Category Archives: Jazz Gardening

North London garden report – August 2025

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A big thanks to Debby H for sending us some pictures and an update of her garden up in north London. Just writing this now is making us think how fast this year is going, it’s nearly the end of August, it seemed like the start of the year not that long ago.

As Debby wrote accompanying her photographs “My Ornithogalum plant (above) now has 9 flowers. We never had 9 before!” It’s looking brilliant Debby.

The cosmos (above) are doing well. We have some of the same cosmos here and even the odd couple of plants we have it’s a welcome sight but a bed of them like above are well cheering to see. We need more cosmos growing everywhere!

“Finally, we have picked two of our pears. I didn’t know till recently that you pick them while they are still hard and let them soften up afterwards.” Brilliant stuff Debby, they look great. This gardening lark does reap rewards! Hope there’s more fruit to pick as the weeks progress, ta for the pictures Debby.

On the slow-mo trance at this time of a Saturday morning

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We can’t get enough of this tune since first hearing this. It’s released on the great Serafin Audio Imprint and as they say on the tin (labelled Bandcamp), “We are a fine little Imprint from Germany supporting slow and beautiful music all around the world” and they don’t half! This one is from Laaar and it’s called A familiar feeling and by the way, all of the EP it’s from is worth listening to!

And if you like tunes that sample shortwave radio like we do, here’s one by Hali Palombo called Contestia using a vocal sample off the Shannon Volmet, more about what a Volmet is here.

One for those shortwave airwaves

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As usual while we were putting together a shortwave mix last night, a great tune was found. This one is from the golden year of 2012 and it’s from Equipe du Son and the tune is called Lesson 1. A lovely bit of uptempo electronica for a Saturday which was a day where the sun was trying to make up its mind whether to come out or not. Another reason to love the tune is that the chord structure is slightly reminscent of Archbishop Carl Bean’s Born This Way. Enjoy the tune before the weather gets boiling hot again.

Cosmos fever

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A big thanks to Debby H for starting this current wave of cosmos appreciation here at Weeds. Hers are presently looking great in situ (above).

We know a couple of us had some problems with slugs eating some of our seedlings but that’s not going to stop us trying again next year. We started off a good few but the only ones that survived were the plants under the dying cherry tree which are giving us a few nice blooms at the moment (above).

And above and below are from Mike & Julia‘s garden near Coventry. Great stuff!

Gardening is about having a go and if the slugs got your seedlings this year it doesn’t mean they will next year. Out with the beer traps and the copper tape and your other favourite anti-slug tricks and see what happens. Another good thing about the old horticulture is the practice of swopping and passing on plants and seeds. Keep the old circle going around! Cheers again to Debby H!

Raised beds from across the pond

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A big shout to our good friend Dr Strangedub who presents the great show called The Echo Chamber (with DJ Baby Swiss) on KFAI for sending us some pictures from his new raised beds in his garden.

As he wrote: “No harvest yet…other than a couple of early tomatoes that I’ve eaten. But my first little raised bed garden that my son and my pal Kabangi helped me put together is doing well. We’ve had a monsoon-like July, the plants are happy!”

Good to hear Dr Strangedub! Thanks a lot for getting in touch.

From the other side of the capital

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A big thanks to Debby H for sending us some garden updates over the weekend. Above is of the cosmos that is now coming into flower and will hopefully give a good show over the next few weeks.

The daisies (above) are doing great and attracting butterflies and bees and the above picture includes a gatekeeper butterfly.

As Debby told us “We have 3 ornithogalum flowers coming. These grow up to about 2 metres in height!” Here’s the link to what they looked like in September last year (here).

And above’s a picture of one of her dwarf sunflowers that has opened (it looks much better than our giant ones that went up to about 3 foot and had a small flower then just withered away) and (below) her first Capri Red Pepper. Excellent stuff Debby!