Talking of RTM FM, a big shout to Jesse Yuen of the excellent North of the River Swan radio show (which is on a break for the time being) for sending us this morning some excelllent pictures of his parents garden in Bassendean, Perth, Western Australia where he is at the moment. It’s a brilliant space and has some out there plants we could only dream about having here!
It looks a wonderful space and a lovely place for chilling out in! He’s sent us some close ups of flowers from the yard too. Great stuff!
And here’s the last North of The River Swan (until later this year hopefully) as Jesse (as it says on the mixcloud) “is taking some time off to recalibrate the compass and recharge the radio batteries”. Take it easy and we look forward to your return to the radio and to your shortwave debut. Cheer for the gardening pics, do send us more.
A while ago we heard a wonderful Radio 4 programme in the Lights Out series called Call Signs. It featured the story of a radio ham, Wlad Gurtovy (US7IGN) talking about life in Kyiv, Ukraine on his own after his wife and children had to flee to Poland because of the crazy war.
It’s a capitating story, one about radios, home-made antennas and even features his children’s hamster called Mouse. He jokes that when his family contacts him, sometimes they ask how Mouse is before they ask how he is! It’s all mixed in with various radio noises and a nice soundtrack from 8ctavius. Download and listen to the programme here.
Wlad has also published a book about his experiences called “War Diaries – A Radio Amateur in Kyiv” which is presented as a record of events from the first day of the war on 24 February to the end of September 2022. We’ve still not finished the book yet but it’s an excellent read so far and one well worth buying. More on purchasing it here.
A big thanks to Wlad for passing on the pictures of his good friend Sergiy (UT3UFD)’s banana plant presently growing indoors in his apartment in Kyiv and it looks as healthy as anything. We’re not the best with indoor plants here sadly but it certainly looks like it is getting a lot of care an attention from Sergiy as it is thriving.
Wlad mentioned that Sergiy uses a lamp to heat the plant as it needs an environment of about 20°C. When the temperature in the apartment recently dropped to 14°C because of the blackouts he had to turn the gas stove on to get the heat back up to the right temperature. That’s dedication for you.
Thanks again to Wlad and also Sergiy for the photographs. We look forward to any updates!
Big shout to our good gardening friend Gerry Hectic for sending us a pic of what he harvested from his garden this week. Looking great! We are nearing the end of the main growing season but there’s still some time left. Send us your growing pics as we love them here and find them inspiring and send us a tune too!
Gerry sends us a great dub poetry recommendation from Lil Obeah Meets Isuru called Chaos Is Dub, a lovely bit of reggae from the excellent Romanian label Sound of Art to Come. Cheers for the pic and musical tip Gerry!
The sun’s out again and it’s 27°C and very dry in the garden this afternoon.
Last week we heard Christine Walkden on Gardener’s Question Time who said she likes to give her garden a good water with just a watering can and it can take her up to 2 hours at a time.
Since ditching the hose after watching a great special about conserving water on Gardener’s World a while ago it now takes us quite a while too just using a watering can without a rose on the top. We enjoy the slow ritual, the endless walks back and forth to the tap, making sure the soil gets a good soaking. We probably wouldn’t like it that way if we were going to catch a train but it’s a nice thing to do on an early morning on a day off work or in the later evening after a day of toil.
Is there such a thing as “meditative gardening”? There was a lot of staring into space with one foot on a garden fork when we worked at the council so it may have been around for years.
Talking of meditative gardening, there’s a great horticultural themed set from Monster Rally (we have a feeling that someone may have mentioned this to us before, our mates Gerry Hectic, DJ Frederick or Justin Patrick Moore perhaps?) called Botanica Dream. It’s full of some lovely downtempo business and at the moment the track above is our favourite but they’re all excellent.
And here’s a promo from the Skybird Council Gardeners Association for The Scented Garden radio show for you all to enjoy.
And an episode of The Scented Garden from earlier this year for your gardening/listening pleasure. Tune in, turn on and sit yourself in the middle of a flower bed preferably and enjoy the flowers.
A big shout out to all of our music/gardening friends from around the world! Thanks to Justin Patrick Moorein Cincinnati for an update of his Hugelkultur bed (above). It’s certainly looking great!
