Tune in to this Sunday’s David Rodigan’s 1 Xtra radio show for a special with the great Lee “Scratch” Perry. Last week Rodigan mentioned that the show will be bonkers, Rodigan will be selecting while the Upsetter interjects vocally as if “in the dance.” Tune in live on Sunday night at 7pm or play again here.
Spring has well sprung and today it’s looks like it’s sprung a blimmin’ leak as it was tipping it down most of the day here. The Egyptian Walking Onions are starting to form topsets, boy what a mad plant that is! Mine was originally obtained from Shannon’s a year or so ago and the plant below is off one of the top-sets which I didn’t give away.
I grow it as I love how bonkers the plant grows rather than to eat it. If anyone fancies growing some, let us know later in the year and I’ll gladly pass on a couple of seed onions (for the price of a stamped addressed envelope, remember those things?) 
All of the plant is edible and here’s what it says about that on egyptianonion.com; “Egyptian Walking Onions taste just like a regular onion, only with a bit more pizzazz! Small onions form at the base in the soil. They can be eaten and prepared just like any other onion. The hollow greens may be chopped to eat like chives or green onions. They are excellent when fried, cooked in soups, or raw in salads. The topsets are excellent when peeled and fried.”
Also I’ve been noticing how mad the Comfrey has grown (it’s to the right of the Red Hot Poker above and swamping the Lupin!), the one above came from a root given to us from our good friend Scarlett and it’s nearly five foot now! If you rip off some leaves every now an again and let them rot in a bucket with a small bit of water for a couple of months you get some great liquid plant food. Putrid is not the word to describe the smell of the stuff while it is fermenting, it smells ten times as worse as it looks (and it looks pretty bad to say the least!)
Thanks to Steve Barker and the On The Wire Crew for these two half term specials played on last week’s show:
Prince Buster’s All-Stars – Idi Amin – Prince Buster
A tough horns led 1970’s instrumental with a nice dub to boot!
Two tunes to play loud on the i-pod while walking around the back garden in the dark with a torch looking for those pesky slugs and snails.
There are many things in life that are eternal…love, family, kids…good friends…songs you write and Jah music. Reggae has and will always be. It has an eternal flame. It is not a fantasy, passing fad or illusion to paraphrase a line from a big tune from MC Charlie Chaplin. Reggae is with you for the long haul because it is a music that can reset the mindset, a sound that can turn your world perspective upside down and bring an inner peace. I feel this happens because Reggae is the heart beat. Its a life line…There are however some other things in my life that are older than my love for Reggae. I have been sharing this life with a cactus from about the age of 8. It has travelled with me through different stages, places and countries.
During childhood, my neighbour in Walthamstow, dear Mr. Golding, introduced me to this cactus with Australian roots. I am not sure how it ended up in East London but the cutting he gave me thrived well in a pot filled with half soil and half sand. As a student, cactus came with me to Essex University, where my studies in Sociology and Government were also enhanced by a fledgling education in Reggae music selection. Tunes this cactus heard. Wheel and come again selector!
After Essex I moved back to London flat sharing with mates, Alister and Skev in Hackney. A nice bright spot in the kitchen by the window was it’s home for another 8 years. I then moved from place to place, East London to Haringey Green Lanes and the prickly friend came with me every time. Ironic during all these decades, its stunted growth, always being in pots, enduring those heavy winters, the cactus never bloomed.
1992-3 was a good time for me musically. I’d set up my own label, Kebab Kulture Music and several 12″ singles of mine became hits in Cyprus. During that time I came and went to the island of Aphrodite 12 times until I finally decided to repatriate, return to the land of my birth and yes you guessed it, the cactus came with me, as a small-ish cutting in my shoulder bag.
The Mediterranean climate is conducive to cactii. We have our own prickly pear, ‘baboutsosiko’ variety, which has an unusual if not acquired taste as a fruit. These grow throughout the island like weeds. When we bought our first house in 1998 I decided it was time for cactus to be planted in the garden, in the earth, to live and be free. This was also the first time the plant managed those characteristic orange flowers. What a sight!
Cactus however took over like the Triffids on heat. Within three years half the garden was green and very prickly. What a ting! I had to cut it though, as everything else was suffocating – being taken over.
