Here’s today’s recording of One Deck Pete’s “Radio connects us all” mix off an online SDR which was transmitted via Channel 292 earlier. Added percussion, noises and fading effects thanks to the groundwave propagation and that thing called the ionosphere. Tune in and drop out!
It started cold and bleak today so we stayed indoors wielding a paintbrush this morning. The weather did improve and come about 1pm it was beautiful as this bee on the borage can testify.
We have borage popping up everywhere this year, we bought some seeds a few years back and it now self seeds all over the garden. It’s a plant well worth growing for the bees to enjoy and for the flowers you can put in Pims and also salads (and it has herbal medicine uses too here) but we love it for the leaves that can be chucked in into the compost heap or comfrey liquid for a bit of extra goodness.
Everything in the vegetable beds are cracking on at a good rate. We are packing a lot into the home-made raised beds but why not? The ones above contain potatoes, tomatoes, peas, carrots, peppers and whatever else can be crammed in. We only have limited space so we’re taking a chance on what’ll grow.
Also don’t be fooled with this present run of sunny weather, next week it goes down a few degrees and it always good to be aware that you may get a late frost which can wipe out a lot of stuff so regularly check the weather forecast just in case.
We’ve still got protection over the top of the tender plants at night (we close them up about 6pm so any further heat that the sun produces can be trapped in until the morning) and it ain’t anything fancy. We’ve got large jam jars, plastic cloches, an old window frame and recycled polythene tacked onto the cold frames. With this gardening malarkey you can’t take anything for granted, especially UK weather!
We hope the growing is going well in your garden. Anyone fancy sending us pictures of what they’re growing so we can post them up on the blog which’ll give us all more encouragement during this lockdown. Do get in contact if so.
#gardeningduringlockdown #lockdowngardening #sleepinginlatertocombatlockdown #sniffindisinfectant
There is a downside to seed tapes we found out after buying a bargain assorted vegetable tape off ebay. Turns out the names of what seeds they are, are only at the beginning of the tape (not all the way through) and now we’ve sowed a few we have no idea what’s what except brussel sprouts. Who told us seed tapes were a good idea?
And after a couple of hours hard graft today the front wall (nearest the road) can now be seen, trouble is the mass of ivy on the top right of the picture is covering a piece of wall that isn’t there. We’ll get back to you tomorrow with our solution to the problem.
And the first delivery of guinea pig straw (with added roadent waste) was left on the garden fence in a plain carrier bag with no note but we had a vague idea what it was when we spied it. The contents have now been dumped into the heap and we will keep you updated on its progress. We’re an interesting lot aren’t we? Blame the lockdown.
https://soundcloud.com/thisisamusicshow/this-is-a-music-show-060
Here’s last week’s excellent This is a Music Show with some great stuff on it from Tortoise, Stereolab and Aphex Twin and lots more. And it’s all in something called Comb Stereo too! A show well worth tuning into to as per. A big shout to “Your host” and also Daz Man for the nice SDR recording.
https://soundcloud.com/djfrederick/free-radio-skybird-april-26-and-may-3-2020
And here’s this Sunday’s episode of Free Radio Skybird in a clean audio preview style. It’s a well interesting mix up with Justin Patrick Moore’s tribute to Genesis Breyer P-Orridge in the Radiophonic Laboratory (at 24 mins in), One Deck Pete with “Radio connects us all” (35 mins in) with some great tunes from Sasskia, Mokka and Camille Murray and at 46 mins in we have Shane Quentin from the Garden of Earthly Delights radio show who brings us a lesson in “Radio Re-flex-ology” with the likes of F.C. Judd G2BCX, Ronnie Bond, The Pixies and Barry Blue.
Music will see us through these mad times, it really will.
It is a bit difficult to do it with a darlek type bin but we got a garden fork into the compost heap today to give it a good mix up and to get some air to the pile. We could feel a bit of heat in there while we were doing it so it looks like the heap is working.
Since the lockdown we’ve taken the composting a bit more seriously because we’ve got more time on our hands, anything suitable goes in pronto and a trip down there with a single tea bag is not unusual!
We think the neighbours may have noticed our passion for the heap too as we were asked did we want a weekly bag of straw procured from a guinea pig hutch. Turns out the straw and any guinea pig product is alright for composting as it’s classed as a “brown” and would be ideal if you recently had a load of grass clippings deposited as the straw would add a bit of dryness to the heap. We’ll keep you posted on our guinea pig hutch gifts and let you know if they are any help or not!
