Uses for broken brick walls and lemon scented suprises

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We took the plunge yesterday and stuck a couple of tomato plants out after a bit of hardening off over the last couple of weeks. Don’t worry, they will be protected even if the protection is a little on the basic side. This high-tech contraception features a plastic top off a seed tray and a couple of bricks from what was the side of the front wall. If you remember, one job in lockdown was to clear years of ivy off said wall. As soon as the Ivy was taken off, parts of the wall crumbled. Another gardening lesson learnt.

Also, we had a nice surprise this week when we saw some new growth on our Lemon Verbena (above) that we moved the other month, as we thought it was a goner in its former position. The leaves make a lovely refreshing cup of tea and there’s a nice scent when you brush against it. It’s worth getting one. Thanks to Haji MIke a few years ago (here) telling us about Lemon Verbena

Weather looks great this weekend again, so happy gardening whatever you’re doing if it’s tidying out your shed or putting one foot on your garden fork and staring into space (like we did at the council).

Radio Freedom

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Typically we finished a shortwave mix and just after it was sent off, we found another one we could have used while looking for something completely different. This one is from many years ago from Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry vs The Moody Boyz called International Broadcaster (feat. Roots Manuva & LSK). “Adjust your treble, get rid of the trouble.”

Wild wild wild youth

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Cheers to Mike and Julia from near Coventry for the picture of some wild garlic growing in their village. “Free stuff from nature!” as they said. That is one brilliant clump of it (above).

We bought some bulbs off ebay a few years ago after we spotted some on a camping trip in Cornwall and didn’t really know that much about it but thought it looked like an interesting plant. It still comes up every year around by the pond.

Anyone got any good recipes for using it? Mike and Julia mentioned they’ve used it in mango chicken and lamb kebabs, sometimes sprinkled on meatballs and have made garlic butter and garlic bread with it. We’ve found a couple on BBC Food here but we’d be interested if anyone out there knows more uses for cooking with it. Sounds great. Ta for the pic Mike and Julia!

Radio time machine

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Cheers to Karl S for passing on this flyer for a gig in the early 1980’s at Coventry’s premier punk venue The Hand and Heart. We were shocked to learn at the end of the gig a giant fight kicked off. A “ruck” at a gig in Coventry in the early 1980’s? We don’t believe it! Ta for sending us the flyer Karl.

Today we also picked up a repress of the original version of “Jah Heavy Load” by Ijahman Levi. It’s a “must have” reggae tune that a while ago would put you back the cost of a family weekly shop. It was first heard on this show below with John Lydon with Robin Valk on BRMB Radio in Birmingham many many moons ago. The version below is recorded in mono off the medium wave complete with distant stations fading in and out in the background. Radio connects us all.

What, sunshine in April? Never

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It’s like this every year, you’re waiting for spring to happen and then next thing you’ve got a load of plants to harden off (above). We’ve got some giant sunflowers that are over a foot high now and tomatoes, sweet peas and some chillies we were given over the weekend alongside the geranium cuttings from Honor Oak Park station. It’s only just turned April too!

Also, in the bed down the bottom we started lots of seeds off. The rocket can be seen taking off underneath small branches used to keep the cats and foxes off. The seeds were only put in the other day, or it seemed like it! Hope all goes well on the sowing front your side and the nice weather keeps on keeping on. Keep checking those last frosts dates and do remember nature plays by its own rules sometimes.

 

Tree surgeons know where to cut a tree, arborists know why

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We were listening to The Rhythm Doctor’s Waiting Room yesterday on IDA Radio, Tallinn here and alongside some great music as usual there were a couple of tracks with a connection to the great Junior Vasquez played.

The Rhythm Doc mentioned that he actually visited the Sound Factory and even went into the legendary DJ booth come studio/kitchen/living room/potting shed etc (we tried to replicate said booth at one of our Steroid Abuse nights many moons ago but failed.)

What is brilliant is we have now (thanks to RD’s research) tracked down Junior’s new career and it looks like he’s a tree surgeon. We also saw on the small print (below) that “If it’s not on the list just ask we might do it” whish looks like he may have changed his policy when it came to playing requests. “Can you play one for my Aunty Maureen who’s in hospital with an ingrowing toenail. We hope she gets better soon”.

There’s a good chance it may be a namesake but we hope not! Imagine the stories he could tell you while he’s having a tea break.

