Category Archives: Tips for happy gardening

Radio connects us all

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Cheers to Kit, G0JPS presently on a boat on the Grand Union Canal who told us earlier he was listening to the “Alt Universe Top 40” on 9670 kHz on his XHDATA D-808 portable. As he reported: “Lovely reception. Hot Butter’s seminal track, “Popcorn” is currently playing.” Brilliant stuff Kit!

Then around the same time we heard from Debby H who picked up a couple of pepper plants from a few streets away (there was a mixture of plants on a wall with a sign “please take me” on it) and guess what one of the varieties was called? Marconi Red. Radio (and gardening) connects us all!

Who would have thought it, in January too!

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We had no idea that the weather would be so nice today, the north of the UK have had power cuts and storms galore yet the sun was out in SE23.

We took advantage and cut down the dead wood on some rosemary, thyme, oregano and some mint in pots (the only way to grow mint unless you want to plant to take over your garden). Above is an example of some other dead wood in the sun.

We also moved some dormant plants about and gave them a little watering in. There’s a forecast of rain tomorrow but we had a nice “red sky at night” so we’re a bit confused. Not sure if we’ll be able to get out tomorrow but it was nice while it lasted today. Roll on the spring!

More bass, more drums and more harp please

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Over the years we’ve discovered some great reggae tunes featuring some strange bed fellows instrument-wise including (above) this bit of banjo dub by Andy’s All-Stars called Banjo Serenade (Cheers Steve Barker for playing this). And it was only a couple of weeks we found out about the great  Alex Porteus/Jah Bottle Head (actually caught in action using said instrument at 18 seconds in and a few more times below).

And tonight we have found some harp dub. The below is from Lo Free Meditation, T-key Free Meditation, Ha Lan Leduc and called Hola Harp part 1. Wonderful stuff!

Since you’ve been away

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You go away for a week and when you come back the garden has grown a little. We have a pair of cheeky cardoons at the bottom of the garden that have survived whatever is eating the leaves for the last couple of years. They are looking quite majestic!

As we didn’t have much luck with our pepper and tomato seedlings earlier this year, the plants we bought from B&Q are doing well and the few bargain ones we bought at Blythe Hill Festival are starting to grow a little even if they were a little late being put in. We can’t remember how many we got but it was 5 or 6 for £2, what a bargain!

The above was another plant bought at a summer fair. We think it may be Lambs ear, Mullen as we were told next year we’ll get some tall yellow spear flowers. It’s technically a weed but one that attracts pollinators galore. If it’s something else do let us know.

This blog post was written whilst listening to this wonderful soundtape put up by the great Dave Brown (in Mississauga, Canada) from November 1980 and a brilliant tape it is too! If you love the older soundtapes do have a look at his mixcloud.

And if you want to hear a slice of Jamaica from 1977, listen to the great Jah Love Muzik below.

Hats off to all of the bus related gardeners out there

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We love a bus here at Weeds but it’s a different story when we think of bus stations. They never had a good reputation and they still conjure up scenes of just missing buses by a split second, waiting for the first bus in the morning in a different city after sleeping upright on a plastic seat all night after a gig years ago or aimlessly walking from stop to stop looking for the right bus scratching one’s head when on holiday in a different country.

Thanks to our good friend Debby H the reputation may be changing going by the photographs she took of the great flower display outside Nantwich Bus station (which has 4.5 star reviews on Google by the way fact fans!) Just look at those hanging baskets! We reckon there may be some comfrey liquid involved but we’re not complaining.

We love the named herb tubs under the massive hanging baskets (top and below image) and would love a cutting of the Mint Basil as we’ve never grown it before. Big shout to the gardeners/volunteers/bus drivers who maintain the patch as it’s immaculate, no deadheads on those hanging baskets we see. Thanks for those pics Debby, they are great. Now if only the Weeds’ garden was as tidy.

On the radio

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On Sunday 4th August 2024 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz Imaginary Stations have another version of COOL, this time COOL 4 via Shortwave Gold. Like the last COOL shows it’s all about those summertime tunes, 1950’s sun tan lotion adverts, deckchairs, long drinks and cool nights. If you’ve loved the last few summer shows you’ll love this one. Shortwave on, sunscreen on and tune into COOL.

There’s a sheep in me garden what am I gonna do?

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Thanks to Rich R in the Lake District for sending us a pic of a woolly intruder in his back garden the other day. We like the look on the sheep’s face who could be thinking “What is this human doing in MY field?”

One advantage is there’s a good chance that may be some sheep droppings left which could be a pain in the neck but looking online it looks like they’re high in both phosphorus and potassium which is great for the garden. Just like the classic horse manure it has to have time to age (as it’s far too strong and if used straight away would burn the plants) and you can even make a compost tea out of it to apply to the garden in liquid form. We’d suggest a thick pair of gloves if you intend to pick some up this weekend. Cheers for that Rich! More on sheep manure here.

In the beginning (there was Jack)

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This morning whilst on an early morning mission to Deptford we caught this poster in a pub window. It’s for Wednesday’s May Day celebrations featuring an appearance of Fowlers Troop and the Deptford Jack in the Green (more on them here which even includes a Hawkwind and Pink Fairies connection!)

The great John Rogers has got a interesting little film that explains the celebrations a little more. Looks like a fun day!

All this talk of May Day revelry reminded us of one spring evening years ago when we were going to London Bridge station and followed a man dressed as a tree walking with a lady who was sporadically ringing an old school bell. We made a bit of a detour so we could capture more of the madness and just before we turned off for the station we had to see what it was all about. “Excuse me mate, could you explain more about your get up” we said to the tree man/man tree to which he curtly replied, “Mayday?” We were told that day and by a bloke with a painted green face.

 

And talking of John Rogers, here is again the two part excellent walk of the “Magic” River Quaggy, which is a “much watch”.

Music to drive any frosts away

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Here’s two great tunes for a Tuesday evening to drive any chance of the frost away.

The first is a lovely middle eastern-inspired mix of an Adrian Sherwood live track. It’s a wonderful piece of instrumental reggae called Sinnervisions from the great Spy From Cairo who makes some brilliant music that we have featured before and this one is really up there! More about his stuff here.

 

And from 2015 from Blackboard Revision we have Blackboard Horns from Lee Scratch Perry, Danny Boyle and Danny Red. Wonderful horns with some fantastic bass!

 

And here’s another track or two from each of the artists for good measure!

 

Seed Spuds and Maunsell Sea Forts

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This device above may not the most sophisticated of gardening devices but that old window frame found on a skip many moons ago perched on some bricks is working well as a cold frame.

A few weeks ago we thought we’d chance it with a couple of seed spuds under it and today noticed that they are starting to show through. We put a liitle bit of soil around them (a mini version of earthing up so to speak) just in case a frost decides to show itself. Hopefully in a few weeks we should be in a frost free zone and we’ll take the protection off for good, but until then…

Soundtrack to this post: Big shout to Thomas from the excellent Explorations in Dub for sending us this track out of Poland called Streams of bubbling dub from Muflon Dub Soundsystem and a nice chilled bit of dub it is.

 

And through the Explorations in Dub blog here we found this great Maunsell Tower dub related track from Banco de Gaia called My Little Country (Rob Bong’s Roughs Tower Dub). Big shout to all the Sealand crew! We do love a seafort here and we are a bit partial to dub too so it’s a winning combination. Cheers again Thomas.