Here’s a book we discovered again in the Weeds gardening bookcase (above). It’s a wonderful book, interviewing gardeners and asking them that one big question “Why do you garden?” All sorts of mad stuff in here from a man who mows grass for the council to commercial rhubarb growers in Yorkshire who grow it under candlelight (below).
We’re asking you the same question. “Why do you garden?” Answers on a postcard or to one deck pete (at) gee male dot com.
We’ve just found this excellent new tune on Bluesky from Cornershop Ft Bubbley Kaur called “Bounce & Salute” and what a great tune it is, with an great video featuring some Trojan singles being pressed and some sort of worker celebration. Wonderful stuff!
We have a bit of a minor leg injury due to carrying heavy stuff about a week Sunday, so we took it very easy in the garden yesterday. After a very light “tip around with a pair of secateurs” we tuned into WAVE from Imaginary Stations on the ATS – 20+ shortwave radio we bought earlier this year. It’s a cheap and cheerful radio and it has some faults but overall, it isn’t bad for the cheap price.
We heard the great mix from our mate Kit G5KIT in Bristol live on air and quoting him a few days ago “I don’t know what it is, but both Dub and Eastern European music both seem to really suit short wave propagation, they just sound …right.” He’s so correct there! Tune in to the studio recording below and Kit’s mix is at 30 minutes in.
Here’s the track listings:
Deep Reggae Sound System – Midnight Dub Waves
Pat Flashman – Summer Dub
The Heptones – Sea of Dub
Groovy Waters – Rock the Casbah
And here’s a few from the Weeds garden including a very small baby sun rose we were given by a friend from work on Friday which was feeling sorry for itself when we put it in the Belfast sink later that evening but on Sunday we even had a flower!
The teasel is attracting all sorts of bugs and pollinators (above) and the cardoon (below) which we bought many years ago at Shannon’s (RIP) survived a blackfly attack after we sprayed some very diluted washing liquid water on it.
And the Globe Thistle is doing well too! Happy gardening everyone.
Cheers to our good mate Gerry Hectic for sending us a photo of his first potatoes of the season, they’re looking fantastic! He said that they were small, but we have no problem with that as they are even tastier when they are like that. Growing your own potatoes are always worth it.
And here’s a tune we haven’t heard for years until the other week when we were painting the fence and listening to a live mix of Gerry’s from an outdoor thing he played at. Great stuff Gerry and keep sending those pics!
Here’s an excellent film from many years ago well worth watching. It features some historical stuff, Noel Dyer who hitch hiked from Peckham to Ethiopia, The Reverend Hillman, a chap with some great headwear at 39.30 in and some excellent tunes.
The first is one from the great Wilmoth Houdini (one of his well known tunes “Black but Sweet” here as sampled by the Sabres of Paradise) called Ethiopian War Drums.
Then the great Mighty Terror with Emperor of Africa.
And a cracking Prince Buster tune called The Prince of Peace only ever heard played out once upstairs at The Betsey Trotwood at an On-U sound related event on a Friday night many moons ago featuring Pete Holdsworth who told us he obtained said record from a charity shop for a sum of less than a quid, years previously.
And finally the Ethopian reggae sound of Tilahun Gessesse. All great stuff off a great film!
We’re a bit behind here with posts at Weeds, the other week we received a message from Kit G5KIT, who said “We had 37 degrees C here in Bristol today. The only ones enjoying it are my chilli seedlings, which are now ready to put into containers as the roots are starting to come through the sides of the fibre pots.” Now 37 degrees that is hot, but he’s right, those chilli seedlings (above) are looking great!
Ours are in the ground after we took a bit of a frost risk earlier this year and we are getting a lot of growth and we are just starting to see the flowers appearing (above). Next to the chillies are onions grown from seed that need a bit of thinning out.
We’ve been having a good few reports from Spike from Morschen43 from a very sunny and hot Le Puy-en-Velay in France over the past few days. His garden is looking well bountiful now. We start with a rose (above) which he said was from the mountains called Rosa Centiflora (aka ‘Cabbage’ or ‘Provence’ rose). He was also saying that the rose can tolerate temperatures down to -15 degrees Celsius. Wow!
