Tag Archives: Poppies

The best things in life are (nearly) free!

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Seed swap_1_Edit
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.Seedswap deptfordI 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!

Don’t free the weed(s)!

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Yesterday I spent an hour or so clearing a small patch of bindweed along the side of the garden in preparation for some more raised beds. It’s the area behind the broad beans, tomatoes and the mini plum tree (below). God only knows how long it will keep bindweed free as it’s horrible stuff and I can see myself pulling it out on a daily basis.

I mean does anyone really like weeding? In Bob Flowerdew’s book on compost he thinks of the plants he pulls up as more material to go onto the compost heap which gets him through it. A good way of looking at it, I reckon.

I remember years ago on a gardening course with the council, (and boy did they like doing courses there! As a workmate once said to me “the more courses you go on, the less real work you have to do, so sign up for everything!”) the teacher’s definition of a weed was a plant growing in the wrong place. She gave an example that a rose could technically be a weed if it was growing on a football pitch for instance.

I got stuck into the area with a hand trowel while on me knees (on an Sainbury’s own range kneeling pad, well worth the couple of quid it cost). If there’s anything that self seeded like Poppies and Calendulas I always transplant them elsewhere in the garden. Nettle leaves I now save in a bucket where I will later add comfrey and borage leaves to make a top plant feed (another Flowerdew tip, as he says adding the other leaves to the comfrey makes for a better all-round feed). Any weeds with seed heads I stick in a bucket of water to rot before chucking the horrible liquid on the heap later and any sticks get put on top of the ever growing mountain of wood to burn (another job I’ll get around to one day). Everything else goes straight on the heap.

Also I took some time to “thin out” a row of lettuces in the salad bed, giving the remaining plants more space to grow and at the same time providing us with salad for tea. Waste not want not, eh?