Dub gardening from around the world

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Cheers to our good mate in Germany Phil Harmony for sending us these two pictures this morning of a suprise he got when he cut a tomato this morning for breakfast. We only found out through the magic of the internet that this is called Vivipary and “occurs in overripe fruit when seeds have reached maturity and the natural hormone, abscisic acid (ABA), is reduced.” Well you learn something new every day!

And also a pic from a while ago of what he found in his kitchen sink after coming back from a ten day holiday. Big up the guerilla pepper!

And cheers to another gardening/music friend of ours Dr Strangedub for playing Jazz’min & Madtone’s LP Livicate on the 2nd March’s Echo Chamber on KFAI (which is a show well worth tuning into every week!) and for playing One Deck Pete’s “Give a little whistle” mix (featuring tracks by Joakim, Marcel, Roscoe Wethers and Felix Laband) on the show to at 71.35 mins in. Big shout to Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss! Click here for the archive of recent shows.

Where have all the flowers gone?

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Tomorrow evening Wednesday 9th March 2022 at 5pm UK time there will be a transmission to Europe of The Scented Garden (a nod to gardeners and gardening music lovers everywhere) on 3955 kHz. If you haven’t a shortwave radio at 5pm tomorrow tune in here. After the broadcast the audio will be posted up here.

At the start of the programme is a 15 minute mix from Weeds’ own One Deck Pete called “A tribute to council gardeners everywhere” featuring tracks by Dudley Perkins,
Hugh Masekela, Beyond The Wizzard’s Sleeve and Dennis Brown. Expect some gardening related tunes, pruning advice and more. Onwards and upwards!

More stuff up our street

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A couple of local events happening soon which are well up our street so to speak. The first is the Open Day at Farmstead Road Community Garden which features a Seed Swap amongst other stuff. It’s on Saturday 12th March 2022 from 10-1pm at Farmstead Road Community Garden SE6 3EH.

And at Glengall Wharf Gardens SE16 6NF is a “playful, practical interactive workshop on Permaculture ethics and principles” which sounds good to us! It’s on various dates and more info is here. They’ve other good courses on there as well so have a look at what’s on offer here. As we keep saying, roll on spring!

Keep on keeping on

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We heard some great advice when we were out and about this week and it was a simple “Don’t give up”. Quite apt as we were going to put in some fresh seeds into one of the trays in the propagator in the kitchen windowsill next week as we thought the Cape Gooseberry seed sown in there was shot as the Peppers we planted at the same time now have their seed leaves and are looking good. Then this morning we spotted some action in the tray, patience that’s what gardening’s all about and sometimes we ain’t any!

And this morning we were looking for some fresh Tarragon leaves for a chicken recipe and couldn’t find any so we had a brainwave to pop into Shannon’s and get a live plant. It may be small but give it time…

Coming soon!

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Last Sunday we visited the Seed Swap at Glengall Wharf Garden, Peckham SE15 6NF. It was a lovely morning and we picked up a great assortment of seeds including some Texsel Greens (Ethiopian Mustard), some nice tomato varieties and lots of poppy seeds.

We do love a seed swap here at Weeds and just found out about another (above) at Hither Green on Sunday 13th March 2022 from 11am-1pm at Springbank Road Community Garden (thanks to @LewishamGardens on twitter for letting us know!)

Also coming soon is the transmission of The Scented Garden (a nod to flowers and gardeners and also John Peel’s Perfumed Garden show) on Wednesday 9th March 2022 at 1700 utc on 3955 kHz which features at the start of the transmission One Deck Pete‘s “A tribute to council gardeners everywhere” mix. Tune in here.And whilst we’re on the subject of music, here’s a great tune from Islam Chipsy & Eek called El Dynasor. It’s certainly a lively number and one to get those hips a swaying.

Big props for keeping up the fence!

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Cheers to Gerry Hectic for giving us an update a few hours ago on the Fence versus Storm Eunace battle. We love the barbell arrangement and the whole thing looks like it may have worked. We love a bit of garden inventiveness here at Weeds!

We here meanwhile thought it would be a good idea to go out and try to pick up the wheelie bins that had fell over mid-storm until we got a bit spooked out by the speed of the wind so shut the front door. Then we thought to ourselves “What’s the point, the bins will only go for a burton again” so they’re still strewn across the drive.

The storm seems to have quietened down now but we can still hear the wind howling and we’ve even had the odd sharp shower of halestones over the last few hours. What a day!

Relatively safe from the madness outside we’re seeing a bit of movement on the couple of seed trays we’ve got in the propagator on the kitchen windowsill (Jalapeno’s and Cape Gooseberries.) It’s taken a good couple of weeks for the seeds to germinate but we must remember it’s still technically the winter. It shouldn’t be long till spring!

And an apt record from Incognito with a wonderful mix from Carl Craig from many years ago.

Some Balearica to slow down Storm Eunice

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Thanks to our good friend Justin Patrick Moore for sending over his recommendation of this lovely Balearic inspired Stages of Time EP by Coyote. There’s some nice stuff on the EP including the very individually sounding The Igigi Gods Dub but the best one for us is another one with a reggaeish vibe Look For The Way In which is a very chilled affair, something we need at the moment what with all the Storm Eunice warnings. We heard a warning over the radio to firmly secure any trampolines in the back garden, it may be a good idea. See you the other side and batten down the hatches!

 

Walk on

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The Egyptian Walking Onions arrived this morning and now have gone into the ground post-Storm Dudley and pre-Storm Eunice. The plants were well packaged and arrived in a well healthy condition and we even got a bonus sprouting lower bulb as well.

A couple were put in the raised beds which have a top made out of a wooden frame with some plastic over the top. The other one was put into a tub with a glass jar pushed in the compost a good bit for protection. Even though the plants are well hardy we’re taking no chances. We’ll keep you posted on these horticultural oddities! #egyptianwalkingonions

Who even listens to shortwave anymore?

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Big thanks to Stuart and all at Cities and Memory for their Shortwave Transmissions project that is released today, what is World Radio Day 2022. Cities and Memory teamed up with The Shortwave Radio Archive (Cheers Thomas!) with some rare recordings from the history of shortwave radio from all over the globe to remix. The excellent compilation on their bandcamp site here features some of the great compositions received including a favourite of ours from Grey Frequency called Chimes (Rai Internazionale).

Big shout to our good friend on the other side of the world Paul Greenstein for his contribution to the project called Another Universe. Like he says on the C&M site “Like the narrators, I have a fondness for all things space, astrophysics and the big questions like: is the Universe going to end, what are black holes, and why does Surf Guitar sound dangerous?”

And to our gardening/music/shortwave mate across the pond, Justin Patrick Moore for his track Squatters and unwanted insects of the Malayan Revolution.

And here’s one from our own correspondents Jazz’min Tutum & Madtone with LP Livicate dedicated to the late great Upsetter.

Listen to all of the project here. The top player is the original sample and the one below it is the remix.

And also here’s Stuart talking about the project and playing some stuff from it on Resonance FM earlier today. #worldradioday #shortwavesnotdead