Category Archives: Tips for happy gardening

On a Chilli tip

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Thanks to Kit G5KIT in Bristol who sent us these great pictures of his chilli plant and he wrote: “Remember those little chilli seedlings from earlier in the year? We’ve given most of them away, but kept the biggest one – and we took our first crop yesterday. The chillies aren’t very big, maybe 20mm long for the largest ones, but boy do they pack a punch. They’re not called ‘Demon Reds’ for nothing; they’re about 194,000 on the scoville scale of heat!” Wow that is crazy Kit!

He sent a tune too and added: “I do like the way the fruit grows upwards, they’re attractive as well as tasty. We’re going to make some chilli oil from these ones.” Cheers Kit for getting in touch.

Now across to the twin cities

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Another big shout out to our good friends across the pond Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss of the excellent radio show The Echo Chamber on KFAI. We’ve said this countless times, but if you want to hear reggae, dub, downbeat and beyond, tune in from 8 – 12 UK time on a Wednesday morning here.

This Wednesday just gone was the annual Echo Chamber/Echo Beach Dub Club Tiki Bar Special (not unlike the The Skybird Lounge series of shows) with all sorts of beach bar and holiday beach destination classics including One Deck Pete presents a mix for WAVE at 80 mins in.

Tracklistings:
The Grizzly Folk – Broomway
High Skies – The shipping Forecast
Michael Rose – Surfing in the dub (Intro)
Quiet Village – Keep on Rolling

Pull up the deck chair or get the 1970’s sun lounger out and tune in here for a far out holiday sunny vibes show as there’s some wonderful stuff on the show.

Straight to bindweed’s head

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Some people get fed up with bindweed and let it get them down. Kit G5KIT in Bristol on the other hand, let said weed influence a 15 minute mix.
We wonder if you place a speaker near said the offending bindweed and have this on a continual loop that the problem will go away. Very doubtful, but a cracking mix all the same. Cheers Kit.
Tracklistings:
Brian Cant – One Potato, Two Potato
Junior Byles – Cally Weed
King Tubby – Dub from the Roots
Lee Perry & the Upsetters – Bush Weed
Sly & Robbie – Dub Glory

We didn’t see the eclipse as it went dark

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Strange lighting was the order of the day when we witnessed the partial eclipse of the sun in SE23 around 7.16 pm this evening. The colander was out and reflected said phenomenon onto the fence. Crazy stuff!

The earth didn’t stand still and the birds didn’t stop singing but it was an interesting evening all the same and it was nice when the light went back to normal again.

Here’s an eclipse-related (originally for shortwave) mix from a few years ago called “Can you see Baily’s beads?”

Tracklistings:
A Man called Adam – Moon
Cosmos – Summer in space (Mark’s Harmonic 33 mix)
Cedric Im Brooks – Blackness of Darkness
Cornell Campbell – Stars

The colander is now back in the cupboard until the next eclipse in 2056 or whenever it is, the birds have gone to sleep for the evening and the world continues turning…

The new wave of continuous wave

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This great track above was heard on this week’s Echo Chamber on KFAI (here) which is as you know, a great show from our Dub Gardening friend Dr Strangedub and DJ baby Swiss.

The track is from Jah Wobble and Youth called “Inspector out of Space” and it’s the Youth Inner Space Dub. There’s some morse featured a few times throughout the tune. Any CW people out there that can can decode it for us?

Talking of Samuel Morse:

 

 

 

Anyone want any tomatoes?

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A bit thanks to Alan C who sent us up some great pictures of his harvest from his Corfe Mullen allotment down in Dorset. First off is his polytunnel that looks so abundant with growth even with this heatwave and lack of rain.

“The polytunnel is a bit messy as you can see (above) but the picture is after I had harvested so there will be plenty more. This is the side with cherry-type tomatoes (toddler), the plum ones are on the other side. You can just about see a couple of Midas chilli plants in pots at the back as well.”

He went on to say, “The extreme weather and ongoing drought hasn’t been good for some things, the peas and beans are struggling, and the potato crop was down with a lot
smaller spuds, but the squash don’t seem bothered.”


