Category Archives: Jazz Gardening

What difference a week makes

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It’s been a week since we returned from our holidays in Turkey (the above taken at a local olive grove last week) and the weather in London has taken a turn for the worst, our tomato plants are on their last legs and two squirrels in as many days have had their lives cut short in our back garden thanks to our cats. Very sad indeed.

A few years ago we covered the subject of squirrels in the garden on our Sounds from the South podcast after one of our cats cornered one down the drive. At the time we wished we knew a bit more about looking after the young orphan but since then we found a good website called http://www.squirrels.info where there’s load of info about caring for injured ones. More info here.

On a nicer note here’s a lovely tune by Haruomi Hosono (from the Yellow Magic Orchestra) that was heard on last week’s Tom Ravenscroft show as part of his companion tracks series as chosen by Mac Demarco.  In 1983 Haruomi Hosono was commissioned by the Japanese retailer Muji to compose some in-store music and the track above “Talking” is off the released cassette called “Watering a flower”. Hypnotic is not the word!

Cool in the pool

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We’ve been away for a week in southern Turkey for a well needed break and here’s some nice examples of what was about in the gardens of the village we stayed at. If only we had a little more heat over here in Forest Hill and we could grow a bit of what was on offer there including (above) a lovely selection of flowers and (below) one of the many prickly pear cactus and pomegranate trees in the village. The fruit was used by the local cocktail bar for their classic Pomegranate Martini, now that was a fine tipple!

While we were away it was very sad to hear that Holger Czukay the madcap bassist of Can, Jah Wobble collaborator and musical pioneer passed away aged 79. He was the creator of some classic shortwave radio sampling tunes that influenced the weeds related music project Madtone.  When we first heard those tunes many moons ago they blew us away! Here’s some of our favourites. RIP Holger Czukay!

Shine on you crazy vegetables

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Gardening books always say home grown vegetables are going to look a big different than the ones you get at the supermarket but the courgette (zucchini) above we found this morning in the veg patch is pushing it a bit far, it almost looks like a giant slug or snail!

The Egyptian/walking onion below is now on it’s journey around the garden. One of the bulblets on the stalk have now been directed to a plant pot and using a bit of wire to keep them in place if goes well will root. There’s another couple of other bulblets (aka top sets) forming on the stalk as well. It’s a very mad plant and one to have in your garden if you want visitors to say “What the blazes is that?” More on the humble walking onion at our favourite “out there” website here. Every time we open their homepage UFO abductions and portals to other dimensions come to mind for some strange reason!

And to end the weekend here’s a lovely number from the great Chronnix with his dad Chronicle. Tune!

Tubers and cheap seeds

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It’s been a bit manic at Weeds HQ over the summer so gardening has been a bit lower down on the priority list but that’s not to say things are not growing out in the garden. The cactus type Dahlias (above) we got at Shannon’s a few years ago are doing well. We here advocate the “digging them up after the frost and storing over winter under the stairs” method and it works a treat. None of that “leave them in the ground and see how they survive” business here!  Dahlia growing tips here, James Wong on eating them here and the masses of varieties here. And for good measure here’s one of the very few tunes that has the plants name in the title which was made by our good selves at Weeds when we couldn’t find anything under Dahlia in Discogs. Available on CD baby here!

Also thanks to our friends at Lewisham Gardens for letting us know through a retweet about an offer in Tescos of Kitchen Garden Magazine which has lots of free seeds in the September issue for the bargain price of a fiver! We’re going to be searching those supermarket shelves this week!

Don’t touch that (internet) dial

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Big shout to Sam for letting us know about this excellent show on Red Bull Radio about the Peckings record shop in Shepherd’s Bush available here. There’s a nice bit of history about the shop and contains some fine tunes as well. Sixty minutes well worth listening to and only up online for another couple of week so get in quick for an audio treat.

What’s going on (in Lewisham)?

