decent compost (Black Gold as they call it) from the bottom of the heap which we put on top of the compost trench and then covered that with the soil we initially took out and there you go, we’ve now got some shallots “under glass”!

All of the shallots went in, had a light water and then we gave the bed around it a little hoe over (top pic) and then gave the path next to it a good old sweep. This gives a nice contrast between the bed and path making the bed look like it had a good few hours work on it. A trick learnt from the council. Now we have to wait and see. Springtime weather, do your job!

* To the tune of “Tulips from Amsterdam”.

Life on the wild side

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It’s going to be hot this forthcoming week, we’re looking at nearly 30°C in SE23 and we think the garden is going to enjoy it. So get the watering, weekly feed and any fiddling with a hoe out of the way early and then park yourself in the shade and enjoy the weather.

The courgette/zucchinni plant we stuck in a pot as we couldn’t find any space (above) is doing well, giving us some nice flowers. The area around it with the raised beds of potatoes (below) are also on their way but impatient as we are, we keep looking around the plants and still only getting golf ball sized spuds.

The one raised bed of tomatoes are now setting fruit and we’re checking that there’s no side shoots forming and tying the main stalk to the support canes when we remember.

And on the wildlife tip, we’ve put another “pothole pond” down the wild bit (below) after being influenced by Bill Shimmers’ great pond here. We stuck some wood leading into the water after Bill mentioned in his reply of our effort on Twitter. “Any water body adds extra wildlife habitat to a garden. One thing I always include, any steep sided ponds need a sloping shelf or ramp to allow critters to get out as well as in. Stones or branches will do.” Our one is not exactly steep but we’re including the sticks to add further disguise to the former B&Q product container.

And in our main pic this week are the inhabitants of our pond, well part of the mob that are in there at the moment. And the big question is where do they disappear to? Enjoy this great weather when pondering on that thought.

Funny what you find (version 2)

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The other day on our travels we found three small fibre/recycled card pots and also some giant wooden lolly sticks (for use as plant labels) alongside some plastic plant pots which we didn’t pick up as we have enough of them. It’s funny what you find when you’re out. Keep ’em peeled as Shaw Taylor used to say!

Something old, something new, something wood

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We’ve been a bit busy in the garden making good use of the lovely weather we’ve been having hence no new posts until now. Today has started gloomy and we’re expected to have a couple of days of this until the weekend when it brightens up again which is great news.

We heard from our good friend across the pond Justin Patrick Moore who has started a new project, something that is brand new to us here at Weeds. It’s a hugelkultur bed. As it says online: “Hugelkultur is a centuries-old, traditional way of building a garden bed from rotten logs and plant debris. These mound shapes are created by marking out an area for a raised bed, clearing the land, and then heaping up woody material (that’s ideally already partially rotted) topped with compost and soil.” http://www.almanac.com

More info here on this different sort of raised bed that made us think initially of the Victorian hot beds. Best of luck with that Justin, do let us know how you get on with it as it sounds great and looks good too!

A couple of years ago a good friend gave us a couple of foxglove plants and they’ve multiplied and starting to come alive this year. Self seeded plants are sometimes a pain (in the case of spuds left in the ground or weeds) but these foxgloves are brilliant, even the one coming out of the brickwork on the garage.

The raised beds by the Dad Corner are starting to burst into life. The seed potatoes that were put in extra early are starting to grow and the overwintered garlic in the 2nd raised bed on the right are well on their way. Shame we didn’t have much luck with the shallots which just withered away. Remember we’re still in May and there’s reports of the odd unexpected frosts about so still keep an eye on the weather forecast for those cold nights and keep those old net curtains handy!

In the wild bit at the bottom which doesn’t get much light where’s there’s a row of spuds, cardoons and some wildflower mix from those beebombs and the odd assortment of cheap seed packets is started to look a bit “wild” instead of looking a bit untended. We’re trying to get it looking wild like the beds at the Horniman’s Gardens (below) which’ll take a few years and a bit of effort but it’s worth trying!

Keep on keeping on

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We heard some great advice when we were out and about this week and it was a simple “Don’t give up”. Quite apt as we were going to put in some fresh seeds into one of the trays in the propagator in the kitchen windowsill next week as we thought the Cape Gooseberry seed sown in there was shot as the Peppers we planted at the same time now have their seed leaves and are looking good. Then this morning we spotted some action in the tray, patience that’s what gardening’s all about and sometimes we ain’t any!

And this morning we were looking for some fresh Tarragon leaves for a chicken recipe and couldn’t find any so we had a brainwave to pop into Shannon’s and get a live plant. It may be small but give it time…

What goes around comes around

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Earlier this morning we passed on another container of home made comfrey liquid to spread the love/smell/word. The container this time was a well washed out non-bio Tesco washing liquid bottle.

On the way back from the exchange a massive plastic bag of daffodil bulbs were found sitting outside someone’s front wall with “Take me” on them. Is that what you call gardening karma? May be deemed a little late to put in but who cares!

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!

Blink and you’ll miss them

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It’s crazy the weather we’ve had the last few days, rain then sun then sun then rain so everything is starting to grow like billy-ho. We’re not complaining though as the strawberries we put in a tub we found in the street (after we gave it a lick of paint) are doing well.

Also the randomly sown poppies are coming along too. We bought more poppy seed from ebay over the weekend and just chucked it around whilst it was spitting today (that’ll help the seed germinate).

These pics we took yesterday are from our earlier “Chuck ’em and see what happens” experiments. Shame the actual flowers don’t last long on the plant.

It is June!

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Big shout to Gerry Hectic for sending us a pic of his dustbin fruit container conversion job which he did last year. It’s coming on a treat at the moment, look at those strawberries turning red! That’s a great idea Gerry!

And (below) here’s a few random flower pics from the Weeds garden taken this morning.

If you’ve got pics ofyour garden do send them in! Email them to onedeckpete (at) gmail.com and also send us a tune if you fancy it as well!