It’s time to sow (or is it?)

In-between the rain and sunshine yesterday, we got out into the garden and sowed some seed in the raised bed at the side with some transparent plastic tacked over the top so to create a cheap mini greenhouse. Those pallet box collars we were given a few years ago have had a good life, the polythene on the top don’t last sadly and needs replacing every year but they do work. In these “poor people’s greenhouses” we sowed some beetroot, the Lldl lettuces we purchased last year and some parsnips. Parnsips are funny anyway and need fresh seed but these seeds were bought last week so touchwood should be okay if the soil gets warm enough in there. Fingers crossed we will get some germination out there.

And speaking of germination we have had some success on the kitchen window with two  cherry tomatoes showing their tiny seed leaves. Great stuff, all we need is the rest of the windowsill seeds to kick off now.

Seems a bit milder out there…

 

This morning while putting two tea bags in the compost heap (any excuse to get out there) we noticed it was quite mild weatherwise and also spotted what we think are some giant garlic bulbs (volunteers we reckon) resprouting. That’s a good sign but we won’t speak too soon as you never know it may snow next week (we hope not though!)

Aberdare Rockers revived!

A big thanks to Debby H for sticking the audio of the excellent Aberdare Rockers cassette tape online on Mixcloud. We haven’t heard it for many moons and it is sounding excellent! Cheers to Debby H, Rhyhm Doctor, Karl S and Pete R for their valuable help sussing these tunes out. Any amends or misnamed please let us know.

Massive thanks to Debby H again for finding this classic cassette and for transfering it and sticking it up on Mixcloud. This mix will be on play again at Weeds HQ for the rest of the week! The MP3 can be downloaded here.

Augustus Pablo – Mount of Olives Dub
Mickey Dread – Robbers Roost
Wailing Souls – Mr Firecoal Man
Jacob Miller – False Rasta
Rod Taylor – His Imperial Majesty
Mikey Dread – African Anthem
Aminatou & The Roots Underground – Runaway Dread
Lord Sassafrass & Deborah Keys – Green Bay Inquest
Wailing Souls – Joy within your heart
Wailing Souls – Very Well
Dr Alimantado – Poison Flour
Dr Alimantado – Gimme my gun
Ijahman Levi – I’m a Levi dub/
IllusionInkling Music – Reggae Fusion Odyssey Roots Rhythm
The Incrowd – Mango Walk
Lord Creator – Such is life dub
The Wailers – Guided Missle
The Shadows  – Brother Noah
Culture/Mighty Two – Two Sevens Clash (dub)
Prince Far I and the Arabs – Long Life
Errol Dunkley – A little way different
Junior Byles – Can you feel it (Sufferation Everyday)
The Observers & Niney –Tribulation Dub
Leroy Smart/I Roy – Jah is the Light/Wicked Eat Dirt

Around the garden and SE23 this week

Here’s some mad pictures from a week around the garden and one from the locality of Forest Hill. The first (below) made us think of Wlad (US7IGN) and his good friend Sergiy (UT3UFD) in Ukraine who is growing a banana plant in his apartment (post here). We are sure that this is a banana tree growing outside in a front garden in SE23. God knows how it survives the winter here, we could be wrong but it looks very much like a banana with fruit on it as well. We love the flower as it looks like someone’s carved it out of wood or it could even open up and start talking.

And the other day we were complaining that we weren’t getting much action from the courgettes (zucchini) in the raised beds until we moved a leaf and found this giant in hiding.

And in the tiny bed at the bottom of the garden there is some sort of melon (we think) and some peppers and chillies. Now it looks like there’s a self seeded cape gooseberry in there too and it’s only a tiny bed as well. A good example of square metre gardening gone wild!

When the chips are down

The back garden path was looking well worn what with weeds growing between the 1970’s inspired crazy paving, very loose slabs and all that combined with a sinister lean towards down the hill. Let’s say it wasn’t the most safest garden path to walk on so the other weekend we made a start on trying to improve it.

First job was to rid the path of the slabs and chuck them by the pond. It’s looking like a concrete jungle up there at the moment so it’s better we don’t show any pictures! The concrete underneath the path would take lots of work to get out so we thought we’d best leave it in.

