Category Archives: Found on a skip or for the binmen

It’s good to get out there (while you can!)

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We don’t know what the weather has in store for us today but last Sunday it was glorious and a few gardening jobs were done! The garden pond pump was cleaned and the wires put back together again with some dry solder joints and a good bit of electrical tape after some roadent had gnawed through them last year. The pond pump now works!

The back bed was dug over again and raked to a nice tilth as we’ll be sticking some wild flower seeds down there after the frosts and give the bed some rest from the vegetable growing for a change. Even the lawn got its first cut in true council style, one cut on very high, then one a little lower.

And some palettes we were given years ago were put into use as some raised beds. All we need now is a big bag of compost to stick in them to get them to a nice height!

When the sun’s out the old enthusiasm seems to lift. Roll on the good weather!

Keep ’em peeled again

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A big thanks to our long-time friend Mark Platts for sending us some pics of his novel gardening idea. He painted up some found-in-the-street old wheelbarrow’s and filled one with an alpine display and in his own words “the other is empty and just standing by watching at the moment”. That’s a great idea Mark, so we’re going to keep them peeled for those thrown out wheelbarrows down these parts!

Cheers for the other pics of the garden Mark. We’re loving your raised bed veg patch and greenhouse (that look like there’s peppers and tomatoes in there).

And we love the rhubarb rescued from some wasteland that’s gone a bit mad in the raised bed! Brilliant Mark, keep them pics coming!

Good companions?

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Wow! It clocked nearly 19 degrees here in London today and what a pleasure it was to be back out in the garden! The newly transplanted silver birch (originally found in a carrier bag in the street two years ago post here) is now surrounded by a circle of broad bean seedings (masterpiece green). Cleverly inspired companion planting or just plain daftness?

Weeds were taken out and beds tidied up with a hoe. The grass was cut, some seeds were sowed: a row of white borage and some night scented stock. Whether they’ll take as you never know what the weather will bring over the next few weeks but it’s worth a chance.

Thanks to our good friend Nancy B for recommending the lovely clematis montana to go against the grey fence (this fine specimen was bought from Shannon’s last year) which is now making a bit of a growth spurt complete with flower buds! There was plenty of splashing around of comfrey liquid around all of the garden too so all of the plants could get a spring feed before the gardening season properly kicks off.

And indoors there’s a few varieties of tomato seedlings on the kitchen windowsill suprisingly not as leggy as they’ll usually be if we’d have sowed them at xmas which is customarily for us here at Weeds. Here’s hoping they grow up strong!

The big question is though, will the sun be out tomorrow? And do remember to adjust those clocks tonight.

Shaw Taylor was never a sailor

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Found in front of Weeds HQ on St. Patrick’s day morning (below) this strange home-made hat stand/large cat scratcher is now in place in the garden for use later this season. What do you think we should have trained up it? A clematis, some sweet peas or runner beans perhaps? Let’s see how the mood takes us. To its left is the window frame we found years ago and to its right a mirror originally left out for the bin men. Isn’t it great what you find in the street?

 

Seek, and ye shall find my friend

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We weren’t feeling too hot over the xmas and new year period as another damn cold/flu struck, but as the garden was looking a bit on the neglected side an hour or so had to be designated to a bit of outdoor tidying up. This one was for the bed next to the garage that  earlier this year contained tomatoes, sweet peas and dahlias amongst other things (past posts about said plants in all their glory are in the links).

We dug up all the dahlia tubers carefully (some of them are the size of big spuds!) which are now drying out under the stairs even though last year we took a chance and left them in and they did wonderful this summer (post here). More on lifting the tubers here.

We even replanted a silver birch (one we found a couple of years ago in a Tesco’s bag with a note that said “Take me” on it outside a house locally see post here) that was originally by the pond but hopefully it will do better at the end of the bed. We’ll be probably moving it again as it’s so near the old garage wall but let’s see.

And as protection from forthcoming cold weather we stuck one of the plastic mini-cloches from another find, which followed the same pattern as before; left outside a house with a note with “Take me” on it (post here) over the Foxtail Lily that’s started to sprout a bit prematurely.

So wrap up warm, happy gardening and keep em peeled as Shaw Taylor used to say.

Bean pole idea of the week

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The other week we went over to an open garden event in Blackheath and had a lovely afternoon in some fantastic surroundings and even dipped a hand into our pockets at the plant sale there. While in the veg garden this bean pole idea (above) caught our eye. We very much doubt that the rusty looking metal things that are holding the bamboo canes in place have anything to do with garden centres (they’re probably something off a building site or in a steel-fixers toolkit) but we could be wrong. It’s a great idea though! If you know what they are actually are (and if you can buy them at garden centres) answers on a postcard please.

And two other good ideas if you’re thinking of picking up some tunes this weekend. The first the Aimes mix of Cloud Nine by Joe Morris and the next a belter from yesteryear from the excellent Johnny Clarke called Blood Dunza/Dub Dunza. May the sun reign this weekend and while we’re asleep we get a bit of rain.

A Poppy and Pilooski

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Yesterday morning we awoke to sight of this fantastic Danish Flag Poppy which has been over-wintering on the patio in an old pond-plant basket found in the street a while ago. The Poppy seeds were originally procured from ebay a few years ago and this plant was grown from seeds collected from pods last year. The flower only lasted a day, closed up in the evening and (possibly because of the downpour in London today) it has now gone but boy it was worth it!

Also yesterday while listening to a Stones Throw podcast from Breakbeat Lou this corker of a tune from Dee Edwards  “Why can’t there be love” was played. This put us in mind of the seriously barmy Pillooski mix of the tune from a few years ago. Tune(s)!

Bring back the birch!

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We at weeds do love something for free and our latest find was from a Tesco’s carrier bag left outside a house down the road last weekend. The bag contained a couple of saplings; a Silver Birch and a Hazel both labelled up, tied to a small stake and roots carefully packaged in a nice plastic tube. We’ve passed the Hazel on and now have to find somewhere for the Silver Birch in the garden.

Here’s a podcast from a good few years ago about how much we here love something for nowt, either found on a skip, given away or left out for the binmen.

https://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/sfts-19-sounds-from-the-south-take-me-im-yours

What’s in the mix?

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Life is all about what’s in the mix and the above is what we recently found after clearing out our compost bin of its organic matter. There’s some surprises: a sonic screwdriver (for God’s sake), a silver teaspoon and a plastic bag with some Caesar Salad mix in it! It’s frightening as we think we’re really careful of what we put in the heap.

As for our latest bit of listening pleasure: the Rhythm Doctor’s audio mix for FatCat records (above), there’s no unwanted rubbish in there! Listen out for the following!

 

The original, the original, sin

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Recently we’ve been re-flicking through that classic from 1946, “Adam The Gardener” by Cyril Cowell after featuring a great dahlia tip from it the other week. Ta to Andy at City Uni who originally told me about the book.The dandy highway manOn one page it features some great gadgets in a “I’m skint but I used to watch Blue Peter and have a jam jar full of screws and some old wood knocking around the house though” stylee.Gardening gadgets_1And some gardening “don’ts” that even after all these years still apply. Brilliant stuff.Don'tGo out and get a copy, it’s worth it even just for ripping off his great gardening look!