Author Archives: onedeckpete

What? Dahlias on a draining board?

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The dahlia experts out there are probably “tut tutting” at the picture above but Friday we gave the tubers (we only took out the ground the other week and will be putting them back in a short while) a little wash and brush up as the mud that was on them when we dug them up had still not dried out and some parts were looking rotten.

We know we should’ve taken them out a lot earlier but sometimes that’s the way it goes. We took off the rotting parts and dried them out in the sun the best we could and now they’re back under the stairs for a few weeks. We’ll inspect them on a regular basis and see how we go, fingers crossed we don’t lose any as we love a dahlia here. Next time we’ll pull them out in the autumn after the first frost like you’re supposed to!

And the best named dahlia of the week goes to…

The day the sun came out…

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We haven’t been out the back for weeks and it showed (above). The side bed had all sorts of debris on top of the soil: rotting comfrey leaves, dead sunflower sticks, dried nasturtium stalks and the like. We wrapped ourselves in a few layers of clothing, got the kneeling mat out and within an hour it looked fairly respectable (below).

The veg bed at the bottom put us in mind of an abandoned allotment (below) but now looks like any other bed during the winter. It was a bit frozen down there so the garden fork was left in the garage, a rake was the tool of choice and we got as much rubbish up as possible using it. All that’s left in the bed now is the couple of cardoons and a broad bean or two (below lower)!

The best thing we done was pull up the dahlia tubers, getting as much of the soil off as we could without damaging the them before storing them somewhere dry until the spring. We should have pulled them up earlier but laziness and life kicked in towards the end of last year. Let’s hope we’re not too late!

Have a look in the box!

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People tell you it’s all in the preparation and they’re right. Before you start planning and buying new seeds, see what you actually have in the seed tin already.

We took a look last night and suprisingly found stuff we didn’t think we had. There were some seeds left of the sunflowers (below) we were given as part of the seed trials from Thompson and Morgan. We’re not 100% sure on the variety but it may be the ‘Sunshot Golds Mixed’ (If anyone knows do give us a shout). We also found some Skyscraper Sunflower, Green Sprouting Calabrese, Tomatoes and Carrots. As the saying goes “it pays to have a butchers first”!

Post-Sunday gardening musical pressure

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Here’s a lovely remix from Jiony from out of Mexico City of Betelgeize‘s Dao done in a slow-mo style. This tune with its looped hypnotic bassline is infectious, so be warned, 7 and a bit minutes just flashes by! An ideal one to play whilst relaxing after “tipping about (with a rake)” in the garden earlier on when the sun was making an appearance.

A message to all potato fans!

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Thanks to Mick Matthews of the Cambridgeshire Self Sufficiency Group for letting us know of their 11th Potato Day on Saturday 1st February 2020 at All Saints Church, Market Square, Huntingdon PE29 3NR from 10-30 am till 1pm. FREE admission. All welcome!

• 50 varieties of seed potato + onion sets and shallots plus Dahlias

Potatoes from £1-30 a kilo £1-00 for members. You can buy as many or as few as you like, it’s an excellent opportunity to try something different or a good value way to get enough for a whole row. There’s refreshments on sale and crafts and other stalls. It sounds great, so if you’re about that area on the 1st February, go in and have a look!

Gardening bargain of the week!

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Found in WH Smiths in Holborn today, the February issue of Kitchen Garden Magazine with 10 packs of FREE seeds! We know the packs you usually get with magazines are probably not as packed to the gills as the packets are down your local garden centre but these ain’t pretty bad! Some super stuff too: Tomato, Parsley, Radish, Leek, Parsnip, Cabbage, Beetroot, Lettuce, Carrot and Peppers. A bargain and an ‘arf!

We may not have started gardening yet but the garden has

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We still haven’t ventured out the back to do any work even though there’s a lot to do and the weather weren’t that bad yesterday. The couple of cardoons we got from Shannon’s a while back, flowered last year and then died down and we thought that was the end of that. Then in November the plant came back to life and here it is at the moment (above). We’ll be popping back to Shannon’s soon to get a couple more cardoons as they are great stuff. We hope in the next couple of weeks as well to spend some time tidying the garden up for spring as it’s looking a bit messy. And the Dahlias haven’t even been taken out yet!

And to start the new year off on the downbeat tip here’s a nice mellow number from Davin Plashin with Norkav, it may only be 2 minutes and 22 seconds but it’s chilled and infectious!

And the next, a lovely bit of electronica from L.Porche with Saint Gingolph. Who says the new year is dead when it comes to music and the garden?

Happy New Year 2020!

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A big Happy New Year to all our readers and hope you have a great year to come especially in the garden. If you need to listen to some music to wipe out the memory of Jools Holland’s Annual Hootenanny – Honestly it’s recorded live here’s a recording of One Deck Pete’s “Nine and a half minutes at 90 bpm” mix which was transmitted on Free Radio Skybird via Channel 292 on 7440 kHz on 5th January 2020 at 1200 UTC. Here’s the tracklisting:
Frapp – Petals
Blundetto – Take me with you (instrumental)
Lama’s Dream – New Horizons
Mario Pinosa Trio – Vientos De Libertad

All the best for 2020 from all of us at Weeds. Happy gardening! #shortwavesnotdead, #gardeningsnotdead, #freeradioskybird

Free Radio Skybird’s last flight of 2019

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The last transmission of 2019 from DJ Frederick’s Free Radio Skybird will be on Tuesday December 31st at 0900 UTC on 6070 kHz shortwave via Channel 292. The show will be rebroadcast on Sunday 5th January at 1100 UTC/UK on 7440 kHz. If you haven’t got a suitable shortwave set it can also be heard on the SDR link on Channel 292’s site here.

The programme will feature Justin Patrick Moore’s Radiophonic Laboratory and One Deck Pete (from Weeds up to me knees) presenting the Skybird Mailbag. There’ll also be an airing of Pete’s “Nine and a half minutes at ninety BPM” that has new tunes from: Frapp, Blundetto, Lama’s Dream and Mario Pinosa Trio. Mixes from previous shows are available at our audio podcast page here.

The programme will be available on DJ Frederick’s Soundcloud page a day or so before transmission date if you want to hear it in true stereo but we here prefer the show via the ionosphere. Tune in and turn on! #shortwavesnotdead #madtone #freeradioskybird

By the way we’re always looking for decent tunes to play on our spot on Free Radio Skybird. If you know of anything “up our street” so to speak, do contact us via the blog or at onedeckpete (at) gmail (dot) com and if we like it we’ll play it. Free Radio Skybird is now available via 5 FM stations in the USA WSCS, WMNB, KBOG, KOWS and WEJP as well as good old shortwave via Channel 292 and the above is the transmission zone when the conditions are good.