Volunteers or were they meant to be?

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Earlier this year we were given a mixture of seed packets that came free with gardening magazines. We’ve had all sorts and usually just threw then in corners of vegetable beds or wherever there was a spare space.

Just by the raised beds at the side, there’s a mixture of a couple of cherry tomato plants and this (above). We put the photograph into Plant.id and found out it is a Common Mallow. We then looked at the Wildlife Trust website and they had this to say about it (here) “Certain parts of common mallow are edible (leaves, flowers and seeds) and there is evidence that the Romans may have deliberately cultivated the plant to be used for food and medicine.” It’s not a bad looking flower either and we are not going to pull it up for now.

We may have covered this before but the above (according to plant.Id) is buckwheat. This appeared from out of nowhere on a container by a fence/screen and it’ll be staying for this season we think. Wikipedia has told us it’s a pseudocereal and it is related to sorrel, knotweed and rhubarb. The things you find in your garden!

And here’s a great tune from Optimus Featuring Oskar Gudjonsson with Four Point One.

South London garden report – August 2025

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Earlier this year we had a report from Rich R who had just returned from Sicily and sent us some photographs including one of a nice flower (above) that we had not heard of called lantana (more here).

The week after seeing the pictures we bought a couple of lantana plants off ebay, not sure what happened to the other one but here’s one of them. As far as we read it’s a perennial so perhaps next year it will look better. We’ve just read online that in some places they can be invasive and considered a noxious weed, blimmin’ heck on that note we’ll keep them in a pot.

 

The salvia we bought from B&Q  (above) is looking good, it’s getting the odd bit of comfrey liquid every now and again and a water if we see that the soil is bone dry around it. More on salvia care here.

 

And finally a shot of the cosmos under the dead tree. Do send us your gardening pictures and a song recommendation (if we like it we’ll post it up with the article but no Cliff Richard/Coldplay please as a refusal often offends). Have a good Sunday and enjoy this sunshine!

North London garden report – August 2025

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A big thanks to Debby H for sending us some pictures and an update of her garden up in north London. Just writing this now is making us think how fast this year is going, it’s nearly the end of August, it seemed like the start of the year not that long ago.

As Debby wrote accompanying her photographs “My Ornithogalum plant (above) now has 9 flowers. We never had 9 before!” It’s looking brilliant Debby.

The cosmos (above) are doing well. We have some of the same cosmos here and even the odd couple of plants we have it’s a welcome sight but a bed of them like above are well cheering to see. We need more cosmos growing everywhere!

“Finally, we have picked two of our pears. I didn’t know till recently that you pick them while they are still hard and let them soften up afterwards.” Brilliant stuff Debby, they look great. This gardening lark does reap rewards! Hope there’s more fruit to pick as the weeks progress, ta for the pictures Debby.

On the slow-mo trance at this time of a Saturday morning

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We can’t get enough of this tune since first hearing this. It’s released on the great Serafin Audio Imprint and as they say on the tin (labelled Bandcamp), “We are a fine little Imprint from Germany supporting slow and beautiful music all around the world” and they don’t half! This one is from Laaar and it’s called A familiar feeling and by the way, all of the EP it’s from is worth listening to!

And if you like tunes that sample shortwave radio like we do, here’s one by Hali Palombo called Contestia using a vocal sample off the Shannon Volmet, more about what a Volmet is here.

Like a shoplifter out of nowhere…

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Two Paradise Garage classics were heard in a couple of retail establishments earlier today. The first was “My Love is free” by Double Exposure heard in a coffee/expensive sausage roll shop in Herne Hill at 9.30 am.

Later on while walking through Lewisham Shopping Centre (home of probably the cleanest public loos in London) at about 12.30 pm The Fatback Band‘s “Going to see my baby” was coming through the speakers. What next, a bit of Death Metal in the meat aisle in Tesco sometime this week?

What’s the best tune you have heard being played in a shop? Answers please via the comments and we’ll blog up a chart.

By the way here’s a classic Paradise Garage cassette from supposedly1982 but possibly recorded a few years later.

