Soldier, sailor, tinker, council gardener

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cheap and cheerful coldframe

This week has been a lot better on the weather front. Last Sunday I “tipped around” in the back, stuck in the last of the seed potatoes (5″ deep just to avoid any future frosts!), weeding and generally tinkering around and also sowed indoors some different varieties of basil (cinnamon, lemon and also lime, great eh?). I also moved some cabbage and sweet pea seedlings off the kitchen windowsill into the mini cold frame which will start them off on the hardening off journey. I take the window frame off during the warmer days and put it over at night so they slowly will get accustomed to the outside climate.

abucketfulofworms

Tonight I checked the bucket that the comfrey liquid has been fermenting in for the past few months at the bottom of the garden. I think it’s now time to bottle it up as there’s maggots in there now! That’s not right is it? Or are they like the maggot at the bottom of the Tequila bottle, I reckon I should stick them on the garden to see if they work wonders like the Tequila worm is supposed to (it’s never worked for me!).

Also was listening to the great podcast that is BBC Leeds’ “Gardening with Tim and Joe” and they mentioned they were recently featured in the top 5 gardening podcasts in The Guardian online.  That Joe Maiden certainly knows his onions (and his leeks, daffs, roses, rhubarb etc). Always worth a listen and top tips galore, all for a free download. Can’t be bad!

Spring, why haven’t you sprung yet?

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Dub Chairman in the placeDub Chairman – Soldier (Citadel Records) 2004
Big up to Terry C for playing this on last week’s Echo Beach, a lovely tune from yesteryear reminding me of the best bits of the Thievery Corporation put through the blender with the sound of an ice cream van. Come on Spring where are you, mate? Click here to listen to the tune while pondering when it’s going to get warmer.

Music to watch snow by

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Nice barnet my friendI looked out the window this morning and what did I see? Snow. Talk about bonkers in the weather department, and it was only earlier this week I was planting seed potatoes in the sunshine. Funnily enough yesterday I was told in my local garden centre (shannons) that after the weekend the weather will pick up, I do hope so. Until then here’s a great mix from our good mate Rhythm Doctor which has been on replay here for the last week. An eclectic selection to say the least (From Lee Perry, Christian Prommer and Nina Simone and back again) and a mix of top quality. Here’s to the better weather! Click here for the mix.

Nowt to do with David Mancuso’s one

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No 1. In a occasional series. Club Disobey Beermat

big up the bee!

Here’s the first in the series of artifacts which are festering alongside bad quality punk bootlegs, 1980’s reggae soundtapes and balearic mix tapes oxidising in boxes in my loft (or found between two 12″ singles like this one was) seeing as I couldn’t get out in the garden today. Man, it was like a different world temperature-wise compared to yesterday. I found it hard to go out to the shops let alone do any gardening.

Club Disobey was a top club in the mid to late 90’s sometimes held upstairs at the Garage in Highbury & Islington where DJ Beekeeper (Bruce Gilbert from Wire who has been known to DJ at other clubs inside a replica of his own garden shed) would play his bonkers selection (which might include the sound of fireworks amongst other daft things) and on one occasion where Richard D. James plugged in his Argos smoothie maker and Wickes power drill to compliment his DJ set. Giveaways were of the regular kind and here’s one of them, a lovely Bee themed beermat. Big up the Bee, gardening wouldn’t be the same without you!

Half term something come back again

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Yesterday was a bit of a blinder weather-wise. There was a thick frost during the early hours of the morning but in the afternoon it was well nice and even got slightly warm!  I’m off for the half term so I got the old flymo out and did the lawn, forgetting to go around the remains of an old bush in the middle of the grass thus mangling the metal blade of the mower in the process. It was nothing that could be sorted with a slight modification with a pair of pliers!

chitted potatoes and moody catI’ve been warming up a bed for the past few days (where spuds are going to go) using some horticultural fleece and yesterday took the massive risk of putting in a small handful of seed potatoes and sticking the fleece back over, anchoring it down with bricks and stones as you know it’ll be cold again. I only put in about 6 so if they fail it will be only 90p wasted (they were 15p each at the great seed swap/spud event in Sydenham) but they are buried in about 3″ of pre-warmed soil and have fleece over the top of them so fingers crossed!

when the chits are downI also stuck one of the already chitted seed potatoes (the end with the nice green tips go skywards up!) in a large sack covering the tips of the chits with about an inch or so of compost and will keep adding more once they start growing. I put the sack in the homemade cloche/mini cold frame where it’s in the company of two seed trays of cabbage seedlings. The sack could’ve be started off in a conservatory or a porch keeping them out of way of the mad spring weather so give them a good start before moving them outside in a couple of months when the weathers better. More half term gardening reports to come…

Daddy, what did you do in the punk/rave wars?

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steroid abuse london club flyerLast weekend I uploaded some Steroid Abuse flyers and my old fanzine Ded Yampy from many moons ago to the blog so they’re up on the web for prosperity. Have a butchers at “Fanzines, flyers and flymo’s” and also the updated “The man and his music”. Roll on the good weather so I can get out in the garden or the next posts will feature the contents of my loft!

Almost there, yeah yeah

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I saw a council worker giving a lawn it’s first cut of the year on Friday. Alright, it was tipping it down and he was wearing a balaclava, thick wooly gloves, a cossack’s hat and had a big coat on but he was cutting grass all the same. I reckon spring has nearly sprung!

The fountain of all knowledgeThe other day I was chatting to a maintenance chap at work who told us a great tip, he uses empty containers from office water fountain as cloches. All he does is saws the bottom (the wider end) off and then sticks them over his tomatoes and potatoes thus giving them an early start. How good is that?

Now if you are sensitive to plant container-abuse please look away now.

Plastic fantastic

The above is a very shocking example, the smart looking container in the NCP car park in Covent Garden which was looking well neglected anyway now has some plastic plants hoofed in it. How crap is that? Gardeners in that area if you have some spare plants free, you know where you can stick a few. Plastic fantastic? I don’t think so!

2 pound of herb iyaNow finally on a brighter note, is news of an excellent seed offer passed onto us by our good mate Paul Walker (nice one Paul!). A herb or salad leaf seed bundle for £2, brilliant. In the salad leaf bundle you get 14 packs of seeds, growing bag and book and in the herb and vegetable one, 11 packs with the bag and book. The herb one has a few different varieties of Basil including Lemon, Lime, Sweet Genovese and Cinnamon. Looks well worth it! Click here for the offer. I think you can have one of each per household. Big up the spring and cheap seeds!

The way I walk is just the way I walk

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There’s a brill offer at Shannon’s Garden Centre in Forest Hill at the moment, they’re doing five herb plants for a fiver, that’s good isn’t it? It’s a great place, well stocked and the staff are always eager to help.

walk the walkI was around there as soon as I found out about the offer and for my fiver I got a Mint (I needed some leaves for a kebab recipe that afternoon and there was none in our garden, far too cold!), Coriander, Lavender, Rosemary and the very odd Tree Onion (aka Egyptian Onion.) If you’re around the Forest Hill locality and want to take up the offer click here for the form to claim your herbal discount!