Spring may have sprung

Posted on March 19, 2022 by onedeckpete

One great thing we love with this gardening lark is the passing on of surplus seeds from one gardener to another. This week we received a little package off a gardening friend with some interesting seeds and stuff that we’ve never grown before (Cheers again Ruth!)

Firstly there was a small envelope with some Amaranth seeds (more on them here) which we’ll be sowing in a sunny area in the garden as they like that. Also in a brown bag was a climber called Mashua which we’ve never heard of before, turns out it’s climbing Nasturtium with deep orange-red trumpet flowers with edible tubers and the young leaves can be eaten in a salad. You learn something every day, especially in gardening!

The other bag contained some Jerusalem Artichokes (aka Sunchoke), we read it’s not like the globe variety but a kind of sunflower with an edible tuber. We’ve also learnt they can spread like wildfire but we will be giving them a go. We’ll keep you posted on how we get on with everything above. Any tips appreciated!

And on the shortwave radio tomorrow evening at 10pm UK time is a repeat of a transmission of a while back of KSOL which features a mix from One Deck Pete called “A bit of sunshine and soul” which feature tunes by Jackie Lee & Delores Hall, Cat Stevens, George McCrae, Carl Bean and Love Unlimited. If you haven’t a shortwave radio you can tune in here.

Dub gardening from around the world

Posted on March 13, 2022 by onedeckpete

Cheers to our good mate in Germany Phil Harmony for sending us these two pictures this morning of a suprise he got when he cut a tomato this morning for breakfast. We only found out through the magic of the internet that this is called Vivipary and “occurs in overripe fruit when seeds have reached maturity and the natural hormone, abscisic acid (ABA), is reduced.” Well you learn something new every day!

And also a pic from a while ago of what he found in his kitchen sink after coming back from a ten day holiday. Big up the guerilla pepper!

And cheers to another gardening/music friend of ours Dr Strangedub for playing Jazz’min & Madtone’s LP Livicate on the 2nd March’s Echo Chamber on KFAI (which is a show well worth tuning into every week!) and for playing One Deck Pete’s “Give a little whistle” mix (featuring tracks by Joakim, Marcel, Roscoe Wethers and Felix Laband) on the show to at 71.35 mins in. Big shout to Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss! Click here for the archive of recent shows.

More stuff up our street

Posted on March 7, 2022 by onedeckpete

A couple of local events happening soon which are well up our street so to speak. The first is the Open Day at Farmstead Road Community Garden which features a Seed Swap amongst other stuff. It’s on Saturday 12th March 2022 from 10-1pm at Farmstead Road Community Garden SE6 3EH.

And at Glengall Wharf Gardens SE16 6NF is a “playful, practical interactive workshop on Permaculture ethics and principles” which sounds good to us! It’s on various dates and more info is here. They’ve other good courses on there as well so have a look at what’s on offer here. As we keep saying, roll on spring!

Coming soon!

Posted on March 4, 2022 by onedeckpete

Last Sunday we visited the Seed Swap at Glengall Wharf Garden, Peckham SE15 6NF. It was a lovely morning and we picked up a great assortment of seeds including some Texsel Greens (Ethiopian Mustard), some nice tomato varieties and lots of poppy seeds.

We do love a seed swap here at Weeds and just found out about another (above) at Hither Green on Sunday 13th March 2022 from 11am-1pm at Springbank Road Community Garden (thanks to @LewishamGardens on twitter for letting us know!)

Also coming soon is the transmission of The Scented Garden (a nod to flowers and gardeners and also John Peel’s Perfumed Garden show) on Wednesday 9th March 2022 at 1700 utc on 3955 kHz which features at the start of the transmission One Deck Pete‘s “A tribute to council gardeners everywhere” mix. Tune in here.And whilst we’re on the subject of music, here’s a great tune from Islam Chipsy & Eek called El Dynasor. It’s certainly a lively number and one to get those hips a swaying.

Big props for keeping up the fence!

Posted on February 18, 2022 by onedeckpete

Cheers to Gerry Hectic for giving us an update a few hours ago on the Fence versus Storm Eunace battle. We love the barbell arrangement and the whole thing looks like it may have worked. We love a bit of garden inventiveness here at Weeds!

We here meanwhile thought it would be a good idea to go out and try to pick up the wheelie bins that had fell over mid-storm until we got a bit spooked out by the speed of the wind so shut the front door. Then we thought to ourselves “What’s the point, the bins will only go for a burton again” so they’re still strewn across the drive.

The storm seems to have quietened down now but we can still hear the wind howling and we’ve even had the odd sharp shower of halestones over the last few hours. What a day!

