Category Archives: Wildlife

Operation Foxglove

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It was another lovely weekend so we did a bit of tipping around with a hoe around the bed nearest the house that have the foxgloves in them. We were given three plants a couple of years ago and they’ve spread like wildfire. There’s some dahlias in there that still haven’t sprouted yet and we wonder if we’re either not patient enough or something’s wrong with them.

The bed of the right hand side had a tidy up too. It’s looks a million times better and we can actually see what we have in there now. A few of the plants were bought on special offer on QVC off the telly last year. We were told they supposedly do a great gardening show on there on a Sunday morning.

As for the madness that is the compost heap, the stuff in there is breaking down a lot quicker than the dalek and it’s hell of a lot easier the get a fork in for a quick mix too.

Trouble is at the moment there’s a lot of flies about there meaning it’s a bit unbalanced. There’s a lot more of the “green” stuff in there and needs a bit more of the “browns” so in the next few days we’ll give it a good mix and throw in some cardboard and egg boxes. It’s all kicking off in the garden now!

Something old, something new, something wood

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We’ve been a bit busy in the garden making good use of the lovely weather we’ve been having hence no new posts until now. Today has started gloomy and we’re expected to have a couple of days of this until the weekend when it brightens up again which is great news.

We heard from our good friend across the pond Justin Patrick Moore who has started a new project, something that is brand new to us here at Weeds. It’s a hugelkultur bed. As it says online: “Hugelkultur is a centuries-old, traditional way of building a garden bed from rotten logs and plant debris. These mound shapes are created by marking out an area for a raised bed, clearing the land, and then heaping up woody material (that’s ideally already partially rotted) topped with compost and soil.” http://www.almanac.com

More info here on this different sort of raised bed that made us think initially of the Victorian hot beds. Best of luck with that Justin, do let us know how you get on with it as it sounds great and looks good too!

A couple of years ago a good friend gave us a couple of foxglove plants and they’ve multiplied and starting to come alive this year. Self seeded plants are sometimes a pain (in the case of spuds left in the ground or weeds) but these foxgloves are brilliant, even the one coming out of the brickwork on the garage.

The raised beds by the Dad Corner are starting to burst into life. The seed potatoes that were put in extra early are starting to grow and the overwintered garlic in the 2nd raised bed on the right are well on their way. Shame we didn’t have much luck with the shallots which just withered away. Remember we’re still in May and there’s reports of the odd unexpected frosts about so still keep an eye on the weather forecast for those cold nights and keep those old net curtains handy!

In the wild bit at the bottom which doesn’t get much light where’s there’s a row of spuds, cardoons and some wildflower mix from those beebombs and the odd assortment of cheap seed packets is started to look a bit “wild” instead of looking a bit untended. We’re trying to get it looking wild like the beds at the Horniman’s Gardens (below) which’ll take a few years and a bit of effort but it’s worth trying!

Where have all the flowers gone?

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On Saturday morning while we were out and about on our travels we were told of an interesting garden in development around the back of a charity shop.

When we got to the said plot we were greeted with some nice raised beds surrounded by walls with a wooden frame and wire mesh that were covered in numerous empty plant pots all connected up to a clever irrigation system. Even the gate to get in had pots on the back of it, talk about vertical veg and not wasting any space!

No idea what they may be growing but we wonder if it’s micro-greens on a commercial basis. We did see some fruit bushes ready to go in too. Whoever is taking over this garden is taking it very seriously.

Also this weekend we had a right of mixture of weather. It was gorgeous yesterday with the sun out most of the day but today it was a few degrees colder and we even had a bit of drizzle. As it’s still cold at night we have a variety of different kinds of plant protection from jam jars, the tops of propagators and plastic mini-cloches plonked over some tomato and pepper seedlings. (Above) the mini veg patch at the bottom of the garden with the frost protection and the plastic mushroom bought from a bric-a-brac stall at a summer festival which is placed over a cut off washing line pole. Keep an eye on the temperatures at night as we’re still not out of the doldrums yet!

It’s the little things in life

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We took a walk in the garden this morning to check on everything especially stuff that was undercover in old jam jars and home made cloches as it’s been quite cold the last couple of nights. By the way if you ever need a last frost estimator you can check here but it’s only a guide. We do it the old fashioned way and check the weather forecast.

On the inspection we saw that the Egyptian Walking Onions were bursting into life and it looks like there’s a start of some topsets forming (above).

And these (above) are the first of the Mashua that has come up too which we got from the seed swap a few weeks ago. These Nasturtium type plants have edible tubers if you get the right conditions which we’ll doubt we’ll have in SE23 but who knows, stranger things have happened.

