We’ve got a Barbara Hepworth in our garden (supposedly)

Cheers to our mate Nic G across the pond for letting us know that the thing we found in the skip the other night is more than likely an example of sand-casting leftovers.

We’ve now got it as a sculpture at the bottom of the garden (just by the part under fence that is used as a cat/fox run) and with the sunlight on it this morning looks like a fox looking up at the sky.

We are hoping to pass it off as a mini-Barbara Hepworth next time Antiques Roadshow visits Catford and give the “specialists” some spiel about “Dame Barbara gifted it to my late father after he tidied up some flower beds in St Ives.”

We do think it looks similiar to a fox today. Who knows what it may look like at 3pm, sand casting leftovers perhaps? We do hope not.

Closer to home AKA fish food, courgettes and tomatoes

Things are looking great in the garden, the late sown Courgette/Zucchini plants are flowering and here’s one of them with a little fruit showing on the left hand side (above). In the picture is also some sort of wild geranium/pelargonium that came out of a wild flower seed mix we flung around the area beside it.

There are a couple of fruits starting to ripen on the very early sown tomato (above) we put in a broken food recycling bin that is up near the house. And (below) an ebay purchase (of £11) of fish food for the goldfish in the pond (50p for size comparison). Reckon this’ll last until the end of the decade! Does fish food have a “use by” date? Another silly question put to you by Weeds up to me knees.

Have a good gardening week and “may the comfrey liquid, bees and weather by with you” as they say on GQT.

SE23 update

We’re days away from the summer solstice and it’s crept up so quickly that we hadn’t even noticed. One minute we’re checking when the last frost will be and now it’s nearly summer, crazy business!

The random sown poppies are popping up all over the place (above) and that mullein plant (below) is sending up its mad flower stalk and it won’t be long until it flowers now!

How does your garden grow? Pictures to one deck pete at geemail dot comm please.

 

Feeling dire and expecting rain overnight

We’re not feeling too hot here at Weeds HQ but hopefully it’s something some antibiotics can sort out. Talking of hot, it’s supposdly going to be 18°C overnight with some crazy rain (which the garden needs at the moment to be honest).

To cheer things up here’s something we haven’t heard in ages, first heard on one of Mikey Dread’s JBC Radio shows many many years ago. Quality tune!

It may be raining but who cares when this is playing

The clouds are going grey and that day of supposed gardening may be not materialise but we found this and things seem to be a lot brighter in our life. It’s possibly the craziest version of Sleng Teng ever! Hats off and umbrellas up to the great Center of the Universe. Cheers to Jesse Yuen for inspiring us finding this.

And if rumour has it, all the secrets to life (and sleng teng) are possibly contained in the first few seconds of this.

Never mind the brollies, have a good Saturday grapple fans.

Quaking grass and shortwave space travel

We’ve had this in the garden before and God only knows how it actually got there (have they self seeded themselves or are they the fruits of our anarchistic “throw them anywhere” sowing method) but it’s the wonderful quaking-grass. It’s only a small plant but is great close up and we’ve just found out that the seeds are good source of food for the birds.

We’ve got a flower on our courgette plant we sowed in a pot when we thought it may be a bit late so it’s always worth trying! How’s people’s gardens going? Do send some pictures please!

Also this weekend on the shortwave bands Imaginary Stations bring you Starship Skybird. The show is broadcast on Saturday 7th June 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 8th June 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz (via the services of Shortwave Gold).

Start the countdown to this weekend when you can strap yourself in for a trip of a lifetime. Tune in, make yourself a cosmic cocktail if that’s your thing and enjoy the sounds of space.

There’s all sorts of space madness with music (and some great jingles) you may have never heard before from DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore and at 6.15 mins in there’s One Deck Pete presents a ride into space on a 60+travelcard mix. Grab yourself a shortwave radio or tune in via here.

A mullein in Cincinnati

Cheers to our good friend across the pond Justin Patrick Moore for sending us a picture of the mullein plant in his garden. Justin mentioned “I let the plants grow when they pop up, even though some consider them a weed. People smoke the leaves for lung issues and make an oil from the flowers for ear infections. Its a medicinal weed, that in its second year, goes up past the knees!”

And thanks to Justin for forwarding a great tune named after said plant from MF Doom. Cheers Justin!

Even more pictures from Kyiv

Great to hear from Wlad (US7IGN) from Kyiv as it’s been a while and thanks for sending us some wonderful pictures from a local park (outside and under glass). There’s a great selection of plants here!

His good friend Sergiy (UT3UFD) who if you remember is growing a banana plant (here) is now trying his hand at bonsai (below). The tree looks great and we do love the flowers!

Thanks for the pictures Wlad and do keep in touch!