Category Archives: Jobs to do

The weather it is a-changin’

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Wow, it’s December can you believe? No wonder it’s freezing out there and the rest of the week looks like it’s going to be getting colder. We’ve heard from our gardening pals in Cincinnati  (Cheers Justin!) and Freiberg, Germany (Cheers Jazz’min) where they’ve had their first dusting of snow so I doubt it won’t be long until we’ll get some.

Those dahlias were still looking fine last weekend but we reckon it won’t be long till the frost comes and blackens the plants when it will be time again to dig them all up and stick them somewhere frost free and dry for the rest of the winter, keeping an eye out for any rotting or mouldy tubers while they’re in storage.

We can’t complain as those spikey orange ones have been great this year, flowering right up until we last looked so going to the effort of digging them up and storing them indoors is a small price to pay for a few more years of the same.

And the nice plastic looking pink variety we were given this year was great too (cheers Marc).

And the beds in front of the Dad corner (that has been productive this year thanks to the new raised beds) have been tidied up a bit and now ready for the winter. In the pic you will notice a couple of cabbage stalks that we left when we cut the leaves off them. Not sure if it will happen over the winter but usually when you cut them off like that, the leaves grow back again. Value for money or what?

Is there anybody out there?

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The bed at the bottom of the garden is always a bit of a problem as it only gets sunlight in the late afternoon. At the present moment the nasturtiums have taken over and so has the borage behind them. We haven’t had a hard frost yet so it’s looking a little wild to say the least!

If you can remember we were going to “rest” the bed and fill it with the Thompson and Morgan Beneficial Flower seeds mix then COVID 19 came along. We were so fed up that one of the local shops had a 3 potato per person rule we put in a couple of rows of spuds plus some onions and broad beans there (see the  bed in July here). After they were harvested in mid-August we gave the bed a good tidy up (here) and boy has it grown since!

The state of play at the moment is a Globe Artichoke root (1) we did a swap with a mate at a local community garden (for some Egyptian walking onion bulbs) is now starting to grow and the brilliant cardoons (2 and 3) we bought at Shannon’s a few years ago have starting sprouting again. Talk about value for money! And in the middle of the crazy nasturtiums are a couple of rows of autumn sown broad beans (4). When will the growing ever end?

The day the worm(s were) turned

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We spent an enjoyable hour out the back this afternoon just before the light began to fade and the air got colder. We did have plans of what we were actually going to do beforehand but an unknown force (guilt perhaps?) made us get a garden fork and head down the Dalek bin and give the heap one last turn.

Things are slowing up down there and the egg boxes we didn’t rip up a few weeks ago had to be done as half an large egg box don’t break down half as well as tiny pieces of egg box especially now that winter is nearly upon us.

Whilst turning with the fork using an ungloved hand our knuckles were grazed on the side as usual. When will we ever learn that those Daleks are okay but nothing beats your wooden made square bin with some carpet thrown on the top as a lid.

Compost ingredients in the picture above includes (fact fans): guinea pig straw (plus waste), egg boxes and a couple of sprouting onions. We’ll lift the lid off in the spring to see how it has progressed.

The next job if we get the time soon is to clean up the pond a bit as it’s looking a bit rough. We think it may have sprung a small leak as the brick to the bottom right of the pond has been visible for a long while now even though over the past few months we’ve had a bit of rain. The oxgenating plant that has taken over needs a clear out too. Pond life eh? It never stops!

Misty in dub

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The weather’s been alright up until last night when it felt more like winter. We even had a visit from the Lewisham Heron yesterday who couldn’t get any of the fish in the pond due to the fine pea netting thrown over the top and gave up his statuesque posing after a few minutes. This morning we woke up to the above, mist galore. We reckon they’ll be a few jobs to be done in the garden this weekend, digging up dahlia tubers maybe one of them!

And here’s a great tune for those cold dark nights indoors, A man called Adam‘s Tic Toc (Disco Rockers Dub). It’s excellent stuff indeed, a nice off the wall dub mix reminding us of those great dub B sides on scratchy seventies seven inchers.

Which made us think of another great interpretation of dub from Bronx Dogs of Sizzla’s Rain Showers another piece of clever mixer madness with some nice cut ups thrown in plus what sounds like Tubby’s “Squawky”. A nice tune that works very well even at 33!

And while we’re looking back a few years here’s a great tune Imperial from Lazy Boy that has a lovely dub interlude at 1.16 mins in which could go on for ever in our eyes!

Dub don’t you just love it?

The return of the golden birch

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We had some nice weather during lockdown yesterday and during the lunch break (as we’re working from home) did a little bit of tidying up in the garden. Little and often as they say, even if it is just walking up and down the garden path wielding a pair of snippers and clipping here and there (cutting off the odd dead tomato and courgette stalk). It’s still gardening though isn’t it?

The stuff we sowed in the raised beds at the start of lockdown are still making progress, there’s some beetroot to be harvested, probably two parsnips and the odd tiny lettuce. It ain’t the good life for sure but it’s the life for us!

The upside down terrarium/fish bowl found in the street certainly gets used in the Weeds garden, it might have been moved yesterday to cover a pepper plant that is still going strong but previous to that it was keeping a bit of sprouting ginger and some garlic seedlings warm.

And just to prove it ain’t spring, our silver birch found in the street three years ago here is turning a lovely old shade of golden. It is November you know? The dahlias don’t seem to know it though! #lockdownlunchbreak

On the first weekend of lockdown Argos sent to we…

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It was a lovely morning, this the first saturday of the second UK lockdown so a bit of gardening was in order. It was only a light bit of gardening as we don’t know how long we’ll be locked inside for this time so we’ll make all the jobs stretch just in case. Anyway with gardening we at Weeds always prefer the “little and often” approach every time.

