Category Archives: Guest Gardeners

Pass us some rain down here please

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Cheers to Rich up in the Lake District for the great picture of what the weather was like up there today. Looks a bit cloudy, if you have any rain to spare in those lakes, could some be passed down here as our lawn is looking so blimmin dry.

Someone at work was telling us the other week about their brother-in-law who has a lovely green lawn even during this summer of draught 2026. She was saying “He’s been watering it morning, noon and night and it looks so green, not like mine”. She went onto say, he’s been watering it so much so that Thames Water contacted him and worried thinking he had a water leak on his property as the water bill had shot up so much. How mad is that? Remember big brother is watching you(r lawn).

Cheers for the picture Rich!

 

 

 

Tell me why, tell me why, tell me why?

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Here’s a book we discovered again in the Weeds gardening bookcase (above). It’s a wonderful book, interviewing gardeners and asking them that one big question “Why do you garden?” All sorts of mad stuff in here from a man who mows grass for the council to commercial rhubarb growers in Yorkshire who grow it under candlelight (below).

We’re asking you the same question. “Why do you garden?” Answers on a postcard or to one deck pete (at) gee male dot com.

And from over in France

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Thanks to Spike from Morschen43 in Le Puy-en-Velay, for sending these pictures of the fruits of his labours and garden. There’s some great looking produce there.

That has come around quick hasn’t it? It was seemingly a few weeks ago when we heard from him when he was preparing his ground with some back breaking work (here and picture below). Good stuff Spike!

If you love a bit of rock/punk and a bit of reggae, ska, dub, metal, hard rock, tune into Spike’s Vampirefreaks radio show here. The shows are all archived here.

Is it four o’clock yet?

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Earlier this year in March, we germinated some Marvel of Peru (AKA the Four O’clock Plant) seeds that we purchased from Real Seeds as it sounded like a strange plant. As it said on Wikipedia, “The flowers usually open from late afternoon or at dusk (namely between 4 and 8 o’clock), giving rise to one of its common names. The flowers then produce a strong, sweet fragrance throughout the night, then close in the morning.” Well, we had to have some of that!

We started off a few seedlings, gave a few away and kept a couple for ourselves. The above picture is one from our good gardening friend Adrienne who said “The flowers are getting better and better. Must love the heat!” It looks brilliant.

Here’s the couple we have kept (above). There’s a small one to the left of what we think is a larger version of the plant (with no flowers as yet) in the reused food bin. The small version has started to flower and hopefully will bring us more! Fingers crossed that it is a Marvel Of Peru in the bin.

We’ve read that the plant is invasive in hotter climates but thankfully not in the UK as the annual frosts kill it. We may bring in the one in the food bin over winter as it seems a great plant! Interesting stuff about the plant here.

Returning to the north

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Great to hear from Debby H in north London yesterday, she’s just back from a break away and sent us pictures from her back garden. She said what with the heatwave “Thanks to our indoor and outdoor watering systems, our plants seem mostly ok” and that’s good to hear! Sadly, “The cosmos isn’t doing so well yet, but there’s still hope for later this summer. It’s the same with ours too, none of the seeds took or if they did, the slugs took them right in front of our noses. Her Zephyranthes Robusta are having another flush of flowers (above). More on the vibrant Argentine rain lily here.

“The big daisies seem very happy” (above) in the tidy bed above. They do seem healthy and so does the lawn, not like ours at Weeds HQ!

The phomium tenax flowers are now mostly turning into seed (above).

And finally, “The dwarf sunflowers are now in full bloom” and look how great they look! Cheers Debby for sending us the updates and do send us more!

Enjoying the heat with that wonky leg?

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We have a bit of a minor leg injury due to carrying heavy stuff about a week Sunday, so we took it very easy in the garden yesterday. After a very light “tip around with a pair of secateurs” we tuned into WAVE from Imaginary Stations on the ATS – 20+ shortwave radio we bought earlier this year. It’s a cheap and cheerful radio and it has some faults but overall, it isn’t bad for the cheap price.

