We had a fleeting return visit of two of the South London urban ducks for about half an hour last night and it was great to see them back. Trouble is, our cats didn’t see it that way, and even now, one of them is patrolling the fish pond at the bottom of the garden.
Big up the urban duck! Come back soon as we have the fish food and the porridge oats ready on hand just in case!
I heard two great gardening tips this week. The first was from Penny Golightly (of the great Golightly Gardens website) who mentioned the free tomato seed offer from Heinz. It’s only a limited thing but have a look at their Facebook page here and see if you’re lucky!
Also on last week’s Gardening with Tim & Joe show on BBC Radio Leeds, Joe Maiden mentioned rather than buying a pack of seeds especially for pea shoots from the major seed sellers (around £2.50), go to the supermarket and buy a packet of dried peas which are the same thing and a whole lot cheaper!
I had a day off Thursday and managed to do a little bit of gardening before the rain came and it was so nice to be back out there. I cleared the bed next to the pond (Pic above – fish courtesy of Lewisham pet shop, bought a few years ago and they’ve multiplied a bit since then. God knows how they survive in a rusty old water tank!)
The reason I was out there was I bought a load of bluebells a fortnight ago which were bought “in the green” (as I missed the proper bulb planting time in the autumn) so when the postlady delivered them on Thursday morning they were live (with roots and shoots and all) so they had to go in. Let’s hope the birds or the squirrels don’t pull them up!
Things are on the move, the onion sets, garlic and parsley under the top half of the old kitchen door are starting to show signs of life and the tomato and pepper seeds I stuck in a few weeks ago indoors are on their way. It won’t be long now, roll on the warm weather!
I woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow over the garden. I’ve a day off today and was hoping to tidy up a couple of beds out there if I got an hour or two, but they can now wait as you can’t see the weeds for the snow!
I found out a new gardening term the other day as I wanted to buy some bluebell bulbs to stick in the bottom of the garden under the tree by the pond as it can get quite shady and I never have much luck there anyway.
As I’ve long missed the autumn delivery/planting, the only way to purchase them now is when the bulbs have started growing in the spring. They’re lifted at the nursery and then transplanted to us the punters “live”, hence the term “In the green.” Roll on the spring!
Two to feel warmer to (after the stereo and the heating’s been turned up!)
Dread All Stars – U Roy Special Pt. 2
I was feeling well fed up towards the end of last week then I twigged, I hadn’t done anything in the garden for a couple of weeks.
So as soon as I got in from work Friday night I got the old flymo out, tidied up the lawn, picked some tomatoes, green beans and the few parsnips (in a That’s Life stylee) I sowed way back in February. Now all I need to do is make a start on the weeding…
And here’s how the sweet corn is getting on, not brilliant but better than the time I tried a few years ago. Only small cobs at the moment.
When that old gardening lark goes well, it’s a grand old life!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbEnIEynTgY
Lee Perry – Station Underground News – Bread
A killer from 1973 produced by Mr “light years ahead of his time” Lee Perry featuring a radio reference (“at 16,000 Kilocycles FM and 1,000 Megahertz on the ground” 00.10) and a Chi-lites sample “For God’s sake give more power to the people” at 1.49.) This tune was played on the Lee Perry special on the David Rodigan show on BBC 1 Xtra last Sunday which is available on mixcloud here. And for the original vocal cut:
Leo Graham & The Upsetters – News Splash – Underground/Upsetter
Tune in to this Sunday’s David Rodigan’s 1 Xtra radio show for a special with the great Lee “Scratch” Perry. Last week Rodigan mentioned that the show will be bonkers, Rodigan will be selecting while the Upsetter interjects vocally as if “in the dance.” Tune in live on Sunday night at 7pm or play again here.
I don’t know much about garden ponds but we discovered we had one after I got rid of a lot of nettles and brambles around the bottom of the garden one afternoon after we moved in. A few weeks later I cleared out 12 years of rotting leaves and gunge out of it which went straight onto the flower beds.
After cleaning the pond out I stuck a tarpaulin over it to stop water getting in, and was going to fill it in with soil a few months later. In that time, water filled up (how did that happen?) and taking the tarp up one day saw it was home to thousands of tadpoles! I couldn’t fill it in after that, could I?
It’s taken a few years to get sorted and because it costs a few bob to get electricity down the garden, there’s no fountain or flowing water to keep it fresh so it’s dependent on the oxygenating plants in there and the odd regular clean-out by yours truly. I also usually put a net over it in the autumn to stop the leaves getting in and that’s about all for maintenance.
It was looking well ropey a few months ago (above) so I bought a couple of bokashi mud balls off ebay for a few quid (no, I didn’t know what they were either before getting them.)
The pond is starting to look a bit better, you can even see the goldfish now (below) There’s also frogs, who love the slugs and snails in the garden (one of them is chilling out in the top RH corner of pic below), a couple of minnows and the odd newt. Not bad for something we didn’t even realise we had when we moved in. Expense is minimal, all plants were off ebay or from the garden centre/pet shop (and they multiply like billy-ho), the fish were cheap and the only cost now is the fish food which is a couple of quid a month. The only drawback is you have to watch out that you don’t get bitten by those pesky midges in the summer!
Leo Graham & The Upsetters – Newsflash/Flashing Echo Heard on this week’s David Rodigan show. A classic from the early 1970’s with a lovely bass and drum version from the great Upsetter himself!
Here’s the latest pic of the mad Tree Onion (aka Egyptian onions, top onions, topsetting onions or walking onions) I purchased from our local garden centre Shannons a few weeks ago. Never growing them before, I reckon the bit that is turning light-yellow halfway up the stem in the picture is going to turn into one of the top onion sets. A bonkers plant indeed but a mighty interesting one at that!
Big up to our very good friend from across the pond, Doctor Strangedub for his new reggaewise gardening mix first aired on this week’s “Echo Beach” show on WLUW-FM Chicago. It’s an excellent mix of dubwise in a horticultural stylee (he’s a keen gardener as well as a music lover) featuring Prince Far I, Leroy Sibbles, Jah Wobble. Lee Perry, DubXanne (ft. Ranking Roger) amongst other great stuff and includes Madtone’s “Compost your mind”. Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss’ excellent “Echo Chamber” show is on every Wednesday morning on KFAI and archived on the KFAI Website (http://kfai.org/echochamber). Big up all dub gardeners in the (green) house! A big cheers to Dr Strangedub for including the Madtone track.
Weeds up to me knees 