King Tubby’s – King At The Controls – Black & White
A big thanks to Si Diamond and all at The Dirt “a gardening show like no other” on Radio Fab International for having us on the show as from tomorrow night as a weekly feature. Listen out for “Sounds from the South” as part of the new format. The show’s going to be good, “something is coming” indeed!
We at weeds will be definitely cracking open a bottle of a major supermarket’s finest and tuning in tomorrow night from 6-8pm, I mean what’s the alternative, Deal or No Deal or Antiques Roadshow? Best of luck to The Dirt!
Thanks to Dr Strangedub for the link-up again in our “dub gardeners of the world unite” series which this time features Phil Harmony who produces the excellent dubnight radioshow from Berlin. If you’re into roots reggae it’s a great listen!
Phil’s got a great little balcony where he grows his edibles and has made a clever plant table on wheels to capture more of those rays from the sun! Here’s Phil with the words and pics.
My name is Phil Harmony and I’m the founder of dubnight radio show, DJ, music producer and someone who loves gardening. To watch my plants grow, it feels like I’m printing money and getting richer everyday. I love to go outside on my balcony in the morning (well, what I call morning!) and take a look at my plants and I’m always impressed by what’s happened overnight.
I got into gardening through my grandma and parents, who had a garden when I was young and we grew our own potatoes, salad, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, spices and berries. At school we also had a garden and had gardening lessons and I learnt at an early age that the taste of home grown vegetables were much better than the ones you buy in the shops.
Now living in a flat in Berlin, I grow my own produce on a balcony (2.5m x1.50m approx.) and try to live a life that is as harmless as possible to the environment so I grow organically because we have enough chemicals in our lives. This year I decided to grow my vegetables in pots on a mobile stand slightly off the ground which gives them more control on how much light they get (pic above from earlier this season) and a hopefully a little bit more protection from the snails because last year they ate most of my plants (grrr!)Using some wood which I had lying around, I made a stand and stuck some wheels on the bottom and now have something that I can now move to follow the sunlight because I only get usually get about an hour a day but my plants seem to be okay with it. All is growing pretty nice so far and I cant wait to eat my harvest! Above is the plant table now.I have yellow cocktail tomatoes which are starting to ripen and tomatoes on the vine, a pepper plant and the world’s hottest chilli (below: the snack chilli and it looks great!)I also grow herbs, marjoram and French and Morroccan mint, the latter which the snails seem to love! Another favourite is Oregano, I tend to overwater it a bit and use it regularly, thats why most of it has gone! (We at weeds love those half circle concrete things in the ground that the herbs are in. If they are deep enough they’d be great to restrict the roots on say mint which tends to run riot once it gets started.)My Strawberries and Raspberries are in their first year so I’m not expecting much fruit but they’re looking healthy. Overall my soil could do with a bit more sand and sunlight, but the plants seem to live with it. The plants get regularly fed with a solution of stinging nettles which have been steeped in water and used coffee grounds added into the mix. Cheers to Phil for showing us his gardening exploits, it’s a great looking space and shows that you can grow vegetables and fruit anywhere!
A big thanks to Vic Godard from the great Subway Sect and his partner G for sending us these great photo’s of their garden. If you remember earlier this year their excellent runner bean wigwam was our beanpole of the month. It’s featured again in the photo below as a backdrop to those squawking parakeets you often see around these parts.
Love the tomatoes in the grow bags with the great watering devices, they look like cut off pop bottles if I’m not mistaken.
In the flower department the garden features some wild roses, mallow and sweet peas. They look great!
Best of luck to Vic and his forthcoming run of gigs starting with The Latitude Festival next week (19th July) and the also for the release of “1979 Now” in October. Cheers Vic and G, ta for the pics!
Big shout to our good friends Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss for the rebroadcast of “In The Garden Of Dub” part 1 of a mix for all dub gardeners, on this week’s Echo Chamber on KFAI. Before the mix is a rerub of my appearance on The Dirt the other week. Cheers for airing that!
Also on the show there’s some great new music from Phil Harmony, Nate Wize, Alpha Steppa, and more… Download it here.
Matumbi – Man Sized Rocker (Instrumental) – Matumbi Music Corp
A couple of good things to look forward to if you’re down the big smoke over the next few weeks. The great Dennis “Blackbeard” Bovell will be playing some tunes upstairs at The Ritzy Cinema, Brixton for nothing (how good is that!) as part of David Katz’ Dub Me Always on Wednesday 9th July. More details here at their Facebook page.
Before then as part of James Lavelle’s Meltdown on Sunday 22nd June there’s a free event down the Southbank called “Sunday Come Down” featuring Don Letts (Not Monty Don), James Lavelle and other top stuff as the day goes on. Let’s hope the weather keeps up. Here’s the line up cribbed from here. I’m sure it’ll change but it gives you clue what to expect. 12 noon – 1.30pm Don Letts 1.30pm – 2.30pm James Lavelle 2.30pm – 3pm Voicelab 3pm – 3.30pm JP Duncan 3.30pm – 4.15pm Jeremy Deller Acid Brass 4.15pm – 5.45pm Horsemeat Disco 5.45pm – 6.45pm James Priestley (Secretsundaze) 6.45pm – 7.15pm James Lavelle
Johnny Clarke – Hold on/King Tubby’s – The Baddest Version – Attack
This Saturday coming (June 14th) there’s a special screening of the Bunny Lee Film “I am the Gorgon” at the BFI, Southbank plus after a Q and A session with the director Diggory Kenrick and the narrator of the film and the legend that is Dennis Alcapone. There’s still a couple of tickets left for £6.50 here. I’m going and if I get a chance I’ll ask Dennis if he’s into gardening!
