Category Archives: Jazz Gardening

Odds and ends

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There won’t be many words in this post just mainly pictures from the garden earlier. The first (below) is the result of the random throwing around of seed when receiving them from ebay (This is possibly from a wild flower mix). With the flowers we very rarely mark out seed drills and stick down plant labels, it’s straight out of the bag and onto the bed.

And the second is a rather strange and wonderful freshly picked tomato. It seems a shame to eat it!

And the third is the super tall Sunfower looking down on us ready to flower. This one next to the garage is nearly 10 foot. Bonkers.

And on in the background whilst we were writing this post was this week’s Rhythm Doctor’s Waiting Room on IDA Radio Tallinn (every Monday from 8-11 UK time and archived here). There’s lots of musical goodness on the show as udsual and at the start some works from one Vladimir Tarasov teased in and out of other downtempo gear. A idea “stick it on the stereo” midweek summer evening listen.

Tales from the heap

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The other week we cleared out some grass clippings and recent vegetation from out of the dalek compost bin and stuck it into the old fashioned “out in the elements” heap of old next to it. Up until a few days earlier the wooden frame was full of a few years worth of sticks and ivy that had never rotted down but we moved that into the local council’s garden refuse bin leaving the bottom of the dalek with a load of brandling worms chomping their way through some well rotted warm debris.

Well we looked in the “Open to the wilds of SE23” compost area today (we took off the once stylish now mouldy, bath mat cover first) and gave it a good fork over and it seems to be rotting much quicker than it was in the dalek, not sure if it’s the weather or just being outdoors but whatever it is, it’s working well (see above).

The quarter full darlek (above) is also doing well, there’s less brandling worms compared to last time we looked which means it’s on its way to maturing. Composting well is a bit of a science but it’s worth delving into (no pun intended) as your garden will thank you for it!

Madness, madness, they call it (zuchinni) madness

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Big thanks to our good friend across the pond Justin Patrick Moore for sending us this picture of a volunteer (plants that self seed) zuchinni (aka courgette) that has come up on the compost heap. They thrive in rich soil so a compost heap is ideal. To say the plant is going mad is an understatement!

We only got one plant that we got from a new seed supplier we found out about this year and it’s really suprised us as it’s so large. We only sowed two, one got eaten by slugs and snails and this one has gone barmy, taking over the garden path. Only a couple of fruits so far and one of them was one of those forgotten ones which grew to a fair old size!

Looking at Justin’s site here we were reminded of this tune below and a great episode of  Wireless Nights (Megahertz) from a while ago available to download here. An interesting listen if you like all that shortwave radio business! Cheers Justin!

More Sunday night radio fun

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This Sunday 22nd August 2021 is a transmission called The Return to KMRT broadcast on WRMI (also home to the excellent This is a music show) at 2300 utc (12 midnight UK time) on 9395 in the 31 metre band. If you haven’t a radio of a shortwave type you can always try a online SDR here at the allotted time.

Talking of supermarkets the original KMRT broadcast from earlier this year is up on the KMTS mixcloud site featuring at 28 minutes in a mix from One Deck Pete called “Buy one get one free”. Tracks from Tyler Newman, Allen Ginsberg, Anima Universalis, Japanese Sound Portrait, Beatz for Food, Lullatone, Cantoma and Z Lovecraft. Tune in and grab yourself a bargain!

Caught in the act

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We now have proof that it is indeed the squirrels that are having a go at the sunflowers (the giant “10 feet”ones we got off ebay) when we caught one today feeding off the flowerhead. At least they’re actually waiting now until they’re in flower as it was the buds they were nicking previously but surely it’s the seeds (that come after the flowers) they should be waiting for. Who knows?

Island life

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This Sunday evening the 15th August 2021 at 2300 UTC (Midnight UK time) is a transmission from WSFR (Radio Swiss Family Robinson) via WMRI on 9395 kHz. Expect an hour of island related tunes and also a mix from One Deck Pete called “All washed up”. The mix includes tracks by Le Emjaén, Kingbastard, WES WAX, Scientist and islandman. After the transmission the show will be posted up here.
Tune in and be surrounded by water!

For hands that do dishes…

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Here’s a container that came available today for the current batch of Comfrey liquid (nice video about making the stuff here) we tipped out from the bucket at the furthest end of the garden today. It’s well handy to tell you the truth when it comes to squirting it into your watering can. Less chance of splashing about we hope. Get this stuff on your clothes or hands and the smell will be with you for days, months and years.

We had heavy rain on and off most of today so the neighbours must have thought we’ve lost the plot (again) if they looked out the window at 7.30 pm and saw us with a watering can giving the plants a feed. At least the plants will appreciated it!

But don’t worry there’s a heatwave coming…

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Waking up here in South London this morning there’s been a right mixture of weather. We’ve had lashing rain and now a lovely bit of sunshine and it looks like this cycle will be continuing for the next few days (until we get the predicted heatwave, yeah right!)

Well this weather is no good if you’ve got to get the washing out but it’s good for the garden. Hopefully there will be more of the nice spells later as there’s a few more inches to fill on the garden refuse bin and you have to get your money’s worth don’t you?

Well here’s a couple of tunes to hopefully cheer us all up.The first is a chilled tube train inspired number by Commodore 98 called Mind the Gap.

And another travel inspired one by the wonderful Big Youth and Dennis Brown called Ride on, ride on/Wild goose chase. Let’s hope this weather clears up and we all can enjoy actually going outside.

Shaw Taylor we need you!

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It’s been a funny old week, the weather did’t know what it was doing and we have sunflowers reaching silly sizes which is brilliant. As you know we love any seeds that say they’re “giant” or “massive”, half the time they don’t live up to their promise on ebay but the ones we got this year have.

The sunflowers down the side bed are doing well they’re well over 8 feet, a few have flowers. The ones that don’t have, have been the victim of the squirrels. They seem to be going for the buds this year rather than waiting for the large seed heads, very strange. We awoke this morning to one of the largest ones that was well over 9 feet, broken in half (below). To say we’re fed up is an understatement but they’re next to a fence so what can we do?

On a brighter note our Sweetcorn plants we got from Shannon’s and Chilli’s (Jalapeno) we grew from seed are coming on great guns! Whether we get any cobs on the corn to eat for ourselves are another thing. Squirrels aren’t keen on them are they?

And if you look hard enough you can see the Jalapeno’s we’ve already had a few off them and they’re great. Well worth growing.

This blog post was written whilst listening to This is a music show 125. Thanks to Dazman for putting it up on his cloud and cheers to Your Host for the selection. Some great stuff as ever including a lovely bit of reggae and some nice dub including the version of this.

A show always worth listening to and it’s on the shortwaves! Have a listen below, you won’t regret it!

Tuesday’s test transmission calling

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Tune in tomorrow afternoon Tuesday 27th July to the KTMS summer test transmission transmitted via Channel 292 on 6070 kHz at 1700 UTC (6pm UK time) which will be repeated next week on Tuesday 3rd August at the same time. If you’ve no shortwave radio click here.

Expect the usual strange tones, interval signals and 1970’s TV test transmissions plus a mix called “Shortwave’s not dead” from One Deck Pete with tracks by Gentle Friendly, Madtone, Afterlife and Holger Czukay. There is always something interesting on shortwave radio especially tomorrow afternoon!