Category Archives: Jobs to do

Sophisticated frost protection for beginners

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Here’s an example of one of our cheapskate frost protection schemes in situ in the bed at the bottom of the garden. We’ve got a couple of split bin bags down to keep the weeds out and the soil warm, an old vase, some glacé cherry containers and an old plastic cloche we found in the street years ago. They may be not look pretty but they will hopefully work to keep that damn frost out!

Thank goodness, there wasn’t a frost last night. Now the SE23 weather forecast has changed a bit, tonight is still supposedly going to be 5°C, tomorrow 9°C and from Friday night to Sunday night there’s lows of 3°C during the wee hours. So the protection will be back on for the next few nights and of course be taken off during the day if it heats up a little like when the sun came out today for a couple of hours.

We’ve seen online all sorts of frost protection from old clothes, net curtains to random bits of fabric draped over bamboo canes in a teepee. It’s not about what it looks like more about if it’ll work or not and what you have at hand, punk rock style.

And here’s a nice chilled tune made by a punk rocker so it says on Bandcamp, it’s from “Dan Rincon, longtime drummer of the prolific psych-punk band OSEES’” and the tune is called MotorRhythm, Wooden and it’s a good one if like us, you like a bit of out there downbeat.

A bit of improvisation

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The weather doesn’t look that great tonight, what with a forecast low of 4 degrees C. That’s the trouble with this time of year, we get a little bit of sunshine over a weekend and we think that the garden is under starters orders.

We’re a bit paranoid here, so we went out earlier and put what jam jars and a couple of plastic cloches that we had over some plants. We even improvised using those little plastic containers that glacé cherries come in, put over some small seed potato shoots. Let’s see how we get on with these tonight. Tomorrow isn’t looking good at 3 degrees C either so we reckon we’ll be putting them back on tomorrow too. It’s better to be safe than sorry as they say.

And just to add to the drama while we were out the back we were treated to a short hail storm. That’s all you need when you’re running about the garden at dusk covering random plants with glacé cherry containers and jam jars, what must the neighbours be thinking?

From our north London correspondent

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A big thanks to Debby H for sending us some pictures of how her garden is getting on now that we are on the cusp of spring. The bluebells (above) look great and the strawberrries (below) are now starting to flower.

We don’t use nets on our strawberries here as we only have a few plants dotted about but it is a great thing to keep the birds and other fruit eating pests off them. Apart from a little big of slug damage to a dahlia in her garden, things are looking are looking good. Great to hear that the peonies in the garden are doing well too. We’ve got one that was overshadowed by a shrub nearby so we gave the offending shrub a good haircut and because of having more light getting to it, the peony is doing much better now.

There’s some good stuff happening indoors as well which is very interesting. The cosmos seedlings we featured here a fortnight ago are coming on a treat!

If you remember, Debby just used the whole dead heads from last year’s plant that were just scattered and covered with compost and the seeds weren’t initially separated. They are looking great! Saving your own plant’s seeds are a great way of gardening on an economical tip.

Also Debby told us “The rudbeckia has germinated although it is still tiny” and “the 12 tomatoes are gradually growing very slowly”. Our tomatoes are the same and have even thought to start another batch off as they are so slow. Usually at this time of year we have a few very leggy tomato plants ready to go out but then again we didn’t start them just after Christmas as we usually are tempted to do.

Thanks for the pictures Debby and we look forward to seeing how things progres

Tulips from Lew-is-sham

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Yesterday we popped into that shopping emporium Lewisham Lldl and spied some gardening bargains. There were various variety packs of mixed summer bulbs and corms and we picked this one which was “Flower Masses Collection” for around £6. No idea if it is an actual bargain or not, but there’s 40 bulbs in there including one dahlia that went in a large pot near the house with a transparent plastic bag over it to keep any cold weather out. Also there’s some gladioli, lilly and african corn lilies that went in the ground probably a bit early but these things burn a hole in our pockets and we’re far too impatient to wait until the risk of frost is over sadly.

The bulb planting reminded us of a daft story from the Westminster City Council Gardening days that was covered in the Sounds From The South spot that we used to do many many moons years ago for the gardening programme The Dirt on Manchester’s Fab Radio International (show below). We wonder where Watford Mick is now?

There’s also a silly episode about when a gardener met some of his punk heroes in his council regulation Donkey Jacket here.

Best of luck with the weather and happy gardening over the bank holiday break!

 

Who flipped the weather switch?

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We awoke this morning to a cold and greyness which was a contrast to the last fews days where we’ve had a bit of sunshine. Yesterday it started nice then over the day we had a shower or two of hailstones then the sun went in and out a few times. We can’t complain as New Hampshire in the US is experiencing some deep snow at the moment.

