Have you ever seen a rubber plant pogo?

Posted on January 28, 2026 by onedeckpete

A big thanks to The Rhythm Doctor and Gerry Hectic who both told us this week about Brian d’Souza (AKA Auntie Flo) who makes music with plants. He says on his website: “I entered the world of biosonification which allowed me to listen to nature’s internal rhythms – analysing electrical biodata and converting it into sound information that in turn can be subtly manipulated and heard as a type of generative music. I created bioelectrical music for vertical farms, mycelium pavilions, mushroom dens and even Vinnie Jones’ vegetable patch!”

The above is a live ambient set on the My Analog Journal channel where he hooks a modular synth to the plants and combines the sounds harvested with some ambient tunes. We don’t know that much about his stuff but will research more on this artist as he sounds well up our street!

More on his Plants Can Dance project here. Thanks again to RD and Gerry Hectic for this.

Foxes on roofs and seeds in trays

Posted on January 17, 2026 by onedeckpete

It’s been a nice dry bright day today for a change and it hasn’t been too cold either. Earlier a fox came through the garden just as we were putting an old bucket over the clump of rhubarb shoots. It weren’t bothered with us and the intricacies of forcing rhubarb, rather in the roof of the shed a few doors down. There it stayed for a good few hours.

Thanks to our radio pal Justin Patrick Moore across the pond, who sent us a wonderful seed catalogue from the US from Farmacie Isolde that has many “out there” seeds on it. Even though you won’t be able to order from them (unless you are in the USA), it will give you some great ideas and you could source a seller over here. Download or browse here.

There’s so many we have never heard of before but the above and below are real suprises to us. We forwarded the catalogue onto our mate Gerry Hectic who enquired about “Flat of Egypt (300 seeds for $3,75) or some Bulls Blood? on Page 31″. Isn’t gardening great?
Anyone started any seeds off on this bright Saturday? Pictures and stories if you have. One deck pete at gee male dot com.

Gerry Hectic in another mix up style

Posted on October 4, 2025 by onedeckpete

Big shout to our good friend down south Gerry Hectic, for including a couple of Weeds up to me knees related tunes in a mix he’s done for the excellent Dubmission show called “I blame the coal board”. The show includes all sorts of great stuff on it and so much we’ve never heard before, so tune in. Wonderful mix Gerry, ta for including the tunes and hope all is well in the garden!

The pic above (of Gerry’s fence during a well windy period the other year) is quite apt what with the windy conditions we’re supposed to be experiencing later today.

Gerry Hectic’s “I Blame The Coal Board” Mix
Azimuth – The Tunnel [Late Night Tales]
Leo Chadburn – Move Like a Freight Train [Library of Nothing]
Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet – Beautiful People (Slow Version) [NoPaper]
Radio Halesowen Town – Commenetary Grimbsy Borough vs. Halesowen Town [FA Cup UTY, 13.09.25]
Madtone – Interval Signal Jazz (Blossoms Kitchen)
Farda P – Catfood Supachunka (‘Wolverhampton’ Edit)
Rockers Hi-Fi – Going Under [!K7]
One Deck & Popular – Enrico (Hay-eer-yah’s Harmonica Cut) [Black Country Route]
Session Victim – Behind The Glass [Delusions of Grandeur]
Kuniko Yamada – Tetsugaku Shiyo (Viens Philosopher) [Rush Hour]
Public Enemy – Fight The Power (Robot84 Jazztastic Edit) [Robot Edits]
Pittsburgh Track Authority – Slide (7am Mix) feat. Brandon Markell Holmes [In The Machine Age]
Jean Jaques Smoothie – 2People feat. Tara Busch & Rochenko (Dubwise Mix) [Colour & Pitch]
Biggabush – This River feat. Jackie Walters (Gerry Hectic’s River Stour Towpath Extension) [Tru Thoughts]
Lynyn – 4m Hiero [Sooper]
Darren Morris – Deep Morning [Ramrock Noir]
Gerry B. Hectic – 10 Seconds Over Bournemouth (aka The Beginning Of The End)

WP1 on the Waiting Room

Posted on September 7, 2025 by onedeckpete

A big thanks to The Rhythm Doctor for playing Madtone‘s WP1 on the radio earlier this week. If you want to hear a great show which plays all the way through from ambient, dub, jazz to funk you should tune into The Rhythm Doctor’s Waiting Room on a Monday morning from 9-11am (UK Time) on IDA Radio, Tallinn here. Cheers for Gerry Hectic for letting us know about the tune being played as we were on a 100 bus to Rye at that time.