Over a couple of evenings with 6 bags of woodchip (on offer on Wickes), some decking boards and a couple of lengths of 1″ x 1″ procured we had a go at a wood chip path, allotment style.

We remember a mate telling us a few years ago that there was a craze of people going around pinching estate agents boards for their wooden posts which were being put to better use at local allotments in the production of wood chip paths. We wonder if that was a real thing or were we having our leg pulled? Well anyway those 1″ x 1″ came in well handy for making that path safer and looking a lot better.

Run, run, runaway

Whilst looking for suitable tracks for a forthcoming shortwave mix this week we found a couple of good tunes. The first is Anomie with Tradisi Urang (Anomie psychedelic reggae version). Excellent reggae related stuff out of Indonesia.

And out of Indonesia too here’s a wonderful tune from Benyamin S with Superman. This is just something else, it really is!

Punk rock? That’s shallot

As it was a glorious day yesterday we spent much of it tinkering about in the garden (above). Notice the hessian shopping bags (mid-centre left) hanging on the found-in-the-street tree-like coat stand. Those bags will be filled with Lidl’s best peat-free compost and contain potato plants in a few weeks time. Dada gardening at its best.

The shallots we put in a couple of weeks ago “under glass” (which is just an old window frame found in the street balanced on some house bricks) are off to a flying start. We’ve tried growing shallots before but they rotted even before they got this far so we must be doing something right this time.

We tided up the side bed by the Dad corner (below) and replanted a couple of penstemons we bought off QVC a year and a bit ago and also made some sort of bug hotel (there isn’t a roof on it so is that more of a bug campsite then?) Those giant garlic bulbs are now coming on a treat as well.

Also we cleared a little area by the pond (below) and added a mini veg bed. We stuck some large wire mesh (originally some shelves from our old mini-plastic green houses) over the top of it to deter the cats, putting in a line of old house bricks in helps visually section the area off too. It gets a bit of shade so we’re thinking the lettuce seeds we put should be okay as in full sun they tend to go to seed. Let’s see.

Hopefully we’ve another couple of days worth of gardening to do over Easter if this lovely weather holds out. Have a good Bank Holiday weekend!

Listening to last week’s On The Wire which has a deep dubby bias while we write this post. Well worth listening to as per. Big shout to Steve, Fenny and Jim.

And they’re off!

Spring may be springing or maybe not but we’ve got in and sowed some seeds in the propagator on the windowsill. We’ve done some miner’s lettuce, giant sunflowers some tomatoes and some chillies along with some rows sowed outside (we’re pushing our luck but having a try anyway, what we got to lose?)

Years ago we bought some wild garlic bulblets on ebay and they’ve popped up yet again down the shady area behind the pond and are kept safe under the watchful eye of a plastic dalek. And the second lot of the giant garlic we bought is starting to peep through the inch or two of the leaf mulch in the raised bed. We don’t know if it’s the plastic protection on the top that has helped or the the fact that one of the Weeds cats spends a lot of time sleeping on top of it! Who knows but something is working!)

And here’s some spring inspired dubs to get those plants on their way.

Raking up the Hugel

Cheers to our good music/gardening/radio friend Justin Patrick Moore for sending us some great reading on Hugelkultur, this time on the greatly named Druids Garden (which has no affiliation to Ken Barlow sadly) site here. 

We’d never even heard of the system before he told us about it a while ago but it’s looks well interesting and if you can get your hands on some logs, you’re in!

Pictures of lily (and wood)

A big shout out to all of our music/gardening friends from around the world! Thanks to Justin Patrick Moore in Cincinnati for an update of his Hugelkultur bed (above). It’s certainly looking great!

A few months ago it started off as the below (mentioned in the post here) and now has been filled with straw, soil, and underneath that, layers of compost and leaves and below that waste wood. It certainly looks like the plants like it! It may be worth having a go. Great stuff Justin! More on the practice of Hugelkultur here.

And thanks to our other good friend Gerry Hectic for sending a pic of his healthy looking pond. Is that watermint alongside that great lily Gerry? Brilliant!

Do send us pics of how you’re getting on with the garden this summer, we’re well up for receiving them!