RIP the great Striker Lee

Posted on October 8, 2020 by onedeckpete

Yesterday we were very saddened to hear of the passing of the great Jamaican producer/arranger and vibes man Bunny Striker Lee. Watch the above at 2.15 minutes and onwards to see the great man in action with some brill dance moves!

And here’s a Bunny Lee produced classic with some versions that’s been played at the Weeds HQ many many times.

And below is another top tune produced by the great man which will be given an airing on the “Weeds up to me knees dub mix” on Jesse Yuen‘s excellent North of the River Swan show from 4pm-6pm on RMT.FM Radio Thamesmead this Sunday coming.

RIP the great Bunny Striker Lee! You will be sorely missed but your tunes will live on and on!

Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, ripen I cry

Posted on October 5, 2020 by onedeckpete

We’ve been reading on twitter that people have started to pull up their tomatoes as the plants are on their way out. Perhaps it’s because we’re in the south of the UK our tomatoes are still looking semi-healthy and we may possibly get a few more days out of them.

Well we hope so as we need the fruits to ripen. The ones above in the raised beds are still going. The banana skin on the plant trick didn’t work to ripen them, so let’s just keep our fingers crossed for a couple of days of sun!

The one-off plum tomato plant above is looking great and we reckon we may go for these again next year but they need to ripen.

The self seeded cherry tomato at the bottom of the garden is still growing like crazy too and there’s fruits a go-go!

Please sunshine can you show your face for a few more days or it’s chutney or fried green tomatoes for us here at Weeds HQ!

Dubbing is a must

Posted on October 4, 2020 by onedeckpete

Next Sunday 11th October 2020 One Deck Pete will be presenting an hour’s “Weeds up to me knees dub mix” on Jesse Yuen‘s excellent North of the River Swan (a show featuring music of the downtempo, dub and bass variety) show from 4pm-6pm on RMT.FM Radio Thamesmead. Pete’s mix will commence around 5pm and to tune in click here. Expect dub of the old and new. Here’s the last show from July below to give you a sample of the top tunes played.

And this excellent tune from Tyler Ov Gaia called A Portal into another world will be thrown into pete’s mix for go measure. Tune in next week!

Tales from the incinerator part 2

Posted on October 3, 2020 by onedeckpete

Thanks to our gardening mate Gerry Hectic for getting in touch and for letting us know about ALDI’s present gardening bargains, mini-roses at £1.79 each. The above is where Gerry put his two recent purchases into. It’s a herb infused incinerator with some coriander, parsley and is that basil or mint in there too? Inspired thinking we reckon!

It’s a great idea for a tall raised bed. We’ve an old incinerator that’s missing a bottom that could be put into action now. You could have a mixture of all sorts in a container like that, a potato plant in the middle, some tumbling tomatoes at the sides, herbs, some nasturtiums, the list is endless. A great idea Gerry!

And to accompany Gerry’s great idea here is a mad cover of Nina Simone‘s African Mailman by The Rhythmagic Orchestra which will be featured on the next special Free Radio Skybird mailbag later this month. What a tune!

We bought some seeds on ebay over the week, some coriander and basil to top up the pots on the kitchen windowsill so we have a little supply over the winter. Also we’re partial to a cup of chamomile tea so purchased some chamomile seeds too for sowing outdoors next year. It’s never to early to start planning!

Non-action and cherry tomatoes

Posted on September 25, 2020 by onedeckpete

We love growing tomatoes here as you know and we usually strictly adhere to staking the plants up with wire ties to a bamboo cane, taking out any sideshoots and of course stopping the plants (by nipping out the top of the plant) after 4 or 5 trusses.

