We took the protection off the raised bed this afternoon so we could pop the foxgloves in pots in there. No idea if the cold nights will knock them for six but we’ll take a chance. When we took the frame off we were chuffed with what we saw of the giant garlic. They’re starting to make a break for it.
We’ve just heard of a great seed swap from Incredible Edible in Lambeth next month at The Garden Museum, 5 Lambeth Palace Road SE1 7LB on Saturday 18th February 2023 from 12-3pm. Get those spare seeds in a packet and get on down there and see what’s available to swap.
Know of any good Seed Swaps in the London area? If so do get in contact and we will post up the details as we love a seed swap here.
We popped down to the compost heap just and the whole garden is well frosted over (above). We wonder how those giant garlic bulbs are doing? Will a couple of days worth of a covering of polythene actually help save said bulbs? The foxglove plugs are still in pots on the windowsill waiting until we “build” a coldframe.
It’s funny as yesterday was a bright and sunny day and nowhere as cold as today. We went out with our good mate Mark B for a south London stroll which took in the only pedestrian railway crossing in London at Angerstien Wharf (here), Jools Holland’s studio and the Saxon Tumuli at Greenwich Park (top half of the above photo above). Even though in this John Rogers’ video here (at 20 mins in) the artist Andrew Kötting mentions Julian Cope told him they were pre-Paleolithic.
The change in the weather today reminded me of many years ago when we went to Fordham Park Festival (here). We met an old punk bloke in his late 50’s wearing a biker’s jacket with a well faded Crass symbol on the back. He was ranting and raving about all of the estate agents, coffee companies and cupcake vendors who were fuming that they couldn’t have stalls at the site (“We don’t want all those capitalist b’s ruining our festy”). He reckoned they all got together the day before and with a bit of alchemy, influenced some bad weather to fall on the site (It was tipping it down all day even though it had been glorious sunshine the days leading up to the festival). We love that idea that with a bit of influence and getting around a table you can change the weather. Can we have some heat this week then?
It’s always the way, awoke to a frost this morning (above). Typically a couple of days after planting the elephant garlic out under a thick mat of leaf mulch. We reckon we may have lost them but let’s see if they survive. That’s the trouble with gardening, just like life you get good days and bad days. We’ll update you about the garlic.
At lunchtime we got some plug plants through the post, some White Foxgloves off ebay (below). Expertly packed or what? They’re not going out just yet even though it said on the supplied notes they can be overwintered in a cold frame. Possibly, but they’re staying on the windowsill for a couple of days before we can knock up some sort of cold frame-like structure with protection outside in the garden. We’re talking an old piece of glass on some bricks or something, it won’t be pretty but it may work. Trouble is we don’t want the plugs to get too comfortable indoors even though they’ve probably come from a greenhouse before being posted.
And below is the latest episode of Imaginary Stations, KBUS which was broadcast last night on WRMI (also home to This is a music show and Radio Northern Europe International). The show’s theme is travel which features all sorts of eclectic goodness as ever featuring this tune below by Wesley Willis “Harmony Joy Bus Ride” which we’ve never heard of, shamefully we’ve never of the artist before either. We must do some more research on Wesley Willis as he was an interesting fellow by all accounts.
And at 43 minutes in on the show is One Deck Pete’s “Where’s me travel card?” mix.
Here’s the tracks:
John Harvey – Automated Announcement, Platform 7, Shewsbury station
Ceramic The Band – Tickets, Please
Tabasco Driver meets Delroy Wilson in Dub
N&L – Metropolis
Inteus – Angry Bus Driver
Phil Pratt – Safe Travel
kK4P M3TR0 – NEXT STOP – Riverside – Town Creek
Fingers crossed those garlic bulbs survive!
Before it started to rain today we made a start on the wild bit at the bottom of the garden. The soil was well wet so was hard to turn over and it was mucky to say the least but we got there after about three quarters of an hour at “council worker on job and finish” breakneck speed. There’s still a little bit at the back to do but we did leave a couple of wild plants in and left in the corner some stinging nettles (good to stick on the compost heap and for adding to comfrey liquid for added goodness) and a bramble plant as Blackberries are always welcomed here. Top tip: sometimes when we know the rain is coming we quickly give an area a light going over with a fork just scratching up the top layer and it looks a million times better after the rain!
We also left our cut price budget version of the brilliant wildlife ponds that Bill Shimmers makes. As we’ve said before his ponds are a work of art! A great idea to do and Bill’s ones look brilliant.
Ours sadly is a wee bit lower budget (an old tub from B&Q and some old wood) than Bill’s but we have to start somewhere!
This week we bought six giant White Elephant Garlic from a nursery in Wales off ebay. We’ve been growing Garlic for a few years now and never seem to get the size that you do in the shops, so we thought if we bought some giant variety and even if we weren’t successful and got half sized giant ones we’d be happy. They are some size though, Yorkshire teabag for comparison
On the ebay site we bought them from mentioned you can eat the scapes (the tender stem and flower bud) too. “Chop into pieces and sauteé in butter or oil for about 5 – 6 minutes and serve like a green bean or add to salads and stir fries. Roast or BBQ the scapes whole and serve like garlicky asparagus with an ailoli dip or just some balsamic and olive oil.” You learn something new every day! Here’s some good tips about growing Garlic here.
A big shout to our good gardening/music/radio friend from across the pond Justin Patrick Moore for starting us off on our new feature. We at Weeds (with the help of our gardening mates online and offline) will try and bring you once a month a gardening website that will hopefully inspire us all.
