Straight to bindweed’s head

Posted on by
1
Some people get fed up with bindweed and let it get them down. Kit G5KIT in Bristol on the other hand, let said weed influence a 15 minute mix.
We wonder if you place a speaker near said the offending bindweed and have this on a continual loop that the problem will go away. Very doubtful, but a cracking mix all the same. Cheers Kit.
Tracklistings:
Brian Cant – One Potato, Two Potato
Junior Byles – Cally Weed
King Tubby – Dub from the Roots
Lee Perry & the Upsetters – Bush Weed
Sly & Robbie – Dub Glory

On a harvest festival vibe

Posted on by
1

We’ve had quite a few emails of late with pictures of harvests attached that got us thinking, is it that time of the year again or is it a bit earlier (we saw that blackberries were ready a few weeks before they usually are).

The first is from Rich in the Lake District of his damsons in the garden (above). We’ve never grew Damsons before and don’t know that much about them apart from seeing a jar of the jam once on a Women’s Institute stall at a church fete. Just seen a few other recipes for them here. Cheers Rich!

Ta to Debby H in north London who sent us the above. “Here’s our second crop of pears, and there’s still more to come! All from a tiny tree! Also in the picture is our latest crop of cherry tomatoes. So much garden produce this year.” You’re right there Debby!

Great to hear from Justin Patrick Moore in in Cincinnati who sent us a snap of his carrot harvest this year. We love those red coloured ones.

It’s funny with odd coloured varieties, we imagine the different coloured carrots are just like the orange ones but once we grew white beetroot as we love beetroot here. It did taste like beetroot but it just wasn’t the same without the red juice staining the bread in the cheese sandwich it was in!

Finally some tomato pictures from Spike from Morschen43 in Le Puy-en-Velay. Top picture are a few varieties he has grown including Beefheart black, Crimea, grape and Russian. The above two are Russian beefsteak. Great stuff Spike!

Thanks to everyone for sending in those harvest pictures and keep sending them in!

Don’t try this at home

Posted on by
2

Seen at Herne Hill Market the other week, a great one from the artist called Julie Lomoe from 1969! Great graphics with a wonderful sense of humour about Hip Ski Tripping. Far out! That’s a cool jumper the skier is wearing and also some nice ski kecks.

Polytunnel business

Posted on by
14

The polytunnel is now up and we are in business! There’s nowt much in there now apart from some assorted chillies, a few different types of tomatoes and some freshly sown spinach but we’re sure that’ll change in a week or so.

It took us a good morning and a bit of “That isn’t the right piece, where’s 5B?”, the thing falling apart and it looking like a skeleton of a whale on the lawn, and parts moving when they weren’t supposed to but we got there in the end. After a good tighten up, the frame was put into place (above). Thanks to Alan C for lots of tips, especially this great one: “I put a layer of woodchip under mine but some use wood strips or gravel/stones. This gives a nice evenly flat base and slows the frame rusting – the woodchip quickly dries out and separates the poles from the soil.”

As soon as we put the cover on we dug a little trench and tucked the excess of the cover into the ground and put broken concrete slabs, bricks and whathaveyou to weigh it down and then backfilled with soil and more woodchip so it is hopefully stays put in the wind.

As we said there’s not much in there at the moment but we’ll update you. Cheers to Alan C again for his tips and advice. Big up all Polytunnel crew!

 

 

Trees and pears in north London

Posted on by
Reply

Thanks to Debby H for sending us some pictures yesterday. The first is a council planted hibiscus tree (as Debby said, it was common practice for councils to plant London Planes in the capital and not much else, years ago). The tree seemed to be surviving well during this prolonged drought we are going through this year. Sadly, her plant at home (below) is not doing as good as the above example and “has shed its leaves in favour of producing a flower.” That is so sad but what a wonderful flower.

We were told recently by a chap who cultivates and sells plants for a living, that it will be next year where we may see what damage has been caused to the plants through the stress of this drought. Some good news though, as Debby picked her pears and herethey are in (below). She is now waiting for them to soften up and ripen. Thanks for the pictures and for keeping us updated.

Preparation, preparation, preparation

Posted on by
Reply

This afternoon we cleared an area (which once housed a greenhouse many moons ago) in preparation for a polytunnel which will arrive sometime this week. Thanks to Alan C who gave us some great advice about purchasing one, as we didn’t know much about what was on offer out there.

We weren’t the only ones that were excited today, there were a Blackbird and a Robin who swooped down a few times even when we walked a little way away, we must’ve disturbed some food in the area or someting.

Harvest time in a Skybird Radio International style

Posted on by
4

Cheers to our good friend in Cincinnati, Justin Patrick Moore for the pictures of his harvest from the other day, some brilliant eggplants (aubergines) there and is that a small cucumber? Brilliant stuff Justin.

And from Spike from Morschen43 in Le Puy-en-Velay some great Haricot Beurre (butter beans) which he said “has a nice taste and are delicious with tomatoes” and talking of tomatoes, here’s his first Black Crimea beefsteak (below)

And below a Beefheart (also known as Coeur de Bœuf or oxheart tomato). Wow they look great! Cheers for sending them on Spike as they look great.

And talking of the great captain himself:

 

Please don’t take our sunlight away

Posted on by
Reply

Thanks to Debby H for this great (inverted) image of the partial eclipse last night taken in north London at the maximum at 7.13 pm. What an excellent photograph!

And here’s two eclipse related tracks, the first from the The Eclipse Band with a very aptly titled Daylight Robbery. And another, from DNN called Eclipse Dub.