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?
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.
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.
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)!
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
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!
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.
On 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.
And some gardening “don’ts” that even after all these years still apply. Brilliant stuff.
Go out and get a copy, it’s worth it even just for ripping off his great gardening look!
Through the post today came the excellent x-raymass flexi-disc from The Real Tuesday Weld featuring Marcella Puppini with Those were the days. It’s a lovely flexicard featuring on the playable side, an image of one of those Soviet bone bootlegs (more on those fantastic records here.)
If you want one of the x-raymass flexi’s, they are only a fiver plus postage and are available here.
Now the ugly…
This flexi’s been in my possession since coming through my mum’s letterbox around 1973. As it says on Discogs “Rare promotional flexi featuring the voice of Terry Wogan (the mystery voice concerned here.) This competition ran through to 31st January 1974 for various Lever Brothers consumer products.”
Obviously not a collector’s item as no one has it for sale or wants one on Discogs and I can only wonder what the fantastic prizes were, a family pack of Vim perhaps? Ah, those were the days (my friend.)
A big thanks to the weather for the weekend just gone and it looks like spring has finally sprung! Things are certainly on their way, I’ve got some healthy looking leek seedlings, black poppies and garlic in the glass terrarium I found in the street a couple of years ago (above) and the bulbs are starting to come up in the found empty champagne case too (below).
Early Sunday morning I popped into Shannon’s (ta to Paul, Araba and Alexi for the lift) and got myself three bags of multi-purpose compost to put into the new raised bed (below) made out of a couple of free scaffolding boards procured from Paul a couple of weeks earlier. So thanks to a cheap argos drill, some spare wood and a quarter of a tin of fence protector left over from last year, it’s now a home for beetroot, carrots and climbing french beans. And look at the runner bean cane wigwam, that’s been put in a bit early!
And here’s a tune dedicated to all who put in a few hours over the weekend with their mowers, garden forks, spades, trowels and (new pair of) loppers while enjoying the good weather in their gardens and allotments! Roll on the spring!
Damian Marley – Hard Work (Dedicated to all Westminster City Council gardeners)
* Sung to Crass’ “Banned from The Roxy”
Here’s a nice fish related object found by my wife outside a house thrown out for the binmen this week. This’ll look great by the garden pond!
There’s a connection with the fish and this week’s Sounds From The South on The Dirt‘s Christmas Special this Monday night from 7-9pm on Fab Radio International. Tune in live here and turn on (man)!
Weeds up to me knees 