The teasel is a very odd plant but we love the way the flower grows, very strange white mini flowers are now coming from the head. Odd but very interesting! We just hope they don’t take over the garden.
Pop don’t go the teasel
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Category Archives: Guest Gardeners
In the Doctor’s garden of dub
A big shout to our old friend Dr Strangedub Radio DJ and Dub Gardener who presents the great show called The Echo Chamber (with DJ Baby Swiss) on KFAI from the Twin Cities of Minneapolis–Saint Paul. It’s on every Wednesday from 2:00 to 6:00 am (8am-12 noon UK time), if you love dub, reggae and all sorts of bass business you’ll love the show. Tune in live at the allotted time here.
Thanks to the good doctor for sending over some snaps of what’s growing in his yard at the moment. We love the tomatoes (everyone else’s is doing better than ours, we are not jealous, honest!), the herb container and the raised bed and the stairs look like a good place to sit and chill on a summer’s evening. Cheers Dr Strangedub, keep in touch and update us through the growing season! Cheers for the plays of the One Deck & Popular, Madtone and Jasmine & Madtone tunes throughout the years.
Vampire freaks and gardening
A big thanks goes out to Spike from Morschen43 from a very sunny and hot Le Puy-en-Velay, France for keeping us regularly updated about his great garden in the mountains (here). The other day he sent us pictures including some of how his tomatoes are doing.
We were only saying to ourselves the other day that we think the feed we are using (all-purpose feed rather than a specific tomato feed) is making the leaves dark green and were wondering were we feeding them too much nitrogen? We’ve now got a couple of flower trusses starting to show on our plants so they may be okay but looking at Spike’s plants with some large size fruits growing we’re not so sure.
The plants are looking well happy and we love the classic companion planting of Marigolds above (there’s a nice bit about companion planting here). Spike was telling us when he bought the plants they included these varieties below which we’ve never heard of before and they sound well interesting:
The Beef Heart “A heritage variety with a most unusual heart shape fruit. Beefsteak type with excellent flavour and few seeds. Ripens to deep red.”
www.mammothonion.co.uk
Black Crimea “An old, heirloom variety AKA ‘Black Krim’, this sweet and spicy beefsteak tomato has a wonderful aroma and distinctive dark reddish-brown skin ideal for soups, slicing and sauces. Named after the peninsula, ‘Black Crimea’ each olive-shouldered fruit can weigh in at 350g each!”
www.rhsplants.co.uk
Andean horned “Tomato Bellandine, sometimes nicknamed Horn of the Andes, is an indeterminate cordon variety producing long, elegant plum-shaped fruits. Each tomato typically weighs 180 – 230 g and measures up to 18 cm long. The flesh is firm, very fleshy, and almost seedless, delivering an excellent sweet flavour with a rich aroma.”
www.simplyseed.co.uk
Alongside the pictures of the tomatoes he sent us a picture (below) of the vine growing across the house which they got off a neighbour of his grand parents in Troyes (Capital of the Champagne region). Great stuff Spike. Do keep updating us as we appreciate it here!
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 archived here.
You cannot escape the stones (not Jagger and co.)
Thanks to Justin Patrick Moore for sending this book cover from Fred Vargas to us. Crazy coincidences of a stone circle kind. Any one drying the dinner dishes tonight with a standing stone tea towel? We await your pictures…
More stones of the standing variety
We’ve had some communications overnight about standing stones and we are well chuffed that people are interested in the stone giants like we are. Thanks to Rich in the Lake District for kicking it all off.
The first is from an old friend of ours, Pete B in Woolwich. Thanks for getting in touch and for sending us a great picture of The Callanish Stones (above) on the Isle of Lewis, the one Justin used on his yard sale flyer in the last post. He also sent us a link to a wonderful panoramic photograph (nearly 140 degrees!) of the Castlerigg Stone Circle.
He emailed “Nice to see the Castlerigg stones, some years ago I caught this panorama of Castlerigg when we were camping in the Lakes.”
For the picture click here.
As Pete added “Best viewed on mobile phone in landscape mode, maximised and with controls hidden – downward pointing arrow to the left-hand side of the control bar.”
Thanks also to Bongo Twisty for getting in touch via the comments and for sending us a great photograph. “The picture is of the Standing Stones of Stenness in Orkney. I was up there cycling about a couple of years ago.” Thanks a million for sending it over Bongo Twisty and for following the blog for a long while! All pictures are copyright the owners.
Ta for the pictures again both, keep cool in this present heatwave and take it easy!
Seeing standing stones around solstice time
Apart from mentions of Stonehenge at solstice time, we think this is a first for Weeds! Here are some brilliant photographs from Rich up in the Lake District of a stone circle very local to him called Castlerigg. More on the stone circle here and here. This looks like a brilliant place. Cheers Rich!
