Category Archives: Reggae

Keeping it short and sweet

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Little and often is an apt saying when it comes to gardening. The job for today was to tidy up the bed at the bottom of the garden that had gone a bit haywire (above). There was a fair bit of weeding to do and pulling up of dead Nasturtiums that were left to their own devices followed by a good old forking over. It looks like a proper vegetable bed now (below) rather than a bombsite!
In the process we found a couple of spuds that were missed when we initially harvested them in the autumn and also found a few dried out pods of some heirloom French climbing beans we bought at the Roots and Shoots Potato Day earlier this year. That’s one less packet of seeds we’ll have to purchase then!

Talking of Potato Days and Roots and Shoots here’s the next event in a few weeks time and one well worth going to!
London Potato Fair/Roots & Shoots Potato Day
9th and 10th February 2019 11.00am-2.30pm
Roots & Shoots 
Walnut Tree Walk
Lambeth, SE11 6DN
http://www.roots&shoots.org
FREE ADMISSION
More details on this and more such like events (all across the UK) at this site here.

And here’s a festive treat from The Groove Thief from KGNU Community Radio’s “Dub Palace” show. The mix includes some heavyweight bass from RSD, Prophet, Johnny Clarke and our very own Madtone with “Compost your mind”. 

A happy and prosperous 2019 to one and all from us at Weeds!

Awakening of the beast

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It seems like it was only the other week we were planting the strange looking root crown of the Foxtail Lily (AKA Eremurus). In fact it was at the start of October (post here) that we purchased another crown from Shannon’s and this afternoon whilst tipping around in the garden we noticed it peeking its head through the ground. Fingers crossed the forthcoming cold weather won’t knock it for six (in the morning we’ll probably stick a cloche or a bit of fleece over the top for added protection).

We’ve just found a clip from an old Gardeners’ World featuring Monty Don on the Eremurus and how you plant the root crown here.

And here’s another plug for the Weeds related musical project Madtone with their tribute to the said plant “Foxtail Lily Dub (Beaming to the Caribbean)” which has been getting some super support from the likes of Andrew Weatherall, Dr Strangedub from The Echo Chamber on KFAI, the dread gardener Don Letts, Justin Robertson and more. A big cheers to them! Watch out for a vocal version of the tune in the next few months!  #FoxtailLily #shortwavesnotdead

 

Seeds, tips and tunes

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Big shout to Stevie B, Fenny and Jim for playing this tune on Saturday’s On The Wire and what a lovely bit of reggae it is, from San Diego’s Tribal Seeds (more on their soundcloud here).

Another great tune this time straight out of Yorkshire on the mighty Scotch Bonnet Records from Danny T, Tradesman featuring Mark Iration called Up Deh. Tune!

Also a big shout to all at the Thompson & Morgan gardening blog for including one of our tips in their latest post “Expert gardening tips for beginners” which contains some great gems of info for beginners and non-beginners alike. Do have a look at the post here.

In a Dub Front style

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Big shout to Youri from the excellent Dub Front radio show for playing Jazzmin & Madtone’s Earth Citizen last week (6.26 minutes in the show below). The show also featured an hour of top tunes from artists including Audioart, Jah9 ft Chronnix (above) and Dubblestandart.

As Youri told us “The show’s been running since March 2005 every Wednesday at 11pm on BRUZZ out of Brussels. 52 shows a year digging into all things dub and roots. From chill to steppers, from roots to dub club, from world dub to outer space”. It’s a show well up our street so have a listen to the collection of Dub Font shows on Mixcloud here.

Purple broad beans meet The Supremes

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We’ve had some cracking weather in London of late and combined with the rain last week things are coming on strong in the garden. The Crimson Flowered Broad Beans started to bloom at the weekend and they’re looking great! They’re a nice alternative to the black and white flowered ones (which we love as well) and there’s a interesting post about the variety on the Daughter of the Soil (“Adventures in experimental horticulture”) blog here. The blog is well worth having a look at if you love heritage vegetables, seed saving and experimental gardening.The bed at the bottom of the garden is bursting into life as well with the seed potatoes, onions and strawberries starting to reach upwards. It may be a tad early but we’ve already made use of our home-made comfrey liquid which will help them on their way. The bamboo canes that were used as a cat deterrent have now been commissioned elsewhere (helping some tomato plants) and the spuds have been earthed up even more.

Music accompaniment this week is firstly a couple of versions of the excellent pressure and slide rhythm by Hubert Lee then Sugar Minott. On the Rt Hon David Rodigan show last week he played a mini-history of the rhythm including a couple of choice cuts of it by the great Prince Buster here and here.

Also secondly a big shout to our mate Will who recommended the LeMellotron/Pierre Wax 30 mix below. It’s a right musical mixture and one to turn up loud so it can be heard while out in the back garden. The great 2 hr mix is a slice of audio goodness and includes I:Cube, The excellent Mothers “Faith (Yilwani Imfazwe”) with a nice Lee Perry sample and Dennis Coffey and a whole lot more. It also includes the breakbeat/falsetto vocal disco classic “Come into my life” from The Supremes. Roll on more tunes and more sunshine!

Post-frost therapy

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There was a frost here Wednesday morning (as we’re sure we saw a white veil over the local cars on the way to work) and hopefully that’ll be it now, even though it’s still a bit parkie outside today.We’re not taking any chances here for a few days at least, the tomato plants that were outside in the upside down terrarium are now in the back room (that might have to be hardened off a little before they go out) and there’s still fleece over the Easter Sunday sown spuds. And then there’s the brassicas, runner beans and peppers that want to go out, finger’s crossed it won’t be too long now…And if you have lost a plant or two in the recent frosts here’s a tune for you…

It’s a corker from the great Mongo’s Hi-Fi (which we’ve featured a few times here at Weeds) with Johnny “Move Out Of Babylon” Clarke called “Rain keeps falling” which comes back with a lovely dub as well. The 7″ single is a special record store day release and you can get it here and if you fancy the download go here. Tune!