Last week while visiting our garden pond we noticed the absence of the many goldfish that usually frequent it and tonight we discovered why. Look just near the top of the picture left of centre; we reckon that grey bodied, long necked Heron may have something to do with it! R.I.P. the goldfish procured from Lewisham pet shop.
Good Night and Good Riddance (How Thirty-Five years of John Peel Helped to Shape Modern Life) – David Cavanagh – Faber & Faber 2016
Here’s a good book that we had to take out of Shoe Lane Library the other day and it was the following passage that helped in the decision: “The Desperate Bicycles, from London, make one or two false moves on their single ‘Smokescreen’, which sounds like a busker fumbling his way through ‘Give Peace a Chance’ while a pub pianist thumps away in the background.” A good read indeed if you remember the great man Peel!
A massive thanks to the DJ and dread gardener Don Letts for playing Jazzmin Tutum & (Weeds up to me knees’ very own) Madtone’s – I once saw the revolutionary in you as part of his “Best of 2016” special in January on BBC Radio 6. The show features Damian Marley, C Duncan and The Frightnrs and a whole lot more! The Jazzmin & Madtone tune is at 1.02.42. Big thanks Don!
Still on the compost tip, here’s a good site that’ll give you some guidance what to add and what not to add to the heap. More information here.
Here’s 900 words from us at Weeds for “a forthcoming project”. When it comes to composting, in the words of the Desperate Bicycles, it was easy, it was cheap. GO AND DO IT!
One of the best things you can do as a gardener – especially one on a budget – is to make your own compost and, contrary to popular belief, it’s easy to do. It’s an inexpensive way of putting goodness back into your garden, especially if you don’t regularly feed your soil.
It is one of the finest soil improvers there is; it can be forked in, left on top of the earth for the worms to work in or even made into a tea and applied as a liquid. Adding compost provides a slow-release supply of nutrients and elements, feeding plants over a long period of time. It adds structure to the soil, helps to retain its moisture and feeds the worms and micro-organisms, keeping the ground in good shape. A great exchange for recycling some home waste.
Some gardeners seem to be put off making compost, thinking it will smell to high heaven, attract all sort of vermin or fear they will be left with a pile of garden waste that will never rot. I was one of those people but have been converted to compost production after learning the hard way; I’ve opened the lid of the bin to receive a faceful of fruit flies (always open the lid away from you!), came face to face with a rather large roadent happily napping on top of the heap and have only recently disposed of my first attempt that had been sitting around for years consisting of sticks and prunings wider than the thickness of my finger.
When you compost, fungi and aerobic bacteria initially eat the waste matter in the pile – the carbon and nitrogen content a source of their energy and protein – creating carbon dioxide and heat. When the pile cools, worms – alongside varying insects – reduce it further by eating what is left and pass it through their guts. Soil organisms then break it down again and ripen the material turning it into compost.
There are lots of structures on the market for composting but many are not an option for a gardener doing it on the cheap, though local councils supply plastic Dalek-shaped bins free as part of their recycling campaigns. These keep the rotting waste in and unwanted vermin out but because of their size can be difficult to mix (something you should do regularly to add air, a component needed in the process).
A composting container can be made out of wood – the classic square-shaped enclosure with a top to shield off the rain – or although not aesthetically pleasing, the waste can be just left to rot in a pile (which will probably not please the neighbours). Whatever method you use, it should be placed somewhere easy to get to, possibly screened from view and preferably in a position where it will get some sunlight which will add heat to the pile helping it to rot. In an ideal situation you would have two (or more) bins on the go, one started the year previously now yielding compost and the other for putting recent waste in.