If you remember Alan has lots of tubs of potatoes on the go, which is a great idea. “I harvest twice a week, and this is today’s return (above) – over a kilo of spuds from the one tub I emptied (about 15 more tubs left to go) and nearly 1.5 kilos of tomatoes.  Plus, a slightly overgrown cucumber and a nice onion and beetroot.”

“We were already struggling to eat the tomatoes I picked last week so I now need to come up with some new recipes for them, we can give some away, but the neighbours don’t want any more and my daughter is allergic to them.”

Cheers for the pictures Alan and everything is looking brilliant down there and I imagine he’s put in a lot of hard work with everything, especially with watering.

Anyone on here know any good recipes for a glut of tomatoes? We’re thinking of a big pasta sauce and freeze it but it’s all about what space is available in the freezer isn’t it?

Around the garden while watering

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It’s going to be silly hot today (around 32 degrees C), so we did a bit of watering this morning before it goes too mad. The first (above) is from our Marvel of Peru (AKA Four o’clock plant) that we grew from seed and the first flowers are just forming. It’s a bit of a different kind of plant as in the flowers usually open from 4pm attracting all sorts of moths and pollinators. Supposedly the flowers have a great smell too! More on that here.

A new arrival to the Weeds garden (above) that we saw when we went to the Chelsea flower show. It’s a Lychnis flos-cuculi “Petit Henri” and giving us some clusters of great small white flowers and it’s a perennial too! More here.

We’re even getting some progress on the tomatoes (above) at the moment. Nothing ripening yet and still small, but there is fruit!

And meanwhile down the pond our Echeveria is kicking out some great plastic looking flowers! We do love this gardening lark!

We’ve also been checking out an interesting Jamaican gardening blog called Hopey’s Garden. It’s an interesting read if you want to try different type of vegetables and stuff. The article above is very interesting and has some nice tips contained on there so do give it a look over.

Gardening tool of the year

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Cheers to our good friend in Cincinnati, Justin Patrick Moore for letting us know about a favourite gardening tool purchase of his, a Cobrahead Hand Hoe. Wow! It looks great to us here. As it says on the blurb here, “It weeds, cultivates, scalps, edges, digs, furrows, plants, transplants, de-thatches, and harvests with ease” and “It can even dig 12″ holes in even the hardest Ozark garden soil.” Brilliant stuff, thanks for letting us know Justi. It looks a versatile tool.

Any pictures of your favourite gardening tool? Pics please to one deck pete (at) gee male dot com.

Tunes to keep you cool in this heatwave

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Here’s a lovely bit of reggae to keep you cool in this mad heatwave we are experiencing in London now. The first is from The Disciples and it is called Living by The Sea mix 3 (previously unreleased) and a wonderful bit of dub. It’s got those keyboard stabs that remind us of Gregory Isaacs and his Rumours tune.

And talking of Gregory, here’s a great one from years ago featuring an extended “jam” of the “Rock On rhythm.” Keep a listen out for a couple of Skybird Jams radio shows coming soon with extended mixes, tracks over 8 minutes long and “Jam” bands aka “Music to increase your attention span”.

In the Doctor’s garden of dub

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A big shout to our old friend Dr Strangedub Radio DJ and Dub Gardener who presents the great show called The Echo Chamber (with DJ Baby Swiss) on KFAI from the Twin Cities of Minneapolis–Saint Paul. It’s on every Wednesday from 2:00 to 6:00 am (8am-12 noon UK time), if you love dub, reggae and all sorts of bass business you’ll love the show. Tune in live at the allotted time here. 

Thanks to the good doctor for sending over some snaps of what’s growing in his yard at the moment. We love the tomatoes (everyone else’s is doing better than ours, we are not jealous, honest!), the herb container and the raised bed and the stairs look like a good place to sit and chill on a summer’s evening. Cheers Dr Strangedub, keep in touch and update us through the growing season! Cheers for the plays of the One Deck & Popular, Madtone and Jasmine & Madtone tunes throughout the years.