Where have all the flowers gone?

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On Saturday morning while we were out and about on our travels we were told of an interesting garden in development around the back of a charity shop.

When we got to the said plot we were greeted with some nice raised beds surrounded by walls with a wooden frame and wire mesh that were covered in numerous empty plant pots all connected up to a clever irrigation system. Even the gate to get in had pots on the back of it, talk about vertical veg and not wasting any space!

No idea what they may be growing but we wonder if it’s micro-greens on a commercial basis. We did see some fruit bushes ready to go in too. Whoever is taking over this garden is taking it very seriously.

Also this weekend we had a right of mixture of weather. It was gorgeous yesterday with the sun out most of the day but today it was a few degrees colder and we even had a bit of drizzle. As it’s still cold at night we have a variety of different kinds of plant protection from jam jars, the tops of propagators and plastic mini-cloches plonked over some tomato and pepper seedlings. (Above) the mini veg patch at the bottom of the garden with the frost protection and the plastic mushroom bought from a bric-a-brac stall at a summer festival which is placed over a cut off washing line pole. Keep an eye on the temperatures at night as we’re still not out of the doldrums yet!

It’s the little things in life

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We took a walk in the garden this morning to check on everything especially stuff that was undercover in old jam jars and home made cloches as it’s been quite cold the last couple of nights. By the way if you ever need a last frost estimator you can check here but it’s only a guide. We do it the old fashioned way and check the weather forecast.

On the inspection we saw that the Egyptian Walking Onions were bursting into life and it looks like there’s a start of some topsets forming (above).

And these (above) are the first of the Mashua that has come up too which we got from the seed swap a few weeks ago. These Nasturtium type plants have edible tubers if you get the right conditions which we’ll doubt we’ll have in SE23 but who knows, stranger things have happened.

You win some you lose some

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This oddity was found on a garden wall today whilst on a post work walk, a bag of seed spuds that had shoots all over and were well past their sell by date. Can seed potatoes be “over chitted”? Who knows but they weren’t binned. They went into the ground just in case we may get some life out of them. We’ll keep you posted on the outcome. What have we got to lose?

Say hello and wade goodbye

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Big thanks to CatfaceMcMeowMeow for recommending this great tune from Mike L called Wade in the water. We’ve never heard of this before and it’s a bit of a chilled out cracker for a Friday night. Cheers for that as we’re always up for musical recommendations here at Weeds.

And talking of garden pond related tunes here’s a couple here. Any more garden pond/water feature tunes are welcomed, just pop them in the comments.


And talking of ponds, here’s a nice pic of our pal Gerry Hectic‘s water feature that is looking great! Talk about clear water! Pics of garden ponds are welcomed here too.

UPDATE: CatfaceMcMeowMeow has just sent us details of a mix from Mike L and it’s free to download. Thanks for that as it’s a great mix!

Shortwave bargains, bargains, bargains

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On Sunday 10th April 2022 at 11pm UK time (10pm UTC) on WRMI on 9395 kHz is the first of a set of transmissions called KBIN if you want to hear something a bit different this weekend. Expect several mixes including some for KMRT and WGTR (Golden Throats Radio).  If you haven’t a shortwave radio use an online software defined radio like this one here and tune into 9395 kHz on the dial. There’s even 50% off for the first 50 listeners so get in early!

Have a look here for some previous programmes from the imaginary stations crew, and if you like a bit of dub…

Wade in the water

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We hope you had a good Easter and all is well in the garden now that the good weather is upon us. We’d still advise to take it easy putting tender plants outdoors as you never know what the weather will be like and it’s still only April. We’ve been hardening off the veg plants (pic below) by sticking them outdoors for most of the day to get them used to what it’s like out there in the real world.

The pond (top pic) has really woken up now with some frolicking frogs, the odd newt and goldfish sharing the space. The Lewisham pet shop bought water lily is starting to sprout and we welcome a new addition to the pond, some bare rooted stuck Watermint procured off ebay in an old chimney pot which was elsewhere and now submerged in its rightful place (above).

