Sprouting spuds in the springtime

Posted on April 1, 2026 by onedeckpete

Joe Maiden (RIP) used to say that Good Friday was the ideal time to plant potatoes. Meanwhile, Spike from Morschen43 in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, plants his around April 10th and if all goes well, they’re ready to eat by July 6–7th.

We got ours in a few weeks ago in the raised bed (and some in another bed under jam jars) with plastic covering them, and they’re already sprouting. There’s still a risk of frost though, so we’ll be putting the plastic back over them in the evenings to keep them from any cold weather or potential frost damage.

We checked http://www.lastfrostdate.co.uk above again and hopefully we should be okay, but you know what the weather will be like, it could be snowing here tomorrow and then a heatwave over the Easter weekend. We say stick your spuds in but keep an eye on the weather and if there are frosts forecast, stick some fleece, fabric or net curtains over the top! Good luck.

An oldie but goody

Posted on March 19, 2026 by onedeckpete

We don’t usually go back in the archives for mixes but found this one by accident this evening. One Deck Pete‘s “Bouncing off the ionosphere” mix which was transmitted on Free Radio Skybird via Channel 292 on 6070 kHz on 8th December 2019.

Tracklistings:
UKDD & Spoonbeats – It’s time to tell you
KoKo – keep down
Maxime Tisne-Versailles – Roi De Plaines
AMY Root – Elif(OIJ_remix)
Ernest freeman – Live it up

It’s been years since we’ve heard these tunes especially the wonderful Maxime Tisne-Versailles tune Roi De Plaines. Sometimes those old ones come back to haunt you.

Influenced by Bob (sort of)

Posted on March 5, 2026 by onedeckpete

It was funny old weather in SE23 yesterday, it started misty and kept like that for most of the day, followed by some sunshine at lunch and then by tea-time the mist had returned and it felt rather wintery.

At lunch we nipped out and did half an hour out in the back. We sowed some wildflower seeds in one of the raised beds and some veg in another and stuck some polythene on the top which we were going to throw out.

Earlier this week we saw on Facebook, Bob Flowerdew in his veg patch (that looked like the size of a normal back garden!). He was explaining that before the winter he put a load of organic material on the soil then slung some black covering over the patch. Over the winter it rotted away now leaving the beds a bit richer and weed-free rather then they would have been if he had just left them exposed.

We reckon that’s a great idea, but what would the neighbours think if half our garden was covered with a black tarpaulin (the likes of which goes over a car on bricks on a driveway). A few sheets of plastic over raised beds are enough for us. Hope all’s well in everyone’s garden and with any seeds that may be germinating! Pictures please.

Slow mo shortwave

Posted on February 9, 2026 by onedeckpete

Imaginary Stations will be bringing another Downbeat on Shortwave (show number 3) this weekend (cheers Fred!) on Saturday 14th February 2026 at 1200 UTC and on Sunday 15th February 2026 at 1000/1400 hrs/2100 UTC on 6160 kHz.

Our good dub gardening friend Jesse Yuen from North of The River Swan, Perth, Australia and One Deck Pete from SE23, will be bringing you two 15 minute mixes each in a back to back downtempo style.

Tune in your shortwave radio or if you haven’t got one, via an online Software Defined Radio here (tuned into 6160 kHz) at the right time this weekend in AM mode and listen in and chill out to their slow-mo selection.

From pirate ships on the North Sea to the French countryside

Posted on January 31, 2026 by onedeckpete

A massive thank you to Spike from Morschen43, who is located near Le Puy-en-Velay in Southern France. He sent over some snaps of his house and garden yesterday, and a nice slice of the world it is.

You might remember Spike from his track “MV Ross Revenge (For Ever!)”, a tune we love and featured in a couple of our shortwave mixes. As well as making music, he loves a bit of horticulture too!

As well as growing flowers he grows vegetables as well, and we’re loving the veg patch below. For those who know us, you know we have a soft spot for a good runner bean cane! The long row of canes and that classic wigwam structure to the left are right up our street. We’re already looking forward to seeing how the vegetable garden progresses as the seasons change (more photographs later this year please Spike!)

Spike spent yesterday giving his roses some attention. As he said, “Roses need concentration and attention for cutting.” He’s right there! When we worked for the council, many years ago, there was no love for the craft. No one cared about achieving that classic “rosebowl” effect or making sure the cut was just above an outward-facing bud. They’d just hack them all down to a uniform two feet! It’s good to hear that there are people who still care.

To go along with the photos, Spike picked out a track from his Bandcamp, a duet titled “J’Aime Les Brunes Sans Filtres”

Cheers for the photographs of your great house and garden, Spike! Keep those pictures coming as the garden grows as we’ll be well interested in how you get on in that great vegetable patch.

It pays not to be too keen

Posted on January 3, 2026 by onedeckpete

This week we read a facebook post from Real Seeds about why it’s best not to rush into starting seeds off too early, even though some chillies do benefit from an early start. The main point was that you usually end up with leggy plants far too soon, with nowhere to put them. As they said: “Resist, unless you have ample heated space and use grow lights.”