A few months ago it started off as the below (mentioned in the post here) and now has been filled with straw, soil, and underneath that, layers of compost and leaves and below that waste wood. It certainly looks like the plants like it! It may be worth having a go. Great stuff Justin! More on the practice of Hugelkultur here.
And thanks to our other good friend Gerry Hectic for sending a pic of his healthy looking pond. Is that watermint alongside that great lily Gerry? Brilliant!
Do send us pics of how you’re getting on with the garden this summer, we’re well up for receiving them!
Some very apt gardening advice for this time of year from the late great Percy Thrower at 2.19 mins in on the track Winter in June from Beyond The Wizzard’s Sleeve. “The more we do during the autumn and winter, the easier and better the gardening is throughout the rest of the year” and “There’s a tendancy to look out of the window in the month of January and say it’s a dit dull, it’s a bit murky outside, nothing of interest in the garden. If the garden is like that it’s not the fault of the garden it’s the fault of the gardener.” Wise words Percy!
In his lifetime he also uttered the great line “I’m a gardener. I’m not a celebrity, I’m not famous, I’m a gardener.” We very much doubt he’d be up for those very gripping “Big Brother”/”Castaway”/”Three celebrities left in a shed” type programmes if he was alive today.
As heard on today’s Rhythm Doctor’s Waiting Roomon IDA Radio (Tallinn) (from 8am-11am UK time every Monday) here’s a well chilled and dubby classic from a few years ago and very much a favourite here!
Also a related tune from the great Lee Perry (RIP) also heard on the same show a few weeks previously. Tunes!
A big thanks to Stevyn and Yukako Prothero for sending us pictures of their first journey into the world of gardening in Hokkaido, Japan. We know Stevyn from the excellent Iron Feather Journal fanzine (there’s loads about it here and here) and he was also behind the Towne Club RecordsAlan’s Psychedelic Breakfast remix project here which included a musical contribution from Madtone.
We at Weeds love a garden no matter its size or form and this is a neat little one. What makes it even better is that it’s the first time they’ve both had a go at growing stuff and in their own words with “little knowledge or experience.” That’s what’s gardening’s about, starting small, learning from any mistakes and see how you get on. You may get the odd failure but you’ll get successes too. Just being in the outdoors tinkering away with the many gardening jobs is healthy for a start and keeps your mind off the various lists and worries of the week.
The plot is compact “the earth is very rich, it’s excellent soil and get lots of sunshine and rain” says Stevyn. There’s a great mix of stuff growing including tomatoes, beans, peppers, zuchini, eggplants, shiso, carrots, lettuce, pumpkins, asparagus and onions! It’s right up our street.
He told us that the American orange pumpkins are rare compared to the green Japanese pumpkin and also jalapeno peppers are scarce over there too and cost a fortune.
As always we ask our contributors to pick a tune and Stevyn chose this one, a cover of a song from “a very touching sweet tv show about a man and two kids who live in a shack in Hokkaido trying to survive called Kita no kuni kara (From the North Country)”.
Also Stevyn sent us a pic of a rice paddy near his house “Many miles of rice paddys here, as the people eat rice daily” and how great is that scenery?
Also whilst we’re on the subject of Japan and gardens have a look here at a great garden they visited last year in Tomakomai. Here’s a sneak preview. A fun garden indeed!
Thanks again to Stevyn and Yukako for sending the great pics and we’d love to see more photo’s later on in the year to see how things develop!
This Sunday 7th March 2021 (and repeated a week later) at 12 noon UTC/UK sees a transmission by KDUB on 9670 kHz in 31 Metre band on shortwave. There’s a whole hour of some great drum and bass heavy music including a mix by One Deck Pete called “In Dub for KDUB”. If you haven’t a shortwave radio to hand click here at 12 noon this Sunday. Also check the KMTS mixcloud site here after transmission for a recording of the whole show.
And here’s a tune that isn’t on KDUB but it is a classic and a tune with the great Mark Perry on vocals, Alternative TV with Life After Life from that grand old year of 1977.
And while we there, here’s a cover by Mark Perry of The Whole World’s Down On Me by Ken Boothe and B.B. Seaton another tune we love by Mark P!
Weeds up to me knees 