Gil Scott Heron – The Bottle
The Clash – The Magnificient Dance
Cymande – Bra
Loose joints – Is it all over my face
Double Exposure – My love is free
Exodus – Together Forever
First Choice – Double Cross
First Choice – Dr Love
Lenny Williams – Running (mixed with Man Fridays Love Honey, love heartache acapella.)
Fatback Band – Going home to see my baby
Loleatta holloway & Salsoul orchestra – runaway
Shades of love – Body to body
Positive force – We got the funk
Roy Ayers – Running away
Salsoul orchestra – Ooh, I love it (love break) 
Salsoul orchestra – You’re just the right size
Carl Bean – Born this way

One for those shortwave airwaves

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As usual while we were putting together a shortwave mix last night, a great tune was found. This one is from the golden year of 2012 and it’s from Equipe du Son and the tune is called Lesson 1. A lovely bit of uptempo electronica for a Saturday which was a day where the sun was trying to make up its mind whether to come out or not. Another reason to love the tune is that the chord structure is slightly reminscent of Archbishop Carl Bean’s Born This Way. Enjoy the tune before the weather gets boiling hot again.

Cosmos fever

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A big thanks to Debby H for starting this current wave of cosmos appreciation here at Weeds. Hers are presently looking great in situ (above).

We know a couple of us had some problems with slugs eating some of our seedlings but that’s not going to stop us trying again next year. We started off a good few but the only ones that survived were the plants under the dying cherry tree which are giving us a few nice blooms at the moment (above).

And above and below are from Mike & Julia‘s garden near Coventry. Great stuff!

Gardening is about having a go and if the slugs got your seedlings this year it doesn’t mean they will next year. Out with the beer traps and the copper tape and your other favourite anti-slug tricks and see what happens. Another good thing about the old horticulture is the practice of swopping and passing on plants and seeds. Keep the old circle going around! Cheers again to Debby H!

Saturday night mellow

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While doing another mix for the shortwaves we found this excellent track from out of stockport from J-Walk called Winter Moon Rendezvous. It’s a nice mellow track for a Saturday night.

And the other night we (re)discovered the cassette label PetPets’ TAPES out of France. There’s some wonderful stuff on their Bandcamp page here and the releases are as cheap as chips. Here’s a couple of tunes from a tape called Majaal – Songs of Naam.

 

It’s in mint condition mate, honest

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We’ve just looked at that John Peel auction that Gerry Hectic alerted us to last month (original post here), that had a couple of lots which contained our fanzine Ded Yampy. Looks like they’ve been sold! £190 and £140 (above) but that’s nothing compared to a John Lennon signed LP for £10,000 (below). Who’s got the money for that?

We’re now thinking of getting into the auction game ourselves and our first “lot” will be the 30 or so reggae 12″ers we found at a south London market last year. We were so excited with finding them we put on a poker face while flicking through the boxes as not to alert the seller/other record hunters that we had found some gems (or so we thought).

We omitted to check the condition of the records at the time as we were so excited. On the bus home we took a look and were shocked to see how bad they were. We learned a lesson that day, check the condition! Even a good clean didn’t help (above).

That is nothing compared to the time we popped out for a pint of milk and came back 2 hours later relieved of £20 but the owner of some great rare old reggae sevens procured from the back of a Peckham nail bar that once been a record shop. Our excuse this time was that the lighting was dim in there so didn’t look too hard at the actual vinyl. More likely our eyes and brain were on dimmed if you have a look at this one from The Wailers (above). There’s even a phone number scratched into the other side. Check before you buy, excitement or no excitement!

Let’s get cool in the pool

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Here’s a lovely chilled-out balearic mix from a long time friend Will J, who actually introduced us to the exellent Echo Chamber radio show on KFAI many many moons ago we remember (Dr Strangedub of said show’s raised beds were the feature of last post funnily enough!)

Reminiscent of those old C90’s from Jose Padilla and the balearic bailiff himself Phil Mison, the hour’s tape includes some excellent tracks including this one:

It’s a mix well worth playing loud when the sun comes out next (or even when it’s raining as it will cheer you up). Good stuff Will!