The Rhythm Doctor also played a great one from Rockers Hi-Fi called Ghia a few tunes after. Chilled, dubby and then into some nice beats.

It’s not just the fake Bailey’s you should be buying at Lldl

Posted on July 19, 2025 by onedeckpete

Cheers to Gerry Hectic who emailed us letting us know that “Lidl have a set of 6 really nice looking alpines for £4.99” (Below are the said offers which look great.) The top picture are the bargains in situ and we love the small stones on top of the pots that really work.

We haven’t got that many alpines/succulents but we picked up this sempervivum (in the forefron of the picture below) at a sale at a community garden two years ago (the one where we bought the mullien here) and have split it a few times since.

Behind that are a couple of mini succulents bought off ebay which are sandwiched between the pink geranium that we bought at another sale which has been divided a few times now and passed onto to our mates. It’s all about passing things on!

To the top of Forest Hill

Posted on July 12, 2025 by onedeckpete

Watering the garden early this morning just after we got up we noticed some great sights before it started to get hot. The echinops are now starting to flower and what flowers they are too.

We also now think these are the cosmos not the love in the mist that are beside them, the leaves are similar but not exactly the same. Shouldn’t be too long now before they flower (Cheers Debby H!)

And we are sure now that these are the Thompson & Morgan‘s Quick Fire chillies. It’s only a small plant but they sure are producing a lot of fruit! We also think beside this (not pictured) is their Quick Snack cucumbers. Ain’t gardening great?

Cheers to Gerry Hectic for sharing this very nice mix from Alina Bzhezhinska and Tulshi called Whispers of Rain (Continuous Mix) and boy wouldn’t it be nice to have some whispers of rain this week?

A bike’s a bike, how do you describe a bike?

Posted on July 9, 2025 by onedeckpete

We love those 1970’s information films here and have spliced the “Lock Your Bike” classic film from 1974 over the top of a little bit of BiggaBush‘s excellent Beat Dem in Dub. A big cheers to BiggaBush for giving it the thumbs up and Gerry Hectic for linking the tune with the original video. What’s a frame number?

Big shout to Dr Strangedub who debuted the tune on the brilliant Echo Chamber here on KFAI at 96.40 mins in. If you love reggae and dub you must tune into this weekly show. Listen closely and you may even hear a couple more public information dub instrumentals. Big up the Echo Chamber!

Here’s another couple of classic films from time gone by.

As Half Man Half Biscuit once sang “It was loft ladders what killed our Martin”. If only Martin had watched a public information film before his trek into the loft as he would be around to tell his tale now.

Why buy seeds when you can dry seeds

Posted on July 2, 2025 by onedeckpete

It’s great to hear that Gerry Hectic is taking on a new seed saving project after tasting a strawberry that was so nice he got given one that he is now saving seed from and trying to grow a plant from it. He is now trying the same method on the above!

We will keep you posted on how he gets on! Fascinating stuff though and more free plants if they take. We found a great link about seed saving here. Good luck Gerry.

Where’s there’s water, there’s life

Posted on June 3, 2025 by onedeckpete

Big thanks to Gerry Hectic for sending us a pic of his waterlilies and they look so good. As Gerry told us “The Pink one appeared overnight – the white one was from a couple of days ago and it’s stayed closed so really happy with the new one”.

The ones in our pond haven’t come out yet but they are worth waiting for as Waterlilies are a treat. Cheers Gerry.

More cosmos and treasure

Posted on April 15, 2025 by onedeckpete

Cheers to Gerry Hectic for sending us a pic of his cosmos seedlings which are starting to germinate outside under some glass (above).

Above are some seeds he intends to sow very soon. We don’t really know about the treasure flower but there’s a bit of info here on them and they look quite smart as well. And Gerry requested something on Treasure Isle, so here’s a classic and couple of related dubs.

Weeds up to me knees

Madtone, gardening and life

Tag Archives: Gerry Hectic