Needs must and all that and some radio business

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The potato plants are outgrowing their protective covers as you can see. There’s lots of growth coming out of raised beds that have polythene on the top, there’s a small cloche balancing on top of one of the plants (that ain’t going to do much if a frost rears its ugly head) and there’s the newest addition of potato plant protection, a couple of those 99p bargain buckets from B&Q. They’ll do the trick, as long as they are off when the sun’s out!  #lockdowngardening #lockdownfrostfreegardening

And this Sunday 8th May at 1100 UTC there’s a new transmission from DJ Frederick’s Free Radio Skybird on 6070 kHz shortwave via Channel 292 and if you haven’t got a suitable radio it can also be heard on the SDR link on their site here.

This month’s programme will feature DJ Frederick, Justin Patrick Moore’s Radiophonic Laboratory, Radio Emma Toc World Service and our very own One Deck Pete with his Tunes to cheer you up at 28.32. Want an alternative to lockdown? Well tune in and turn on!

A mountain garden from across the pond

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You know we love seeing other people’s gardens and a friend of ours Thomas sent in some great pictures of his space atop a mountain in western North Carolina, USA and we love it!

His vegetable beds are at an early stage of growth he told us but they still look impressive, we love those logs! “We’re still not beyond our last frost date, so the veggie garden is still very young. Indeed, we even had a few snow flakes last night.” Being up in the mountains the garden is 2-3 weeks behind the valley below.

He said “Keep your expectations low, this is basic gardening”, wow keep them low, how can we do that with all that lovely scenery! Thomas mentioned “We go for what I call a “National Park” look. The sort of landscaping we find here at national/state parks: basic, using natural materials, and almost exclusively native plants.” 

Thomas’s space puts us in mind of Zdenko Franjic (DJ Zdena)‘s garden in Zagreb, Croatia another lovely spot which we covered a few years ago (more on Zdenko‘s garden here.)

Thomas also included a photo of his wood shed (above) “I’ve been spending an incredible amount of time this year sawing down trees and splitting wood. What’s in the shed is a fraction of it. Kind of back-breaking, but somehow satisfying at the end of a day.” What a lovely looking wood shed. We live in a place called Forest Hill but sadly there’s no wood-chopping done around these parts but if there were, we’d want a wood shed like that.

“We have made a few paths through the woods around our house this year, too. We do so not only to have more hiking trails, but it also makes it easier to see our flowering plants like Trilliums.” Thanks a million Thomas for sharing your inspiring outdoor space, it don’t half look magical!
We’re always up for seeing other people’s gardens, plants on windowsills or balcony spaces so please send us your pics and we’ll gladly post them up on Weeds.

Walk like an onion

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The sun actually came out again today and it was warm, making it an alright day in the lockdown stakes. We noticed that the Egyptian walking onions (above) are starting to form their topsets. We really love these odd onions especially once they start to form their bulbils and drop to the floor ready to start their way slowly around the garden (below from a few years ago). Have a look at the website here to learn more about these strange plants!And through the post today we received a couple of packs of seeds  off Ebay including another favourite of ours, night scented stock. The plant and its flowers are nothing to look at and you could be easily be forgiven to think they were a weed but if you have some of these plants around a opened back door on a warm summer’s evening the smell is something else. Give them a go!

And give this a go, a bonkers version of Green Onions for your listening pleasure.

(Hip) hop, don’t stop

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During yet another trip to the compost bin today we threw in a load of ripped up paper with another free bag of guinea pig compost making it one dry heap. A bucket of water was duly thrown on top to compensate and then something moved!

To you it may be just another compost heap but to us after six weeks of lockdown it’s another universe down there. #lockdowngardening #showingsymptomsoflockdownlunancy

Earthbeat, earthbeat

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Yesterday we had some well needed rain but the dullness in the sky didn’t help spirits indoors. It’s still a but cold today but the sun is peeking out every now and again and we’ve been doing the same but with a hoe, knocking off any weeds etc.

We’ve been noticing that the spuds are starting to show through now so whilst we had the hoe in our hands we started piling just a small amount of soil around the growing tips of the potatoes to protect them from a late frost. Later on in the growing season we’ll carry on with this mounding up (AKA “Earthing up” ) which prevents any of the spuds close to the surface going green. More on “Earthing up” here.

And the seed potatoes that are growing under the black membrane which was used for under the decking are coming through too (we won’t need to earth them up but a little bit of soil can be put over the growing tips as frost protection). And even though us lot in lockdown are a bit fed up with the rain, at least the garden and the fish are loving it! #pondsnotdead #lockdowngardening

There’s good jobs and bad jobs!

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Well we finished the big job of clearing the ivy off the front garden wall (there’s still a little bit on the top right hand-side but that’s covering part of the wall that’s fallen down) and getting rid of the weeds so we can start again from afresh. There’s still the odd bit of ivy root in the ground that when it starts to grow again will need knocking off with a hoe. Some parts of the ground were so hard we couldn’t get the garden fork in deep enough but on those bits we just ruffled the surface a bit. Once we have that bit of rain we’ve been promised this week it will hopefully look like it’s all been forked over well!

And a job we do hate is draining off the liquid from the bucket which houses the brewing comfrey liquid. To say it smells is an understatement. And for God’s sake don’t even get any of the stuff (even if it’s been diluted) on your gardening gloves or clothes.

More on making your own excellent (but stinky) comfrey plant feed here. Comfrey is a must-have in the garden as it’s great for the bees and for plant food! You’ll have to be careful though, as the plant has a tendency to take over if you don’t regularly check it.

Radio connects us all, don’t it?

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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!

B is for borage, L is for lockdown

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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

Forget what we said about seed tapes

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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.

Essential lockdown shortwave listening

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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.