A big ta to Haji Mike the dub poet from Cyprus for updating us with a pic of his now flowering cactus. How nice is that flower? Read his “Reggae and the cactus” post here.
There are many things in life that are eternal…love, family, kids…good friends…songs you write and Jah music. Reggae has and will always be. It has an eternal flame. It is not a fantasy, passing fad or illusion to paraphrase a line from a big tune from MC Charlie Chaplin. Reggae is with you for the long haul because it is a music that can reset the mindset, a sound that can turn your world perspective upside down and bring an inner peace. I feel this happens because Reggae is the heart beat. Its a life line…There are however some other things in my life that are older than my love for Reggae. I have been sharing this life with a cactus from about the age of 8. It has travelled with me through different stages, places and countries.
During childhood, my neighbour in Walthamstow, dear Mr. Golding, introduced me to this cactus with Australian roots. I am not sure how it ended up in East London but the cutting he gave me thrived well in a pot filled with half soil and half sand. As a student, cactus came with me to Essex University, where my studies in Sociology and Government were also enhanced by a fledgling education in Reggae music selection. Tunes this cactus heard. Wheel and come again selector!
After Essex I moved back to London flat sharing with mates, Alister and Skev in Hackney. A nice bright spot in the kitchen by the window was it’s home for another 8 years. I then moved from place to place, East London to Haringey Green Lanes and the prickly friend came with me every time. Ironic during all these decades, its stunted growth, always being in pots, enduring those heavy winters, the cactus never bloomed.
1992-3 was a good time for me musically. I’d set up my own label, Kebab Kulture Music and several 12″ singles of mine became hits in Cyprus. During that time I came and went to the island of Aphrodite 12 times until I finally decided to repatriate, return to the land of my birth and yes you guessed it, the cactus came with me, as a small-ish cutting in my shoulder bag.
The Mediterranean climate is conducive to cactii. We have our own prickly pear, ‘baboutsosiko’ variety, which has an unusual if not acquired taste as a fruit. These grow throughout the island like weeds. When we bought our first house in 1998 I decided it was time for cactus to be planted in the garden, in the earth, to live and be free. This was also the first time the plant managed those characteristic orange flowers. What a sight!
Cactus however took over like the Triffids on heat. Within three years half the garden was green and very prickly. What a ting! I had to cut it though, as everything else was suffocating – being taken over.
Something like 27 bin bags were filled with cuttings and disposed of. It felt sad in a way so I kept a large cutting in a big pot. Every year it still blooms and is so beautiful…I asked one of my kids recently, what came first Reggae or the Cactus. And of course they replied Reggae…and I answered amusingly….Cactus…Well, for me at least….
A big thanks to Haji Mike from the beautiful island of Cyprus for this piece and a shout to Dr Strangedub for starting off this dub gardeners around the world series! Remember you don’t have to like dub to send us your pics. Gardeners around the world with all musical tastes are welcomed!
Thanks to Barak from Balaganjah for getting in touch with us at weeds after our post about their excellent podcast the other day. He’s sent us a nice pic of his garden, proof that dub and gardening do mix!
Big shout to the Balaganjah crew out of Tel Aviv for their excellent podcast discovered last week through a random search for “roots reggae” on i-Tunes.
Episode 420 – Message from Jamdown has been on heavy rotation here at weeds and features some excellent 70’s roots featuring tracks previously unheard of to this ear from Rudy Mowatt “Public Enemy No.1”, Horace Martin “Unity” and Cornell Campbell’s “Keep on pushing” amongst many others. One to download here and crank up on the hi-fi!
A big festive greeting to one and all! As Saint Nick’s on his way it’s only fitting that we post up this oldie but goodie after hearing it again on last week’s Echo Beach (which also features Madtone’s Dark Dread amongst other good stuff. Cheers for the play Terry C!)
We’re trying real hard to feel festive tonight as the rain is in horizontal mode and there’s a cyclone blowing outside (watch out for those flying cloches and greenhouses!) One show that’ll get us in the mood is Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss’ Echo Chamber on KFAI. Click here for their great Christmas in dub special.
Big up all our gardening/musical friends around the globe and we raise a glass to you all!
I have yellow cocktail tomatoes which are starting to ripen and tomatoes on the vine, a pepper plant and the world’s hottest chilli (below: the snack chilli and it looks great!)
I also grow herbs, marjoram and French and Morroccan mint, the latter which the snails seem to love! Another favourite is Oregano, I tend to overwater it a bit and use it regularly, thats why most of it has gone! (We at weeds love those half circle concrete things in the ground that the herbs are in. If they are deep enough they’d be great to restrict the roots on say mint which tends to run riot once it gets started.)
Weeds up to me knees 