Quaking in our gardening boots about the weather

We watched the weather forecast on telly last night and the tall chap in the suit was a little unsure about what’s going to happen next week, “It will get colder and there may be snow or maybe not, even we don’t know”. We deduced from this it’ll be a good idea not to be too keen this weekend especially sowing something outside, so we’re holding our horses as they say.

Because of the cold weather today we decided to give it a miss even though we had some jobs to do out in the garden. We did have post this morning that cheered us up though, a small bag of Rocket early seed potatoes (If you want to know the different types of potatoes from earlies to lates explained simply, have a look here), some shallot sets that we’ll put in mid-March after this cold spell hopefully and some packs of seeds: spring onions (the variety Guardsman that have dark blue/green leaves), purple sprouting broccoli and some miner’s lettuce which we’ve never come across  before. More on the miners lettuce here.

Also a good mate of ours sent us a packet of Quaking/Quivering Grass seeds (top right hand corner of the above pic). They weren’t sure if that was the actually name of the plant or just the name the person who gave them the seeds called them. We checked on google, it did exist but it was only one of its names, it’s also called: didder, doddering dillies, jiggle-joggles and quakers-and-shakers. More on Quaking Grass or Briza media here. Do keep warm this weekend!

Another page in your diary

A couple of events to stick in the old diary. The first is a Seed Swap in the Corbett Community Library, Torridon Road, Catford, London SE6 1RQ on Saturday 25th March 2023 from 10am to 3pm. More on the event here. Thanks to @LewishamGardens for alerting us to this!

And on WRMI this Sunday 5th March 2023 Imaginary Stations presents a KBIN mix up special with WSTL versus WELK. Expect some whistling, yodelling and squeezebox classics at 2300 UTC on 9395 kHz. Get that accordion at the ready!

 

JNHK calling

There hasn’t been much gardening done this week what with that cold spell we’re having that is testing the elephant garlic, the foxglove plugs and all of the garden. If you want something decent to listen to while you’re stuck indoors you can’t go wrong with last night’s transmission of JNHK from The Imaginary Stations collective below.

It’s a great show with a mix of all sorts of Japanese related tunes from Justin Patrick Moore and DJ Frederick and at 09.33 a mix from One Deck Pete called “Big in Japan” and here’s the tracks:
GORE – Bills are piling up
Forgotten employee 忘れられた従業員 – The Backroom Tapes – A Merry Kmart Christmas
Ryuichi Sakamoto – Riot in Lagos
Japan Sound Portrait – Tatemae Ceremony
Dry & Heavy – Dub the Bong Around
Japan to Kangaroo Island, Australia CB DX

Rewind and enjoy!

Tuesday night dubbing

An excellent dub from the great Manasseh called Just One Dub found on a shortwave mix researching trip via Bandcamp this evening. It’s from a good few years ago (2013) but does that really matter? An excellent heavy dub and the vocal version is excellent as well (Cate Ferris – Blaze Bright).

To be played very loudly.

The 45th Parallel Déjà Vu

The above programme was supposed to be aired last Sunday but WRMI was down all evening last week on 9395kHz. Fingers crossed the Imaginary Stations 45th Parallel Midwinter Broadcast will now be on in a few hours time (Sunday 19th February 2023) on 9395 kHz at 2300 hrs UTC. At 20 minutes in One Deck Pete presents “A 45 mix” with tracks from Borealism, Boca 45, mndbd, Jah Wobble and Mad Professor. Tune in and get on that circle of lattitude and enjoy! If you haven’t a shortwave radio do tune in on this online SDR here on 9395kHz on AM mode.

Who’s in the garden tomorrow?

We took Friday off work hoping to do few jobs in the garden but we didn’t actually get around to it as it was a bit cold and tried again this afternoon but the weather was rubbish again with some light rain. The forecast looks great for tomorrow though so we’re keeping our fingers crossed.

And here’s a nice bit of chilled business, a track from GORE in Tokyo, Japan with Bills are piling up. Get some rest tonight as we all may busy in the garden tomorrow.

And talking of spring which we weren’t directly, here’s a favourite of ours from a long time ago. Very apt!

Seed swapping in SE15

This morning we popped into Glengall Wharf Gardens SE15 for their seed swap. We picked up some Orange Pumpkin, Chard, Hollyhock, Cherokee Vale of Tears Beans, Tree Spinach and American Pokeweed seeds so it was well worth popping down.

The garden itself is interesting and well worth visiting. They also have regular sessions and workshops which are very good by all accounts. Check their twitter here for what’s on and have a look at their website here. By the way on their seed swap table we saw a nomination for possibly the best rock band name ever (above).

And here’s a few pictures taken whilst walking around said gardens. There’s some great gardening ideas dotted about which are inspiring and could be adapted for use at home.

And there’s even some hens. We love that hanging cabbage feeder!

An alternative to Michael McIntyre and some morse dub

Here’s a couple of mad ones for a Saturday night. The first is a Intiche remix of a tune from lagartijeando out of Argentina called Antiguos Deuños De Las Flechas. To say it’s a bit out there is an understatement, great graphics too! We’ve just had a quick look into Intiche, originally from Argentina and now resident In Berlin who makes some mad chilled out tunes. Worth taking a look into too if you like the above type of gear.

And here’s Mad Professor with Psychic Vampire with some morse code in it for good measure! Dubbed out CW, we’re always up for that!

And if that isn’t enough, here’s another example from ECHO BEACH Lifefidelity. New genre alert?

Today some frost and on Sunday a radio transmission

This morning was the coldest it’s been here in a while with some heavy frost on the grass and the bed at the bottom of the garden stayed frozen solid all day even though there was some nice sunshine for a good part of the day which warmed up the other parts of the garden.

Typically a couple of days ago we took the foxgloves from the kitchen window as we didn’t want them to get used to the warmth of the house. We put them outside, half of them under a glass cloche and the other half under the protection of a raised bed with some plastic over the top (on the left of the above picture). These home-made mini greenhouses do keep in the heat from any warmth generated by the sun during the day but will they do their job in this kind of cold? Every year we seem to do this, we see the sun and think it’s spring. We’ll keep you posted!

This weekend by the powers of shortwave and WRMI we have the Imaginary Stations 45th Parallel Midwinter Broadcast which will feature a good bit of circular latitude fun and some fine tunes throughout. Tune in with your shortwave radio to 9395 kHz at 2300 UTC on Sunday 12th February 2023. At 20 mins in they’ll be a mix from One Deck Pete featuring Borealism, Boca 45, mndbd, Jah Wobble and the Mad Professor.

Garlic update, garlic update

We took the protection off the raised bed this afternoon so we could pop the foxgloves in pots in there. No idea if the cold nights will knock them for six but we’ll take a chance. When we took the frame off we were chuffed with what we saw of the giant garlic. They’re starting to make a break for it.