Tag Archives: Gerry Hectic

Pick up the garden fork and now breathe…

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The sun’s out again and it’s 27°C and very dry in the garden this afternoon.

Last week we heard Christine Walkden on Gardener’s Question Time who said she likes to give her garden a good water with just a watering can and it can take her up to 2 hours at a time.

Since ditching the hose after watching a great special about conserving water on Gardener’s World a while ago it now takes us quite a while too just using a watering can without a rose on the top. We enjoy the slow ritual, the endless walks back and forth to the tap, making sure the soil gets a good soaking. We probably wouldn’t like it that way if we were going to catch a train but it’s a nice thing to do on an early morning on a day off work or in the later evening after a day of toil.

Is there such a thing as “meditative gardening”? There was a lot of staring into space with one foot on a garden fork when we worked at the council so it may have been around for years.

Talking of meditative gardening, there’s a great horticultural themed set from Monster Rally (we have a feeling that someone may have mentioned this to us before, our mates Gerry Hectic, DJ Frederick or Justin Patrick Moore perhaps?) called Botanica Dream. It’s full of some lovely downtempo business and at the moment the track above is our favourite but they’re all excellent.

And here’s a promo from the Skybird Council Gardeners Association for The Scented Garden radio show for you all to enjoy.

And an episode of The Scented Garden from earlier this year for your gardening/listening pleasure. Tune in, turn on and sit yourself in the middle of a flower bed preferably and enjoy the flowers.

There’s more on the way!

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A big thanks to our good gardening mate Gerry Hectic for sending us pictures of the story so far in his garden. Loving the runner beans in the pot with a trolley from Aldi at the bottom so it can be moved around to catch the maximum of sunlight. Our other good friend Phil Harmony in Berlin used to also use that idea on his balcony for his veg growing. As The Merton Parkas used to sing “You need wheels”.

The peas and tomatoes look great too! Just water them daily and add a weekly feed, all will hopefully be grand! More pics of your progress in a few weeks please Gerry!

Pictures of lily (and wood)

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A big shout out to all of our music/gardening friends from around the world! Thanks to Justin Patrick Moore in Cincinnati for an update of his Hugelkultur bed (above). It’s certainly looking great!

A few months ago it started off as the below (mentioned in the post here) and now has been filled with straw, soil, and underneath that, layers of compost and leaves and below that waste wood. It certainly looks like the plants like it! It may be worth having a go. Great stuff Justin! More on the practice of Hugelkultur here.

And thanks to our other good friend Gerry Hectic for sending a pic of his healthy looking pond. Is that watermint alongside that great lily Gerry? Brilliant!

Do send us pics of how you’re getting on with the garden this summer, we’re well up for receiving them!

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!

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.

From our worldwide correspondents

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Big shout to our good friend Stevyn Iron Feather Journal in Hokkaido, Japan who’s just given us a glimpse of what his garden is like today. It’s covered in snow and he’s caught what may have been a flying whistling kettle in the snap, very apt what with the transmission of WSTL this weekend. Thanks Stevyn. For more on the excellent fanzine he produces, have a look here. Also have a butchers at his Pink Floyd’s Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast remix project here which has some interesting music on it.

Also cheers to another of our gardening/music friends Gerry Hectic for this musical recommendation of this great Jazz Gardening classic from Kamasi Washington. We’d be lost without the garden path wouldn’t we?

And talking of musical gardening selections here’s one from yesteryear from our good friend Dr Strangedub of the excellent show The Echo Chamber on KFAI. More on the show here.

And whilst we’re on the subject of dub gardening here’s one from Lopez Walker with Jah Jah New Garden followed by Garden in Dub. (If it was “Gardening dub” it would be even better!) #dubgardenersoftheworldunite #gardening #gardeningsnotdead

There’s a tomato in my kitchen (window) what am I gonna do?

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Big shout to our gardening friend Gerry Hectic who’s stripped his outdoor tomato plants and brought the fruits in on the kitchen windowsill. We love the jar idea!

We’ve got some on ours too and chucked a couple away this morning as they looked like they were going brownish and we didn’t want them to muck up the other tomatoes.

Also cheers to another gardening/music friend, from across the pond this time Justin Patrick Moore who has acquired some Austrian winter pea seeds. We’ve never heard of them before and they sound good.

We’ve read “The greens taste like sweet sugar snap peas, but have the texture of lettuce” and they’re are also grown as a “Cover Crop” that’s one not for harvest but to cover the soil over the winter months to stop erosion and in the case of this plant to add nitrogen to the soil. May be a good idea to grow some either to eat or improve you garden! More on them here. Cheers to Gerry and Justin for the pics and info.

Tales from the incinerator part 2

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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!