Wanderin’ DJ Zdena lost in the garden

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Zdenko_3A big shout to Zdenko Franjic (DJ Zdena) from Zagreb, Croatia for kindly sending us these pics of his great garden/orchard. Zdenko runs the Croatian alternative rock/blues/punk/indie label Slušaj Najglasnije! (Listen Loudest!) and distributes all sorts of books, comics and fanzines too.Zdenko_2Zdenko_1A few words from Zdenko: “My mamma left me a garden with an orchard. Then I met Nina (Varga) and we now spent our weekends there. We’re beginners in gardening but we’ve started to plant and now they’re growing. 

If that garden was good enough for my mamma, it’s good enough for us…”Zdenko_4Zdenko_5We just want to say here at weeds it’s a fine garden/orchard and best of luck with it as it looks like a special space! There’s some nice raised beds there too!Zdenko_6More on the massive output of the Listen Loudest label here and here. Ta to Zdenko for words and the Clarence Reid tune and Nina Varga for the pics.Zdenko_7Thanks also to Zdenko for his mix of Madtone‘s Dark Dread off The Sound Robbers From Outer Space CD from 2007.

Songs to sow seeds to

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Here’s a very apt tune from Akcept out of Christchurch, New Zealand with a nice and chilled dub called Springtime Stepper. The weather isn’t that spring-like here at the moment, we’ve had cold winds, sleet, rain and frosts of late and it’s more like winter!

As it’s nearly the end of the month this is more like a guide of what to sow late april/early may and it all depends on this mad weather anyway. My spuds are coming through the ground now but still have fleece on the top of them and probably will have for a couple of weeks or so. If you are going to risk sowing outside, sow under protection with some fleece, jam jars or a cloches or wait until the weather heats up later this month.

So it’s nearly time to sow those french, runner and broad beans (do wait as beans hate sitting around in cold wet soil) and peas. Also carrots, beetroot, leeks, radishes, turnips can go in and you can start sticking in your parsley, coriander, swiss chard, salads, lettuce, rocket & leaf beet.

To be on the safe side sow indoors: brassicas, french, runner and broad beans, all types of pea, sweetcorn, courgettes, squashes, cucumbers and melons.

May the weather be with you!

Even the air is dizzy, earthbeat

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Bestival weekly

A big thanks to Rob Da Bank for playing the latest tune from Jazzmin & Madtone called “Earth Citizen” 5 minutes into this imaginary soundtrack mix for Bestival Weekly on Soho Radio this week. The mix also includes Tim Hecker, The Kramford Look, Kidkanevil, Solar Bears, Ohal and Loose Meat and it’s great stuff!

If all goes to plan the tune will be released on a compilation on the Swedish label The Sublunar Society later this year. Crank it up!

Why watching Countryfile is the new rock n roll

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It’s been a very emotional day today as a compost trench was dug earlier this morning. The reason was that over the last fortnight there’s been three sightings (while kitchen peelings were being deposited to our dalek type compost bin) of a very large rodent helping him/her self to the heap.It turns out it was getting in through the crudely cut flap at the front.

compost trenchToday the bin was cleared out of it’s rotting vegetation and dug deep into a trench at the bottom of the garden which will benefit some squash/pumpkin plants in the forthcoming months. The plastic dalek bin will be sawn up next week and thrown into the recycling bin.

rat_large_resize

Big shout to our good mates Marc and Maz for standing by as emotional support and for holding the camera just in case said rodent showed his/her face and the footage of a grown man running up the garden in fear might get us all £250 on “You’ve been framed.” Needless to say no rodent was found and all nerves were left intact.Monster VegAlso today we just found some daft gardening-related pieces in the Steroid Abuse Spring Fayre fanzine from 2003 (seems like yesterday). Big shout to all involved and Lord Anthony B for the collaboration on the fanzine – We salute you all!

No salutations to the Forest Hill Super Rat though.

Allotments are

derrick may recipe

I’m waiting for the (weather) man

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Waiting for the weather to turnWhat’s going on with that weather at the moment? One day you’re in the garden with your jumper off, the next indoors with the heating on. They’ve even talked about sleet and snow at the London Marathon tomorrow. Madness!

Well we aren’t taking any risks here at Weeds HQ (above) so there’s a array of tomato plants, a squash, a safflower plant and sweet peppers all being kept indoors until the risk of frost is passed. And look at that Mongolian Giant Sunflower in the centre go! Below: That will be us up that ladder in the summer if the advert for those giant sunflower seeds we bought on ebay for 80p is to be believed.massive sunflowersOut in the garden we’ve got some fleece over the spuds (after we earthed them up as extra protection) that are now coming through. Don’t be fooled by that bit of sunshine at the moment as it can still be nippy overnight but give it a few more weeks and all will be well! spuds under fleece and thingsSoon we’ll be able to put out those Dahlia tubers that are sitting in the corner of the back room that are starting to sweat in their packaging. Talking of Dahlias, have a butchers at The National Dahlia Collection here for a comprehensive list of said plant, there’s even varieties called Punky and Abba but why no Charlie Harper or John Peel?PunkySoundtrack to this post is this classic Babylon from Johnny Clarke that’s being played on last week’s Ross Allen’s Mi-Soul show on Mixcloud as we write. Tune!

Raised bed of the month

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Rauls raised bedsHere’s a new feature to weeds where we salute the humble raised bed!

This month’s collection comes from our good mate Raul S in Estonia who has an excellent weekly radio show called vibratsioon and releases music as Ajukaja amongst other things. Nice beds, a nice cutlass/pruning saw and two great tunes by the way!

If you fancy sending us a pic of your raised beds please email them to onedeckpete (at) gmail (dot) com and everyone who enters the feature will have their name put into a draw with the chance of winning a quality greenhouse* at the end of the year.

*Subject to availability

On a pritt stick tip

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An afternoon of zinesThanks to Fliss C for letting us know about the next fanzine related event at Putney Library, 5-7 Disraeli Road, Putney SW15 2DR on Saturday 7th May 2016 from 2-5pm.

They’ll welcome everyone who’s interested in fanzines especially people who are new to the subject too as they’re having a library for people to sample zines. Fliss herself is having an exhibition there celebrating her 20 years of my zine work. Brilliant stuff! More info here. She’s picked a very apt tune to accompany this piece.

And if you love all those old Punk fanzines take a look at the “Bored Teenagers” fanzine page (which features our old fanzine Ded Yampy alongside loads of others of that time.)

Bored teenagers

Vive la Prittstick, an old typewriter and a procured photocopier!