The path to enlightenment

We don’t usually give it large regarding what we’ve done in the garden but with Sunday’s great weather (granted it was on and off but when it was “on” it was great) we made a bit of progress with a lot of outstanding jobs and we’re well chuffed!

The bed on the right-hand side had gone out of control, the comfrey was choking everything (including the dahlias, red hot poker and even the rosemary) and the path was fast disappearing. On the pic above after the hard graft you can now see a couple of the sunflowers, one being nearly 7ft high! We’re suckers for those adverts in E-bay that say “Giant skyscraper Sunflowers that will reach 20 ft at least, as grown in Jack and the Beanstalk” and that sort of thing.

Even the anarchy that is the veg bed at the bottom of the garden was tidied up (a bit). This is it post hoeing and de-weeded. There’s broad beans, dwarf french beans, runner beans, beetroot and even a courgette.

We’ve even had a harvest, the above is some spuds we got from Shannon’s earlier this year. We’ve been chomping at the bit to dig them up and this is the first time a bit of patience has paid off (they are a decent size for once). The cherry tomatoes we got from them too from seed are starting to ripen too and the plants are just not stopping so a bit of nipping out of the top had to be done. It’s good this gardening lark (when it goes well!)

 

 

Do the shortwave shuffle

Cheers to Justin Patrick Moore for giving us the heads up a few months ago that Hainbach was looking for samples to use on a forthcoming album. We at Weeds are very happy to report that Hainbach utilised a 12 second sample from Madtone to make a lovely track called Decaying Tides on his new release Old Suns. Cheers again Justin & a big thanks to Mr Hainbach. #shortwavesnotdead #hainbach #madtone

A healthy dose of goodness and light

Here’s a  lovely piece of ambience from about : forest off their Bandcamp release The Land of Three Moons on Dewtone Recordings out of Vancouver, British Columbia. It’s called Calling Light and if all goes well will find itself on a forthcoming mix for Free Radio Skybird. A track to drift off to and dream about a return of some good gardening weather!

Keep ’em peeled again

A big thanks to our long-time friend Mark Platts for sending us some pics of his novel gardening idea. He painted up some found-in-the-street old wheelbarrow’s and filled one with an alpine display and in his own words “the other is empty and just standing by watching at the moment”. That’s a great idea Mark, so we’re going to keep them peeled for those thrown out wheelbarrows down these parts!

Cheers for the other pics of the garden Mark. We’re loving your raised bed veg patch and greenhouse (that look like there’s peppers and tomatoes in there).

And we love the rhubarb rescued from some wasteland that’s gone a bit mad in the raised bed! Brilliant Mark, keep them pics coming!

What a difference a few days make

We know it’s only been a few days since the last pics of the Thompson & Morgan seed trials have been posted, but look what’s happened in that short time. The tomatoes have moved on a bit and all of the plants are doing well. We keep them regularly watered and feed comfrey liquid to them on a weekly basis and those fruits are now starting to swell!

And yes we’ve had problems with cheeky daytime slugs and the spaghetti squash (see post here) but for some reason they’ve missed this one!

And as for the sunflower, there’s more buds forming! It’s a value for money plant if you’re going to be buying some when they are released next year. Our specimens may be a bit on the small side but we’re not complaining! More power to the (vertically challenged) sunflower!

And thanks to whosampled:

And as we stand in the front of the jury today…

We’ve been suprised a few times by the results of this year’s Thompson & Morgan seed trials, by the red/pink/purple nasturtiums (below) and what we think may be beefsteak tomatoes but we haven’t been half as surprised as when this sunflower (above) appeared the other day. How good is that? We’re not sure if it’s supposed to be a mini-sunflower or a full-sized one as our plant is quite short, but it could be where we planted it, but what a flower!

And the tomatoes are doing well! We gave them a good watering all week and also a good lot of comfrey liquid this morning. Fingers crossed for some nice beefsteak ones (if they’re not, no bother but it would be nice to have a tomato as big as your hand!)

The spaghetti squash is now romping away (below) but it looks like the slugs are getting to the fruits before they set, damn! We do love this seed trial!

We bring you tomorrow’s transmissions today

Big shout to DJ Frederick and all involved in this month’s Free Radio Skybird that will be beaming out over the shortwaves at 7pm UTC tomorrow Sunday 4th August on 6070 khz in the 49 Metre band. Tune in here at 8pm UK time and listen to the programme with the added bonus of the sound of radio waves bouncing off the ionosphere. If you rather listen to a clear audio version we’ve included a link to the recording of what’s going to be broadcast tomorrow which is posted up on DJ Frederick’s soundcloud for a limited period.

The hour of eclectic programming includes Weed’s very own One Deck Pete with “Soul on shortwave” at 23.53 in, Steve with Mini Indie Radio and the first episode of Justin Patrick Moore of Sothismedias’ Radiophonic Laboratory (featuring tunes by Meat Beat Manifesto, Fred Judd G2BCX and more) at 46.17.

Tune in to Radio Free Skybird via the ionosphere or the internet and as DJ Frederick says “Keep your radio free, keep your mind free and keep your spirit free.”
#freeradioskybird #shortwavesnotdead

https://soundcloud.com/djfrederick/free-radio-skybird-4-august-2019#t=0:00

I’ll have an pee please Bob

Bob Flowerdew’s Organic Gardening Bible (Successful growing the natural way) Kyle Books £8.99

Picked up in Shoe Lane library on the hottest day of the year last Thursday whilst making full use of their air conditioning this book is what it says it is, a “gardening bible”. It’s an ideal reference for across the board organic gardening (vegetables, fruit, flowers and livestock) with tons of top tips. There’s a great section on harvesting and storing harvests and some interesting alternative pest and disease control methods.

In a typical Bob Flowerdew style there’s some corkers in here when it comes to unconventional gardening, take this one for a start: “Human liquid waste is not a health hazard in temperate climates and it is wasteful to flush away such a rich source of fertility. Saved in a bucket, it can get whiffy…the whiffiness is much reduced if you add some sugar”. We’re ones for pouring the odd bit of urine from a bottle on the compost heap from time to time but not when the neighbours are watching. Bob Flowerdew we salute you, we urge all gardeners to buy or borrow this book!