Seedswapping, we’re seedswapping (and spud buying)

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Here’s news of three interesting events (all FREE!) coming up in the forthcoming months. The first is the Incredible Edible Lambeth Seed Swap on Saturday February 9th from 12-3pm at The Garden Museum, Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7LB. More details here.

The second is The Roots & Shoots Potato Day over Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th February 2019 from 11.00am-2.30pm at Roots & Shoots, Walnut Tree Walk, Lambeth SE11 6DN. More details at www.roots&shoots.org 

And the third another Potato Day on Sunday March 3rd from 11-4pm at The Garden Museum, Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7LB. More details here. More details about Potato Days nationwide here. 

Superhero dahlias are the next big thing

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We booked a day off work yesterday so in the morning popped down Shannon’s to get some seed compost and whilst we were there picked up a delightfully named dahlia called Hollyhill Spiderwoman. It’s a mad looking “cactus” variety with blooms that can grow up to a whopping six to eight inches across! How good is that? Flowers “as big as a dinnerplate” as it says on the packaging, brilliant!

We returned home happy with our purchases but after being indoors for about ten minutes we spied out of the kitchen window an unwelcome visitor to the Weeds garden, the Lewisham Heron (we’ve had trouble with it a couple of times, see here and here.) The pond has netting all over it now so hopefully the winged beast didn’t have its way again but the water is dark and murky at the moment and no fish were to be seen after we shoo-ed the monster away. Go back to Ladywell Fields Pterodactyl-features and leave our goldfish alone!

After we got over the shock of seeing our pond’s sworn enemy the rest of the afternoon was spent with a bit of bed tidying and inspecting the dahlia tubers that are plonked under the stairs in a blue builder’s sack. Any excess soil was knocked off and anything that looked a bit mushy or mouldy was chucked into the bin. If you like dahlias like we do, a couple of good resources are The National Dahlia Society Facebook page here and Dahlia Divas have a long list of varieties here.

No matter how much we love the plant we wouldn’t eat them. But some people will, dahlia Rosti anyone? No thanks, we’re not hungry.

And for viewers in Cambridge…

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Thanks to Mick Matthews for getting in touch about the CSSG‘s 10th Potato Day on Saturday 2nd February 2019 at All Saints Church, Market Square, Huntingdon PE29 3NR from 10.30-1pm and entrance is FREE. Spuds are £1.30 per kilo (£1 if members) which is a nice price! Mick also tells us they’re having a seed swap and second hand tool stall there as well. Great stuff, if you’re around those parts do go along! Their website is here for more information.

And finally…

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Looking through the racks of WH Smiths in Holborn yesterday we found some popular gardening magazines are doing a free seed offer with their latest issues. You know they’re not going to be a full pack of seeds that you’d usually get in your local garden centre but it’s something. Grow your own is doing 10 free seed packs for £5.89, Kitchen Garden 5 packs at £4.99 and Veg Garden 10 packs of free seeds for £8. Have a browse in your local magazine emporium before it’s too late!

 

What a difference an hour makes

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Last weekend another hour was spent out in the garden in the cold and damp but it was worth it. As you can see the beds at the left-hand side of the garden were looking initially untidy. After about an hours work they now look half reasonable. There’s overwintering garlic in the end of the bed nearest the fence and opposite that some rhubarb being forced under an upturned tub with bricks on it. Underneath the plank that’s come off the raised bed is a pregnant frog! The question is will it be nice enough weather to finish the remaining bed by the pond at the bottom of the garden this weekend?

Talking of rhubarb (Above: the result of forcing the plant a couple of years ago; lovely red stalks!) in an old gardening book we once learnt about a place called the Rhubarb Triangle (aka The Tusky Triangle) in West Yorkshire where the plant in grown and forced in dark barns and picked by candlelight (as not to turn the stalks green). Fact not fiction! More about that here and here.

