Category Archives: Wildlife

Our job on the side

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We spent about an hour today clearing around the side bed at the end of the decking towards the pond, right up to the part where we cleared yesterday. There’s a blueberry (the left of the above pic) that has been swamped by that horrible purple plant for a long while now and as we’ve thinned the stuff around it we should see some progress even though they should be in acidic soil not our London clay soil. There’s still a bit to do under the variegated hebe and there’s loads of the creeping plant behind it but we reckon we’re doing okay. The weather’s supposed to be nice tomorrow so we’ll be cracking on.

And there’s life from the celery, god know’s what’s going to happen to it but it’s growing! There’s a link here that shows you how you can do it even though we didn’t suspend over water, we just stuck it in the raided bed! #ifitgrowsitgrows #gardeningduringlockdown

Constructing in a Blue Peter style

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Nothing was really done in the garden this morning apart from putting some vegetable peelings in the compost heap (that’s still gardening isn’t it?) but come the late afternoon the sun came out for a short while. In that time some plastic sheeting was tacked onto the other two palettes, making them now a home for spuds and some rows of carrot seeds. This simple construction like the other couple we made this week will give the plants protection from the forthcoming cold days & nights we’re supposed to be having so the weather report on Countryfile tonight reckoned.

A left over stick of celery was stuck under the terrarium to see if it would grow and a wormery was hastily put together using an old butchers bucket that used to be a home for worms a few years ago. A bin bag and a concrete slab was put over it for good measure. On the last two subjects, will anything happen you reckon?

We’ve all been told to garden from home

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There’s been a lot of keenness in the garden today what with the sun coming out and we’ve spent a good few hours since 10 am tipping around, sowing, tidying and mowed the grass. Some suntan lotion was even applied!

You know for a fact it’ll probably snow all next week but that’s a risk we’ve got to take, it’ll only be the cost of a packet of seeds and a few seed potatoes. You never know what’ll happen and it’s worth giving it a go.

We even used the last of the comfrey feed we had left over from last year so started a new batch. Comfrey leaves are now springing up and we used them combined with some fresh nettles and some borage leaves for added goodness. It’ll be stinking up the place in a few weeks time but the jazzy Boots home brew bucket is way down the garden and the liquid is worth its weight in gold when it’s ready!

It’s good to get out there (while you can!)

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We don’t know what the weather has in store for us today but last Sunday it was glorious and a few gardening jobs were done! The garden pond pump was cleaned and the wires put back together again with some dry solder joints and a good bit of electrical tape after some roadent had gnawed through them last year. The pond pump now works!

The back bed was dug over again and raked to a nice tilth as we’ll be sticking some wild flower seeds down there after the frosts and give the bed some rest from the vegetable growing for a change. Even the lawn got its first cut in true council style, one cut on very high, then one a little lower.

And some palettes we were given years ago were put into use as some raised beds. All we need now is a big bag of compost to stick in them to get them to a nice height!

When the sun’s out the old enthusiasm seems to lift. Roll on the good weather!

Smells like teen spirit? No.

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We here at Weeds swear by comfrey liquid used as a plant feed. Ours is made well out of the way at the bottom of the garden in a 1980’s Boots homebrew fermenting bin. A good few handfuls of the leaves of the plant are chucked in the bin alongside a few of borage and nettle and are left to rot in a small amount of water for a good few weeks weighed down with a housebrick, talk about simplicity!

It’s a brilliant feed used well diluted but what of the pong you may ask? Comments heard the last few times we’ve used it have ranged from “that smell is blxxdy awful!” to “that’s worse than the wiff of a thousand dirty ashtrays” to “urgghhh, that reminds me of body odour off a sweaty armpit stuck in your face on a tube at rush hour times ten”. Never mind the niff, it’s brilliant stuff, it’s cheap and works wonders! #comfreyliquidforever #comfreyplantfeediswhereitsat More comfrey info here.

Don’t step on the cracks

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A trip down the garden path tonight produced this trio of pics. Above: The fiver’s worth of water lily we bought from the Lewisham pet shop (whose website’s by-line is “For all your reptile needs”) a few years ago has gone mad this summer. We counted nearly 7 flowers on it the other day. The fish are using it as shade during the sunny periods and the tadpoles as mini swimming pools. The pond need a bit of thinning out this weekend as it would be nice to give the inhabitants more room. We now get our fish food via ebay, and you get double or treble of the volume of food for the price compared to what you get in those supermarket tubs.

The pink flowers shown above don’t look like much and as a plant it’s a bit on the scrappy side but disregard that and grow night scented stock for it’s evening smell!

And somewhere in the middle of the tomatoes and broad beans growing against the garage wall and the dahlias is the Thompson & Morgan trial spaghetti squash. We reckon it’ll outgrow the space in no time!

And finally a dubbed out one for the warm night we’ll be getting tonight (where it’ll be hard to sleep even with the windows are open!), it’s from Masis called Unearthed Dub  and it’s the Frenk Dublin mix. Tune!

Saturday stag night fun

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A few weeks ago a couple of the Weeds team went on a bat walk around Camberwell New Cemetery which was great fun. It’s not every Friday night you can wander around in the dark in your local cemetery carrying bat detectors.

On the night we were told if we wanted to encourage more wildlife including stag beetles into our garden we’d have to keep some wood piles and have the odd rotting stump lying about. Well we heeded the expert advice and have been visited a few times by the friendly stag beetle (here’s one from tonight). When these things take off it reminds us of a heavily fortified military vehicle. Bonkers!

A fountain faux pas

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There were big plans in store for the Weeds garden this weekend but due to the cold weather nothing was actually done. As reported last week, a new solar-powered pond fountain (due to the last one going for a burton after just two years or so we thought) was purchased for £49.99 but it was a small price to pay for keeping the midges away and the fish and pond skaters happy.

The whole kit and kaboodle was to be replaced Saturday afternoon combined with the pond being given a good clean-out but due to the weather all we did was plugged in the new charger unit (the model purchased was exactly the same as the last one and the old pump and fountain were still ok). As we said, we were initially fed up as the last fountain didn’t have that long a lifespan. And then we read the instructions…

Let’s just say the words “Bxggxr” and “Dxmn” came to mind. We must remember though there was a point when we moved in years ago (pic below) where we were going to fill the pond in but it was thanks to our good friends Anu and Chris who suggested we keep it going. Thank God we listened!

We’ve had problems with it but here’s to the pond and its many visitors over the years. Big shout to all of the Forest Hill pond dwellers!

Competition results

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The winner of the Vertical rodent of the week goes to this squirrel seen on the side of Weeds HQ the other day. What you can’t see are the two cats on the pavement below. Gladly the squirrel made it away safely! #squirrelonaveritcaltip

And the winner of the ambient dub track of the week is Adam Prescott with his track Schism (Lion Charge Records). Lovely heavy dub with strange noises that have the touch of the Lee Perry’s about them. Can’t say fairer than that!

November spawned a monster

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A few photos of the state of play in the Weeds garden at the moment. There’s fun and frolics in the pond with the goldfish and this year’s batch of tadpoles and it’s not looking too murky in there at the moment. There’s no sign of that thieving Lewisham heron either thanks to the folks at Shannon’s for telling us to put pea netting over the top of the pond (with a few escape routes dotted about for the local mini-wildlife).

The poppies are doing their thing too. Any seed heads that form we dry out and distribute around the garden so they’ll come back next summer.

The vegetable bed at the bottom of the garden has moved on since last month. The spuds are on their way, the alderman peas are starting to grow and we’re finally seeing the runner beans germinate. And about time too!