Can you take the weather forecasters to court?

Posted on May 28, 2024 by onedeckpete

As we mentioned, the weather here has been odd but the combination of the sun and rain is making things grow like mad! The side bed up near the house (above) is getting off to a great pace with the assorted bulbs we got from Lldl breaking through and the sweet pea seedlings started off on the kitchen windowsill not being eaten by slugs.

Even the combined wild bed and vegetable patch (above) is looking a bit structured this year rather than the usual anarchic horticultural madness! We still are pondering what to do with the side of an old shed at the back. Any ideas?

As for the weather, someone once said to us “Wouldn’t it be great if it only rained at night and was sunny during the day. Us gardeners would be so happy”. If only life really was like that.

Lifting the roof off

Posted on March 21, 2023 by onedeckpete

Since spring officially started the other day it looks like there’s some changes going on. For the first time today we lifted the plastic cover off the foxgloves and giant garlic that have been overwintering to give them some air and to make sure they don’t overheat. The giant garlic looks more than healthy and the foxgloves are hanging on in there. The brick at the side is there for size comparison. God knows how giant those garlic will get!

We just found this excellent tune by accident and what a tune! It’s by Burt Blanca & The King Creoles and called Taboo ’69. We love those echoey sound effects (one sounds like a metal M&B beer tray being slammed down hard on a pub table) and the twangy guitar too! It’s from the Radio Martiko Bandcamp that has some seriously good stuff on there.

And thinking of that title here’s another fine tune, this one’s by The Cyril X. Diaz Orchestra with Tabu. Wonderful stuff!

And talking of the Radio Martiko Bandcamp, how’s this for some serious mad stuff? Ansambl Mileta Petrovića with Moj Mihone. All we can say is “Wow!”

Ain’t it sprung yet?

Posted on February 22, 2023 by onedeckpete

Sunday was lovely for a spot of gardening after a rather wet and windy Saturday. The lawn was cut, the beds got a bit of a tidy up and we even got caried away sowing some borage under the tree. It’ll probably won’t be the best spot for them and God knows if they’ll even germinate as it may have been sunny Sunday but who knows what the future weather has got in store for us.

And we even had a peek under the plastic covered raised bed and the elephant garlic is coming on a bit and the foxgloves that were once plugs have even survived after a bit of a change from the warmth of the kitchen windowsill to outside in the freezing cold.

Come Monday morning it was back to the cold weather again and we went down to the compost heap to stick a couple of tea bags in and to give it a turn. What was well suprising was how much heat was generated in the heap even overnight with the grass clippings, there was even a bit of steam coming off the heap after forking it over. Covering the heap with cardboard certainly keeps the heat in. Let’s hope we can get out there again this Sunday.

And here’s a wonderful tune for a Wednesday night from Les Mamans du Congo & Rrobin called Loango Weaver. It’s from last years set “A Guide to the Birdsong of Western Africa by Various Artists” well worth checking out here.

Garlic update, garlic update

Posted on February 6, 2023 by onedeckpete

We took the protection off the raised bed this afternoon so we could pop the foxgloves in pots in there. No idea if the cold nights will knock them for six but we’ll take a chance. When we took the frame off we were chuffed with what we saw of the giant garlic. They’re starting to make a break for it.

Who’s your mate?

Posted on January 15, 2023 by onedeckpete

Today was great weatherwise compared to yesterday where it was a day of rain and doom and gloom. We spent about an hour finishing tidying up the wild bed at the bottom of the garden and have ordered a wildflower seed mix for shady areas and some foxglove plugs off e-bay for down there. We even had a mate (pic above) join us for some of the time. Cue bad birdsong whistling impressions and “Who’s a good Robin then?” daft questioning.

The reggae gardening connection

Posted on May 29, 2022 by onedeckpete

It was nice to be out and about this afternoon after the last couple of years of isolation. Today’s treat was a bus trip to Deptford for the Lewisham Soundsystem Trail. Rather than roam about the various events going on, most of the afternoon was spent in The Albany’s back garden with Dennis Bovell and friends (including the great Gladdy Wax, Dub Vendor All Stars, Pappa Face and Gaffa Blue). Some great tunes, good vibes and sunshine with a community garden as a background. There were some great ideas on show including carrots in plastic dustbins, ingenious stuff.

Things are on fire so to speak in our garden too, the risk we took with the early planting of the seed potatoes has paid off. There’s flowers a go-go and it’s not even June yet. Now we’ll be waiting for the foliage to die down for some fresher than fresh new potatoes.

And as for those foxgloves, they’re on a triffid-like tip and we’re not going to complain.