Well we usually do, but we had a self-seeded tomato plant at the bottom of the garden and we just left it to it’s own devices. It’s gone absolutely mad, it’s swamped out any weeds growing in the small corner bed it’s in, spilled out onto the path and if you look closely there’s a few cherry toms forming. Ain’t it great what happens when you stay out of the way!
#Wuweiandcherrytomatoes

Two times on a Sunday on shortwave

Posted on September 20, 2020 by onedeckpete

Some news about the next transmission of DJ Frederick’s Free Radio Skybird on Sunday 27th September at 1100 UTC (12 Noon UK time) on 6070 kHz shortwave via Channel 292 (and repeated the week after.) Next week’s show features DJ Frederick, Justin Patrick Moore’s Radiophonic Laboratory and Shane Quentin with more of that Radio Reflexology and our very own One Deck Pete with “Tunes to cheer you up” series. 49 metres on a Sunday afternoon is once again where it’s all at! If you haven’t got a suitable radio it can also be heard on the SDR link on their site here.

Also on Sunday 27th September 2020 (and repeated the week after) at 1800 UTC (7pm UK time) on 3955 kHz via Channel 292 is the final transmission of Radio Lavalamp for a while. The ultimate programme of the year will feature One Deck Pete with his The Purple Nucleus of Creation 003 mix. Tune in to “Your ethereal shortwave music station” on 3955 kHz or using this link here when the time is right! #Freeradioskybird #Radiolavalamp #shortwavesnotdead #Funwithashortwaveradio

Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think

Posted on September 20, 2020 by onedeckpete

We’ve just checked the weather forecast for the forthcoming week and it looks like this may be the last nice Sunday for a while as next Saturday the temperature falls to 14!

So get that mower, fancy trowel or those cool drinks out today and enjoy this fine weather. We’ll be “tipping around with a hoe” knocking off those weeds before it gets too hot! #classiclockdownweatherreturns

That music’s lost its taste, so try another flavour

Posted on September 19, 2020 by onedeckpete

Big thanks to our music/gardening/radio friend across the pond Justin Patrick Moore for sending us another example of horticulturally inspired (plant) music.

It’s by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and the bandcamp set is called Cows will eat the weeds. The weeds/herbs include Milk Thistle, Rabbit Brush and Yarrow amongst a few more. Investigate her bandcamp as it’s worth “having a butchers at” as the market traders say.

This set is from the grand old year of 2012 and the music is of the chilled experimental variety that we love here and is a album well worth delving into if you love that kind of stuff too. Our favourite is Wild Rose at the moment and we can see that changing! Electronica and plants do mix!

A new episode of Location, location, location (for the worms)

Posted on September 16, 2020 by onedeckpete

The compost heap was looking great yesterday with handfuls of brandling worms jumping about when we looked in (most falling off the bin’s lid we reckon as I don’t think our worms have learned how to fly just yet!) It was a sight for sore eyes seeing them and also feeling the heat, for the first few weeks after we started it was stone cold and wormless.

After a good old fork over this is what the heap looked like (above), a nice old mixture! It’s good to mix alll the micro organisms, bacteria and insects up and give them a change of scenery and the air you create helps too!

Those plastic dalek bins are a bit of a pain compared to those nice old square wooden ones when it comes to turning with a garden fork as the knuckles do tend to get caught on the lip at the top of a dalek. That’s something we’ve got to put up with at the moment until we rethink the bin.

Also the wormery which originally took a while to get going looked healthy yesterday (above) when we opened it up (AKA took the bin bag with the ventilation holes in it off the top). We tend to forget about putting stuff into it sometimes which is a crime but suprisingly it’s looking great. You can see the odd bit of just added teabag and a few bits of potato peel, that’s called guilt that is! #compostinginlockdown

No, we’re not going mad!

Posted on September 15, 2020 by onedeckpete

A couple of photographs taken yesterday to demonstrate the “stranger side” of the hobby. The first (above) is an experiment at the Weeds HQ using the old “bananas let off ethylene gas which ripens tomatoes quicker” trick on one the plants in the raised beds. Instead of a whole one we could only find a banana skin (someone had ate the last banana!) That’s better than nothing ain’t it? The neighbours will question our sanity but what’s new? Will it work or won’t it? We’ll keep you posted.

And yesterday we noticed this great collection of (lost?) gardening gloves on one of the gates of One Tree Hill Allotments. We do love a gardening glove here but we’re also wondering what is the real reason for this dadaesque artwork? Suggestions on a postcard please. #lockdownlunacy