So the slugs have devoured your seedlings, your brussels have clubroot and there’s blight on your Mountain Magic. Never mind, get into some loose clothing, lie down and drop out to this seven minutes of blissed electronica from Pariah. Forget about the garden for now, those pests can wait! #trippinginthegreenhouse
A few photos of the state of play in the Weeds garden at the moment. There’s fun and frolics in the pond with the goldfish and this year’s batch of tadpoles and it’s not looking too murky in there at the moment. There’s no sign of that thieving Lewisham heron either thanks to the folks at Shannon’s for telling us to put pea netting over the top of the pond (with a few escape routes dotted about for the local mini-wildlife).
The poppies are doing their thing too. Any seed heads that form we dry out and distribute around the garden so they’ll come back next summer.
The vegetable bed at the bottom of the garden has moved on since last month. The spuds are on their way, the alderman peas are starting to grow and we’re finally seeing the runner beans germinate. And about time too!
Two for a Monday, the first Utopia – Sunshine Life (Beatconductor Dub) starts on a funky tip with a heavy synth bassline and a “Now that we found love” type vibe going on then going into a nice 70’s reggae thing. One to play when the sun’s out!
And the second, a great mix from Phil “The Ambient Toothgrinder” Mison and Jose Padilla in tandem from many years ago in sunny Southend to stick on and blast out of the back doors in the evening when you’re filling up those beer traps for the slugs to wander into.
The complete vegetable grower – W.E. Shewell-Cooper – Faber & Faber 1955
Here’s a great book picked up in a charity shop in lovely Sudbury last week. First published in 1955, it describes itself as a “book for the amateur who wants to grow all his/her own vegetables and save him/herself at least £100 a year”. It covers subjects as crop rotation, soil structure and composting and has a comprehensive section on “The culture of vegetables alphabetically” covering growing tips, harvesting and using the vegetable featured.
The chapter “Unusual vegetables for original gardeners” sounds like a name of a Buzzcocks live LP and features all sorts of veg, some we knew, the asparagus pea for instance and lots we didn’t: Good King Henry, the Potato Onion and Couve Tronchuda.
Amazing what you learn from those old school gardening books from a time when blokes wore shirts and ties down the allotment. One to search out for!
Here’s a lovely tune called Janet 50 from Smith & Mudd, with the top frenchman I:Cube on the mix. If this 7 minutes of joy don’t welcome the sun back into the garden, god knows what will! One to stick on (in the headphones of course) when getting the hose out at 7am to give those plants their morning soak.
And if you enjoy “tipping around” with a hoe later on in the day here’s a tune of the calmer variety from Everton Blender called Sing for Jah with a great dub to boot.
It’s good this gardening lark especially at this time of the year and it can only get better!
News of a great seed swap this Sunday 13th May at Springbank Road Community Garden, Hither Green SE13 6SS. It’s free and from 11am-1pm, bring whatever you fancy swapping (seeds, plants, seedlings) and if you don’t have anything to bring to the seed swap table so to speak you’ll be welcome too! #londonseedswap
In the new look Weeds garden these poppies (above) showed their heads over the bank holiday weekend. We sowed lots of them in the autumn and earlier this spring (alongside tons of night scented stock nearer the house) and here’s the first of them. They may be small but the flowers certainly pack a vibrant punch! Long live the poppy!
Big shout to Dr Strangedub & DJ Baby Swiss out of KFAI’s The Echo Chamber and Bruno out of Dan Dada Records for the latest instalment of Around The World in Dub (volumes 9 and 10) available free from the Dan Dada Bandcamp page here. Thanks a million to the crew for including Jazzmin & Madtones‘s Earth Citizen.
The free (we repeat FREE) compilation contains 35 cracking tunes of a dub wise or dub influenced nature from all around this planet of ours featuring Dubmatix with Earl Zero, Trevor “The Technician” McKenzie and The Last Boss & Dubby Doo and a lot lot more, all on a top quality tip! There is no excuse; download, chill out then dub out! #jazzminmadtone #earthcitizen
Big thanks to long-time friend The Rhythm Doctor for pointing us in the direction of this tune the other night, Hold Up Your Head by Errol Carter (aka “Flabba” Holt of the Roots Radics/Morwells) produced by the great Rupie Edwards. With a keyboard sound reminiscent of Unexpected Places by Hortense Ellis it’s a killer of a tune and on the B side a top dub called Tank Skank that the youtube here doesn’t do justice. The single is less than a fiver on discogs so hunt it down! We would like more dub showers on the stereo and less rain in the garden please (or could it rain in the night?).
We celebrated Record Store Day 2018 (supported by BBC Music) at Weeds by putting two coats of Cuprinol on a garden gate (supported by two ham sarnies, a posh sausage roll and copious cups of tea.)
The Scotch Bonnet crew did it in a far better style by releasing a belter of a tune using a vocal from the late great Bim Sherman (courtesy of Adrian Sherwood) over a hard rhythm built by Mungo’s Hi-Fi as you can hear! Already played on On The Wire and I can hear this going down a storm on KFAI’s Echo Chamber as well as many others. May Scotch Bonnet and Mungo’s keep putting out such fine music forever!
Weeds up to me knees 