We had plans today for some more gardening as well. Roll on the real spring not this pale imitation we’re having at the moment. We’ve stuck a picture of a poppy from a few years ago above to remind us that sometimes we do get good weather.

And by the way congratulations in advance to Charlie Harper of the punk band UK Subs who is 80 in May this year. As they say old punks never die they just stand at the back. They are planning to make his birthday on 25th May a national holiday for old punks and pints of Lager and Blackcurrant will be sold at 1977 prices in selected pubs*. London Transport are also getting in on the act and going to release a special Charlie Harper bus pass holder to put your 60+ Travelcard in. We at Weeds welcome all these moves and boo to the poser punks who will be putting these special travelcard holders up on ebay at inflated prices.
*Subject to availability and while stocks last. Punk Terms and Conditions apply.

And lay the binbag on the ground

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Over the last couple of days we’ve been out with more bin bags and the remainder of the seed potatoes so much so there’s no more left to plant. We are still very early with planting (the great Joe Maiden RIP used to say Good Friday was the traditional seed potato planting day) so let’s hope the weather is on our side and if it’s not, we’re hoping the bin bags do their job!

And for no reason at all here’s a gem from Creation Rebel, the title of the classic LP Dub from Creation. First heard here on a tinny transistor radio played by the great John Peel.

What a difference a day makes (again)

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Saturday was a lovely day so we tipped around in the garden, done some weeding and tidied up. Some seed spuds were sown in the old window frame on bricks (halfway in the picture on the left hand side). The rest of the spuds we procured from B&Q were put in empty egg boxes next to the window in the back room to start off the chitting process.

Come Sunday though, it was grey all day and from mid-morning constant drizzle but one thing with rain, even if you’ve just scratched the top layer of soil in a bed it makes it look great like you’ve spent hours working on it. Viva the good weather!

Rainbows over Lewisham

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Yesterday the weather forecast on the telly said it was officially the first day of spring even though we thought spring started around the (spring) solstice but what do we know? We’ve just looked online and here’s the official line: “The spring season associated with the vernal equinox, called astronomical spring, occurs on or around March 20, but meteorologists recognize March 1st as the first day of meteorological spring, which is based on annual temperature cycles and the Gregorian calendar.” Ah so now we know.

It’s been a weird mix of rain and sunshine here today and on the way back from an early morning jaunt to see if they had any gardening based centre-aisle specials in Lewisham Lidl, we caught a rainbow (above).

This afternoon between the showers we tidied up the bed next to the garage, trimmed off any dead wood and gave the soil a good hoe over. A couple of days previous we cut the lawn (giving it three quick cuts as it was so overgrown. We did the old council springtime trick of first cut of the mower on long and then two “shorts”, also a rake in-between every cut) it looks a bit better now and another cut in a week will have it looking great. For a maximum “crisp” look to a lawn, tinker around the edges with some clippers or a strimmer.

Whenever you think the season starts, watch the weather as it’s well cold tonight and for God’s sake don’t be fooled just because we have a couple of sunny afternoons of late that spring has finally sprung.

 

It’s time to sow (or is it?)

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In-between the rain and sunshine yesterday, we got out into the garden and sowed some seed in the raised bed at the side with some transparent plastic tacked over the top so to create a cheap mini greenhouse. Those pallet box collars we were given a few years ago have had a good life, the polythene on the top don’t last sadly and needs replacing every year but they do work. In these “poor people’s greenhouses” we sowed some beetroot, the Lldl lettuces we purchased last year and some parsnips. Parnsips are funny anyway and need fresh seed but these seeds were bought last week so touchwood should be okay if the soil gets warm enough in there. Fingers crossed we will get some germination out there.

And speaking of germination we have had some success on the kitchen window with two  cherry tomatoes showing their tiny seed leaves. Great stuff, all we need is the rest of the windowsill seeds to kick off now.

Local seed event alert

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Thanks to Ruth for getting in touch about this great event on Sunday 25th February 2024 from 1-4pm held at the AFRIL allotment of refuge at One Tree Hill Allotments SE23 3NP. It looks well interesting, there’s a bit of a seed swap, a free vegan lunch, a tour of the garden and at 2.30pm talks, a workshop and a Q&A session. It’s free and more details and tickets can be obtained here. Thanks for letting us know Ruth!

And this is a pic of a scarecrow at One Tree Allotments from a couple of years ago. We think that the coat has been changed for a yellow one now but it is still there and still creeps us out when we’re passing by. It’s those hands placed casually in the pockets that does it.