Category Archives: Jazz Gardening

Do it in the mix

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Tomtato_CloseI can’t remember what radio show I heard about this mad plant above (possibly Graham Porter on BBC Radio Leeds) but it’s called a TomTato ® aka ketchup and chips and available from Thompson & Morgan. At first I thought it was some sort of joke but they’re available for a tenner a plant if you fancy one in your garden. scotch eggThey also do egg and chips, an aubergine crossed with a potato but at nearly £15 a plant I’d be making sure those blooming garden pests wouldn’t get to them first. I’d have evening and dawn anti-slug patrols guarding my veg beds if I shelled out that much for a plant!

Ain’t it bonkers what they can do today? Me, I’ll be sticking with my leggy tomato seedlings.

Friday night mix-up business

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Norwood Soul PatrolHere’s a great podcast featuring a right mad mix of tunes from the greatly named Norwood Soul Patrol on Rinse FM. One to whack on loud the night before your daughter’s 18th birthday party while thinking “where the hell has the time flew to?” and a show well worth listening to for some great musical eclecticism. Download the 15th February episode here and as they say on Soundcloud, “Track ID at 1.34.55 please.”

Songs to sow seeds to

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Songs to sow seeds to

Here’s the first in a regular monthly series of tunes to accompany your seed sowing. It’s February and still a bit early, but for the eager beavers out there you can sow a few in the greenhouse or on that plastic propagator on the kitchen windowsill.

We’ve got our tomatoes just on their seed leaf stage at the moment and there’s some mini-peppers coming through too but you could also start off your aubergines, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, calabrese, onion seeds and start chitting your spuds if you haven’t already.

And here’s a tune by Digid called Revolution Sound out on the Lion Charge label to crank up loud while preparing your seed sowing (making sure the compost has been warmed up a bit by being indoors for a few days beforehand rather than stone cold from the outside.) Sow on and sow forth.

The awakening

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It’s just gone the month of February, maybe it’s because I’m a little bit impatient and I have a touch of the twirlies but there’s already some spuds chitting and seeds sprouting indoors. Also if I get a minute this week, I’m going to stick a double layer of fleece over a couple of patches of the garden to warm the soil up for the big kick off in the next couple of months.chitting 2016 styleeI bought two types of spuds from Shannon’s, who have loads of varieties in stock from the different cropping types (first earlies, second earlies, main crop and second/late main crop) the terms of which used to confuse the hell out of me. A simple explanation about all of that is here. The ones “chitting” in the back room (above) are Sharpe’s Express (first early) and the good old Maris Piper (main crop.) seed starting 2016 styleeAlso in the back room near the window, is a covered propagator with tomatoes (Moneymaker) and sweet peppers off to an early start, which will be no doubt be leggy as hell before they’re ready to go out.foxtail returnsAnd talking of Shannon’s, this is where I bought the Eremurus aka foxtail lilly or desert candle bulb from and it looks like the monster is ready to resurface again for it’s year long reign of terror (above.) It might be not even be an inch at the moment but before you know it, it’ll be 6 foot tall and will be sending up a lovely flower spike like last year (below.)

But be warned, don’t get on it’s wrong side as it might come into your home and take over your life! On afoxtail 2 tip

It’s been a long time coming

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Thank God that January’s now over! We here are now officially counting down to spring.

Here’s a tune to get us all back on track, heard on last week’s Tom Ravenscroft show by the great Johnny Clarke/The Aggrovators called It’s a disgrace/It’s a disgrace dub. One to dream about starting those seeds off outside to. Tune!

The punk/goth gardening connection

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Punk London 40 years of subversive culture Lilly

Lily name of the month award goes to “Eyeliner” found in Shannon’s this week. This is nothing to do with the year-long Punk London celebrations is it?

Talking of which, we’ve just found out there’s a fungus called Punk. Brilliant stuff! What next, an Shallot called Suedehead?A plant called Punk

High Contrast

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Black Out JA featuring Chantaleaze – Baltimore Revolution

Two tunes are rolling around our brains at the moment. The first from Black Out JA was heard on the great On The Wire on BBC Radio Lancashire the other week. It’s a blistering toast over the classic Baltimore rhythm. Tune!

https://soundcloud.com/caughtbytheriver/one-edit

Be – One (Edit)

The second is a completely different sausage, from a forthcoming album by the artist Be (Kev Bales and Tony Foster plus Jason Pierce, Youth, Deidre Bencsik, Camille Buttress and Amiina). It’s released on Caught By The River’s  Rivertones label and the LP, “imagines the sound of British summertime as heard by one of the most important members of the animal kingdom – the bee.” How good is that?

This edit was heard on Tom Ravenscroft’s show the other week and is now firmly stuck in our heads. Big up the waggle dance crew!

Eyes down for spudulike

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CSSG Potato day 2016

Thanks to Mick from the Cambridgeshire Self Sufficiency Group for getting in touch about their 7th Annual potato day on Saturday 13th February 2016 at Commemoration Hall, 39 High Street, Huntingdon PE29 3AQ.
It’s from 11am-3pm, with refreshments and a craft stand and more, all for FREE. How good is that? They’ll have over 60 (count them!) varieties of spuds alongside onion sets and shallots. What’s great is people can buy how little potatoes (10 grams or less) or large (as many kilos as they want) at £1-00 a kilo.
If you’re organising a potato day or even a seed swap (if it’s in London even better so we can go!) and you want us to mention it send us an email with all the details to onedeckpete (at) gmail (dot) com
There’s a mention about potato days and seed swaps in our Sounds From The South podcast from a couple of years ago below.

False teeth out, slippers on, it’s the weekend…

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A trio of tracks to start the weekend off in style! The first features a spoof video of a “better than well” guru cult complete with a nice bit of T’ai chi-like dancing. It’s from Mind Enterprises with a tune called Idealistic and do have a pen and paper and your credit card details handy for the end!

The next is a heavier than lead dub that’ll get you dancing down the greenhouse even in this weather! It’s called Jamtone Dub from The Shaka All Stars and around again on reissue.

And finally a bass-heavy monster from Kanka Featuring the great U Brown called Beat Down Babylon with a heavy dub at 5.21 that’ll shatter your terracotta plant pots if they’re anywhere near your speakers!