You know we love a plant sale here at Weeds. Thanks to Lewisham Gardens for letting us know about the Charlton & Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society‘s plant stall at The Horn Fair, Charlton House SE7 8RE on Sunday 14th October from 10am-6pm. There’s plants grown by members, free seeds and a talk with gardening tips and tricks at 11am, what more do you want! Fingers crossed the weather’s good. Remember do send us details of any plant sales, seed swaps etc and we’ll give them a plug.
It’s been a bit manic at Weeds HQ over the summer so gardening has been a bit lower down on the priority list but that’s not to say things are not growing out in the garden. The cactus type Dahlias (above) we got at Shannon’s a few years ago are doing well. We here advocate the “digging them up after the frost and storing over winter under the stairs” method and it works a treat. None of that “leave them in the ground and see how they survive” business here! Dahlia growing tips here, James Wong on eating them here and the masses of varieties here. And for good measure here’s one of the very few tunes that has the plants name in the title which was made by our good selves at Weeds when we couldn’t find anything under Dahlia in Discogs. Available on CD baby here!
Also thanks to our friends at Lewisham Gardens for letting us know through a retweet about an offer in Tescos of Kitchen Garden Magazine which has lots of free seeds in the September issue for the bargain price of a fiver! We’re going to be searching those supermarket shelves this week!
A big thanks to our good gardening friend Lewisham Gardens for letting us know about the offer of free spring bulbs (delivered free as well!) to communities in London by The Metropolitan Public Gardens Association and Taylors Bulbs of Holbeach.
It’s first come, first served and they’d probably appreciate a picture of the bulbs in their flowering glory in the spring which is no big deal.
It was sunny yesterday morning so I went out early in the back to tidy up the bottom bed, weeds were beginning to sprout there and bindweed was finding it’s way in too. I do like a bit of clearing and weeding as it also gives my headspace a chance of a clear-out too (man)!
Funnily enough I was going to “rest” that bed this year, but in February I obtained a great selection of stuff from the seed swap organised by Lewisham Gardens and Golightly Gardens (post here.) Then there was that bargain seed job-lot I won on ebay too (post here) and that’s apart from packets bought from the garden centre, so those seeds had to go somewhere!
It started with some poppies, then it was beetroots, carrots and a couple of salad crops. Then I added a couple of different varieties of sunflower, parsnips, rocket, cornflowers and not forgetting there were some strawberry plants in already. It looked like a garden designer’s nightmare (below pic: the plot in the summer). So much for a “resting” bed with nothing in it!
It’s like gardening itself though, once you start it’s difficult to stop. You go out for ten minute’s “tipping around with a hoe” and you return a few hours later after finding “another job I just had to do”.
One thing though, a row of leeks that I started off from seed (above, in the seed tray in the “found in the street” terrarium taken around late February) are just about ready if I wanted to use them small. How long do they take to grow?
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!
Thanks again to Lewiham Gardens and Golightly Gardens for this event. More seed swaps please!
I was off all last week with the dreaded lurgy and some lurgy it was! I had no interest in gardening plus no energy so apart from sorting out my seed tin for the seed swap this saturday, last week was a total write-off!
Yesterday I took another look at the onions that are supposedly stored in ideal conditions under the stairs which should have been put in in the autumn for overwintering. Oh dear!
And finally a quick reminder about the seed swap next Saturday in Deptford. It’s only a quid and you get three talks thrown in as well, so see you there! More details on twitter here.
A big shout to Lewisham Gardens and Golightly Gardens for letting us know about their next seed swap on Saturday February 21st at Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden, Reginald Road, Deptford SE8 4RS from 1pm – 4pm.
Last year’s event was great (a post all about that here) and this one looks even better. Alongside the seed swap there’s some interesting talks too, including one from Dig This Nursery (who know a thing or two about the humble tomato) and Alison Marsden from Garden by Design. The cost of the afternoon is only £1, talk about value for money. Spread the word!
I’d love to say a big thank you to Lewisham Gardens and Golightly Gardens for their excellent seed swap in Hither Green last night. I had an idea that it would be a good one when I popped into the great Dig It Nursery in New Cross beforehand as I was a bit early, and the owner Mihaly very kindly donated a carrier bags worth of his happy seed range (how good is that?)
It was a nice friendly atmosphere in the Station Hotel, there were a couple of big tables worth of boxes of various envelopes, seed packets, “dealer” bags, plastic bags and folded paper containing all sorts of weird and wonderful seed.
I’m now suffering from the “why didn’t I take some of those” or “had a pack of those” syndrome. It was great to meet up with like-minded people who also enjoy rummaging through boxes of seeds and writing on and taping up paper bags. I also met Theresa of Kitchen Buddy (who told us about a foraging walk on May 25th which sounds interesting see ourhithergreen.com) who I done a good swap of mangetout for a pack of cinnamon basil seed who I found out is a good friend of our old musical collaborator Hayereyah, talk about a small world! Viva la seed swap!
How can you tell I used to write a fanzine and I’m also a bit on the OCD tip? I’ve just spent an hour printing out labels, transferring my spare seeds into some “dealer” bags and found an egg box to put my chitted seed potatoes into. This is all for the forthcoming seed swap this Sunday and it’s only Thursday! You can tell what I was like around christmas time as a kid.
It’s funny as at the last seed swap I attended, a lady pulled out a massive list of what she “had” on 4 typed pages of A4 and produced a rucksack full to the brim of little bags of seeds. That’s taking it to the next level as they say!
I’ve haven’t got anything out of the ordinary (in a James Wong stylee) to swap, except possibly cinnamon basil and some lettuce leaf basil from my “how many different kinds of basil can I grow” phase last year. Hopefully see you there!
The seed swap once again is at
The Station Hotel
14 Staplehurst Rd,
Hither Green
SE13 5NB
from 6pm on Sunday 23rd February
Not long to go now until the Hither Green Seed Swop on the 23rd of this month. Tell your friends as it’s going to be good!
Weeds up to me knees 