The ingredients used in composting are “greens” (ones containing nitrogen) and “browns” (carbon) combined with water and air. Examples of “greens” include: grass clippings (applied sparingly as they turn to a smelly mush if used too thickly), plant waste (no flowering weeds or diseased material) and kitchen waste (vegetable peelings, ripped-open teabags and over-ripe fruit). The “browns”: cardboard, ripped or scrunched-up newspaper and small twigs (nothing larger than 1/4” unless put through a shredder). Cooked foods, fats and meats should be avoided at all costs unless you want to attract vermin and be very wary of putting salad leaves from left-over meals if meat has been on the same plate too. This is possibly where I went wrong which attracted the sleeping visitor to my pile thus giving me a fright in the process so be extra careful with what you add. No matter how prudent I am though when filling the bin I still manage to find when the compost has matured some strange stuff: the odd ballpoint pen, elastic band and on one ocassion a plastic Dr Who sonic screwdriver, usually prompting me to say “How did THAT get in there?”
Most important is to get the balance of ingredients right. It does vary depending on what gardening books you read or which gardening guru you follow but a 50/50 ratio of “greens” and “browns” will suffice. You simply add layers of material – ideally alternating “greens” and “browns” – one to two inches deep, interspersed with a light layer of soil every so often. Turning the pile regularly using a garden fork makes sure that it doesn’t get compacted and that air can circulate freely. If the compost looks too wet, smells foul or attracts fruit flies this indicates there’s too much “green” material, so more “browns” should be added. If the pile has dried out – especially during the summer – more “green” material and a little water will correct it. Worms should come naturally to your heap – especially the red brandling ones – but if you want to add more, lay down some wet cardboard in your garden and in a week you should have a few on the underside to put in the pile. Don’t worry they will multiply!
Depending on how much heat is generated in the heap and how balanced the materials are, you should be the proud owner of home-made compost in around a year. If you want to speed up the process there are compost activators – basically extra nitrogen – on sale at garden centres, but this can be done for free by adding nettle, comfrey and borage leaves which will in turn add more varied nutrients to the finished product. Another activator is human urine, best applied out of a plastic bottle for obvious reasons.
You will know when your compost has fully matured when it has a crumbly texture, an earthy smell and looks as described in an old gardening book,“rich like a Christmas fruit cake”. This pile of gardening goodness is now ready to be applied to your soil.
There’ll be times when things won’t seem to go right with your compost heap but once you get it correct and see the results you get from using it, you won’t want to look back. Your garden will thank you for it in kind and you will soon be growing the healthiest looking flowers, fruit and vegetables and will never yearn for pay-through-the-nose-farmers-market-produce ever again. You will then realise why home-made compost is known in the gardening world as “black gold”.
#Composting #Blackgold #Compostheap #weedsupto #compostingtheeasyway
Life is all about what’s in the mix and the above is what we recently found after clearing out our compost bin of its organic matter. There’s some surprises: a sonic screwdriver (for God’s sake), a silver teaspoon and a plastic bag with some Caesar Salad mix in it! It’s frightening as we think we’re really careful of what we put in the heap.
As for our latest bit of listening pleasure: the Rhythm Doctor’s audio mix for FatCat records (above), there’s no unwanted rubbish in there! Listen out for the following!
A package arrived yesterday; a few bulblets of one of lifes great intergalactic mysteries. As you know we love a plant that’s a bit “out there,” so we love the weird and wonderful world of the Egyptian Walking Onion (above) and especially the site below, link here. 
As it says on the website “The ancient Egyptians worshipped onions. They believed that its spherical shape and concentric rings symbolized eternal life. Small onions were found in the eye sockets of Ramesses IV…
The name “Walking Onion” was given to this plant because it literally walks to new locations. When the cluster of topsets becomes heavy enough, it will pull the plant over to the ground. These plants can walk between 1 and 3 feet per year!” We’ve never tried eating them but with a plant that looks as strange as that, why would you want to spoil the fun?
Big shout to Rob from Yesmate a great music sharing platform for mixes and playlists (Mixcloud, Soundcloud, Youtube, Spotify, etc). You’ll definitely find something to keep you happy never mind what genre you’re into. We’ve been listening since the weekend to some fine mixes including the great Blundetto, Mixmaster Morris and Jon More. Log on…
And they’re off! It’s now officially spring, the forced rhubarb and a lonely crocus under the black plastic bucket out the back (above) are showing signs of life and the tomato seeds have started to germinate indoors (below). All we need now is some dry days and then we can start to prepare for the forthcoming months!
