Cheers to Rich R up in the Lake District for sending us this dramatic picture of what the weather was like up there yesterday. They’ve had some snow and the sky is looking a bit angry. Keep warm up there Rich!
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Big thanks to our good friend in Kyiv, Wlad (US7IGN) for getting in touch this week. He last post was in November and if you remember, there was a potato shaped like a love heart and photographs of his good friend Sergiy UT3UFD‘s collection of seedlings that were started from seeds of whatever he eats here.
Sergiy’s advocado is coming along well (above) since last time and as Wlad jokingly said “His banana even had a baby!” (below).
Wonderful stuff, when you think they are having as he told us, “regular problems with heating, water (out for up to 3 days), and electricity, but we survive even at -20C at night.” Wow, that is some going -20C!
The best thing we think, is how he experimented with the seeds from a pitaya he bought and they’ve started to come really well, growing their first set of “true” leaves (main picture at the top and below).
And if you remember, this is how he heats his plants, with this ingenious set up:
Great to hear from you as ever Wlad, thanks for the pictures of Sergiy’s growing experiments, as they are fantastic!
By the way Wlad has finished his third book, which is available here. Here’s a mention of it on SWLing Post here.
We know we mentioned a couple of posts ago that you don’t want to be too keen on sowing seeds at this time of year, but we’ve started a couple off, seeing as both seeds need a few weeks to germinate.
This morning, we put 3 pots each of Reals Seeds Prairie Fire Mini Bush Chilli Pepper and Lemon Drop Hot Citrus Pepper in a heated seed tray. This year we’re using some B&Q bought Rocket Gro seed/cutting compost as the cheap supermarket shop-bought peat-free we bought a while ago just weren’t that good and we lost a load of seedings to the dreaded damping off.
On looking at the packets, the Prairie Fire takes 2-3 weeks to germinate and the Lemon Drop 3-4, now that’s a long wait. We will be training patience in this exercise and will keep you in the loop if we see any movement at all.
Many thanks to our friend Adrienne for sharing this photo of her geranium (or is it a pelargonium?) still flowering outdoors in December. It’s a wonderful splash of colour for this time of year and we can’t believe that it’ll be the winter solstice in a few days time as well.
If you remember, last year we were at a summer fete and purchased a pink geranium (above) in a church sale in Hither Green for a fiver and it was well worth the money. We loved the plant so much and wanted other people to enjoy it as well so we took a few cuttings and gave them away. As the old gardening saying goes “Pass them on!” Cheers again Adrienne and ta for letting us know how the plant is doing.
The other month we heard from Wlad in Kyiv (here), where he shared some pictures from his friend Sergiy, who has been growing an impressive collection of plants on his balcony—everything started from seeds of whatever he eats, the last time it was photographs of his avocado plant. We’ve got more this month!
The avocados (above) that featured the other month are growing really well with strong stems, big leaves, and looks like they have no intention of slowing down. On top of that, he experimented with the seeds from a pitaya he bought and they’ve started to germinate (below). We had to look up what a pitaya was as we never heard of it before, it’s also known as the strawberry pear or dragon fruit. More on growing those here. Good luck with those, Sergiy!
And to add to those bits of tropical delight, he also decided to try growing pineapples (below).
It’s hard enough as it is to grow stuff like that anyway but at the moment in Kyviv electricity and heating have been unreliable again, so he improvised: he built a small stove on the balcony and added a new battery-powered lamp.
And that is some bulb!
And if you love a bit of circuitry as we do, here’s what’s inside it:
Now that’s what it’s all about, being inventive and making use of what you you can get your hands on. Great stuff Sergiy! Thanks again to Wlad for sending us the pictures, it’s appreciated. Keep safe the both of you, and do send us more updates.
A big thanks go out to our old friend Chris D (who we went to see The Clash in Bury St Edmunds with many moons ago here) who now resides in Adelaide, Australia for getting in touch. He’s got a new house and has been busy transforming the solid clay and weeds that were there beforehand into a smart looking garden (above and below).
It’s still only early days yet and things will progress but it’s looking brilliant. The two pics below were at post weed eradication stage. What started as rock-hard clay in summer and sticky, mud that sticks to your boots in the winter is now turning into something special. We know what you mean about that clay soil Chris!
He did a lot of the work himself but got a bit of help in where he needed things building, pavements laying and gravel being put down. We love the idea of the raised beds (with decent compost in it) which’ll give the plants a fighting chance in the tough conditions out there what with the snakes (!) and rabbits combined with the searing sun.
