Seed Swap in SE15

This Sunday coming February 12th 2023 is the annual Seed Swap at Glengall Wharf Garden, Peckham SE15 6NF. Last year we picked up a great assortment of seeds including some Texsel Greens (Ethiopian Mustard), some nice tomato varieties and lots of poppy seeds and hopefully will do the same ths year. The eventbrite link is here.

Bring your duplicate packs of free seeds from the gardening magazines or bring your surplus seeds down to SE15 6NF from 11am – 2pm.

Calling all agents

Whilst looking for some tunes for a forthcoming shortwave mix we found an excellent tune from Ax Martz out of Mexico City called Coded Messages which samples a couple of well known number stations. It’s an uptempo tune as well and one that will bring a smile to you face!

A frosty reception this morning

It’s always the way, awoke to a frost this morning (above). Typically a couple of days after planting the elephant garlic out under a thick mat of leaf mulch. We reckon we may have lost them but let’s see if they survive. That’s the trouble with gardening, just like life you get good days and bad days. We’ll update you about the garlic.

At lunchtime we got some plug plants through the post, some White Foxgloves off ebay (below). Expertly packed or what? They’re not going out just yet even though it said on the supplied notes they can be overwintered in a cold frame. Possibly, but they’re staying on the windowsill for a couple of days before we can knock up some sort of cold frame-like structure with protection outside in the garden. We’re talking an old piece of glass on some bricks or something, it won’t be pretty but it may work. Trouble is we don’t want the plugs to get too comfortable indoors even though they’ve probably come from a greenhouse before being posted.

And below is the latest episode of Imaginary Stations, KBUS which was broadcast last night on WRMI (also home to This is a music show and Radio Northern Europe International). The show’s theme is travel which features all sorts of eclectic goodness as ever featuring this tune below by Wesley Willis “Harmony Joy Bus Ride” which we’ve never heard of, shamefully we’ve never of the artist before either. We must do some more research on Wesley Willis as he was an interesting fellow by all accounts.

And at 43 minutes in on the show is One Deck Pete’s “Where’s me travel card?” mix.
Here’s the tracks:
John Harvey – Automated Announcement, Platform 7, Shewsbury station
Ceramic The Band – Tickets, Please
Tabasco Driver meets Delroy Wilson in Dub
N&L – Metropolis
Inteus – Angry Bus Driver
Phil Pratt – Safe Travel
kK4P M3TR0 – NEXT STOP – Riverside – Town Creek

Fingers crossed those garlic bulbs survive!

Rainbows over Forest Hill

Before it started to rain today we made a start on the wild bit at the bottom of the garden. The soil was well wet so was hard to turn over and it was mucky to say the least but we got there after about three quarters of an hour at “council worker on job and finish” breakneck speed. There’s still a little bit at the back to do but we did leave a couple of wild plants in and left in the corner some stinging nettles (good to stick on the compost heap and for adding to comfrey liquid for added goodness) and a bramble plant as Blackberries are always welcomed here. Top tip: sometimes when we know the rain is coming we quickly give an area a light going over with a fork just scratching up the top layer and it looks a million times better after the rain!

We also left our cut price budget version of the brilliant wildlife ponds that Bill Shimmers makes. As we’ve said before his ponds are a work of art! A great idea to do and Bill’s ones look brilliant.

Ours sadly is a wee bit lower budget (an old tub from B&Q and some old wood) than Bill’s but we have to start somewhere!

Little and often they do say

The weather turned out to be good again this morning so we decided to do another short stint of weeding out the back. We did it at a council worker’s “job and finish” speed as we honestly don’t know when we’ll be able to get out there again what with the weather and also returning to work tomorrow.

We managed to collect up a lot of leaves from the path so per the advice given to us by the people who supplied us with the giant garlic we’re using the leaves as mulch in the raised beds as we haven’t got 4″ of grass clippings as suggested. Reckon we’ll be okay with leaves? We’ll find out in the spring.