And to get you all in the mood for the forthcoming season here’s some tunes …
Here’s a review by us here at weeds (for “an associated writing project” as they say) of the excellent Japan Sound Portrait – Indication 1.1 (Bamboo USB Stick). Definitely go and have a look at Neil Cantwell and Nick Luscombe’s Japan Sound Portrait here.
Just before Christmas I received a gift from a friend at work: a credit card-sized bamboo USB stick containing just under an hour of sound emanating from or influenced by the island of Japan. It is a tactile article – one of only 100 produced – with simple red and black graphics cleanly executed on the surface of the polished light wood, while the USB device can be folded away into its bamboo casing, making it almost undetectable. What makes this artefact more interesting is that field recordings – audio recorded outside of a conventional recording studio – are used in the making of the sound collage.
This is the work of The Japan Sound Portrait who are creating a “crowd-sourced portrait of Japan in sound” in the run up to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. In a promotional tour of the country in 2015 the founders of the project, film producer Neil Cantwell and DJ Nick Luscombe, asked people throughout Japan to send them their favourite sounds to use in future recordings. I’m not sure who were asked or what the system of choosing the sounds were, but given the wide range of content it must have been a democratic one.
Indication 1.1 starts with what sounds like ceremonial bells or even a village clock, then segues into some chilled hip-hop beats which sample the chimes. It then builds as more layers are added – woodwind instruments of varying pitch, a metal gong of the sort that could be used to start a Sumo contest, unusual sounding chants – and ends with someone beat-boxing. This opening track gives a hint of the cultural and emotional breadth of the rest of the collage’s content.
As the soundscape unravels, a variety of samples are seamlessly blended into the mix: audio which straddles ancient and modern Japan. These include: monks chanting, traditional instruments, and the sound of various household appliances. There are also short musical interludes which fade in and out alongside tracks of Japanese folk music, downtempo hip-hop and upbeat electronica.
There’s a sample from a Shinto (an ethnic religion that focuses on rituals to connect present day Japan and the past) tatemae or “roof-raising” ceremony to pray for safety while a building is under construction and to thank the craftspeople for their labour. Money and sweets are thrown from the dwelling to awaiting happy children.
The movement of the whole piece can change from one mood to another quite rapidly, which is not a bad thing: from the Get Carter-esque instrumental which uses a sample of a click of a telephone handset being replaced, to a double bass-led track with lush orchestral strings overlaid with the sound of seagulls and later on a more abstract sounding tune composed by Verity Lane played on a 17 string Bass Koto (Japanese Harp) which is strummed and plucked (and possibly its body and strings hit with a drumstick).
There are no track listings but an email from Japan Sound Portrait gave some pointers “…Laurent Fintoni, interwoven pieces from Shinekosei’s Juel Suite…” but not knowing all the artists mentioned, I can’t identify many of the individual parts. I do though recognise the “Sharp Ag-ion coat washing machine” at 35 minutes in and if I’m not mistaken it also appears sampled as a bassline earlier on. But where is the sound of the “UFO catcher” also mentioned in the Sound Portrait’s email?
One thing that strikes me with Indication 1.1 is that yes it is predominately an instrumental piece, yet with the use of the found sounds vocals are not needed nor are they missed. The more you are exposed to it, the more you discover what you might not have noticed on previous airings: traffic on a country road, a child laughing and the sound of a gaming machine spilling out its winnings. There’s also fun to be had trying to guess what the other sounds that you don’t recognise could actually be.
The packaging of Indication 1.1 is an attraction and also hearing that future releases from the project will include a music player in the form of a Japanese lunchbox and music files embedded onto clothing. But this isn’t a case of form over function, as the range of high-quality music/sound textures compiled testifies. All in all this is a great release, the downside being that I now have to find an equally interesting gift for my work-mate next Christmas and it may require some thought.
Weeds up to me knees 