How did that get there?

BorageEarlier this year I bought a couple of packets of Borage off ebay and just flicked a light amount of seed here and there in a random fashion and forgotten where I sown it until now.

They’ve been appearing all over the garden from cracks in the pavement to the middle of OCD military-style sown veg beds. Thank god for anarchic type sowing!

I’ve just found this on wikipedia as well “Borage is said to protect or nurse legumes, spinach, brassicas, and even strawberries. It is also said to be a good companion plant to tomatoes because it confuses the mother moths of tomato hornworms or manduca looking for a place to lay their eggs. Claims that it improves tomato growth and makes them taste better remain unsubstantiated.”

The bees love it and I always stick a few Borage leaves in to add to the mix when concocting the evil smelling Comfrey plant feed. Big up the Borage!

Dahlia in dub

Madtone_ A Dahlia state of mine coverGardening has taken a bit of a back seat for the last week or so due to some DIY jobs at Weeds HQ and we’ve also been working on a 16 minute rework of Madtone‘s “Radio is my friend” for the dub poetess Jazz’min Tutum (Thanks to Dr Strangedub of the great Echo Chamber on KFAI for the initial link-up!) Results of the project will appear soon.

https://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/madtone-a-dahlia-state-of-mind-exclusive-weeds-up-me-knees-dub

Things that are appearing at the moment though are the great flowers of the Dahlia, a tuber that we at Weeds love. In celebration of the glorious flower, here is an exclusive tune (downloadable for nowt) for Weeds from Madtone called “A Dahlia state of mind” a special dub of “Radio is my friend” (originally recorded for a session on The garden of earthly delights radio show.) One for all tuber fans everywhere!

Dahlia_2

36 degrees in the (South East) shade

Big shout to the great Mungo’s Hi-Fi for this one, Disastrous dub” (available on a lovely 7″ with a nice sleeve by the way, from Scotch Bonnet here.) It’s the b side of their tune with Shanti D & Ranking Levy called Total Disaster which is a killer too.

Let’s hope there’ll be no disasters in the garden today, apart from knocking over that cup of tea while enjoying another gardening tea break. Tune!

Cos’ the city is too hot

kalebHere’s one great mix from DJ Khalab as played on Tom Ravenscroft the other week. To quote his bandcamp his music is “an ongoing round trip journey between tribes and psyche, desert and spaceships, jungle and skyscrapers.” This mix is one mad (coach) journey to say the least!

The mix is available here for another few weeks, listen soon before it disappears! Here’s what’s on it:

1. Dj Khalab & Dj Hendrix – 6THPRLL
2. Owiny Sigoma Band (DJ Khalab Remix) – Too Hot
3. Konono No.1– Kinsumba
4. Space Diaspora – OY (Clap Clap Remix)
5. Tam Tam Tam Reimagined – Maos A Obra
6. Machinedrum – Lewasi

cos the city is too hotOne to whack out of the backroom windows loud on any evening this week coming as it’s “gonna be a heatwave” or so BBC weather says. So keep them plants a watered!

Monday evensong

Heard this belter last night on the Rt Hon David Rodigan show. It’s from Cut La Vis ft Peppery called Festival on NICE UP! records (available as free download above.) We love this tune and it’s been on replay all day at Weeds HQ!

It uses a sample from Jackie EdwardsThis is another festival, the U-Roy toast, Heavy duty festival is one of our all-time top tunes after finding it in a charity shop in Coventry for 10p in the late 70’s on a very scratched Grounation 7″.

massive sunflowers

The Cut La Vis tune was on loud while we fed the garden this evening with (un)sweet smelling comfrey liquid whilst picking off snails who are threatening to have the flower buds off our ebay bought 15ft Giant Mongolian Sunflowers (er, they’re at 7ft at the moment but we won’t quibble at that!)

Never mind the snails and smelly comfrey liquid, big up NICE UP! records for this summer cracker!

Weeds on the wire

Socialism train

Socialism Train – 19 in a socialist reggae style

Big thanks to Steve Barker from the excellent On The Wire on BBC Radio Lancashire for supplying this ace reggae chart for us. On The Wire has been playing the best in reggae, dub, electronica, ambient and all sorts of eclectic business weekly for over 30 years and is available Saturday midnight here and available on listen again here.

So here’s the tunes and there’s some crackers on here. If the tune is not featured, click on the links to view on youtube.

Cheers again to Steve for the chart, shouts to Fenny and Jim at On The Wire too. Keep up the good work!

1. Ethiopians – Socialism Train
2. The Mighty Diamonds – I need a roof


3. The Heptones – Equal rights
4. Peter Tosh – Get up, stand up
5. Burning Spear – Social living
6. Abyssinians – This Land is for everyone


7. Derrick Morgan – People’s decision
8. Max Romeo – Socialism is love


9. Dillinger – Crashie First Socialist


10. King Tubby – Big Youth King Tubby fights against capitalism
11. Freddie McGregor – I’m a revolutionist
12. The Youths – We a socialist (version)
13. Prince Jazzbo – Step forward youth


14. Jeb Loy Nicholls – To be rich (Should be a crime)
15. Still Cool – To be poor is a crime
16. Johnny Clarke – Declaration of rights
17. I Roy – Every mouth must be fed
18. Gregory Isaacs – Working class


19. Screechy Dan – Raise Your Glass Fi Di Working Class

I can see clearly now

Empty patchesHere’s a pic of a bare patch of earth down the bottom of the back garden. Up until last week that area was piled high full of cuttings and prunings collected over a few years (including two years worth of christmas trees no less.) Now thanks to Lewisham Council’s new garden refuse bin filled over a four week period, it’s all gone. Result!

To celebrate this historic achievement here’s two tunes. The first is a super piece of electronica from Niccolò Cupo called Panta Relics I (Luv*Jam Xylo Remix) heard on Jose Padilla’s Essential Selection from last year (a great mix by the way, available here.)

The second is the other side of Beam Up’s Gerrup (that was played on the excellent BBC Radio Lancashire show On The Wire a few weeks ago.) Vibin’ is a cracker out on the recently discovered 45Seven label (one well worth looking into/hearing on their soundcloud here.) Big up the brown garden refuse bin!