Category Archives: Jazz Gardening

No time machine required

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Here’s an excellent piece of dubbed out proto-techno from 1984 (and as it says on youtube: “the first known recording to feature a Roland TR808 and TB303 in their now classic guise”) from the great Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti heard one morning this week on a breakfast show on NTS while at work. There is so much going on in this tune!

And a few records later this extremely odd tune (with an apt video too) from Der Plan “Hey Baby Hop” was played also from that golden year of 1984. We’re not sure if it’s good or bad but who cares. Two records from the past we should have known about at the time.

Lewisham Heron farewell

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The visit from the Lewisham Heron got us all here at Weeds HQ on high alert so on Friday morning some new pea netting was slung over the top of the pond (not forgetting to raise some parts up so frogs and others can gain access), the solar-powered water fountain (procured last year for forty-odd quid) was taken out from “under the stairs” and some fish food administered. Everything now looks swimmingly well! Now all we need is for that blasted Heron to stay away.

Ice-cream for crow

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It was a lovely day at Weeds HQ today; seeds were sown, pots were moved about and garden furniture was cleaned up for the hopefully forthcoming good weather. And then at 7.30 pm we were visited by the Lewisham Heron (have a look on top of the fence on the left hand side of the picture).

The pond had been netted over after its last visit (post here) so there was no chance it could get his/her beak in there and thanks to a couple of local crows who flew in and shoo-ed the Heron off after it did some sort of pre-dinner routine of bobbing up and down, the event ended with no goldfish being eaten.

This time the bird spared us. Fingers crossed there will be no next time!

This land is your land

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Yesterday afternoon just as the rain started to pour we popped in to Shannon’s for some multi-purpose compost for our new zinc planters in the back garden. While we were there we got chatting to a nice chap from The Woodland Trust and asked if they’d be up for compiling a chart for us. Until they get back to us here’s a quick woodland-related five on this wet and chilly Good Friday. We honestly can’t see ourselves putting those spuds in the ground this weekend, so it’s back to looking on the internet for odd and interesting seeds.

There’s nothing like cheap easter egg chocolate

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This weekend should be the time for gardening but will any be done this judging by the weather forecast? This nice mix of three top tunes will brighten the gloom we hope. The first from Octave Diesis called Mercure Pt.1 is a lovely number; chilled and moody how we like it here tonight (after being woke up by a B&Q delivery at 7.30 am this morning!)

The second some fine bonkersness from that island of Jamaica from the great Equiknoxx with “A rabbit spoke to me when I woke up”. Another example of excellent titled stuff from the ensemble. Dancehall but not dancehall if you see what we mean.

And finally Luca Musto with a very nice bit of deep bumpiness with a lovely vocal sample that like the 70’s chocolates Rose’s, grows on you with each play. Who needs good weather when we have tunes like these!

Spud U like?

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As it isn’t too long to Good Friday – traditionally the time to be sowing your potatoes (according to the late great Joe Maiden) – thought went out to the seed spuds chitting away merrily on the windowsill at Weeds HQ.

While on the internet researching about the variety we have chitting here ‘Rocket”, we found out a couple of interesting things about it on Gardenfocussed.co.uk. It turns out it’s easy to grow and one of the first early spud to mature. The other was that it was:

“A rather bland tasting potato. They can be perked up flavour-wise by adding slightly more salt than normal, a knob of butter and preferably a good sprinkling with fresh mint. But there’s no getting away from it, if you want a tasty spud, look elsewhere.”
https://www.gardenfocused.co.uk/vegetable/potatoes/variety-rocket.php

And we thought we were doing so well! So this weekend it’s back to the drawing-board and down the garden centre to get some Maris-Pipers or something tasty. The moral of this spud related tale is do your research!

And unconnected to anything potato based here’s a lovely tune as heard on On The Wire the other week: Rhythm & Sound’s History Version. Tune!

Roses grow on you

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Two tunes from the great Michael (Mykal/Mikal) Rose. The first, Peace and Love in the Ghetto was heard on the other week’s episode of Dub Front on BRUZZ, an excellent weekly show of reggae and all things dub-wise that’s well worth tuning into. The second Born Free was something we’ve remembered from a few years back also from the Jammy camp. Taking of roses, when do you reckon spring will spring? We’ve had snow today in London even though things were looking and feeling quite nice yesterday afternoon. What is wrong with that weather?

A Jasmine called Joey Ramone

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Plant variety name of the week is the Daylily called “Punk Rocker”. Wonderful stuff! Seen a Pelargonium King Tubby or a Hydrangea Clock DVA on your travels? We here at Weeds are always on the look out for music related plant name varieties so next time you’re at the garden centre “Keep them peeled” as Shaw Taylor used to say.

It’s a punky leggy party (and it’s alright)!

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Weeds progress report March 2018: The seed trays on the windowsill in the front bedroom are doing well if not on the leggy side (nice article about correcting leggy seedlings here), containing heritage varieties from the Roots & Shoots event and some nice herb and veg seeds from Shannon’s. It’s early days yet but spring really does come around before you know it so it’s best to be prepared!

And the seed potatoes are chitting nicely (above). The hymn sheet-like list to the left corresponds to the seed tray next to it as we’ll probably forget what’s been sown. Roll on spring when we can sow those seeds in situ!