How do you make a Zen garden?

Posted on May 26, 2016 by onedeckpete

A big shout to Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss from the excellent radio show Echo Chamber on KFAI who every Wednesday from the crack of dawn play the best in reggae, dub and downbeat.

On this week’s show they played Dr Strangedub’s “In the garden of dub” mix (above) from a couple of years ago celebrating the “pleasures of gardening, the roots of life and the seasons of nature.” We here think it’s great stuff and includes Singers & Players (ft. Prince Far I), Madtone, Leroy Sibbles, Jah Wobble, Lee Perry and lots more, dedicated to the late great Peter Sellers (aka Chauncey Gardner). More proof that music and gardening do mix!

The rebroadcasting of the mix comes at an apt time where last week Graham Porter on Gardening with Tim Crowther on BBC Radio Leeds said that we’ve now reached the point where tender plants can be now put out. But that’s after the plants have had a period of being hardened off, a good watering and some slug protection has been put down first. But do keep that fleece handy just in case and watch those weather forecasts as you never know if/when those damn frosts will reappear.

Up on the roof

Posted on May 15, 2016 by onedeckpete

Jochen_2016_1 A couple of years ago we featured the great garden of Jochen from Splintercell Sound from near Bielefeld, Germany (more about Jochen and his garden here.) He grows veg and fruit in a greenhouse and various pots on top of his carport, how brilliant is that? Jochen_various fruit

Jochen pots pre planting A big thanks to Jochen for sending us some pics the other day, the pots have been prepared and the gardening season over in Bielefeld has now started! Jochen_2 Above, a selection of the potatoes that are going in; “annabelle”, red potato, “bamberger hörnchen” ( aka “Bamberger (City) Croissant,” a great name!) and a blue variety. A nice old array of potatoes. More on the different varieties of the ‘umble spud here. Jochen_cucumber_tomatoes In the greenhouse there’s peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers. Also has peas, beans, potatoes, strawberries (around the greenhouse – below left,) rasperries, gooseberry, currant and a kaki tree (persimmon fruit) that’s got flower buds after four years (below right.) There’s a cherry tree and apple trees in the small yard between the house and the carport too. Jochen_Strawberrys_Kaki

Jochen_various fruit_2 Jochen is also involved in the club Feel Like Jumping (music policy, reggae from rocksteady, rub a dub, dancehall, ragga to modern roots) in Münster and looks like a great night with some fine flyers too! Jochen_FLJ flyer

A big up to Jochen for the pics again and picking this fine tune from Wayne Jarret. Further proof that good music and gardening do mix!

Citrus in Cyprus

Posted on April 8, 2016 by onedeckpete

A big thanks to Haji Mike from the island of Cyprus for his spring garden update.

Tangerine Haji mike

“The smell of citrus fruits in the garden this time of the year is heavenly and intoxicating. Just sitting in the garden day or night and taking in those aromas is like paradise.

We have three in all, tangerine (above), lemon and orange. They are young trees so for the first few years not much fruit has grown. Things look different this year though.

The lemon above is one that blooms 3 times in a season.

And the orange above is known as Shekeriko, a tree common mainly in Cyprus. It yields small oranges packed with the living perfumed flavour. Be warned eat two or more and the acid gets to you…

Deep breaths mean time and meditations…. Haji Mike”

Thanks to Mike for the piece and pics and for choosing this apt tune from Maxi Priest.

The train to Fishguard is coming…

Posted on June 26, 2015 by onedeckpete

Mike P Cherries A big shout to Mike and Aradhana of the great Ffynnonofi Farm near Fishguard, Pembrokeshire where we’ve stayed a couple of times in the past. It’s a top place, the sea’s on your doorstep and there’s plenty of countryside to take in as well as some great fruit and veg growing on the farm!

Mike’s sent us some snaps of his garden at the present moment and the plants are looking good! The sweet cherries (above) look brilliant and the plums (below) look like they’re coming on fine too. Mike P_Plums The morello cherries (below) are starting to turn red.And look at the overwintered garlic below, they went in around november last year and are now well on their way!

One of the caretakers of Ffynnonofi Farm is Dai, (the son of the late John Seymour, author of “The new complete book of self-sufficiency” we reviewed on the blog here). His tip is that garlic should ideally go in on the shortest day (usually around the 21st December), and picked on the longest day (around the 21st June). Great advice!Cheers to Mike for sending in the pics and also thanks for passing on this fine classic from Peter Tosh.

A pre-gardening reggae apéritif

Posted on May 10, 2015 by onedeckpete

We’ve woken up to a bright and sunny day here in London and just before a day of pottering about in the garden (or more likely, before the clouds go in!) here’s a wonderful bit of music to get you going.

It’s Chronixx doing a live set over some classic Studio 1 rhythms from his first appearance at Miss Lilys in New York City in 2012. Miss Lily’s looks a brilliant place, a restaurant, record shop and radio station, all they need now is a little garden centre at the back and it would be an ideal place for us here at weeds! Also, here’s a set Chronixx did there from back in 2014.

Some tunes to get you in mood for weeding, watering and taking off that horticultural fleece from the cold night just has gone (which you’ll more than likely be putting back on come this evening!).

