It was some bamboo canes and a couple of old Belfast sinks that saved the day at Weeds HQ last weekend. The builders are in next door and they’ve erected a 8ft high chipwood berlin wall type structure between us. To say it was initially a sight for sore eyes is an understatement so something had to be sorted.

A couple of the heavy Belfast sinks left behind by the previous owners were moved about a bit. The climbers that were growing a bit wild in them were given a prune with some secateurs and then trained around some bamboo wigwam canes. Then after a good water and a bit of a wipe down a visual compromise was reached early Saturday afternoon (above). Bamboo canes are also in use at the veg patch at the bottom of the garden as a bit of a cat deterrent thrown over the now “earthed up” seed potatoes that have now started to come through the surface. The canes will hopefully keep out the local moggies (including our own) that like to use the bed as a cat loo.

Also last weekend we put in some seeds of the Echium ‘Snow Tower’ which we bought off ebay. We love anything here that is described as “rare”, “giant” or “unusual” and I reckon this flower might at least fit two of those descriptions. It’s a hardy biennial that in the first year grows a large rosette of silver-grey leaves and then in the second a tall white flower spike of up to 15ft high. Now you’re talking!

And here’s a couple of tunes that will come in handy if you ever have to move a couple of heavy sinks. The first is a 12 minutes well jazzed out tune from Kamasi Washington called “Truth” as heard on the Tom Ravenscroft show and over a redo of the Queen of the Minstrel rhythm Sycorah with “Undercover Lover” as played on the Rt Hon David Rodigan show. Both are tunes!