Something like 27 bin bags were filled with cuttings and disposed of. It felt sad in a way so I kept a large cutting in a big pot. Every year it still blooms and is so beautiful…I asked one of my kids recently, what came first Reggae or the Cactus. And of course they replied Reggae…and I answered amusingly….Cactus…Well, for me at least….
A big thanks to Haji Mike from the beautiful island of Cyprus for this piece and a shout to Dr Strangedub for starting off this dub gardeners around the world series! Remember you don’t have to like dub to send us your pics. Gardeners around the world with all musical tastes are welcomed!
The Allotment Almanac – Terry Walton – Bantam Press
Here’s a brilliant book I got out of the library the other week. It’s by Terry Walton, a long standing organic gardener (who gives out advice in various magazines and radio programmes including BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show) and the book documents a year on his allotment which is located in the Rhondda Valley, Wales.
There’s tons of advice (chitting broad beans in an airing cupboard, how good is that?), tales from the plot (the social life and what goes on around the site; “In Albie’s Cafe, celebrating with a brew”), he’s got a bang on attitude (“The motto of a dedicated allotmenteer is ‘never buy what can be reused or borrowed and where spending is necessary, use your money wisely and the harvest will be both plentiful and rich'”) and stands up for us people who use the biodynamic approach (“Never mind which method of gardening you choose, however odd it seems: it’s the results and successes that count. If it works for you, why change?”) Too right Terry!
Also includes writings on wormeries, composting, raised beds, greenhouse gardening and lots more in an organic style. A must-have for the shoestring gardener and allotment holder, from beginner to experienced. Around £12-£15 to buy new and well worth it!
Another tune from the Tuff Scout Camp, this time from Dionne Reid with “She Can’t Dub” the B side of the “She can’t” single. Loosely based on the classic Bob Andy “Unchained” rhythm (a corker of a track too), this has “summer tune” written all over it. Big shout to all at Tuff Scout for releasing it and to the Rt Hon David Rodigan for playing it on his show.
I don’t know much about garden ponds but we discovered we had one after I got rid of a lot of nettles and brambles around the bottom of the garden one afternoon after we moved in. A few weeks later I cleared out 12 years of rotting leaves and gunge out of it which went straight onto the flower beds.
After cleaning the pond out I stuck a tarpaulin over it to stop water getting in, and was going to fill it in with soil a few months later. In that time, water filled up (how did that happen?) and taking the tarp up one day saw it was home to thousands of tadpoles! I couldn’t fill it in after that, could I?
It’s taken a few years to get sorted and because it costs a few bob to get electricity down the garden, there’s no fountain or flowing water to keep it fresh so it’s dependent on the oxygenating plants in there and the odd regular clean-out by yours truly. I also usually put a net over it in the autumn to stop the leaves getting in and that’s about all for maintenance.
It was looking well ropey a few months ago (above) so I bought a couple of bokashi mud balls off ebay for a few quid (no, I didn’t know what they were either before getting them.)
The pond is starting to look a bit better, you can even see the goldfish now (below) There’s also frogs, who love the slugs and snails in the garden (one of them is chilling out in the top RH corner of pic below), a couple of minnows and the odd newt. Not bad for something we didn’t even realise we had when we moved in. Expense is minimal, all plants were off ebay or from the garden centre/pet shop (and they multiply like billy-ho), the fish were cheap and the only cost now is the fish food which is a couple of quid a month. The only drawback is you have to watch out that you don’t get bitten by those pesky midges in the summer!
King Mas – Reflection – Royal Order Music
A tune and a half from King Mas on a rhythm played to death by David “Ram Jam” Rodigan over the last few weeks released by Royal Order Music. Roots and culture with some electronic sequencer business going on and a lyrical message. One to put on while flicking through the seed box, deliberating over what you’re going to be putting in over the weekend.
Thanks to Lewisham Gardens for letting us know about more free seeds! These are available from M&G to celebrate their sponsorship of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The kindly people there are giving away a collection of 11 different herb seed varieties, how good is that?
Fill in the form here and you’ll get your ‘erb selection within 10 days they promise. Get your application in while stocks last etc.
Weeds up to me knees 