We at weeds have just got back from a week away in Pembrokeshire, Wales and how’s this for a slate settee seen at Aberbach Beach, near Dinas Cross. Comfy or what?The model doesn’t come with an adjustable headrest nor a footstool, there’s not 15 other colour variations and it’s not the most comfortable of sofas to have a kip on, but who cares, it has a sea view! Big up the seaside stone settee!
Dennis Brown, Sly & Robbie – Sitting And Watching – Taxi 12″
Garnett Mimms & The Enchanters – A quiet place – United Artists
Tune in to The Dirt “a gardening programme like no other” on Radio Fab International this Sunday night from 6-8pm for the usual gardening related stuff and our very own “sounds from the south” spot. Listen in from 6pm here to find out more!
Dr Alimantado – Poison Flour
Also a big thanks to A Robbins for letting us know about another great South London Reggae do, this weekend (flyer below). Look’s like it’ll be a good night, the music will brilliant, the pub is ace and Earl Gateshead’s a nice chap too!
Caribou – Can’t Do Without You – City Slang
A couple of tunes for this nice afternoon. Stuck on the weeds all-in-one music centre last night by our good mate Maz, a lovely tune from the great Caribou on the great City Slang label (some great free downloads from the label here.)
The 2 Bears feat. Stylo G – Money Man – Southern Fried
This one was on the mighty David Rodigan show this week, a nice chilled out reggae type thing from The 2 Bears with Stylo G. Great stuff, making two tunes for dossing around in the garden to, while taking photo’s of your crops, when you should be at work.
Below: Second attempt at growing Corn and I can see one cob coming at least!
(Below) And, this Pepper on the right, I’ll be having for me tea tonight!And below, a nice old Sunflower in a pastel yellow style, taken last night!
Looking on the web over the last few weeks, I discovered a great community gardening project in Berlin called Allmende Kontor. The collection of allotments, which are mostly in an experimental style, are housed on part of the disused Tempelhof Airport.And this is what I’ve managed to gleam image-wise about the place from the internet. There’s some really good “out there” stuff going on, I mean, look at this mad runner bean igloo (above.) Brilliant, you could even kip in there!If this was in the UK, the allotment committee would be well on your case and you’d be given your marching orders straight away I reckon, but look at the madness, it’s great!
Does anyone know anything more about the project? If so, we’d love to find out more! This site here has some great images from the project on it, it really is bonkers (in the best way possible!)
Or is there the equivalent of the above in the UK, if so we’d love to see pics of it too! Send your info about Allmende Kontor and/or photo’s of UK allotment madness to onedeckpete (at) gmail (dot) com.
***UPDATE*** We’ve just received an email from the folks at Allmende Kontor who told us that “the Igloo isn’t part of the Allmende-Garden and belongs to the Schillerkiez-Garten as there are three more garden projects around the area.” What, more mad gardening projects? Brilliant! More about Schillerkiez-Garten here.
A big shout to Simon, Ricky and Paul at The Dirt on Radio Fab International. Tune in every Sunday night from 6-8pm here for “a gardening programme like no other.”
Tomorrow night’s show will feature weeds’ very own “sounds from the south” spot which this week is called “True life bird business.” Listen in from 6pm to find out more!
A big shout to our very good mate The Rhythm Doctor for posting up his latest mix of the stuff he and DJ Von Koff play at their Mojo nights in Tallinn, Estonia. There’s a bit of reggae, soul and funk, some real mix up business!
It’s sounding great this Saturday afternoon! I’ve got it cranked up while I’m trying to catch up on the weeding!
Looks like I’ll be making more pasta sauce this weekend! Below is just the start of the tomatoes and hopefully there’s a few more to come. A big thanks to all at Dig This Nursery for giving us a good few tomato plants earlier this year.
The plums on the right are off the dwarf tree we bought a few years ago from Shannon’s. Some years it does well and some not, but who cares. Plum crumble the weekend, I reckon.
I’ve been busy of late and have neglected me garden a little but I have a good few days next week to tinker around before I go away for me hols so I’ll be able to tackle those weeds! It’s looking good though, and that’s without a bit of TLC over the last week!