The first of the series is the excellent The Italian Gardening Project which is just brilliant. It was started to keep the old Italian gardening traditions alive (Nostalgia for Yesterday … Lessons for Today) and here’s a more in-depth explanation of why it was started (here).
The gallery on the site featuring some fantastic gardens and there’s some great videos about seed saving and tomato staking amongst lots more good stuff too.
One of our favourite posts is Canning Tomatoes with Mr. Ciccone. There’s some nice memories about a day of preparing and canning the produce with someone who knew a lot about the art and it sounded like a great day out including the supping of “espresso corretto, espresso “corrected” with a splash of whiskey” and some nice food imbibed with some home-made wine. Do go and have a look at the website as it’s well worth it and is bound give you ideas.
And Justin has picked an apt tune from the great Bunny Wailer as there’s some fine examples of fig trees on the website too.
The sun’s out again and it’s 27°C and very dry in the garden this afternoon.
Last week we heard Christine Walkden on Gardener’s Question Time who said she likes to give her garden a good water with just a watering can and it can take her up to 2 hours at a time.
Since ditching the hose after watching a great special about conserving water on Gardener’s World a while ago it now takes us quite a while too just using a watering can without a rose on the top. We enjoy the slow ritual, the endless walks back and forth to the tap, making sure the soil gets a good soaking. We probably wouldn’t like it that way if we were going to catch a train but it’s a nice thing to do on an early morning on a day off work or in the later evening after a day of toil.
Is there such a thing as “meditative gardening”? There was a lot of staring into space with one foot on a garden fork when we worked at the council so it may have been around for years.
Talking of meditative gardening, there’s a great horticultural themed set from Monster Rally (we have a feeling that someone may have mentioned this to us before, our mates Gerry Hectic, DJ Frederick or Justin Patrick Moore perhaps?) called Botanica Dream. It’s full of some lovely downtempo business and at the moment the track above is our favourite but they’re all excellent.
And here’s a promo from the Skybird Council Gardeners Association for The Scented Garden radio show for you all to enjoy.
And an episode of The Scented Garden from earlier this year for your gardening/listening pleasure. Tune in, turn on and sit yourself in the middle of a flower bed preferably and enjoy the flowers.
How hot is it today? The front garden is like the Sahara at the moment and we’ve been meaning to weed it of late but the soil is like concrete and the last time we spent a lot of time working out there was in lockdown. We cleared ten or so years of ivy off the front wall, then a couple of weeks later parts of the wall fell down. The ivy was keeping the thing up!
We put in a hollyhock last year, the main stem fell over with the mad wind early this year, then spikes grew out of the main stem on the ground and from the centre part a bush has formed. We’re not complaining as it’s covering the broken down wall and the flowers are attracting all sorts of bugs, pollinating insects and bees.
In this silly heat, do remember to give your garden a good water in the morning if possible and take it nice and easy, the garden will thank you for it!
As for cooling down sakes we’d recommend this excellent mix from Chris Coco, one to have on when all the windows and doors are open and there’s damp sheets hanging down from the ceiling (saw that on the internet) to help keep everyone cold what with the crazy heat today.
And Chris has very kindly put up the track listings too:
1 Calm – Long Summer Dream (Dub Mix) x Tangerine Dream – Love On A Real Train
2 Turbotito – To Feel In Love (Projections x Turbotito Version) x Althea & Donna – Uptown Top Ranking
3 SONLIFE – The First (Chris Coco Version x SONLIFE – She Misses You
4 Blair French – Honey Rooftops (Chris Coco Version Part 1) x Nina Simone – Here Comes The Sun
5 Sauco – Sun Goddess (Chris Coco Sunset Mix) x Scott Grooves – E2E4 Reframe
6 Hear & Now x Chris Coco – For You (The Chill Out Tent Edit) x Hear & Now – Aurora Baleare
7 Reggae Disco Rockers – The Whistle Song (Quiet Storm Version) x King Tubby – A Better Version
8 Quinn Lamont Luke – Don’t Run Away (Chris Coco Version) x Mr Fingers – Can You Feel It
9 Projections – Original Cell (Chris Coco Version) x Thomas Newman – American Beauty
10 Dexter Scott – Break Noise x The Pop Group (Dennis Bovell Dub)
11 Coyote – Home Grown x Gregory Isaacs – Cool Down The Dub
12 Joan Bibiloni – Castanets Eivissa / Mar Blava
It’s going to be hot this forthcoming week, we’re looking at nearly 30°C in SE23 and we think the garden is going to enjoy it. So get the watering, weekly feed and any fiddling with a hoe out of the way early and then park yourself in the shade and enjoy the weather.
The courgette/zucchinni plant we stuck in a pot as we couldn’t find any space (above) is doing well, giving us some nice flowers. The area around it with the raised beds of potatoes (below) are also on their way but impatient as we are, we keep looking around the plants and still only getting golf ball sized spuds.
The one raised bed of tomatoes are now setting fruit and we’re checking that there’s no side shoots forming and tying the main stalk to the support canes when we remember.
And on the wildlife tip, we’ve put another “pothole pond” down the wild bit (below) after being influenced by Bill Shimmers’ great pond here. We stuck some wood leading into the water after Bill mentioned in his reply of our effort on Twitter. “Any water body adds extra wildlife habitat to a garden. One thing I always include, any steep sided ponds need a sloping shelf or ramp to allow critters to get out as well as in. Stones or branches will do.” Our one is not exactly steep but we’re including the sticks to add further disguise to the former B&Q product container.
And in our main pic this week are the inhabitants of our pond, well part of the mob that are in there at the moment. And the big question is where do they disappear to? Enjoy this great weather when pondering on that thought.
Weeds up to me knees 