Any of our readers got any good standing stone pictures? Or have one around the corner from where they live. If so, send them over to one deck pete at gee mail dot come and we’re post them up.
More pics and info of Castlerigg on Julian Cope’s Modern Antiquarian here.
More Downbeat on Shortwave this weekend!
This weekend Imaginary Stations bring you the fourth episode in the Downbeat on Shortwave series with Jesse Yuen (from Perth, Australia) and One Deck Pete (from Catford Village, Londres).
Jesse and Pete bring you two 15-minute downtempo mixes each over the hour-long show. Expect some ambient, dub, reggae and downtempo tunes for a chilled-out weekend.
The show is broadcast on Saturday 13th June at 1100 hrs UTC (12 noon in the UK) on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 14th June at 1300 hrs UTC (2pm in the UK) on 6160 kHz and 2000 hrs UTC (9pm in the UK) on 3975 kHz/6160 kHz. Thanks to the great Shortwave Gold for beaming those radio waves skywards.
Don’t worry if you haven’t a shortwave radio you can tune in via an online Software Defined Radio here (pre-tuned into 6160 kHz). Just plug in at the right time(s) and experience that shortwave mono sound with all the fading and cross channel interference live.
Here’s the older shows for your listening pleasure!
Programme 1
Programme 2
Programme 3
Kings of speed(well)
Here’s a recent addition to the Weeds HQ garden, a couple of white speedwells (AKA Veronica) which have gone in next to a poppy that is on its way out (and now producing seeds to be distributed around the garden/to mates).
Also, a few weeks ago when we moved one of the Belfast sinks that contained a climber, we stuck it by the trellis halfway down the garden. We then stuck a couple of pots of pelargonium cuttings we took from the kind folks at Honor Oak station on the top.
We think the humble pelargonium has a bit of a bad reputation, as someone we know calls them “Granny flowers” and we were told pollinators go nowhere near them. It was through the success of those cuttings (they are doing great and so easy to propagate) that we have been trying more, as we never were that interested in taking cuttings before. Anyone got any good “cuttings” tips?
If you look closely, you will see the famous Theatre of Hate stone, that gardening legend has it, that Kirk Brandon used as a prototype for the band’s logo. More on that famous stone here.
Love in a mist, it’s (not) so dumb
Here’s a few pictures from around the Weeds HQ garden.
We’ve had the above for a few years now and it pops up every year in the wild bit at the bottom of the garden. It’s quaking grass and we’re not sure who we got it off, but it was off a gardening mate somewhere (if it’s you, do remind us!) from 2023. It’s only small but it’s interesting stuff. Original post here.
The above is also in the wild part of the garden. Nigella or love in a mist is a great plant and as soon as the seed pods are ready, it’s a seed to chuck around the garden in an anarchic Crass-like sowing style. You’ll get results and it’s a great plant to cover a large area.
One of the great poppies that are just popping up all around the garden. They can seed where-ever they want in our garden, as we love them so much.
And finally, the mad plant that is the teasel. Bought off the internet (post here) and then moved from its original location. The wind blew it over last week and we’ve staked it up but before we did, it tried to straighten itself up hence the mad angles. Unless they always are like that!
Let’s hope the weather is better where you are tomorrow and you can get out in the garden!
How does your garden grow?
Here’s a few pictures and reports this week from our gardening mates around this island and globe of ours.
The first report is from Jesse Yuen in Perth, Australia who let us know that he planted a lemon tree this week (how good will that be, freshly picked lemons from the garden) and sent us some pictures of some flowering aloes (above) plus some nice cacti which are something that he is now really getting into. Love that large barrel cactus (is it called that?) in the tub, that’s a brilliant garden Jesse, ta for the pictures and we love cacti too!
Talking of cacti, the above is a photograph from Debby H in north London of her orchid cactus that has just sent out a flower bud for the first time in a few years.
She also sent us pictures of her dwarf sunflowers that are planted in food waste bins (great idea!) No flowers yet but look at size of those leaves. Cheers Debby.
Here’s a great pic of some gardening “work in progress” from Rich in the Lake District. He was in his garden, putting in these plants (that he started off indoors) into the rockery. What a view from a back garden. Cheers Rich.
Finally here are some wonderful rose pictures from Mike & Julia‘s garden near Coventry. Thanks for the great photographs from Julia as ever. As they said, “Attached are some pics of our roses, which have gone ballistic in the last couple of days!” Some nice colours there.
Thanks for everyone for sending in their pictures of their gardens in, we appreciate it and do keep sending them on as the season progresses.
Weeds up to me knees 