A lovely bit of tripped out wobble-esque dubwise (circa PIL’s “Radio 4” even though Keith Levene claims he played the bass on that track) from the Echo Beach stables. Heard this on Terry C’s WLUW-FM show the other week. Subtle as anything and a bit of a grower. One for examining the contents of your seed tin to. Excellent!
A few weeks ago I was looking through a bookshop in the west end to spend a tenner’s worth of book vouchers I got for christmas and came across a very interesting book about gardening by the phases of the Moon. Now this is real bonkers but bonkers that has been used by our gardening ancestors for years and bonkers that works!
I knew nothing about the subject and as the book was over the tenner mark I bought Peter Hook’s “The Hacienda: How not to run a club” instead which was okay, full of mad stories but no suprises and certainly not a book you’d want to pick up and re-read. I now wish I added the extra few pounds and bought the other one as it seemed a bit out there but very interesting.
How mad was it when I found out the other day Scarlett Cannon from the great courses at Walworth Garden Farm wrote a piece about it in her regular I-grow section for I-D last month and has been using the method for four years.
http://i-donline.com/2012/01/i-grow-biodynamic-magic/
I am now “taking steps” (no pun intended Sting) to find out more…
This morning I found out reggae legend King Stitt passed away the other day. He died from prostate cancer and was only in his early 70’s. Just a couple of weeks ago I was chatting to someone in Dub Vendor about the musical pioneer (he was one of the first DJs to be captured onto vinyl in Jamaica). Stitt’s attitude was classic reggae, where an artist would capitalise on whatever qualities they’ve got, no matter how unusual or obscure. He didn’t have Steve McQueen type looks but that didn’t stop him, he gave himself the nickname of “The ugly one” and the rest is history.
Stitt was a big hero of mine since the early 70’s when I saw the lyrics of his tune “Fire Corner” on the cover of my elder brother’s rough book; “No matter what the people say, these sounds lead the way, it’s the order of the day from your boss DJ, I King Stitt” Brilliant! Throughout the years I would be well chuffed if I came across any of his releases in second-hand shops and when it came to sample something for me and my mate’s first single it seemed King Stitt was a natural choice. When our track “Son of Stitt” by One Deck & Popular was released, I sent a 10” to Studio 1 in Jamaica where he worked with a note saying if he was ever in Camberwell Green and fancied recording a single to get in touch. He never did but it would be nice to think he actually read it. The last few years had seen King Stitt still in demand what with the ever growing interest in vintage reggae and at the end of last year doing gigs in France and Brazil to great acclaim.
I feel sad tonight of his passing and will drink a couple of mini-bottles of Sainsbury’s own brand lager to salute his passing. Big up the King!
Last weekend, I just couldn’t stop myself going to the garden centre and purchasing a bag of seed compost to start off those vegetables early. It was the first weekend the shop was open after christmas, I haven’t got much self control have I? Alongside the compost I got some seed potatoes (that will need “chitting” but more on that in another post) Desiree was the variety, by the way.
Now how long will it be before there’s endless seed trays on the kitchen windowsill taking up space and leaking water all over the place? Not long I imagine. I told you I was impatient!
Also in the last post I mentioned I was going to redesign my garden so since then I’ve been doing some research, looking through books and listening to garden design podcasts.
A massive mistake people make is that they decide they want to revamp their garden, go to a garden centre and spend a fortune on plants without any research or thought, stick them all around their garden and wonder why in a couple of months they fail.
What I learnt from only a week’s research is you shouldn’t rush into redesigning your garden, take your time.You should take a year out to gather information about the site. Over the varying seasons look at shadow patterns and what parts get sun and at what times of the day and what are the site’s good views and bad views. Also ask others who live with you what shrubs/flowers/trees they fancy, what are your likes and dislikes etc and the design should start to make itself obvious (so it said on a gardening podcast!). Look at old books, go to parks and gardens, take photographs and get inspired. Rip things out of magazines of plants and gardens you like and keep a scrapbook.
I was looking through “Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto” by David Tracey in the library and came across an interview with an activist who echoed the same sentiments when it came down to garden design and added “in the meantime when you are information gathering, utilise the space and sow some edibles”. Brilliant. So it’s back growing to veg this year then!
Heard this on this week’s Echo Chamber on KFAI. Another excellent tune from Holly Cook. Shout to Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss!
An album sleeve from the late 70’s/early 80’s and I do love this cover! The badly cut out orange overprint at the top makes it looks like Sly Dunbar is wearing a poorly made cardboard pirate hat or something from a cheap xmas cracker. If you can beat this, please send us your reggae (or any music genre) design classic.
An oldie from last year (but still a goodie) to play to those overwintering plants! Unknown Artist – Kultra 1 (Mark E)
There was a frost this morning and mighty cold out, but I still managed to have a look at my third attempt of a compost bin. A fortnight ago it was filled to about three quarters of a way up with alternate layers of “green” and “brown” material but today when I lifted the lid, it’s gone down to about a third. It looks like things are happening even in this temperature. Today I threw in some veg peelings, ripped up sunday papers, a couple of cardboard middles of loo roll and some leaves, the same sort of material as usual. The neighbours must have thought I was mad taking snaps of it all.
The other attempt of a heap is going great guns too, after throwing in more “browns” and giving it a good turn with a garden fork a fortnight ago after it went slushy and smelly. I lifted off the top and it looked a rich brown colour and the number of writhing worms which were there have lessened, a sign that the thing is finally on it’s way!
I heard last week citrus peelings are a bit of a “no, no” to stick on the heap. I’ve looked for info and found conflicting reports. Any ideas as I throw in a few lemons over a week and really would like to get it right this time. Rot on!
Vinnie Riley’s musical project before he went a bit more “jokey”.
In the days before the council introduced “wet money”, a couple of extra quid a month to work in all weathers, the rule was you didn’t work in the rain (“It’s a health and safety issue, ain’t it guv”). So at the first sign of grey clouds or even someone walking past in a raincoat, we would stop what we were doing, look up to the sky and put our hands out to see if we could feel rain and if we did, would make our way up to the shed for a few hours of tea drinking.
The hard and fast rule was if three cars passed consecutively with their windscreen wipers on, it was officially raining so we could stop work. How mad is that?
As the garden is starting to wind down for the year, now is an ideal time to give it a bit of a spruce-up which will give you a head start when things liven up again in the spring.
I’ve raked up the last lot of leaves, bagged up some for leaf mould and stuck a few in the compost bin to add some “brown” to the kitchen peelings, tidied over the beds and generally made the garden look a bit more presentable.
If you’ve anything in pots that needs protecting from the frost and snow move them into the shed, conservatory or greenhouse (if you are lucky to own one). If the pots are too big to move, stick some bubble wrap around the bottom to keep them from cracking. With plants you can’t move, protect them with some horticultural fleece or net curtains (a cheap alternative from the second hand shop or skip). A good layer of mulch around plants will keep the soil frost free and keep the moisture in. Cold frames and cloches come in well handy this time of year too. I sowed some overwintering Carrot and Lettuce seeds well late so have stuck a couple of mini cloches over them and hoping for the best.
Now is also a good time to plan what you want to grow next year. Make a list of what you fancy and have a look through the seed catalogues/on the web and see if there’s varieties suitable for your garden and climate. I’ve already ordered a few packets of seeds and they are now in my scottish shortbread tin, so by January I’ll be itching to start them off in trays on the kitchen windowsill (to the detriment of the paintwork which I have to redo every year!)
So like with anything else, a little bit of preparation and forward planning comes in handy with this gardening lark.
Weeds up to me knees 