Category Archives: Wildlife

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.

Walk on

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The Egyptian Walking Onions arrived this morning and now have gone into the ground post-Storm Dudley and pre-Storm Eunice. The plants were well packaged and arrived in a well healthy condition and we even got a bonus sprouting lower bulb as well.

A couple were put in the raised beds which have a top made out of a wooden frame with some plastic over the top. The other one was put into a tub with a glass jar pushed in the compost a good bit for protection. Even though the plants are well hardy we’re taking no chances. We’ll keep you posted on these horticultural oddities! #egyptianwalkingonions

Back to our old ways

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Years ago we were fascinated by the strange looking Egyptian Walking Onion plant and the great (and official may we add) website of the plant here which has a UFO/”Out there” quality to it that makes us smile.

It’s been a few years since any Walking Onions have surfaced in our garden so we’ve just bought a couple of plants on ebay and hope this summer to have a few of the onions “walking” across our vegetable beds. Have a look online about the plant and see if you fancy having a go too. They are very odd looking and are a bit of a talking point (and possibly you may be able to get in touch with alien beings judging by the graphics on the official site but we cannot guarantee that what with COVID). We’ll keep you updated on the plants as soon as they come in. EWO’s are the next big thing we’ve just been told!

A tune for a frosty Friday morning

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A big cheers to Your Host of This is a music show “The finest second-hand vinyl finds only on shortwave” for alerting us to this tune from The Romeos from an LP called Precious Memories which was played on the show the other week. There’s is something about this tune that grows on you!

May 2022 be a good one…

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A big Happy New Year to all our gardening, music and radio friends from across the globe and from around the corner. May 2022 be a good one for you all, we hope your vegetables and flowers do well, that you find some great tunes this year and may Solar cycle 25 be with you.

We had a little tidy up this afternoon as the weather was so mild, we took the pump out of the pond and gave it a clean and a dry and have put it away until the spring. We also got a little fire prepared for a New Year’s Eve mini burn up later.

To end the year here’s firstly a wonderful tune from Grey Frequency called Chimes (Rai Internazionale) from the forthcoming Shortwave Transmissions project from Cities and Memories.

And in the background whilst writing the post we had on This is a music show 146 with the top 25 tunes Your Host found thrift shopping in 2021. As he explains on the website here: “This Is A Music Show” is a weekly hour-long music program featuring records found secondhand at thrift stores, garage sales, and flea markets. Each show features a wide variety of music from around the world. Some tracks are good, some a great, some are terrible, but it’s all interesting (I hope).” A show you have to listen to if you love music!

And at number 20 on this year’s countdown is the classic The Cables “Be a man”. What a tune! Here’s to a great new year!

On the way to the peak of normal

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Now we’ve reached the winter solstice we’re on the way to longer days and hopefully warmer ones too. This morning was a cold one and there was a frost. The dahlias need forking up, cleaned up and stored indoors and the garden needs a general tidy up before the real cold weather sets in.

For the first time in years we’ll be having Brussels sprouts fresh from the garden on Christmas day as the don’t look like they’ve “blown” (here) and/or nothing’s wiped their rear end on the stalks (see story here). Compared to the ones in the organic shops they’re small but who cares as they look good enough. They take a while to grow and we’ll let you know after Christmas dinner if they tasted alright.

Just after Christmas is the KMTS End of year broadcast on the shortwaves via WRMI on Monday 27th December 2021 at 0000 utc on 9395 kHz. There’s a couple of mixes from One Deck Pete including “The circles of your mind” featuring these two great tunes below. If you haven’t a shortwave radio you can always click here on the afternoon after for the listen again of the show.

Anyway a big cheers to all our friends around the globe (and around the corner) and hope you all have a great festive period and remember it won’t be long now until we can start sowing and get out again, let’s hope 2022 is lots better than 2021.