The seed box connection (in a plywood style)

Posted on March 19, 2015 by onedeckpete

In one of this month’s popular gardening magazines there’s a feature about making your own seed box with various drawers and compartments. I know I’m a bit OCD when it comes to my seed container so I can’t talk, but making one out of sheets of plywood with “25 sections which I am going to put into alphabetical order” is taking it a bit too far I reckon. What’s wrong with an old biscuit tin?

Here’s a couple of tunes (thanks to David Rodigan as ever for these!) to stick on loud while looking through your (possibly chaotic and in a non-alphabetical order) seed tin and sorting out what’s going in as the growing season is near enough with us. Happy seed tin exploring!

Ini Kamoze – Hill and gully Ride (Xterminator)

Damian Marley, Pressure and Tarrus Riley – Mental Disturbance (Yard Vybz Entertainment)

On the bonkers for a Thursday night

Posted on March 12, 2015 by onedeckpete

Here’s a super guest mix from The Go! Team from last week’s excellent Tom Ravenscroft show on BBC Radio 6 music. A mix of all sorts of madness!

One to play very loud in the greenhouse late at night while repotting plants (with just a torch as a light source) especially when there’s a full moon. That’ll get the neighbours talking! The mix is available here.

Baby, it’s cold outside

Posted on February 26, 2015 by onedeckpete

Dennis Brown – Baby Don’t Do It – Matador (1971)

I heard this classic Dennis Brown tune today on soundcloud, off a recording of a dance with Saxon soundsytem and David Rodigan from the mid 1980’s and what a tune! That led me to recall a lovely recut of it by Wayne Wade from around 1978.

Wayne Wade – Now I Know – Vivian Jackson (1978)

If you love the rhythm as much as I do, listen to the below mix and a half from the excellent Algoriddim which features cut after cut after cut, starting with the great Alton Ellis and featuring a personal favourite of mine, Z90 Skank by Trinity.

Some tunes to chill out to and dream of some good weather soon, so you can go out and tip around in the garden.

Let sleeping chillies lie

Posted on February 22, 2015 by onedeckpete

A big shout to our good friend Phil Harmony in Berlin who produces the excellent dub night radio show. Last year we featured his great balcony garden in our “dub gardeners of the world unite” feature here.

This winter Phil brought in his Jolokia Chocolate Chilli plant and here’s a couple of pics of the state of play at the moment. I always thought Chillies were annuals but it was only last year when I was in Shannon’s Garden Centre and they showed us a couple of plants they kept indoors over the winter that I found out they’re short-lived perennials given the right conditions. Over the winter months the plant goes into hibernation mode and can look like it’s a goner but come the spring once the weather improves, the plant will begin to sprout new growth. Phil Harmony chill in hibernation_2 There’s some great information about overwintering Chilli plants on the Dartmoor Chilli Farm website here and it mentions there that they’ve had good success overwintering the Jolokia variety.

Thanks to Phil for picking an excellent tune to accompany the pictures from Kabaka Pyramid ft. Protoje called Warrior. Tune!

Nice one Phil, do send us some more pics once the plant gets going.

The best things in life are (nearly) free!

Posted on February 22, 2015 by onedeckpete

A big thanks to Lewisham Gardens and Golightly Gardens for organising the great seed swap in Deptford yesterday. I got nearly everything from my wants list and there were loads of great seeds available. These events are always good for meeting fellow gardeners, getting growing advice and for picking up those odd varieties of seeds.

I got sunflowers, sweet peas, hollyhocks, poppies, foxgloves and gaillardia in the flower line. I wasn’t looking for too much veg as I’m happily sorted for those after getting a bargain of mixed veg seeds on ebay the other month.

I did get a couple of varieties of basil (bush and sweet genovese), french beans and a beefsteak tomato called Marmande which looked like it could be an extra from that silly 70’s film Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.I was on my way out when I met a lovely chap who was looking for the seed swap who worked for Lewisham council. He told me later after a long shift at the council all he wants to do is spend the rest of his day up his allotment. Great stuff! Back in the seedswap he shared a wide variety of seeds (and I don’t even think he wanted anything in return as far as I can remember) and I got a tomato called Black Krim from Russia!

When I finally left I visited the new and improved Dig This Nursery in Clifton Rise, New Cross after being ribbed by Mihaly (who was doing a talk at the seed swap about growing veg in small spaces) for not being up to speed about knowing that their shop has moved. Sometimes I find it hard enough to keep up with what’s going in me own small world let alone outside it! They’ve even opened a new shop in Rye Lane in the parish of Peckham too.

In the New Cross shop is a second hand record section where I flicked through some old reggae singles (£3 each) where they had a copy of the late great Nicky Thomas tune Love of the Common People (to hear the original jamaican version without the strings click here). On the B side of that well-known single is the tune below which I was reminded about by The Rhythm Doctor when he span it at one of our events at Limewharf last year.

And thanks to the excellent Dancecrasher website (from The Tighten Up Crew) here’s the vocal version of the above from Slim Smith. Well I never knew that!

Thanks again to Lewiham Gardens and Golightly Gardens for this event. More seed swaps please!

Weeds up to me knees

Madtone, gardening and life

Category Archives: Dub Gardeners of the world unite