He’s already watched blackbirds helping themselves to his strawberries he told us. It’s annoying but in a way it’s a sign that things are growing. We reckon it’s out with the old strawberry nets or put those old CDs on string which’ll move in the breeze that’ll hopefully deter them.
Alongside strawberries, he’s managed to get a great range of things growing already: herbs, carrots, beetroot, strawberries, raspberries, capsicum, beans, peas, cucumber, chilli, spinach, tomatoes, asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes, lettuce, tangelos, kaffir limes, Tahitian limes, mandarin, nectarines, pear, apricot, and even honeydew melons. Wow, that’s a load of stuff.
We’d love to see how the garden progresses so do keep us updated Chris and send us some pictures of how things get on. That hard work has really paid off we reckon and there’s some nice ideas in the garden as well. We love that container below by the way. Cheers again Chris and good luck with everything.
He sent us a couple of tune recommendations. First The Wiggles covering Tame Impala.
And a bit of a classic from the production talents of Mikey Dread with Parrot Jungle.
And Fat Freddy’s Drop with Blackbird.
A big thanks to our good friend Rich R up in the Lake District for sending over the photograph of his cosmos (and a shout to Debby H too, as the seeds came from her plants). Rich writes, “Really cold here today, wind chill feels like 2°C. With hard frosts and snow on the way, I thought I’d better send you this pic of the cosmos before it’s too late.”
Brilliant stuff, Rich – thanks again (and to Debby H) for sharing!
Thanks to Debby H up in north London for this picture above. “The garden plants may be coming to an end for this year, but I think the colours are lovely in the sunshine. Here’s a picture of my golden rod and peony plants, with the french lavender in the middle.” That bed looks great and there’s still a good bit of colour on show.
Let’s see weather permitting, if we can still get some pics from our gardens to stick on the blog well into the autumn, pictures please. Great stuff Debby!
Thanks a million to the one and only Rhythm Doctor for playing One Deck Pete’s “Put a sock in it” mix (originally for Imaginary Station’s KTAB) 11.30 mins in on his “Mojo” It’s a mix up of some fine funk, jazzy stuff, latin, soul, ska and whathaveyou. More on the show here.
Tracklistings:
Jimmy James – Come to me Softly
Off a Jamaican 7″ single on WIRL from 1962 from the man Jimmy James as in Jimmy James and the Vagabonds “I’ll go where the music takes me” fame.
Kouta Katsutaro – Asu ha otachika
Off the wonderful set simply entitled “Kouta Katsutaro” on Death Is Not The End’s Bandcamp (here).
King Stitt/Tommy Mc Cook – Sauvitt
As sampled by One Deck & Popular on “Son of Stitt” (here) and a version of Mongo Santamaria‘s Suavito (here).
Alick Nkhata – Kalindawalo Ni Mfumu
This track is something else! A sort of Rock n Roll stomper, with some lovely harmonies and some horns courtesy of a Coventry Salvation Army brass band sound-alike and someone tinkling those ivories very skillfuly towards the end. It don’t get much better than this. On an LP called Radio Lusaka off the mighty Mississippi Records Bandcamp here.
Marty Robinson – Follow you
From a very battered Coxsone Dodd white 7″ blank and later released on his Port-O-Jam label. M (Martell/Marty) Robinson may have lived in the Coventry/Birmingham area for a bit too. More about the artist here.
Thanks a million to an old friend Peter B for getting in touch and for sending some pictures of his allotment in Woolwich. Top picture, as he writes “The sunflowers are holding up well – apart from the ones in the back garden which are beheaded by squirrels.”
We understand 100% Peter as they are popular with the wildlife here in our garden. A long while ago a parakeet was robbing the seeds even though we were standing underneath it (see post here) then half an hour later two squirrels were chancing their arms too (see post here). Even a living scarecrow can’t stop them!
We found these pictures above interesting, as Peter mentioned “The cardoon shots are from the allotment – the stems are wrapped in cardboard for a month apparently to help blanch them. It’s supposed to make them taste better – the ones I tried earlier this year are bitter tasting even after extended cooking.” He added “They are an Italian favourite, a parmigiana made with cardoons as opposed to aubergines is to die for or so I’m told by a colleague at work.” We have a cardoon growing here at Weeds HQ but just for decoration purposes as we have never even tasted them before.
As he goes on to say “The cardoons are an experiment – I planted these a bit late this year and I didn’t space them far enough apart so they’re smaller than they might be – they grow to about 2 metres if spaced a metre apart.”
And finally “Tomatoes – I just like the look of them right at the end….”. Excellent stuff Peter, great for getting in touch again and ta for the photographs. Do send us an update next year!
Weeds up to me knees 