It was mainly a tidy up of the beds in front of the “Dad corner”, getting rid of the old tomato plants and whatever had self-seeded there. As you can see we’ve a new feature, (well we’ve had it for ages but it’s been hidden by self-seeded nasturtiums) part of the front wall that came down when we took out the ivy that was holding it up in the first furlough.

Also yesterday we threw out an Argos slow cooker we had for years that was on its last legs not before commandeering the inner crockpot as something to stick over the rhubarb crowns to keep them warm and come spring “force” the rhubarb to grow that little bit earlier. We know an old crockpot is not as good as candlelight in heated outbuildings (that’s the commercial way of forcing rhubarb. More about the practice here) but it don’t look too out of place in the garden. If they ask, we’ll tell people that it’s an expensive “dedicated rhubarb forcer/warmer” bought on HP from a specialist plant supplier (no mention of Argos either).

There were even a few forgotten spuds from the raised bed found too! Gardening during lockdown brings many suprises!

Goodbye to you my trusted friend

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The other evening the neighbours looked on thinking we were losing our marbles as we gave the lawn the last cut of the season. Dusk was fast approaching, the sun was still around but there’d been a fair bit of rain during the day so the grass wasn’t the driest it’s ever been.

When at the council we were always told give the grass the latest cut you could before the weather goes far too silly for mowing as this combined with an early spring cut with the mower blades on “High” would save you a lot of work (going over the grass a few times with the mower and constantly raking) in the long run. We here at Weeds swear by that advice!

Also a little bit of grass seed was put down to fill the gaps in the relatively newly sown area just outside the back door that was once a bit load of 1970’s crazy paving. It should grow at this time of year what with the rain and the odd bit of sunlight, unless the birds have it!

And here’s a nice bit of dub that’s been floating our boat of late…

Still life (with worms attached)

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And the heat in there is impressive too! Look at the build up of brandling worms at the bottom. We’ve just seen on the web you can buy them, 100 for £11! All we did is put a wet piece of cardboard down the bottom of the garden. Two days later, worms! Thanks to the great Bob Flowerdew for that! #theuniverseinthecompostbin

You’ve come a long way…

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It’s mad, the photo above shows the raised beds just before lockdown in March. My, how time’s flown eh? How many week’s have we been lockdown for? 14, 15, 16? The garden isn’t bothered how long though, it’s cracking on and with this present warm and wet weather here in London it’s getting on with what it does best. Look at those raised beds now (below), the spuds (Two bags of seed potatoes from Shannon’s. By the way the garden centre did a sterling job getting people supplied with stuff around the start of lockdown) are starting to take over and it’s becoming a bit of a jungle around there. There’s peppers, lettuce, carrots and a cabbage somewhere in amongst that lot! That’s our new incinerator too, ta for Marc B for dropping that off in a social distanced manner!

We’ve pulled out a few handfuls of spuds from around the potato plants making sure that the plant wasn’t disturbed too much and then we piled the earth/compost over the crown of the plant so any spuds near the surface wouldn’t have the chance to turn green. And here’s the spuds (below), we’re confused if they’re the first earlies, second earlies or premature maincrop ones. It doesn’t really matter, they tasted excellent and what did they taste of? Yes potatoes but real potatoes!

The lockdown may be getting us all down but if you’re fortunate enough to have a garden/windowsill/balcony and growing stuff, you know that it keeps you that little bit sane(r)! By the way here’s two tips we swear by here at Weeds, the first is to nip the sideshoots out of your tomato plants (not if they are the bush variety though) so all the goodness goes into the main stem and the flowers.

And a silly but effective one, if you know it’s going to rain get the hoe out a few hours beforehand and just scratch up the surface of somewhere in your garden that don’t look that grand. Below is a particulary not brilliant bit at the bottom of the garden which seems to get all sorts of weeds and bindweed a lot. We gave it a good “tip-around with a hoe” (as they used to say in the council) yesterday and it now looks great! We’re hoping it get’s a good covering of borage for the next couple of months to keep the bees happy. Happy lockdown gardening! #gardeninginlockdown #goingmadinlockdown

Midnight is the new 10pm

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It was lovely today, a bit hot at times but a good day to be out in the garden. We did something a little different, we went out there with no plans, just a broom, a hoe and pair of secateurs and see what jobs hit us at the time.

The pond is teeming with life at the moment, there’s hundreds of tadpoles and as you can see in the pic above there was something going on at the side as loads of them were flocking to that area, even the goldfish wanted to join in! A few water lily leaves and a couple of oxygenating plants were thinned out (and left on top of the netting for a while so if anything living was still on them, they wouldn’t have far to travel home.)

And we ripped off the polythene, cloches and bricks around the raised beds and stuck some bamboo canes in for that “established veg garden” look (even though it weren’t like that earlier today.) Everything is coming on nicely and some of the potato plants have even flower buds! Fingers crossed no more frost alerts as the protective polythene and old bed sheets have now been put out for the binmen!

By the way we have a new enemy at the moment, a crafty magpie who swoops in on a evening to rob the cat’s food just by the kitchen door. Who’d have thought it, the cheeky so and so! #gardeninginlockdown

And to accompany the writing of this gardening post the latest (64) This is a music show is playing with a great load of stuff as per mostly off CD but quality music all the same!

https://soundcloud.com/thisisamusicshow/this-is-a-music-show-064