We also took a lot of rotting leaves off the netting over the pond that was being weighed down and going into the water. We’re sure that rotting leaves ain’t that good for the pond (have a look here why they’re no good) and it is looking a lot clearer now. Roll on the next time we can get out the back!

This post was written whilst listening to this excellent collection of hip-hop instrumentals by N&L from Norway from 2015. Some good tunes here!

Banish stress with this and some left over pork pie

Big shout to our good friend Shane Quentin AKA Head Gardener of The Garden of Earthly Delights radio show. He’s compiled a couple of hours “of mostly new, laid back and very chilled out grooves to help you through to 2023.” This is excellent mix and should be banged out on the stereo pronto. Cheers Shane!
Tracklistings:
Duval Timothy : Up
mu tate : Benz (with Santebela)
Burial : Strange Neighbourhood
J. Albert : Angles To Curve
Son Of Chi + Arthur Flink : Part Two
PlatzWave : Thinning of the Vale
Other Lands : April 14th – A Prayer For Peace
Jim Edgar Morgan : Seeing The World Differently
The Gaye Device : Who Goes Where – The Space Between
WMD : Yearn
Cucina Povera + Ben Vince : Siellä Näen Kaiken
Holmes + atten Ash : Lapetus
Kirby Perman : St John Church Bells
Katie English + Mark Kluzek : Clearing
Louise Le May : A Wintry Dream
Rob St. John Rose : Ferraby Half Life
Rudi Arapahoe : To Gather Flowers
Gardener : Listening to Tusk Stoned
Very Tired Astronaut : Car on a Staircase
Dylan Henner : I Hope I Will Be Remembered as a Good Person

Anyone can make radio happen…

In a couple of hours time the Imaginary Stations crew have a DIY related broadcast via WRMI on 9395 kHz at 2300 hrs UTC.

There will be toolshed related tunes, advice on repairing stuff around the home “without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts” and tips and tricks from various handymen and women from around the globe. So plug in that homebrew radio, tune it in and enjoy!

Come out from behind the Psyche-cle shed

The first part of the Shortwave Garage Sale (The psyched out special) in The Imaginary Stations series which was transmitted last week on WRMI is now up on Mixcloud in all its studio glory but sadly missing all the fades and the remix by the ionosphere.

At 02.05 minutes in is the mix from One Deck Pete called Live from the Psyche-cle shed. Here’s the tracklistings to accompany the tripped out mix:

Kourosh Yaghmaei – Hajme Khali
The Dandelion Set – A Clean Sweep
Tim Maia – Over Again
Soul Vendors – Psychedelic Rock
Şatellites – Disko Arabesque

And whilst you’re there check this out!

And thanks to our good friend Zdenko Franjić for sending us the below. What a track!

Not at all a bit previous

We’re starting to think of next year’s gardening even if at the moment we wouldn’t want to actually go out in our garden as it chucking it down but it’s never too early to start thinking of next season.

We bought a lot of herb seeds last week to restock up on the pots just outside the kitchen (plus some poppies to chuck in the wild area) and hopefully get a few herb pots going on the windowsill. We’ve just noticed on one of the seed packets that the original common name for Borage was “burrage” or “llanwenlys” a Welsh word for “Herb of Gladness.” We’ve also just found out that the herb is used in the German green sauce known as Grüne Soße or Grüne Sosse. Good stuff!

Remember even if you’ve got a few seed packets in your seed box that may be out of date don’t worry they are worth trying (except Parsley that really needs fresh seed to start germinating). It’s all in the preparation!

The days when the lute ruled

Tomorrow Sunday 6th November 2022 from 2300 UTC on 9395 kHz shortwave there will be another episode of WREN in a renaissance style. The hour long show will include tunes with “harmony that places a greater concern on the smooth flow of the music and its progression of chords.”

There’s another mix in a renaissance style from One Deck Pete at 17 minutes in featuring: Beyond the Wizards Sleeve, Deega, O.G. Jigg and Baroque Baroque. Tune in and enjoy another journey back to the time when the lute was all over the musical charts.