Apart from the composting a good bit of gardening was done in the front, weeding and attacking the ivy on the garden wall and learning that some of it is in fact holding up the said wall. There may have to be a compromise tomorrow when it comes to finishing the job because of that. We’re clearing all of the two tier bed and when things get back to some sort of normality and garden centres are open again we’ll fill it with some shrubs and grasses but it’s good to see it so clear for once! #lockdowngardening
We received a part of a seed order we forgotten about from Thompson & Morgan this morning. It was a favourite vegetable of ours beetroot and what was good about it was they’re of the seed tape variety. There’s no fiddling about with trying to sow the seeds thinly, spacing them out evenly or trying to keep them in a straight line, the tape does all that for you. We are getting used to this seed tape idea even though it’s been around for a while!
And the seed potatoes we planted straight outside rather than under the cold frames are starting to show through the black membrane that was used for putting under the decking. All we done is cut an X in it and plonked in the seed potato. The membrane will keep the weeds off and hopefully keep warmth in the ground. We covered the tips of the buds this evening with a bit of soil just in case a frost comes out of nowhere!
Talking of potatoes we’re in the process of tidying up the front garden that isn’t really doing that much. We may copy an idea of a neighbour of ours who the other year sowed some potatoes in his newly designed front garden as they are supposedly good for breaking up compacted soil we were once told at the council. It may be a while before Shannon’s is open again where we can pick up some shrubs so we might as well make use of the ground and grab some potatoes into the bargain!
This Sunday coming 26th April 2020, DJ Frederick’s Free Radio Skybird will be broadcasting another show in its weekly spring run at 1100 UTC (1200 UK) on 6070 kHz via Channel 292.
This week’s episode features Justin Patrick Moore’s Radiophonic Laboratory and One Deck Pete’s “Radio connects us all” mix featuring Patrick McGoohan, Sasskia, Mokka and Camille Murray. We’ve also the debut of Shane Quentin from the excellent Garden of Earthly Delights radio show who’s bringing us a bit of “Radio Re-flex-ology”.
Tune in using your shortwave radio in the 49 Metre band on 6070 kHz or by using the link here. It’s going to be one interesting hour!
A big shout to Gerry Hectic who told us about this compilation when they were originally looking for contributors. This compilation has over 200 10-second tracks and is released by ATTN:Magazine here. What’s great about it is that ALL proceeds from the sale of the set are donated to the charity Cool Earth who work alongside rainforest communities to halt deforestation and climate change.
There’s ten seconds from a variety of sources including Gerry Hectic, Justin Patrick Moore and Madtone amongst many many others! Cheers to Jack Chuter for including our track!
Patience, that’s what you need when it comes to this gardening lark. Sadly we haven’t got any.
This week we took the dahlia tubers straight out from under the stairs (where they’ve been hibernating since late autumn) and into the ground even though there’s still a chance of frost. We also left a couple of them in the garden from last season as we couldn’t be bothered to dig them out. Why do we do these things when we know we shouldn’t?
We have got protection for them and the other plants that don’t do well when it comes to frosts though. There’s the seed potatoes under the black membrane that was used under the decking and lots of DIY plastic/wood contraptions (don’t throw out your jam jars!) over vegetable seedlings that are germinating so it ain’t that bad.
All the gardening books tell you to be aware of late frosts, they also tell you that runner beans seeds don’t like sitting in cold soils and “for god’s sake don’t put out your tomato plants out early as they’ll suffer if it gets cold” but we still do it (we’ve a couple of tomato seedlings in the ground at the moment we’re ashamed to say.) It goes like this, we see a period of lovely sunshine so the hoe is taken out from its winter hiding place and then it’s all systems go after that. We don’t think this lockdown has helped in holding back either.
Talking of lockdowns, there’s a new gardening-related game developing here. At least once a week on our (very) regular visits to the compost heap a gloved hand will be thrust into the mass of rotting vegetables, old ripped up leccy bills and single tea bags to “feel the heat”. That’s not normal behaviour is it? Early signs of “lockdown lunacy” perhaps?
The big lockdown’s a lot better when the sun’s out, but it was cold and grey today in SE23 so spirits were dampened. It don’t look that better tomorrow so any gardening jobs will have to wait. Saying that, the single teabags and the odd banana skin still have to be taken down the compost heap one by one so we still can pick out the odd weed by hand on the way back up to the house, so gardening won’t stop, it’ll just be on a slower scale!
Even though there’s no frost predicted here, the spuds and the other early vegetable seedlings are safe and warm under the Blue Peter type cold-frame constructions and the few dahlia tubers we put in (far too early) this week are covered with the plastic mini-cloche type things we found in the street a long while ago.
Here’s a picture of happy gardening climes earlier this week before the sun went away and the below is a lovely bit of dub from Camille Murray called Find Your Way To Love which will be featured on the “Radio connects us all” mix to be broadcast on shortwave on Free Radio Skybird on Sunday April 26th at 1100UTC via Channel 292. Don’t let the lockdown get you down too much, it will end just as you are getting used to it.
Weeds up to me knees 