And we’ve gone right off the idea of the Dalek type compost bin as the old fashioned wood version is doing well and giving off some warmth from the grass clippings after a good old weekly mix using a garden fork.

And while we were writing this post we’ve been listening to the latest This is a music show as recorded by @DazDude4000. It’s a lot better quality this week. Enjoy the Bank Holiday!

Hearing horns on shortwave radio

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Tune into those magic shortwaves tonight Sunday 10th April 2022 at 11pm UK time (10pm UTC) for KDUB vs Radio Clarion via the power of WRMI (the same radio station that broadcasts the mighty This is a music show) on 9395 kHz if you want to hear some horns and dub this weekend. If you haven’t a shortwave radio use an online software defined radio like this one here and tune into 9395 kHz on the dial.

At about 18 mins into the broadcast will be One Deck Pete‘s “Horns and dub on shortwave” mix featuring tracks from Burning Spear, Skin Flesh & Bone/Revolutionaries, King Tubby and more. Tune in and dub out!

Pictures of Lily?

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We could be totally wrong here but the other day we found this shoot coming up (above) and would like to think it was the beginnings of a long dissapeared Foxtail Lilly. We had one of the plants in the area a few years ago but after a late frost it was never seen again.

It may be more likely a dahlia that we forgot to take out in the autumn but then again we hope it’s not, as those Foxtail Lilies (aka Eremurus) are something else! The pic below is the crown of said plant next to a 50p to show how mad the plant is even before it grows, thanks to Shannon’s for sending us this pic years ago.

Well whatever it is, it and all of the potato shoots that have come up early have now jam jars and cloches over them as we’re due another couple of frosty mornings so we’ll be told. We will keep you posted!

Getting over it

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We’ve been out of the game over the last week and a bit due to catching the dreaded lurgy. We haven’t been able to do that much in the garden but look forward to being out there again once we feel a bit better and the great weather from last week returns.

Thanks to our good friend Justin Patrick Moore for reminding us of this Japanese ambient classic above from Haruomi Hosono – Talking. It’s a whole 15 minutes with a repeating motif not unlike a shortwave Interval Signal. Wonderful.

And talking of Interval Signals here’s a track we haven’t posted up in a while which is a favourite of ours from from Holland’s Rephazer. If you love a bit of ambient combined with some shortwave radio malarkey, you can’t go wrong here.

 

And here’s another one in a chilled out vein the very tripped out Green from Hiroshi Yoshimura. Here’s to getting back to some sort of health normality very soon.

Spring may have sprung

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One great thing we love with this gardening lark is the passing on of surplus seeds from one gardener to another. This week we received a little package off a gardening friend with some interesting seeds and stuff that we’ve never grown before (Cheers again Ruth!)

Firstly there was a small envelope with some Amaranth seeds (more on them here) which we’ll be sowing in a sunny area in the garden as they like that. Also in a brown bag was a climber called Mashua which we’ve never heard of before, turns out it’s climbing Nasturtium with deep orange-red trumpet flowers with edible tubers and the young leaves can be eaten in a salad. You learn something every day, especially in gardening!

The other bag contained some Jerusalem Artichokes (aka Sunchoke), we read it’s not like the globe variety but a kind of sunflower with an edible tuber. We’ve also learnt they can spread like wildfire but we will be giving them a go. We’ll keep you posted on how we get on with everything above. Any tips appreciated!

And on the shortwave radio tomorrow evening at 10pm UK time is a repeat of a transmission of a while back of KSOL which features a mix from One Deck Pete called “A bit of sunshine and soul” which feature tunes by Jackie Lee & Delores Hall, Cat Stevens, George McCrae, Carl Bean and Love Unlimited. If you haven’t a shortwave radio you can tune in here.