Here’s a selection of what’s growing in his garden now, some wonderful stuff here, a few different varieties of Tomato, Aubergine (Eggplant), Courgette (aka Zuchinni), green pepper and runner beans. We’ll have an update from Spike’s yard soon as there is so much there!
This post was written while listening to the latest Ross Allen Meltdown show on Soho Radio. Guest this week was Jimmy Lindsay who was in the great Cymande, we didn’t know that!
Excellent couple of releases found by accident tonight from Soul Diggin out of São Paulo, Brazil. The first is a wonderful tune called I See Dead People [not like us dub version]. Nice rhythm and soulful dub!
The second is an excellent version of Ela Partiu featuring the vocals of Tim Maia over the No, no, no rhythm. Clever stuff. Both tunes are worth checking out.
May the sun keep shining on our gardens!
Big shout to Dr Strangedub for featuring the mix called “We love shortwave” from One Deck Pete on this morning’s Echo Chamber on KFAI here at 83 minutes in here. Track listings are as follows:
Radio Sweden Interval Signal
Triptica – Mysterious Radio Signals
Jasmine Tutum & Madtone – This Frequency
Shortwave Sounds – Reflections
Madtone – Spoken Words from Ibiza
Holger Czukay/Jah Wobble – Hiss n Listen
Gregory Morris & The 18th Parallel – Dub In Your Stereo (dub of Message in your radio by Kumar)
It’s lovely to hear Radio Sweden’s old Interval Signal over the airwaves alongside some great dub and downbeat on a Wednesday morning from 8-12am. Tune in and enjoy the show every week here at the allotted time! Cheers again to Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss.
And talking of the Echo Chamber here is the person who actually told us about the show many years ago, WIll Jeff. Here’s this month’s show from him called Lingua Franca show on Love Will Save The Day FM (below).”Songs from around the world you can sing along to” indeed. Some wonderful stuff on here in a balearic summery worldwide style. Tune in!
A big thanks goes out to Spike from Morschen43 from a very sunny and hot Le Puy-en-Velay, France for keeping us regularly updated about his great garden in the mountains (here). The other day he sent us pictures including some of how his tomatoes are doing.
We were only saying to ourselves the other day that we think the feed we are using (all-purpose feed rather than a specific tomato feed) is making the leaves dark green and were wondering were we feeding them too much nitrogen? We’ve now got a couple of flower trusses starting to show on our plants so they may be okay but looking at Spike’s plants with some large size fruits growing we’re not so sure.
The plants are looking well happy and we love the classic companion planting of Marigolds above (there’s a nice bit about companion planting here). Spike was telling us when he bought the plants they included these varieties below which we’ve never heard of before and they sound well interesting:
The Beef Heart “A heritage variety with a most unusual heart shape fruit. Beefsteak type with excellent flavour and few seeds. Ripens to deep red.”
www.mammothonion.co.uk
Black Crimea “An old, heirloom variety AKA ‘Black Krim’, this sweet and spicy beefsteak tomato has a wonderful aroma and distinctive dark reddish-brown skin ideal for soups, slicing and sauces. Named after the peninsula, ‘Black Crimea’ each olive-shouldered fruit can weigh in at 350g each!”
www.rhsplants.co.uk
Andean horned “Tomato Bellandine, sometimes nicknamed Horn of the Andes, is an indeterminate cordon variety producing long, elegant plum-shaped fruits. Each tomato typically weighs 180 – 230 g and measures up to 18 cm long. The flesh is firm, very fleshy, and almost seedless, delivering an excellent sweet flavour with a rich aroma.”
www.simplyseed.co.uk
Alongside the pictures of the tomatoes he sent us a picture (below) of the vine growing across the house which they got off a neighbour of his grand parents in Troyes (Capital of the Champagne region). Great stuff Spike. Do keep updating us as we appreciate it here!
If you love a bit of rock/punk and a bit of reggae, ska, dub, metal, hard rock, tune into Spike’s Vampirefreaks radio show here. The shows are archived here.
Thanks to Justin Patrick Moore for sending this book cover from Fred Vargas to us. Crazy coincidences of a stone circle kind. Any one drying the dinner dishes tonight with a standing stone tea towel? We await your pictures…
Weeds up to me knees 