As you know I’m well impatient and I just HAD to pull up one of me early spud plants today (the tops had died down so they must be ready I thought) and do you know what, I could have waited a bit longer but this ain’t too bad a haul from one plant! Spuds for dinner tomorrow I reckon!
A top series of tunes on the “Hustling” rhythm from the Roots Garden label outta Brighton. A lovely set of tunes we think and our fave here is Cate Ferris’s “Blaze Bright” and the accompanying dub. Tune(s)!
Things have been a bit mad here the last couple of weeks as life has been conspiring against us (and trying to grind me down!) I’ve also got just over the shock of seeing the back of the house in Green rather than the dreary Grey undercoat that’s been on it for nearly 2 years as I finally got off my backside and got the paintbrush out. It’s about the same sort of time that the fence has been in a half-painted state too!
After months of nothing but bare bamboo canes (AKA “Pete’s Sweet Pea Tower!) the Sweet Peas are now giving it large. I think they are from some overwintered “perfumed mix” seeds I got off ebay for less than a couple of quid with P+P. It was looking a bit ropey in the spring so I popped some more seeds in and now it’s gone bonkers. I do like a sweet pea and so do the Bees it seems. The Sweet Williams are now out after a good years wait. I reckon it’s been worth it to see a bit of mad colour now. Here’s what the garden was looking like the other morning. The Plum tree is steaming on (see the specialised root watering device beside it aka an old grey bit of plastic pipe found in a skip) and in the lower left corner of the picture those mad egyptian onions which I got well cheap in the local garden centre.
The slugs have also been giving me gip as I’ve lost a few plants over the last few weeks. I was told by a gardening mate that there was a piece in The Telegraph a few years ago that mentioned making your own nematodes (microscopic eelworms than feed on slugs) (the recipe is here!) I’m all up for the DIY punk ethic and all that, what with the composting, the wormery in a bucket and Comfrey liquid but DIY nematodes, no thanks! The thought of collecting 20 odd slugs and keeping them rotting in a bucket is not my thing. I blame it on the time I stood on a slug once in my barefeet on the way to the loo early in the morning when we lived in a grotty bedsit in Clapham years ago. Have you ever tried getting that slime off? urghhh!
On a brighter note I was passing Victoria Embankment gardens the other morning and watched a council gardener in his cream jeans and bright yellow fred perry with the collars up (do they sound like gardening clothes to you?) doing press-ups while holding a trowel next to the flower bed while his mates were putting in annuals. Brilliant, don’t you just love those council gardeners!
Also I was told by another gardening mate that if you just lightly “wilt” Carrot Tops they are like Spinach. I have never heard that before. I know Joe Maiden from the brill Gardening with Tim and Joe was talking the other week about eating baby Beetroot leaves in a salad after doing some thinning out. They sound better than Carrot tops though! Big up the Summer (when it finally arrives and stays for more than two days).
Big up to me old mate Paul Clark who I bumped into one lunchtime last week after 30 odd years! Here’s a mention of his facebook group, “Last Gang in Town” which is worth joining if you love good tunes, no mater the genre. You’ll be in good musical company too! Nice one Paul!
Popped into our local Co-Op on Friday evening and saw a gardening magazine with free seeds on the front so I had to get it, anything free me! The July 2013 issue of Kitchen Garden costs £3.99 but it’s got two packs of seeds on the front (Beetroot-Bolthardy and Beet, Leaf – Bright Lights) and there’s some good articles in it (Bob Flowerdew has a spread in it, tips on how to grow Basil, perfect Peas and growing Oca, the New Zealand yam) so, it’s a bargain!
As I was only in work Monday and Tuesday, the only radio show I’ve been listening to this week was David Rodigan’s excellent one on BBC1 Xtra. He’s been playing some great tunes of late including this hard n moody instrumental of the great Judgement by Chronixx. Mad stuff indeed. Big up the great Roddy! Here’s the vocal:
Here you go, the first harvest of the year, broad beans that were put in last autumn. It’s something you can do with some vegetables (cabbages, garlic, onions, perpetual spinach to name but a few) but look for varieties for “overwintering” as it’s called. Can’t remember the variety these were but I know they cost us less than a couple of quid off ebay.
The beans germinated and put on a little bit of growth before the cold weather set in and then remained dormant until the spring. A couple of the plants did suffer a severe frost but seemed to carry on growing. One good thing with the beans being ready so early in the year is we’ve only a little bit of aphid attack on them which makes a change. I heard a tip on twitter that said pinch out the top of the plants when they get to a certain height as that helps repel aphids too. The pods can even be slung on the compost heap too! Great stuff!
Today we’ll be enjoying the above beans with our dinner, big up cheap gardening!
A lovely new redo of the classic “Sitting and Watching” rhythm from the great Sly and Robbie featuring the unmistakeable vocal skills of Beres Hammond and Shaggy. Tune!
Talk about a bonkers 24 hours. I rushed home from work last night to cut the grass in the front garden as that bright yellow round thing called the Sun was out. Could I find the key to the padlock to the garage where the flymo is housed (which is usually kept on top of the fridge) after much flapping? No. So no grass was cut last night.
The house was turned upside down today but still no key. This afternoon a pair of bolt cutters were tried to be procured after advice from a local locksmith and the fridge was scheduled to be moved tomorrow morning to see if they had fell behind it.
What is bonkers, in the last few minutes I’ve just put my hand in my back pocket of my jeans (that I’d been wearing all day) and guess what? The key to the garage is found!
A view of the garden tonight taken while having a cup of char watching the Bees working their way around the Foxgloves on the left. It’s all starting to kick off growth-wise now!
I was feeling a bit overwhelmed today as it’s been a busy old week but it was only while listening to Wilko Johnson being interviewed on Radio 4 who was sounding well chipper even though he’s terminally ill that put all my moaning into perspective! I’ve never been a massive fan of Dr Feelgood but did see them at the Lanchester Polytechnic in the late 1970’s. A bloke who was doing the sound that night told us the band were really late arriving and so drunk they were turned away by the door staff thinking they were a gang of cockney blokes on a stag-night. It was only when a fan who was in the queue told the bloke on the door “You can’t do that mate, they’re the band!” Brilliant!
A big shout to our good gardening friend Scarlett (who also writes the excellent Heavenly Healer blog), who sent us an excerpt from her “Attracting Beneficial Insects” factsheet which she has kindly let us reproduce here. The following list applies to Bees and other beneficial insects.
In general all insects love Sunflowers and Hollyhocks. Comfrey is great for the Bees (and for making liquid feed!) Monarda didyma, Linum, Agastache, Marjoram and Oregano, Astrantia, Thyme, Yarrow, Sage, Borage, Fuchsia, Geum, Cosmos, Poppy, Mallow, poached egg plant (Limnanthes douglasii) as well as climbing plants such as clematis and honeysuckle, are just a few examples in an exhaustive list.
Scarlett also let us know of a great exhibition currently at the V&A called From Club to Catwalk. Great stuff and great photo! Thanks for the list and the exhibition info. We’ll pop down over the summer for that. Talking of the summer, can we have the sunshine back?
A lovely tune heard on the excellent David Rodigan radio show on 1Xtra last week. It’s four minutes long but it don’t seem long enough!
Not to be confused with the following:
Whack the bass up for full effect!
Weeds up to me knees 