And it’s summer solstice next week you say?

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How changeable has this weather been this weekend? It was tipping it down and windy as hell on Saturday and this afternoon we had clouds in the morning and then a nice bit of sunshine in the afternoon. This mad weather is going to send the garden crazy.

The picture above is on the side bed of some pots on a home-made old coat hanger type thing found in the street a few years ago. We’ve been trying to grow runner beans and sweet peas up it with no success over the years so attached a couple of pots near the top to see what happens. We’ve got cut and come again lettuces in one and poppies in the other in an attempt to stop the slugs from getting at them. What do you reckon, will it work? We very much doubt it.

And we’re trying to disguise the 1980’s crazy paving slab surrrounded pond with some pots and in between the broken paving stones we’ve put in some soil and going to sow california poppies and the like. Anything to disguise those crazy paving we lifted from the top of the garden to make way for some grass. How’s the weather been like around your way this weekend? As bad as ours?

Tune of the night

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As we were looking for some tunes for a shortwave mix the other night we came across this track. It’s from a few years ago and one we hadn’t heard of before. It’s by Chancha via Circuito called La Victoria featuring Lido Pimienta & Manu Ranks and it’s a winner! It’s from the LP Bienaventuranza.

And as one of the comments on the Bandcamp says “I don’t think there is a better album cover. Frame worthy, and the music matches its brilliance!” Excellent stuff!

News on this week’s Imaginary Stations broadcasts here.

A message from the south of France

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A big thanks to Debby H who is out in the south of France at the moment enjoying some nice weather of around 28 degrees and there’s only been the odd day of rain since May. Picture above is the front garden with mainly self seeded/volunteer plants in the bed which looks great especially with the rocks/stones around it.
The other night she had a visit from some wild boar and as she said “They are complete vandals. They trampled down the vine (pic above), destroying a dozen bunches of tiny grapes that were just beginning to grow in the back garden. The poor thing is now a shadow of its former glory”
“They also destroyed one of the bird feeders, which was about 5 foot off the ground in a bush.” Here’s a pic of some lavender in the garden after being trampled by the boar. And we thought we had it bad in Forest Hill with the parakeets, the Ladywell heron and the foxes!
“What is good though is that the front garden is unharmed including the little lilac tree that is only about a foot tall, after about 5 years of growing (above). The soil here is like concrete and most plants die. Anything that self seeds, I allow to stay and it’s those that usually flourish.”

What is strange though is her oleander (above) is the only one in the whole region that isn’t flowering! We hope it’s a bit of a late starter and it surpises you Debby.

And Debby took some pictures of the other oleanders in her neighbourhood below.
Thanks again Debby for the great pictures and we’re always up for seeing other people’s gardens and around their locality.

Words in papers, words in books

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Big thanks to Gerry Hectic our man from the south coast for sending us his “Wise words or not” mix. It’s a great one as ever with lots of tunes that we’ve never heard before (Yvonne Baker being one of them, what a great track) and a mix to investigate. Here’s the tracks:
Moritz von Oswald Trio – Chapter One
Mike Leander And His Orchestra – The Letter
The Harvey Averne Dozen – The Word
Yvonne Baker – Didn’t Say A Word
The G.G. All Stars – (Same Folks) Dub Wise
Felipe Gordon – No Words (Byron the Aquarius Dub Mix)

Gerry’s mix was inspired by WORD on Imaginary Stations on Sunday which is now up online on the Imaginary Stations Mixcloud below. The show featured books, (Radio Phonic) laboratories, dictionary rock, abbreviations and ampersands and lots more from DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore.

The first track on the show from The Real Tuesday Weld called Last Words is how you use shortwave samples in a tune!

At 21.13 mins in there’s a mix from One Deck Pete called “A Word to the Wise” and the tracks are:
The Conet Project – Phonetic Alphabet NATO (excerpt)
The Medallions – The Letter
Giorgio (Moroder) – Stop
Capital Letters – Smoking My Ganja
Jourbert Singers – Stand on the word
The Conet Project – Phonetic Alphabet NATO (excerpt)

Cheers again to Gerry for sending us his mix and here’s more WORD related tunes.

And solitaire’s the only game in town

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“Honey bees get all the headlines” so it says on this great bee hotel/bee Air B&B seen by Guys & St Thomas’ Hospital the other day.

We waited about in front of the accommodation for a few minutes waiting for some insect action but sadly didn’t see anything but it’s a great idea to have a bee hotel. When we got home we collected some hollow sticks and plant stalks and stuck them all in a nice pile at the back of the wild bit but it isn’t anything as smart as that one.

For more information on making a bee hotel/mansion/bungalow/two up two down and why it is important to have one take a look here.

Wild wild wild youth

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The wild bit at the bottom of the garden is starting to colour up a bit. We originally put in some seed bombs a few years back, things got a bit messy the season after and then we bought some various wild flower seed for shade and woodland and just bunged them in, in a anarchic gardening style. We’ll buy some more off ebay next week and see what it brings to the (plant) party. Any good ideas when it comes to wild plants for the shade?

There’s also a few mini ponds in between the plants made out of all things including large margarine containers and even an old slow cooker pot and they’re well disguised now but still good for wildlife. We think all gardens need a wild bit somewhere. If you look closely you can see the bucket that keeps the comfrey liquid a brewing in with an old bathroom tile as its lid near the compost bin. For God’s sake, don’t lift off that lid!

Sensible footwear please

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Seen today on our travels, a sign about the dangers of flip-flops which made us think about preferred gardening footwear. What’s yours?

We know people who garden in sandals, flip flops or even slippers and we here have probably been guilty of all three at some time or another but you can’t beat a good pair of “steelies” (Steel Toe Caps with the toe caps showing for that authentic council worker look) when using that mower as you have to watch those toes. Please take care and keep your feet from the mower as the sign says!

More from (near) Coventry

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As we mentioned in our post here here’s a few more pictures from Mike and Julia’s garden near Coventry. The first is a perennial poppy (something we also have ourselves, grown from seed a few years ago). They really are worth having in the garden that will give you a good pop of red.

The rest are a close-up of a rosemary flower (above) and lilac (below).

And finally some black tulips with a black geranium (below). Thanks to both of you again for the wonderful pictures.

Tune of the night

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Researching a shortwave mix as we usually do on a Saturday night we found a tune of high quality psych from someone called Giorgio called Stop and what a tune! Crazy crazy stuff with a wonderful ending with key changes and backwards effects, the lot. Guess who Giorgio is? Giorgio Moroder that’s who!

Sent from (near) Coventry

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Here’s some excellent pictures from Mike G and Julia’s garden near Coventry which is now really getting into the swing of things. The above are of geums and agapanthus. We’re loving the red geum photo!

And above is a great looking aquilegia. This will be a two parter of a post as there’s so much good stuff sent.

Thanks to Julia for the wonderful pictures and for adding the names of the plants too and Mike for sending them over. We at Weeds do struggle with names of flowers so a helping hand is always appreciated. And as for the Latin names…

With all the wonderful pictures we’ve been receiving of late, perhaps the Weeds version of the Countryfile calendar can now be realised. We’ll be ringing the BBC when the show’s on tomorrow and ask to be put straight through to John Craven and see if he’ll be alright with a bit of competition.

Thanks again to Mike and Julia again for their great contribution!