News of a great seed swap this Sunday 13th May at Springbank Road Community Garden, Hither Green SE13 6SS. It’s free and from 11am-1pm, bring whatever you fancy swapping (seeds, plants, seedlings) and if you don’t have anything to bring to the seed swap table so to speak you’ll be welcome too! #londonseedswap
Work in progress: the veg bed at the bottom of the garden from left to right, 2 rows of onions (red and white), seed potatoes, another row of onions (mixed) and three canes worth of french climbing beans and a heirloom pea called Tall Telephone (named after Alexander Graham Bell and one which grows well over 6ft!) Here’s to more good weather and veg progress!
In the new look Weeds garden these poppies (above) showed their heads over the bank holiday weekend. We sowed lots of them in the autumn and earlier this spring (alongside tons of night scented stock nearer the house) and here’s the first of them. They may be small but the flowers certainly pack a vibrant punch! Long live the poppy!
Big shout to Dr Strangedub & DJ Baby Swiss out of KFAI’s The Echo Chamber and Bruno out of Dan Dada Records for the latest instalment of Around The World in Dub (volumes 9 and 10) available free from the Dan Dada Bandcamp page here. Thanks a million to the crew for including Jazzmin & Madtones‘s Earth Citizen.
The free (we repeat FREE) compilation contains 35 cracking tunes of a dub wise or dub influenced nature from all around this planet of ours featuring Dubmatix with Earl Zero, Trevor “The Technician” McKenzie and The Last Boss & Dubby Doo and a lot lot more, all on a top quality tip! There is no excuse; download, chill out then dub out! #jazzminmadtone #earthcitizen
Big thanks to long-time friend The Rhythm Doctor for pointing us in the direction of this tune the other night, Hold Up Your Head by Errol Carter (aka “Flabba” Holt of the Roots Radics/Morwells) produced by the great Rupie Edwards. With a keyboard sound reminiscent of Unexpected Places by Hortense Ellis it’s a killer of a tune and on the B side a top dub called Tank Skank that the youtube here doesn’t do justice. The single is less than a fiver on discogs so hunt it down! We would like more dub showers on the stereo and less rain in the garden please (or could it rain in the night?).
We celebrated Record Store Day 2018 (supported by BBC Music) at Weeds by putting two coats of Cuprinol on a garden gate (supported by two ham sarnies, a posh sausage roll and copious cups of tea.)
The Scotch Bonnet crew did it in a far better style by releasing a belter of a tune using a vocal from the late great Bim Sherman (courtesy of Adrian Sherwood) over a hard rhythm built by Mungo’s Hi-Fi as you can hear! Already played on On The Wire and I can hear this going down a storm on KFAI’s Echo Chamber as well as many others. May Scotch Bonnet and Mungo’s keep putting out such fine music forever!
Big shout to our good friend Phil Harmony out of Berlin who’s made a start on his great balcony plot which we’ve featured a few times here on Weeds (one of a few posts here).
He’s got some chilli’s on the go from a nice little kit (above), a basil plant from last year, tomatoes, salad and trying some radish and sunflowers. Phil mentioned growing scarlett runner beans (aka feuerbohne or fire beans) on his balcony plot too. Good stuff!
And for this post Phil nominates this mix from Peter Kruder from a couple of years back.
Brilliant stuff Phil. Keep those progress reports and tunes coming!
Here’s an excellent piece of dubbed out proto-techno from 1984 (and as it says on youtube: “the first known recording to feature a Roland TR808 and TB303 in their now classic guise”) from the great Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti heard one morning this week on a breakfast show on NTS while at work. There is so much going on in this tune!
And a few records later this extremely odd tune (with an apt video too) from Der Plan “Hey Baby Hop” was played also from that golden year of 1984. We’re not sure if it’s good or bad but who cares. Two records from the past we should have known about at the time.
The visit from the Lewisham Heron got us all here at Weeds HQ on high alert so on Friday morning some new pea netting was slung over the top of the pond (not forgetting to raise some parts up so frogs and others can gain access), the solar-powered water fountain (procured last year for forty-odd quid) was taken out from “under the stairs” and some fish food administered. Everything now looks swimmingly well! Now all we need is for that blasted Heron to stay away.
It was a lovely day at Weeds HQ today; seeds were sown, pots were moved about and garden furniture was cleaned up for the hopefully forthcoming good weather. And then at 7.30 pm we were visited by the Lewisham Heron (have a look on top of the fence on the left hand side of the picture).
The pond had been netted over after its last visit (post here) so there was no chance it could get his/her beak in there and thanks to a couple of local crows who flew in and shoo-ed the Heron off after it did some sort of pre-dinner routine of bobbing up and down, the event ended with no goldfish being eaten.
This time the bird spared us. Fingers crossed there will be no next time!
Weeds up to me knees 