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It’s not every week you witness a reggae legend playing in a local pub but the Thursday just gone we saw Big Youth at the Fox and Firkin in Lewisham. And what a night! Just after 10pm a trim looking Jah Youth bounded onstage (as his band Dub Natty Sessions from Venezuela were playing the “Satta Massanga” rhythm) and was treated to a heroes welcome from the crowd of 150 or so.

For about an hour he performed a shedload of his classics mostly delivered in an improvised style (songs would morph into something else midway then return to the original later) with Big Youth ad-libbing throughout the set, telling the band to “take it down low” many times as he’d change song lyrics and connect with his audience big time. We later learnt that the band had only rehearsed once with the legend earlier that day, so there must have been some sort of reggae telepathy going on between all as it was bang on musically!

We were treated to some excellent versions of Hit the road Jack, Touch me in the morning and What’s going on? amongst many more whilst Big Youth jumped about with boundless energy, took his hat off and shook his locks a couple of times (to massive cheers and whoops!) and chatted to the audience throughout. At one point while he was halfway through a version of Natty dread no jester he handed the mike to someone in the crowd who started doing an impromptu toast over the end of the song which won the chap a round of applause from the audience and the great man himself. A night to remember and one that brought out the autographed hunter in us (pic above)! Big up Big Youth!

Help me make it through the day

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To keep us sane at work today we listened to a couple of episodes of this brilliant series (originally from 2011) which feature some great tunes and some great DJ anecdotes. In episode 1 the inventor of the 12″ single and the extended mix Tom Moulton mentions David Rodriguez one night going on the mike while DJing at the Limelight and telling the crowd he was in a bad mood and that they all should leave the club, brilliant! All episodes are here and are well worth listening to! And to end here’s two classic mixes from the great Tom Moulton!

A walking onion and a mid-week tune

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This odd looking thing above is the strange Egyptian or walking onion and nearly ready to do its stuff. In a couple of weeks they’ll be bulblets growing at the top of the plant and possibly where that strange light green junction is on the stalk. We’ll keep you updated. More on the Egyptian onion here and here.

Big shout to Scotch Bonnet Records for letting us know about the latest release from Mungo’s Hi Fi  featuring the great vocals of Eva Lazarus called Live my life. Look out for Amsterdam as well from the same project. Both big tunes here at weeds! Available here and here.

I thought the major was a lady suffragette

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It’s mad what you can find in the soil while you’re gardening. Since we’ve been living at Weeds HQ we’ve unearthed a kid’s trainer, a few pairs of mummified underpants and a dustbin bag’s worth of lurid coloured plastic clothes pegs.
A few weeks ago when we were forking up some spuds we found what looked like a small lump of coal. We gave it a good clean and made some enquiries at the Covent Garden collector’s market this morning.
I was told by a nice chap on an antique stall that the item is part of a fake Jet Victoriana brooch from about 1880. He said Jet was quite fashionable at the time as Queen Victoria wore Jet jewellery whilst in mourning for Prince Albert and it caught on big time. Trouble is: 1. It’s a fake made out of moulded glass and 2. It’s only half an item.
It might not be much to look at and wouldn’t even be mentioned on Time Team but it sure beats finding the kid’s pushbike that was half buried on the lawn when we moved in, knackering the new flymo on the first day of it’s purchase! Isn’t it brill what you can find?
We’d love to hear from anyone who has found anything good while digging in the garden or on the allotment? Answers on a postcard please…

Sunday morning angle grinding musings

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If plastic herons, owls and other decoys keep predators away in the garden then would fake plastic slugs (a bit larger in size than normal ones) deter other slugs do you think? Also there are fake crocodile heads on the market to put in your pond “to keep big birds away” but how would a heron from Lewisham even know what a crocodile was? Above: some of the quality decoys on sale at the moment. We here at weeds currently have a 99p ebay bid on the life-like heron on the large wooden stick (which looks like what would be on the end of a large “rocket” firework). Keep your fingers crossed we get it!