Shortwave bargains, bargains, bargains

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On Sunday 10th April 2022 at 11pm UK time (10pm UTC) on WRMI on 9395 kHz is the first of a set of transmissions called KBIN if you want to hear something a bit different this weekend. Expect several mixes including some for KMRT and WGTR (Golden Throats Radio).  If you haven’t a shortwave radio use an online software defined radio like this one here and tune into 9395 kHz on the dial. There’s even 50% off for the first 50 listeners so get in early!

Have a look here for some previous programmes from the imaginary stations crew, and if you like a bit of dub…

Wade in the water

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We hope you had a good Easter and all is well in the garden now that the good weather is upon us. We’d still advise to take it easy putting tender plants outdoors as you never know what the weather will be like and it’s still only April. We’ve been hardening off the veg plants (pic below) by sticking them outdoors for most of the day to get them used to what it’s like out there in the real world.

The pond (top pic) has really woken up now with some frolicking frogs, the odd newt and goldfish sharing the space. The Lewisham pet shop bought water lily is starting to sprout and we welcome a new addition to the pond, some bare rooted stuck Watermint procured off ebay in an old chimney pot which was elsewhere and now submerged in its rightful place (above).

And we’ve gone right off the idea of the Dalek type compost bin as the old fashioned wood version is doing well and giving off some warmth from the grass clippings after a good old weekly mix using a garden fork.

And while we were writing this post we’ve been listening to the latest This is a music show as recorded by @DazDude4000. It’s a lot better quality this week. Enjoy the Bank Holiday!

Dub gardening from around the world

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Cheers to our good mate in Germany Phil Harmony for sending us these two pictures this morning of a suprise he got when he cut a tomato this morning for breakfast. We only found out through the magic of the internet that this is called Vivipary and “occurs in overripe fruit when seeds have reached maturity and the natural hormone, abscisic acid (ABA), is reduced.” Well you learn something new every day!

And also a pic from a while ago of what he found in his kitchen sink after coming back from a ten day holiday. Big up the guerilla pepper!

And cheers to another gardening/music friend of ours Dr Strangedub for playing Jazz’min & Madtone’s LP Livicate on the 2nd March’s Echo Chamber on KFAI (which is a show well worth tuning into every week!) and for playing One Deck Pete’s “Give a little whistle” mix (featuring tracks by Joakim, Marcel, Roscoe Wethers and Felix Laband) on the show to at 71.35 mins in. Big shout to Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss! Click here for the archive of recent shows.

Where have all the flowers gone?

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Tomorrow evening Wednesday 9th March 2022 at 5pm UK time there will be a transmission to Europe of The Scented Garden (a nod to gardeners and gardening music lovers everywhere) on 3955 kHz. If you haven’t a shortwave radio at 5pm tomorrow tune in here. After the broadcast the audio will be posted up here.

At the start of the programme is a 15 minute mix from Weeds’ own One Deck Pete called “A tribute to council gardeners everywhere” featuring tracks by Dudley Perkins,
Hugh Masekela, Beyond The Wizzard’s Sleeve and Dennis Brown. Expect some gardening related tunes, pruning advice and more. Onwards and upwards!

More stuff up our street

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A couple of local events happening soon which are well up our street so to speak. The first is the Open Day at Farmstead Road Community Garden which features a Seed Swap amongst other stuff. It’s on Saturday 12th March 2022 from 10-1pm at Farmstead Road Community Garden SE6 3EH.

And at Glengall Wharf Gardens SE16 6NF is a “playful, practical interactive workshop on Permaculture ethics and principles” which sounds good to us! It’s on various dates and more info is here. They’ve other good courses on there as well so have a look at what’s on offer here. As we keep saying, roll on spring!

Coming soon!

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Last Sunday we visited the Seed Swap at Glengall Wharf Garden, Peckham SE15 6NF. It was a lovely morning and we picked up a great assortment of seeds including some Texsel Greens (Ethiopian Mustard), some nice tomato varieties and lots of poppy seeds.

We do love a seed swap here at Weeds and just found out about another (above) at Hither Green on Sunday 13th March 2022 from 11am-1pm at Springbank Road Community Garden (thanks to @LewishamGardens on twitter for letting us know!)

Also coming soon is the transmission of The Scented Garden (a nod to flowers and gardeners and also John Peel’s Perfumed Garden show) on Wednesday 9th March 2022 at 1700 utc on 3955 kHz which features at the start of the transmission One Deck Pete‘s “A tribute to council gardeners everywhere” mix. Tune in here.And whilst we’re on the subject of music, here’s a great tune from Islam Chipsy & Eek called El Dynasor. It’s certainly a lively number and one to get those hips a swaying.