Seek, and ye shall find my friend

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We weren’t feeling too hot over the xmas and new year period as another damn cold/flu struck, but as the garden was looking a bit on the neglected side an hour or so had to be designated to a bit of outdoor tidying up. This one was for the bed next to the garage that  earlier this year contained tomatoes, sweet peas and dahlias amongst other things (past posts about said plants in all their glory are in the links).

We dug up all the dahlia tubers carefully (some of them are the size of big spuds!) which are now drying out under the stairs even though last year we took a chance and left them in and they did wonderful this summer (post here). More on lifting the tubers here.

We even replanted a silver birch (one we found a couple of years ago in a Tesco’s bag with a note that said “Take me” on it outside a house locally see post here) that was originally by the pond but hopefully it will do better at the end of the bed. We’ll be probably moving it again as it’s so near the old garage wall but let’s see.

And as protection from forthcoming cold weather we stuck one of the plastic mini-cloches from another find, which followed the same pattern as before; left outside a house with a note with “Take me” on it (post here) over the Foxtail Lily that’s started to sprout a bit prematurely.

So wrap up warm, happy gardening and keep em peeled as Shaw Taylor used to say.

Keeping it short and sweet

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Little and often is an apt saying when it comes to gardening. The job for today was to tidy up the bed at the bottom of the garden that had gone a bit haywire (above). There was a fair bit of weeding to do and pulling up of dead Nasturtiums that were left to their own devices followed by a good old forking over. It looks like a proper vegetable bed now (below) rather than a bombsite!
In the process we found a couple of spuds that were missed when we initially harvested them in the autumn and also found a few dried out pods of some heirloom French climbing beans we bought at the Roots and Shoots Potato Day earlier this year. That’s one less packet of seeds we’ll have to purchase then!

Talking of Potato Days and Roots and Shoots here’s the next event in a few weeks time and one well worth going to!
London Potato Fair/Roots & Shoots Potato Day
9th and 10th February 2019 11.00am-2.30pm
Roots & Shoots 
Walnut Tree Walk
Lambeth, SE11 6DN
http://www.roots&shoots.org
FREE ADMISSION
More details on this and more such like events (all across the UK) at this site here.

And here’s a festive treat from The Groove Thief from KGNU Community Radio’s “Dub Palace” show. The mix includes some heavyweight bass from RSD, Prophet, Johnny Clarke and our very own Madtone with “Compost your mind”. 

A happy and prosperous 2019 to one and all from us at Weeds!

A post-christmas tip around in the garden

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We managed a couple of hours out in the garden today. The sun was shining and it was still a bit nippy but it was good to get out there after a good few months of watching the back getting untidy. Even that hour or two made a difference, the side bed was cleaned up and a half a Lewisham Council brown bin was filled with slimy rotting comfrey, weeds and prunings. It was nice to see actual plants (not bindweed) and the garden path again!

At the end of the session it was good to sit down with a cup of tea then a rum and coke in front of the new addition to the Weeds garden (above) and watch the flames as the sun went down and contemplate on when the next trip in the garden will be.

If you don’t hear from us before, have a great new year and see you in 2019!

Awakening of the beast

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It seems like it was only the other week we were planting the strange looking root crown of the Foxtail Lily (AKA Eremurus). In fact it was at the start of October (post here) that we purchased another crown from Shannon’s and this afternoon whilst tipping around in the garden we noticed it peeking its head through the ground. Fingers crossed the forthcoming cold weather won’t knock it for six (in the morning we’ll probably stick a cloche or a bit of fleece over the top for added protection).

We’ve just found a clip from an old Gardeners’ World featuring Monty Don on the Eremurus and how you plant the root crown here.

And here’s another plug for the Weeds related musical project Madtone with their tribute to the said plant “Foxtail Lily Dub (Beaming to the Caribbean)” which has been getting some super support from the likes of Andrew Weatherall, Dr Strangedub from The Echo Chamber on KFAI, the dread gardener Don Letts, Justin Robertson and more. A big cheers to them! Watch out for a vocal version of the tune in the next few months!  #FoxtailLily #shortwavesnotdead