Relatively safe from the madness outside we’re seeing a bit of movement on the couple of seed trays we’ve got in the propagator on the kitchen windowsill (Jalapeno’s and Cape Gooseberries.) It’s taken a good couple of weeks for the seeds to germinate but we must remember it’s still technically the winter. It shouldn’t be long till spring!

And an apt record from Incognito with a wonderful mix from Carl Craig from many years ago.

Who even listens to shortwave anymore?

Posted on February 13, 2022 by onedeckpete

Big thanks to Stuart and all at Cities and Memory for their Shortwave Transmissions project that is released today, what is World Radio Day 2022. Cities and Memory teamed up with The Shortwave Radio Archive (Cheers Thomas!) with some rare recordings from the history of shortwave radio from all over the globe to remix. The excellent compilation on their bandcamp site here features some of the great compositions received including a favourite of ours from Grey Frequency called Chimes (Rai Internazionale).

Big shout to our good friend on the other side of the world Paul Greenstein for his contribution to the project called Another Universe. Like he says on the C&M site “Like the narrators, I have a fondness for all things space, astrophysics and the big questions like: is the Universe going to end, what are black holes, and why does Surf Guitar sound dangerous?”

And to our gardening/music/shortwave mate across the pond, Justin Patrick Moore for his track Squatters and unwanted insects of the Malayan Revolution.

And here’s one from our own correspondents Jazz’min Tutum & Madtone with LP Livicate dedicated to the late great Upsetter.

Listen to all of the project here. The top player is the original sample and the one below it is the remix.

And also here’s Stuart talking about the project and playing some stuff from it on Resonance FM earlier today. #worldradioday #shortwavesnotdead

WSTL whilst you work

Posted on February 10, 2022 by onedeckpete

This Sunday coming 13th February (also the launch day of Cities and Memory’s Shortwave Project here) sees WSTL on the shortwaves via WRMI at 2300 UTC on 9395 kHz. The transmission features a whistling themed mix from One Deck Pete called “Give a little whistle” featuring tracks by Joakim, Marcel, Roscoe Wethers and Felix Laband.

Put the kettle on and tune into some clear, high-pitched sounds by forcing breath through a small hole between one’s lips or teeth (or from a kettle, a bird or a train etc etc). Have a listen via an SDR online here, one of those shortwave radios or after transmission here. #shortwavesnotdead #whistlingsnotdead

Beyond your back door

Posted on January 27, 2022 by onedeckpete

Some very apt gardening advice for this time of year from the late great Percy Thrower at 2.19 mins in on the track Winter in June from Beyond The Wizzard’s Sleeve. “The more we do during the autumn and winter, the easier and better the gardening is throughout the rest of the year” and “There’s a tendancy to look out of the window in the month of January and say it’s a dit dull, it’s a bit murky outside, nothing of interest in the garden. If the garden is like that it’s not the fault of the garden it’s the fault of the gardener.” Wise words Percy!

In his lifetime he also uttered the great line “I’m a gardener. I’m not a celebrity, I’m not famous, I’m a gardener.” We very much doubt he’d be up for those very gripping “Big Brother”/”Castaway”/”Three celebrities left in a shed” type programmes if he was alive today.

And talking of Percy…

It may be cold outside but inside there’s always music

Posted on January 24, 2022 by onedeckpete

There’s not much to see in the garden at the moment but the compost heap is still composting, the fish are swimming at the bottom of the pond and there’s protection all around the garden for the forthcoming cold snap(s). Apart from the odd bit of tidying up we haven’t done that much apart from visiting the compost heap with the odd teabag and veg peelings. When we can remember we always stick a small layer of already made compost on the heap from the dalek bin beside it which will hopefully help the whole process.

We’re also in the process of looking through our seed tin. Even if we can’t do anything in the garden at the moment at least we can plan for the spring.

And if you’re finding the cold is getting to you, get your stereo/headphones on and have a listen to the studio version of Radio Clarion for an hour of trumpet based delights, well worth listening to. It also features at 8.40 minutes in a mix from One Deck Pete called “Don’t blow your own trumpet” with tracks from The Conet Project, The June Brides, Goldmaster Studio, Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit & Holger Czukay and Handbook.

And thanks to our good friend Gerry Hectic here’s a great trackfrom Telefís ‘Falun Gong Dancer’ with Jah Wobble – Donkey’s Gudge Dub. Excellent stuff with a nice video too.

(Good) Tune for a Tuesday

Posted on January 18, 2022 by onedeckpete

Cheers to Your Host from This is a music show for playing the version of Show us the way from Hell & Fire on last week’s show, and what a tune! And one that made us think of the wonderful Joya Landis and John Holt duet from years ago.

And talking of the excellent This is a music show here’s said episode of the show for your listening pleasure!

Weeds up to me knees

Madtone, gardening and life

Category Archives: what will be will be