Back after a short break…

Posted on May 19, 2019 by onedeckpete

A big thanks goes out to DJ Phil Harmony in Berlin for playing (and for the kind words too) a couple of tracks off Jazzmin & Madtone’s “This Frequency E.P” on his excellent Dubnight Radioshow on Radio Blau. Another gardener of the dub variety (a few interesting past posts from Phil are here and here) he’s sent us some recent gardening pics of his pots on his balcony where there’s limited sunlight.

The first is of the herb Lovage. As Phil told us “I was very surprised when I cleaned my pots as I found the root in the soil with little sprouts so I let it sit and a few weeks later it came back to life! I love this herb for potato or other soups. We also call it Maggi herb”. Looks good, we’ve heard of it here before but never used it, perhaps we should!

And some spuds he started off this year, and they’re looking grand! He only had a smallish harvest last year (below) but as Phil says “the taste you get from your own harvest is not like anything you can buy, not even in the organic shops! Even if you only grow just one tomato it’s not comparable with anything from the supermarket!” and he’s right! Good luck with the spuds Phil! Keep sending us those pics.

Harvesting in harmony

Posted on August 27, 2015 by onedeckpete

Thanks to our good friend Phil Harmony of the Dubnight Radio Show out of Berlin for sending us this Greenhouse Classic. It’s a tune in a suitable vegetable growing vein from Israel Voice called Farm up the land. It’s a tune and a half and one for blaring out whilst out in the garden!

As well as DJing and producing some rather fine tune-age, Phil grows his own produce organically on his 2.5m x1.50m (approx) balcony outside his flat in Berlin (see last year’s post here). For a small space it’s great how much he grows which includes peppers, raspberries, strawberries beans, basil and tomatoes. Phil Harmony Balcony_1

Phil Harmony_balcony2

And a ginger plant started from a sprouting root from his kitchen, look at it now!

Thanks again Phil for the great greenhouse classic and the brill balcony gardening pics!

An allotment like no other

Posted on August 18, 2014 by onedeckpete

Phil_2 Looking on the web over the last few weeks, I discovered a great community gardening project in Berlin called Allmende Kontor. The collection of allotments, which are mostly in an experimental style, are housed on part of the disused Tempelhof Airport. Phil_1 And this is what I’ve managed to gleam image-wise about the place from the internet. There’s some really good “out there” stuff going on, I mean, look at this mad runner bean igloo (above.) Brilliant, you could even kip in there! Phil_4 If this was in the UK, the allotment committee would be well on your case and you’d be given your marching orders straight away I reckon, but look at the madness, it’s great!

Does anyone know anything more about the project? If so, we’d love to find out more! This site here has some great images from the project on it, it really is bonkers (in the best way possible!)

Or is there the equivalent of the above in the UK, if so we’d love to see pics of it too! Send your info about Allmende Kontor and/or photo’s of UK allotment madness to onedeckpete (at) gmail (dot) com.

***UPDATE*** We’ve just received an email from the folks at Allmende Kontor who told us that “the Igloo isn’t part of the Allmende-Garden and belongs to the Schillerkiez-Garten as there are three more garden projects around the area.” What, more mad gardening projects? Brilliant! More about Schillerkiez-Garten here.

Gardening in harmony

Posted on July 19, 2014 by onedeckpete

Thanks to Dr Strangedub for the link-up again in our “dub gardeners of the world unite” series which this time features Phil Harmony who produces the excellent dubnight radioshow from Berlin. If you’re into roots reggae it’s a great listen!

Phil’s got a great little balcony where he grows his edibles and has made a clever plant table on wheels to capture more of those rays from the sun! Here’s Phil with the words and pics.

My name is Phil Harmony and I’m the founder of dubnight radio show, DJ, music producer and someone who loves gardening. To watch my plants grow, it feels like I’m printing money and getting richer everyday. I love to go outside on my balcony in the morning (well, what I call morning!) and take a look at my plants and I’m always impressed by what’s happened overnight.

I got into gardening through my grandma and parents, who had a garden when I was young and we grew our own potatoes, salad, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, spices and berries. At school we also had a garden and had gardening lessons and I learnt at an early age that the taste of home grown vegetables were much better than the ones you buy in the shops.

Now living in a flat in Berlin, I grow my own produce on a balcony (2.5m x1.50m approx.) and try to live a life that is as harmless as possible to the environment so I grow organically because we have enough chemicals in our lives. This year I decided to grow my vegetables in pots on a mobile stand slightly off the ground which gives them more control on how much light they get (pic above from earlier this season) and a hopefully a little bit more protection from the snails because last year they ate most of my plants (grrr!)Using some wood which I had lying around, I made a stand and stuck some wheels on the bottom and now have something that I can now move to follow the sunlight because I only get usually get about an hour a day but my plants seem to be okay with it. All is growing pretty nice so far and I cant wait to eat my harvest! Above is the plant table now. Phil_Tomato I have yellow cocktail tomatoes which are starting to ripen and tomatoes on the vine, a pepper plant and the world’s hottest chilli (below: the snack chilli and it looks great!) worlds hottest chilli I also grow herbs, marjoram and French and Morroccan mint, the latter which the snails seem to love! Another favourite is Oregano, I tend to overwater it a bit and use it regularly, thats why most of it has gone! (We at weeds love those half circle concrete things in the ground that the herbs are in. If they are deep enough they’d be great to restrict the roots on say mint which tends to run riot once it gets started.) Phil_Oregano My Strawberries and Raspberries are in their first year so I’m not expecting much fruit but they’re looking healthy. Overall my soil could do with a bit more sand and sunlight, but the plants seem to live with it. The plants get regularly fed with a solution of stinging nettles which have been steeped in water and used coffee grounds added into the mix. Phil_Raspberries Cheers to Phil for showing us his gardening exploits, it’s a great looking space and shows that you can grow vegetables and fruit anywhere!