More radio connections

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Big thanks to Kit G0JPS for sending these two radio related tracks. The first is (Paul Thorpe, recording as) Voodoo Trombone Quartet with a track called Medium Wave. Great fun stuff.

 

The next is (Paul Thorpe again under the moniker) Braces Tower with a shipping forecast tune called The General Synopsys.

That’s what is great about music, you think you know a bit and then you realise, “The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know” as the saying goes. Cheers Kit, two great tunes and we will do further research on Paul Thorpe as he sounds like an interesting fellow.

Radio connects us all, yet again

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Big thanks to Kit (G0JPS) for getting in touch recently and for sending us a picture of a couple of plants he rescued from a skip outside a house round the corner. We love the great poster of the shipping areas (as featured on the shipping forecast. More on The Shipping Forecast and its connection with Reggae here) behind it. As you all know we love a skip here as well and to find plants in one, even better! They look well healthy.

Kit also makes some great D’n’B, techno tinged, breaky type stuff as Spherix (bandcamp here) and a couple include a some radio samples in them too which is brilliant to hear.

Great to connect with you Kit and look forward to more music and gardening type photographs.

Add some compost, it works!

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Pic – Compost in a compost heap.
If you remember, we started some seeds off in some peat-free compost a while ago, they hung around for a couple of weeks and just withered away. Alan got in touch with us here at the time and mentioned he had the same problem so started mixing garden compost in with the peat-free stuff.
We’ve just heard from Alan again on how his seeds are going this year and it looks like the mixing of a small amount of home-made garden compost is working well. “Last year I had pretty poor germination despite soaking seeds and providing warmth as usual. This year the outcome so far has been night and day different” Here’s the rundown on how it’s going (bold is this year’s results).

“I wanted at least one aubergine plant – last year got none from my first
batch of seeds. Planted 3 seeds, 3 plants. Chillis – wanted one plant. 3 seeds, 3 plants (both pics above).

Cucumbers (above) – couldn’t get anything from seed last year so had to buy a plant
from the local nursery (it died, so bought another). Planted 5 seeds hoping
for 1 plant – 5 plants. Have one or two to give away to my daughter.

Tomatoes (above) – never normally a problem and again very good results, near 100%
germination.

Onions (above) very good results with near 100% germination (Weeds note: That is brilliant Alan, we’ve never done onions from seed before we don’t think or they’ve never been successful if we have).

Sweet peas – very poor last year with maybe 10% germination. This year about 50% germination. All are growing well and I water once a week. They’ll go into the polytunnel soon. The sweet peas (above) are only a small sample of what I have grown. The pots had 3 – 4 seeds each pot so one plant each is not too bad.

In terms of the process I don’t think I’ve done anything very different this year so I do suspect that the better moisture retention in the compost has helped germination by keeping the seeds moist while producing critical early roots. So as far as I am concerned I will stick to my mix – next up are my peas. Broad beans did well and they are in the ground now.”

Brilliant Alan, that is so good to hear.  Your seedlings are looking great and we reckon that tip of adding the home-made compost works. We noticed the same here compared to last year as well. We only added a smallish amount but it makes a difference. Cheers again Alan and do send us more pictures on how they do in the garden!

Seven seven inch singles selection

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One of the good things in life is looking through a pile of seven inch singles and not thinking too much about the tunes and putting together a mix (in the old days it would be on one of those cassette tape things). Below is a quick one put together this evening after looking through a couple of piles of records that haven’t been played for a while.

We were influenced by a post by The Rhythm Doctor on Facebook about a recent mix of his from 7” singles for MOJO Estonia and Sugar B‘s “supermix” show on Charisma FM 87.8 Mhz where all sorts of reggae singles are played in any order.

Here’s the first Seven seven inch singles selection in the pot and here’s the tracklisting:
Jah Cure – Longing for version/drop leaf rhythm
Alton Ellis & The Flames – Ain’t that loving you
Ras Ibuna/Village Bunch – Diverse Doctrine Version
Pablove Black – Chaunting Dread
Anthony B – Stop Fight
Jah Woosh – Shine Eye Gal Version Part 2
Yabby You/King Tubby’s – Chant Down babylon Version

We welcome other mixes and don’t worry too much about the genres just put them on and if they sound good…