We heard the great mix from our mate Kit G5KIT in Bristol live on air and quoting him a few days ago “I don’t know what it is, but both Dub and Eastern European music both seem to really suit short wave propagation, they just sound …right.” He’s so correct there! Tune in to the studio recording below and Kit’s mix is at 30 minutes in.

Here’s the track listings:
Deep Reggae Sound System – Midnight Dub Waves
Pat Flashman – Summer Dub
The Heptones – Sea of Dub
Groovy Waters – Rock the Casbah

And here’s a few from the Weeds garden including a very small baby sun rose we were given by a friend from work on Friday which was feeling sorry for itself when we put it in the Belfast sink later that evening but on Sunday we even had a flower!

The teasel is attracting all sorts of bugs and pollinators (above) and the cardoon (below) which we bought many years ago at Shannon’s (RIP) survived a blackfly attack after we sprayed some very diluted washing liquid water on it.

And the Globe Thistle is doing well too! Happy gardening everyone.

Spuds from the garden, you can’t beat them

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Cheers to our good mate Gerry Hectic for sending us a photo of his first potatoes of the season, they’re looking fantastic! He said that they were small, but we have no problem with that as they are even tastier when they are like that. Growing your own potatoes are always worth it.

And here’s a tune we haven’t heard for years until the other week when we were painting the fence and listening to a live mix of Gerry’s from an outdoor thing he played at. Great stuff Gerry and keep sending those pics!

Reports from Bristol, SE23 and France

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We’re a bit behind here with posts at Weeds, the other week we received a message from Kit G5KIT, who said “We had 37 degrees C here in Bristol today. The only ones enjoying it are my chilli seedlings, which are now ready to put into containers as the roots are starting to come through the sides of the fibre pots.” Now 37 degrees that is hot, but he’s right, those chilli seedlings (above) are looking great!

Ours are in the ground after we took a bit of a frost risk earlier this year and we are getting a lot of growth and we are just starting to see the flowers appearing (above). Next to the chillies are onions grown from seed that need a bit of thinning out.

 

We’ve been having a good few reports from Spike from Morschen43 from a very sunny and hot Le Puy-en-Velay in France over the past few days. His garden is looking well bountiful now. We start with a rose (above) which he said was from the mountains called Rosa Centiflora (aka ‘Cabbage’ or ‘Provence’ rose). He was also saying that the rose can tolerate temperatures down to -15 degrees Celsius. Wow!

Here’s a selection of what’s growing in his garden now, some wonderful stuff here, a few different varieties of Tomato, Aubergine (Eggplant), Courgette (aka Zuchinni), green pepper and runner beans. We’ll have an update from Spike’s yard soon as there is so much there!

This post was written while listening to the latest Ross Allen Meltdown show on Soho Radio. Guest this week was Jimmy Lindsay who was in the great Cymande, we didn’t know that!

We’ll take you where the sun shines

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Cheers to Maz and Marc from sending us some great pictures from their recent holiday in France. These photos are from in and about Saint-Aubin-de-Cadelech, south of Bergerac.

Just like when you receive postcards a few days after people come back off their holidays, we are following the tradition here. It was very hot over there and one day reached to 43 degrees C in the shade, wow!

Some Mirabelle de Nancy plums that taste very very sweet (above) and some sumac (below).

And a smoketree (below) that we have just read, that is related to sumac.


Here’s a wonderful willow shelter and below is the shady view from inside (looking down to the treeline by the River Dropt), what a great idea!

Big thanks to Maz and Marc for these great pictures! Hope you both had a great holiday.

Gardening tool of the year

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Cheers to our good friend in Cincinnati, Justin Patrick Moore for letting us know about a favourite gardening tool purchase of his, a Cobrahead Hand Hoe. Wow! It looks great to us here. As it says on the blurb here, “It weeds, cultivates, scalps, edges, digs, furrows, plants, transplants, de-thatches, and harvests with ease” and “It can even dig 12″ holes in even the hardest Ozark garden soil.” Brilliant stuff, thanks for letting us know Justi. It looks a versatile tool.

Any pictures of your favourite gardening tool? Pics please to one deck pete (at) gee male dot com.