Category Archives: Jazz Gardening

The never ending (re)cycling of life (man)

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Recently I have been selling punk clippings on ebay, alongside out of date toners and 1972 Goal magazines found on a skip (image above from one of them, what mental barnets! Footballer’s wives 1972 stylee). Some might say why am I getting rid of such historical artifacts (yeah right!) but the truth is that the clippings and magazines are taking up space and now starting to smell.

Putting stuff on e-bay is like a modern day swop-shop as the couple of quid I get goes into buying seeds and plants thus saving me a few quid. From the out of date toner cartridges and Goals, I’ve now got a blackberry and a blueberry bush, a himalayan poppy, passion flower and seeds galore. A fair swap I reckon.

Although I’ve made some space in the loft, there are still lots of boxes containing things that were/are of great interest to me. What’s going to happen to all those “fair” quality punk bootlegs, 1988 rave tapes and peel cassettes when I leave this mortal coil? I know, when the kids find them they’ll go straight in the Lewisham Council recycling bin so why don’t I make the most of them now and make “rocksteadytrojanbob69”, “realpunk77” and “hoxtonsid2012” happy (and buy myself some plants into the process?)

Pete’s ebay aka steptoe and son’s grotto:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_from=&_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ssn=petemadtone&rt=nc

Quote of the week

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I like old Nigel Slater, he’s from the midlands, got a smart old garden and loves his herbs too. A top quote from his telly show last night that made me laugh, “I just can’t sleep if I haven’t got a freshly baked cake in the house”. Sounds like he hasn’t got much to worry about has he? (Triple dipped recession, alien invasion, global warming, bills, asteroids exploding into the earth, more bills, etc etc.)

Mag of the week!

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Tweetah – Issue zero – A5 24 pages £1.50
We were very sad to hear that the excellent magazine Woofah (edited by John Eden) folded as it was a well produced and an informative reggae/dancehall/bass related read (and always well designed too!). It’s always the way isn’t it?
Last week on John’s Uncarved blog I noticed he was selling a fanzine called Tweetah. This is material that was intended for the fifth and final issue of Woofah that never materialised, bah! It’s a great little read, has an interview with David Rodigan, Carlton “Killawatt” Valley and a piece on Tony McDermott, designer of classic greensleeves album covers (Scientist, Lone Ranger etc) amongst other stuff. RIP Woofah! An excellent read for only £1.50 from http://www.uncarved.org/blog/

Raise your beds, raise your beds

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I heard a great thing off a mate of mine yesterday, that estate agent’s signs were all the rage on his allotment with everybody on the hunt for them. It turns out the poles that hold them up are ideal for using as wooden stakes when making raised beds and they’re a lot cheaper than shelling out cash for wood at wickes. Another use for the damn things rather than making snow shovels out of them!

Talking of making do, old tight git here recycles all his plant ties and gardening wire. I get an old jam jar, stick the plastic plant ties in them and wrap my old gardening wire around the top (it’s a dual purpose thang, innit?) I used this highly sophisticated method yesterday when taking the sweet peas off the old apple tree prunings in the back.

I am fast becoming a man with no mates with my collection of jam jams, 2×1 off-cuts and old plastic margarine tubs from around the world. “Sorry I can’t come out for a pint tonight as I have a big box of used 2BA screws and panel pins to sort out into their respective jars.” Brilliant!

I’ve got Friday on my mind

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Guts – brand new revolution
Here’s a lovely old tune heard on this week’s gilles peterson show from last year. A nice bit of Latin-tinged electronica that puts me in mind of a very slowed down version of the excellent “together forever” by exodus (as played by the late great larry levan) crossed with fela and freddy fresh. A great combination. Tune!

Tiptoe through the tulips…

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Here’s a well simple gardening tip which is so obvious but one I am very guilty of forgetting on many occasions and that is labeling your seed trays or rows of seeds when sowed outdoors. All it takes is the time to get a felt tip pen and write on a plastic seed label, simple! So why do I now have a lovely butternut squash on what I thought was a cucumber plant?

Afrika Bambaataa loves a squash!

The best dressed chicken in town

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While looking through a 1960’s gardening book the other week I noticed that the chap who wrote it was photographed doing all the jobs in a lovely shirt & tie combo and sharply creased trousers. How the hell did he manage to work in all that get up?

When I was at the council there was a guy there who everybody knew as “Mr Clean”. He would always have on a crisp white shirt with a purple westminster council tie underneath his pristine council issue coach-drivers type jacket (which he’d get dry cleaned every few months!) There was a method behind his madness as when it came to working his excuse was that he couldn’t as he didn’t want to get his clothes dirty. It paid off as I never ever seen him do any. He was an expert with his custom made long-handled litter picker and could reach deep into bushes and shrubs to pick up coke cans/weeds without actually stepping on the soil, brilliant! I doubt if that sort of thing could happen today. Nice one Mr Clean!

Funnily enough last Thursday I chatted to another council gardener who was dressed unworkmanlike as well, in a lovely pink Lacoste polo shirt with the collars turned up (that isn’t going to get too dirty is it?). After watching him pull out summer bedding and perennials I asked him did they dump them like they used to do in my day at the council. I was pleased to hear they didn’t but composted all the bedding and gave away perennials including ornamental foliage plants to schools and charities. The usual practice years ago was to pull up the plants and spring bulbs and put them in brown sacks and give them to the binmen to take away but we’d give them out to keen gardeners we tipped off the day before while the gaffer weren’t looking. Waste not want not and all that!

Skins rule ok!

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Here’s a great tip from the folks at my local garden centre, Shannons in Forest Hill. Ten days before you wish to harvest your potatoes, cut the top growth off (leaving a little stalk so you know where the spuds are when you come to dig them up!) The plant will then put all it’s energy back into the tubers (ie. the potatoes) and give you better skins. I didn’t know that!

Thursday night’s chilling

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Dennis Brown – Say what you say (Joe Gibbs)
It’s funny, I love Dennis Brown but I’ve never heard this track before and the first time I did was only last week when I downloaded a recording of King Sturgav Hi-Fi (sound system of the great U Roy) from the late 70’s from the excellent website “who cork the dance”  http://www.whocorkthedance.com/sturgav.html

The recording isn’t exactly hi-fi quality but it’s a great piece of reggae history on tape/MP3. Big up the late great D Brown! While I was writing this singing to the song on headphones, my 14 year old daughter came in very concerned and asked was I okay as I sounded “slightly high.” What, on a Thursday night on a glass of cheap Marks’ Sauvignon? I wish, It must be my bad singing!