We have been in this position a few times before. We start the year being very keen and then in March end up with leggy tomato plants sitting on the windowsill (above). Seeing that the frost down here can be as late as mid April that ain’t much cop. To get a bit of an idea of when your last frost could be, stick your postcode into lastfrostdate.co.uk here. This is what we got:

We are going to resist for the time being, and have ordered some seed compost and in a couple of weeks time will get the heated seed tray out and start off some chillies, but until then we will do little and often in the garden if the weather allows. We got two big bags of multi purpose compost today and filled a couple of raised beds just before the sun went down. Total time in the garden, ten minutes. It’s a start!

It may be some while before we can get back out there again as there’s a cold spell coming. To cheer ourselves up we can always open up the seed tin and read the back of seed packets. Here’s a few nice packs we got for Christmas (below). Better (weather) will come!

A message from Kyiv (November 2025)

Posted on November 27, 2025 by onedeckpete

(Main pic above: “I saw a romantic potato in the store”. Great stuff Wlad!)

The other month we heard from Wlad in Kyiv (here), where he shared some pictures from his friend Sergiy, who has been growing an impressive collection of plants on his balcony—everything started from seeds of whatever he eats, the last time it was photographs of his avocado plant. We’ve got more this month!

The avocados (above) that featured the other month are growing really well with strong stems, big leaves, and looks like they have no intention of slowing down. On top of that, he experimented with the seeds from a pitaya he bought and they’ve started to germinate (below). We had to look up what a pitaya was as we never heard of it before, it’s also known as the strawberry pear or dragon fruit. More on growing those here. Good luck with those, Sergiy!

And to add to those bits of tropical delight, he also decided to try growing pineapples (below).

It’s hard enough as it is to grow stuff like that anyway but at the moment in Kyviv electricity and heating have been unreliable again, so he improvised: he built a small stove on the balcony and added a new battery-powered lamp.

And that is some bulb!

And if you love a bit of circuitry as we do, here’s what’s inside it:

Now that’s what it’s all about, being inventive and making use of what you you can get your hands on. Great stuff Sergiy! Thanks again to Wlad for sending us the pictures, it’s appreciated. Keep safe the both of you, and do send us more updates.

Cosmos and reggae make Saturday night alright

Posted on November 8, 2025 by onedeckpete

Big thanks to Debby H for sending us a great picture today (above) of possibly the last cosmos of the year in her garden. She said, “If the weather brightens up later on, I will go out and deadhead them, then maybe they will keep on flowering.” Great stuff! We hope they do keep flowering.

Now we love the cosmos, we can’t stop seeing them about. Here’s one spotted on our early morning travels in SE23 this week, they’re a bit blurred but you’ll get the gist.

And a few doors down we saw a nice raised (vegetable) bed with some trellis used as a squirrel, pigeon and general pest deterrent, what a clever idea.

And from gardening we move onto the subject of music which goes hand in hand here on Weeds. We heard Skinshape x Horus – N’Téro (feat. Modou Toure) on last week’s Ross Allen NTS show here and it’s a lovely slice of reggae! Catchy as anything too.

Here’s a nice bit of dub called Order Dub for a Saturday night off the Self-Titled EP from Nadia McAnuff & The Ligerians from SoulNurse Records out of Tours, France from the golden year of 2022. It’s a subtle bit of mixing but lots going on if that makes sense.

And we just found by pure chance now on Bandcamp a do over of a version of Dennis Walks‘ Heat Don’t Leap by the one and only Gregory Isaacs called Gone is the Love from a good few years ago. Great tune!

And funny enough there was a few cuts of the original “Heart Don’t Leap” and more great tunes on On The Wire the other week. Listen in here!

Do you reckon the weather will hold out for gardening tomorrow? It was perfect here this morning and afternoon. Fingers crossed!

Gardening connects us all (Woolwich edition)

Posted on October 20, 2025 by onedeckpete

Thanks a million to an old friend Peter B for getting in touch and for sending some pictures of his allotment in Woolwich. Top picture, as he writes “The sunflowers are holding up well – apart from the ones in the back garden which are beheaded by squirrels.”

We understand 100% Peter as they are popular with the wildlife here in our garden. A long while ago a parakeet was robbing the seeds even though we were standing underneath it (see post here) then half an hour later two squirrels were chancing their arms too (see post here). Even a living scarecrow can’t stop them!

We found these pictures above interesting, as Peter mentioned “The cardoon shots are from the allotment – the stems are wrapped in cardboard for a month apparently to help blanch them. It’s supposed to make them taste better – the ones I tried earlier this year are bitter tasting even after extended cooking.” He added “They are an Italian favourite, a parmigiana made with cardoons as opposed to aubergines is to die for or so I’m told by a colleague at work.” We have a cardoon growing here at Weeds HQ but just for decoration purposes as we have never even tasted them before.

As he goes on to say “The cardoons are an experiment – I planted these a bit late this year and I didn’t space them far enough apart so they’re smaller than they might be – they grow to about 2 metres if spaced a metre apart.”

And finally “Tomatoes – I just like the look of them right at the end….”. Excellent stuff Peter, great for getting in touch again and ta for the photographs. Do send us an update next year!

This is (not) a veg patch

Posted on June 25, 2025 by onedeckpete

We’ve a couple of raised beds that have spinach, lettuce and onions in them or they did have until the poppies took over. You just can’t pull out a poppy seedling can you? It’s the same with the veg patch at the bottom.

Best thing about this is collecting the seed and passing them on to anyone who fancies some great looking poppies!

Weeds up to me knees

Madtone, gardening and life

Category Archives: Raised Bed of the month