A big congrats to Si and all the team at The Dirt for winning the award for the “best non-music show” on Fab Radio International. Great stuff!
This week’s show is up online here and features lots on cheese from the team, Gentleman Gardener Geoff and blog of the week is Fromage Homage.
Our contribution to the show this week Sounds From The South is at 22.24 (with yours truly on the blower introducing it) with a story from my council gardening days about spring bulbs. Tune of the week is The Mexicano with Move Up Starsky. The Mexicano aka Rudy Grant, is the brother of one Eddie Grant who is a bit of a keen gardener so I hear.
Thanks to Mick Matthews of The Cambridge Self Sufficiency Group for getting in touch again with news of their next annual potato day and seed swap and it’s sounds good. It might seem a long way off but it’s just the other side of Christmas. It’s at TheCommemoration Hall, Huntingdon High Street, Huntingdon PE29 3AQ on Saturday 17th January 2015 from 11am to 3pm and it’s free so if you’re around those parts go and have a gander!
They’ll have 50 plus varieties of potatoes all at £1.00 a kilo and with added onion sets and shallots, craft stand and refreshments and even children’s activities as well to keep the little ones happy while you swap your seeds. Cheers for that Mick. Best of luck!
Talking of seeds swaps, I’ve had a look for the next date of the London potato day as a couple of years ago I went when it was held in Sydenham Girls School not far from here, it was a quid or so to get in and they had a great seed swap area too. It now looks like it’s now part of the RHS Plant and Potato event on the 20th/21st February 2015 at Lindley Hall, Westminster. It’s free if you’re a member of the RHS but I am sure it was a fiver last year if you weren’t, and I am not sure there’s even a seed swop there.
Me, I’ll be on the look out for the smaller seed swaps like the great one I went to in Hither Green earlier this year, organised by Lewisham Gardens and Golighty Gardens. It was free, they had loads of seeds to choose from and it wasn’t the usual stingy “one for one” swap either and it was in a pub with nice people on a Sunday evening, what more do you want? Seed swaps I love them!
***UPDATE***Watch out for a seed swap in the Catford/Forest Hill area in February 2015! We will bring you more details as and when…
Listen to the podcast of this week’s episode of The Dirt on Fab Radio International here.
There’s some great things on the show this week including lots of talk of about Beetroot, the first of a brand new feature “blog of the week” with Agents of Field, Sounds From The South (at 26.02 mins in) is about why Beetroot is my favourite vegetable (tune of the week is Big Youth – Some like it Dread) and Amie Sagar interviews the person on the street about the shocking pictures of the new killer Robin that has now settled in the UK ready to cause aggravation! Get orf me bird bath! Ta to The Dirt for letting us reproduce the shocking photo’s they obtained here!
Tune in to The Dirt on Radio Fab International tomorrow night from 7-9pm for “a gardening programme like no other.” Our contribution to the this week’s show, Sounds From The South is about my favourite vegetable. Listen live here. Beet that!
A quick reminder of the event we’re hosting tomorrow night (Friday 7th November) at LimeWharf, Vyner Street, London E2 9DJ. It’s a free session of Reggae, Disco, Soul and Funk with The Rhythm Doctor,One Deck Pete and Hayereyah on the mike. The night starts at 6pm and goes on till 9pm and it’s FREE! How good is that?
There’s a new day and time slot for The Dirt on Radio Fab International from today. Tune in every Monday night from 7-9pm here for “a gardening programme like no other.” Tonight’s show featured some great tips on compost by Geoff Garrad (including rip up your tea bags before putting them in the heap or they’ll never rot), sausages and calories in alcohol amongst other things.
Our contribution to the show this week is also about composting. I had so many failures with my early heaps I went on a great “composting in the city” course (taught by our good friend Scarlett) and I’ve imparted a couple of things I learnt that day.
SFTS is 20.55 minutes into the podcast which is available here and on iTunes. Record of the week is from Dillinger with the track called Ragnampizer. Keep on rotting y’all!
I popped into Shannon’s yesterday and treated myself to some onion sets and garlic to overwinter in the garden and I bought one of these bulbs. I can’t remember what the flower actually is but I know it will grow into a 6 foot monster. Not bad for £7 odd. I will update you when it sprouts! Mad is not the word and very halloween.
Dubmatix – Celebrate my love (featuring Jay Douglas) – Victor Rice Dub
Here’s a brilliant dub by Victor Rice of a track by Dubmatix I had no idea about until I heard it on the brilliant Addis Pablo live at Kingston’s Dub Club 3hr mix on youtube which we featured in a post a few weeks ago here.
And below is the vocal version which is great too, the both of them from a few years ago but still sounding very fresh! Two tunes that will blast any stubborn mould clinging onto the inside of your greenhouse windows!
Dubmatix – Celebrate my love (featuring Jay Douglas)
A big thanks to Fliss who produced the great Gardeners Delight fanzine for sending us some pics of her new allotment in deepest South London.
I asked her for some before and after shots but as she says “as it’s such a huge plot it is hard to capture in a definitive before and after way! It was literally covered in hip-high weeds at the start, in early May (above). I must admit some of them got up to neck height before I could tackle them, too!” I understand 100% and looking at the pics here, you’ve done loads of work on the plot and it shows!
And below are the results of her hard work plus some grapes and tomatoes which she received as gifts from other plot holders. Great stuff!Fliss picked two corkers of tunes to accompany her pics. The first being Desmond Dekker with “Beautiful and Dangerous” as an ode to the many and interesting bites, stings, scratches and scrapes she got into along the way.
And the very excellent “Young wings can fly” from Johnny and the Attractions which she dedicates to “the mighty rose chafer beetle that alarmed me when it flew so noisily above me when gardening. A new discovery on me, those things, they’re very weird!”
By the way Gardeners Delight Issue 1 is still available and well worth buying (it would suit beginners and anyone interested in growing veg and fruit) and Fliss is still producing more fanzines which is admirable in this day and age what with online blogs etc.
There’s a recipe fanzine called “Eat Y’self Fitter” inspired by songs from The Fall, Tambourine Dream (great name!) all about Brian Jonestown Massacre and The All Thrills, No Frills Music Bill which has features on record shops, strange vinyl and an interview with Robyn Hitchcock, which sounds well up my street! All these are available on her Etsy page here.
Thanks again to Fliss for the great pics of her allotment and If you want find out more about her plot and how it’s progressing alongside other interesting stuff have a look at her great blog here.
Sounds from The South13 – Nightmare in New Cross Our contribution to The Dirt this week is a true halloween tale set deep in South London. Tune of the week is from the The Wailers with Fire, Fire. This is the last show on a Sunday night when The Dirt moves to it’s new spot on a Monday, same time, same channel. Keep it locked!
Have a listen on play again here and Sounds from The South is 7.30 minutes in. Cheers again to Si, Ricky and Paul!
A big thanks to Fliss who produced the great 
Weeds up to me knees 