The storm over the weekend did do a little bit of damage to some of the plants especially a few tomatoes and the odd sunflower. Here’s the view before the storm, how mad is that pumpkin plant?And I’ve never really grown peppers before, not bad for a first attempt and in an old tomato tin too! Loving the tomatoes at the moment even though the storm at the weekend has nobbled a few plants. Looking good though!Big up that old gardening lark!
Thanks to all at The Dirt “a gardening programme like no other” on Fab Radio International for featuring our very own “Sounds from the south” this evening. The topic this week is “Space Station Business.” If all goes well, it’ll be up as a podcast here from tomorrow. Big up “Veg 01” the lettuce in space (above.)
Big shout to Phil Harmony for linking us up with Jackie and Robert who’ve been running a guest house for the last six years in the fantastic surroundings of The Blue Mountains of St Andrew, Jamaica which is an hours drive from Kingston.
They run the Prince Valley Guesthouse which is at an altitude of 4,000 feet (look at the view below!) alongside running a Blue Mountain coffee farm which is about twenty years old. The coffee bushes are under the canopy of Banana, Mango and many other fruit bearing trees. Running a guest house must be hard enough in itself let alone growing Coffee as well, Jackie and Robert we salute you!
Here’s what Jackie and Robert sent to us about how their Coffee is produced over a typical year:
In January the small limbs are trimmed away on each coffee bush and fertiliser (20-20-20 All Purpose) is applied and every other year manure is also added. Insecticide is also applied in the early spring right after the coffee bush flowers. (Later on in the season they are also fertilised with a powder/granular at the roots.)
In March and April the white coffee blossoms start to appear which eventually produce the coffee berries. As the berry ripens it turns from green to a deep cherry red which are often called coffee cherries. The cherries are then ready to be picked around the middle of August.
The picking occurs twice a month and it takes about 6 pickers to do the job. Each tree produces one to two pounds of green coffee, which is what the coffee cherries are referred to before they are roasted, and after they are processed and dried. This is the form coffee is in when it is purchased by a roasting company.
The cherries are picked and put in boxes. Each box holds about 60 pounds of coffee cherries which will be processed into about 12 pounds of green coffee. Those 12 pounds of green coffee, once roasted, will yield about 9.6 lbs of coffee. The bi-monthly yield starts out slowly and at its peak is about 20 to 30 boxes per picking. This continues from August thru November. Our coffee cherries travel to Mavis Bank Coffee Factory where they are purchased and processed. The Jamaican coffee industry employs around 120,000 people making it a significant contributor to the country’s economy.
Good stuff! I personally don’t drink much coffee anymore as it sends me a bit hyper but I do like those naff gaelic coffees you used to get in those quality restaurants like Harvesters in the 70’s.
I also asked, what sort of pests they get in the land of wood and water, and it’s the same sort of stuff we get in the UK but they also get something called the Borer Beetle which is the main pest of the coffee plant. They sometimes hang a coffee borer catcher on the bush filled with a mix of water, soap, strawberry syrup & alcohol. That’s a mad combination!
But look at the flowers of the Blue Mountains, absolutely brilliant, I want some! Thanks for letting us use the pictures, please send us more, they’re great! Thanks again Jackie and Robert!
We at weeds have just got back from a week away in Pembrokeshire, Wales and how’s this for a slate settee seen at Aberbach Beach, near Dinas Cross. Comfy or what?
The model doesn’t come with an adjustable headrest nor a footstool, there’s not 15 other colour variations and it’s not the most comfortable of sofas to have a kip on, but who cares, it has a sea view! Big up the seaside stone settee!
Looking on the web over the last few weeks, I discovered a great community gardening project in Berlin called 
And this is what I’ve managed to gleam image-wise about the place from the internet. There’s some really good “out there” stuff going on, I mean, look at this mad runner bean igloo (above.) Brilliant, you could even kip in there!
If this was in the UK, the allotment committee would be well on your case and you’d be given your marching orders straight away I reckon, but look at the madness, it’s great!
Weeds up to me knees 