And we’re not complaining about this tune either, it’s a nice chilled Sunday evening affair from Arutani called Wasting Time. Tune in and really drop out to a tune with a Laut & Luise connection.

How does YOUR garden grow?

Posted on May 12, 2020 by onedeckpete

A big shout to our good mate Marc B for sending over some pics of his garden. Because of that damn lockdown all sorts of gardening jobs have been undertaken which ain’t a bad thing. It was Marc’s new compost container (you know we’re a bit passionate about trips to stick in single teabags in the compost bin at the moment) made from a couple of wooden palettes that caught our eye first. The foxgloves and the aliums in front of it look great too! We do love a foxglove here and aliums are great, you can have them just dotted about here and there or grown in big clumps. Love those purple ones.

Here’s some nice plastic bottle slug and snail repellent with an added coffee ground minefield and we can even see one of the damned gastropods (in the top right) getting as far as away as possible by the look of it!

And here’s something that tolerates all sorts of conditions and is low maintenance but looks great. We don’t know a lot about ferns but we do know there’s a few to choose from if you wanted to go down that road (aka Pteridomania.) We love the mosaic behind it!

And Marc gave us a great tip about the excellent radio station Venture FM which playing some excellent reggae, soul and the like over the airwaves in London but available for all the world to hear online here. Cheers for the tip and the garden photo’s Marc!

Do send us your garden, windowsill, balcony gardening pics as we love them here! onedeckpete (at) gmail.com

Giving it all away

Posted on October 26, 2019 by onedeckpete

A great thing about gardening is the passing on of stuff (whether it be it seeds, tools or plants) from one gardener to another. We don’t “give to receive” but there’s something nice about imparting something and then weeks later you get given something from someone totally unrelated. A Zen mate of ours told us this was “the universe rearranging itself”.

This week the universe has been on the rearrangement tip as the other day while going through the bag we take to work we found a folded piece of loo roll with a peg on it. “What the?” we thought as we began to unravel the mystery packet (above: packet with foxglove and lily seeds). Then we remembered a friend had given us some foxglove seeds.

On Thursday we had a workmate kindly pass on some lily seed heads (we’ve never grown lilies from seed before so any advice appreciated!) and last night a Tai Chi classmate brought in these well-healthy foxglove seedlings (below) which went in today. It now looks like we need to repay the universe for this week’s gifts. Anyone fancy some Egyptian onion sets?

The best things in life are (nearly) free!

Posted on February 22, 2015 by onedeckpete

A big thanks to Lewisham Gardens and Golightly Gardens for organising the great seed swap in Deptford yesterday. I got nearly everything from my wants list and there were loads of great seeds available. These events are always good for meeting fellow gardeners, getting growing advice and for picking up those odd varieties of seeds.

I got sunflowers, sweet peas, hollyhocks, poppies, foxgloves and gaillardia in the flower line. I wasn’t looking for too much veg as I’m happily sorted for those after getting a bargain of mixed veg seeds on ebay the other month.

I did get a couple of varieties of basil (bush and sweet genovese), french beans and a beefsteak tomato called Marmande which looked like it could be an extra from that silly 70’s film Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.I was on my way out when I met a lovely chap who was looking for the seed swap who worked for Lewisham council. He told me later after a long shift at the council all he wants to do is spend the rest of his day up his allotment. Great stuff! Back in the seedswap he shared a wide variety of seeds (and I don’t even think he wanted anything in return as far as I can remember) and I got a tomato called Black Krim from Russia!

When I finally left I visited the new and improved Dig This Nursery in Clifton Rise, New Cross after being ribbed by Mihaly (who was doing a talk at the seed swap about growing veg in small spaces) for not being up to speed about knowing that their shop has moved. Sometimes I find it hard enough to keep up with what’s going in me own small world let alone outside it! They’ve even opened a new shop in Rye Lane in the parish of Peckham too.

In the New Cross shop is a second hand record section where I flicked through some old reggae singles (£3 each) where they had a copy of the late great Nicky Thomas tune Love of the Common People (to hear the original jamaican version without the strings click here). On the B side of that well-known single is the tune below which I was reminded about by The Rhythm Doctor when he span it at one of our events at Limewharf last year.

And thanks to the excellent Dancecrasher website (from The Tighten Up Crew) here’s the vocal version of the above from Slim Smith. Well I never knew that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1pgp-zIQsM

Thanks again to Lewiham Gardens and Golightly Gardens for this event. More seed swaps please!

Weeds up to me knees

Madtone, gardening and life

Tag Archives: foxgloves