Tulips from Lew-is-sham

Posted on March 30, 2024 by onedeckpete

Yesterday we popped into that shopping emporium Lewisham Lldl and spied some gardening bargains. There were various variety packs of mixed summer bulbs and corms and we picked this one which was “Flower Masses Collection” for around £6. No idea if it is an actual bargain or not, but there’s 40 bulbs in there including one dahlia that went in a large pot near the house with a transparent plastic bag over it to keep any cold weather out. Also there’s some gladioli, lilly and african corn lilies that went in the ground probably a bit early but these things burn a hole in our pockets and we’re far too impatient to wait until the risk of frost is over sadly.

The bulb planting reminded us of a daft story from the Westminster City Council Gardening days that was covered in the Sounds From The South spot that we used to do many many moons years ago for the gardening programme The Dirt on Manchester’s Fab Radio International (show below). We wonder where Watford Mick is now?

There’s also a silly episode about when a gardener met some of his punk heroes in his council regulation Donkey Jacket here.

Best of luck with the weather and happy gardening over the bank holiday break!

Skips are good, skips are good…

Posted on July 20, 2018 by onedeckpete

Big thanks to Mark Delaney at the Thompson and Morgan blog for the mention the other week on the garden upcycling tips post here. We repeat there is nothing wrong in looking in a skip! More on our love of rooting around in a skip from a few years ago here:

https://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/sfts-19-sounds-from-the-south-take-me-im-yours

What difference a week makes

Posted on September 15, 2017 by onedeckpete

It’s been a week since we returned from our holidays in Turkey (the above taken at a local olive grove last week) and the weather in London has taken a turn for the worst, our tomato plants are on their last legs and two squirrels in as many days have had their lives cut short in our back garden thanks to our cats. Very sad indeed.

A few years ago we covered the subject of squirrels in the garden on our Sounds from the South podcast after one of our cats cornered one down the drive. At the time we wished we knew a bit more about looking after the young orphan but since then we found a good website called http://www.squirrels.info where there’s load of info about caring for injured ones. More info here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtYmFcaOprA

On a nicer note here’s a lovely tune by Haruomi Hosono (from the Yellow Magic Orchestra) that was heard on last week’s Tom Ravenscroft show as part of his companion tracks series as chosen by Mac Demarco. In 1983 Haruomi Hosono was commissioned by the Japanese retailer Muji to compose some in-store music and the track above “Talking” is off the released cassette called “Watering a flower”. Hypnotic is not the word!

Bring back the birch!

Posted on March 28, 2017 by onedeckpete

We at weeds do love something for free and our latest find was from a Tesco’s carrier bag left outside a house down the road last weekend. The bag contained a couple of saplings; a Silver Birch and a Hazel both labelled up, tied to a small stake and roots carefully packaged in a nice plastic tube. We’ve passed the Hazel on and now have to find somewhere for the Silver Birch in the garden.

Here’s a podcast from a good few years ago about how much we here love something for nowt, either found on a skip, given away or left out for the binmen.

https://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/sfts-19-sounds-from-the-south-take-me-im-yours

Eyes down for spudulike

Posted on January 22, 2016 by onedeckpete

CSSG Potato day 2016

Thanks to Mick from the Cambridgeshire Self Sufficiency Group for getting in touch about their 7th Annual potato day on Saturday 13th February 2016 at Commemoration Hall, 39 High Street, Huntingdon PE29 3AQ.

It’s from 11am-3pm, with refreshments and a craft stand and more, all for FREE. How good is that? They’ll have over 60 (count them!) varieties of spuds alongside onion sets and shallots. What’s great is people can buy how little potatoes (10 grams or less) or large (as many kilos as they want) at £1-00 a kilo.

If you’re organising a potato day or even a seed swap (if it’s in London even better so we can go!) and you want us to mention it send us an email with all the details to onedeckpete (at) gmail (dot) com

There’s a mention about potato days and seed swaps in our Sounds From The South podcast from a couple of years ago below.

Sunday morning nightmare

Posted on September 27, 2015 by onedeckpete

Woke up at the crack of dawn this morning and went downstairs to make myself a cup of tea to bring back up to bed. Looking out of the kitchen window I was greeted with this little sunflower seed thief.

Rather than bang on the window I laughed, and had to admire the nimble robbing git! I’m sure this is the same one that had the bud off another sunflower two years ago (post here). A description has been taken and the details passed on to the nature police.

We’ve had more than our fair share of trouble with squirrels in the past and one instance is covered in this Sounds From the South podcast from last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqoIU10Izwc

Going down the beet route

Posted on July 8, 2015 by onedeckpete

Harvested these great beetroots from the furthest raised bed the other day which I sowed early in the spring.There’s still a good few left as well! Boil them up for half an hour and let them cool and you’ve got a great veg!

And here’s what I said about my favourite vegetable on Sounds From The South last year.

The ISS goes round and round, round and round etc

Posted on May 29, 2015 by onedeckpete

It’s that time again! The International Space Station is back around these parts, and can be seen up to five times a day if you’re feeling hardcore! I’ll be out in the back garden joining the slugs and snails over the next few nights, stumbling into the flowerbeds while looking up at the night sky!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBkOfY4tIRQ

For viewing times, stick in your location here or download the ISS Detector app for your mobile. Also if you want to get a bit on the deep tip, check out Heavens Above for all sorts of stuff to tilt up your head up at the night sky to.

Also here’s something ISS related from our sounds from the south podcast from last year. One small step for mankind and all that!

No tunes pon the iTunes

Posted on January 25, 2015 by onedeckpete

Want to know what happened when a council worker met a Sex Pistol? Or when a seagull stole a leaving card plus ten pounds in shrapnel at work? Would like to know more about the origins of the aggressive Peckham Parakeet? Or how about, tips on watching the International Space Station from your back garden while supping a glass of vino? or Why we love our seed tins?

Well, our “Sounds From The South” podcast aired on The Dirt on Fab Radio International last year has all the answers to the above and is now on i-Tunes. Give it a couple of weeks and all episodes will be up there and do look out for new ones coming very soon! Due to copyright we can’t put on any of tunes featured but there’s links to them in the shownotes. Tap in “Sounds From the South” into the i-Tunes store or at the link here. Subscribe, my gardening friends!

If anyone is keen on sending us their tune-age in a ambient, downbeat, dub or reggae style and don’t mind it being featured on the podcast if we like it here, drop us an email to onedeckpete (at) gmail (dot) com.

All that’s on are damn repeats…

Posted on December 26, 2014 by onedeckpete

A big Boxing Day shout to all gardeners! Just to let you know the first series of our Sounds From the South feature on Fab Radio International‘s The Dirt are now all up online on Soundcloud.

There’s a load of garden related babble and a whole lot lot more. Log on and drop off!

Weeds up to me knees

Madtone, gardening and life

Tag Archives: Sounds from the south