Sunday on the Plot

Sunday was beautiful and mild with bright sunshine, Kathryn and the two girls were on the plot early to begin the big dig, I arrived later and we set about transforming last years potato patch into this years onion beds, alliums follow pops in the rotational scheme of things.
It always amazes me that no matter how many times or how deep you dig you will always find more spuds that were missed and some still come up through the subsequent crop!

1st onion bed

In the foreground are the overwintering onions or what is left of them after the birds. The other beds have green manures and we can leave these beds for another few weeks.The lush green one is Landsberger,it did go in earlier than the other two which are sparse enough

Red Duke of York, a first early in their egg trays to 'chit' it is the method of sprouting the pops before planting to give them a head start. They are covered with the fleece to deter pests and in case of frosts.

The onion beds covered with netting in case the birds think they are worms peeping up!
Troy, good tolerance to bolting of medium flavour
Setton, high yielding ,long storage variety
Snowball, white, mild flavour and stores well

Shallots
Red Gourmet, sharp strong flavour,
Jermor longue, true french long shallot, rose coloured flesh

Red Onion
Hyred, early cropping, mild flavour

I gave all of the beds a feed of Seaweed enhanced organic manure to give them a Spring boost.
We are still debating garlic maybe we would have better luck with a Spring planting variety than we have had with the Autumn planted ones in previous years.


The girls are bigger and stronger this year and wielded forks and rakes without a bother, Sinead moved wheel barrows of sods etc up to the dung heap in double quick time! They both planted up pots with primulas for a bit of colour on the plot.
There were a few plotters out in the sunshine whipping their plots into shape and it is nice to meet up with old friends again and discuss the new season.
Thank you for your comments on the previous post and one evening this week I will set aside to visit some old friends online.

New Season

I went out to the allotment today for the first time since before Christmas which seems like months ago so much has happened and changed in that time.
Sinead and Aoife came with me and spent some time checking out what had changed around the site since we last saw it.
Zwena has some fantastic plans for the Hydro Farm not just for this season but the coming years, it will be a very exciting place to be!
On 24th March Brown Envelope Seeds are visiting us and advising us on seeds and planting etc and we will also get a discount on the seeds we buy.

They have been selecting over the years for varieties and individual plants that work here as they operate in West Cork. Their seeds are open-pollinated, or open source seeds, which means that you can save your own seed from them.

The farm is certified by The Organic Trust so that the seeds may be used by certified organic growers. There are no chemical treatments carried out on the seeds or the plants they are harvested from. (IRL-O1B3-EU Symbol No. 159).

Brown Envelope Seeds is registered as a seed producer with the Department of Agriculture.
www.brownenvelopeseeds.com

Fionnuala Fallon who writes a gardening article for the Irish Times each Thurs visited us in 2010 to include us in her forthcoming book which is now with the printers and we are looking forward to seeing ourselves in print soon.
Fionnuala contacted me recently to see if we would be interested in trialing grafted plants for Suttons.
Suttons have been developing a grafting technique over the last few years and we are now part of the process trying them out in the various growing situations which allotment holders and small vegetable growers present.
We have chosen 3x tomato varieties, Aubergines, peppers and cucumbers, they also have Chilli plants but we passed on them!
Our plants will arrive as plugs in mid March and then the fun begins!
The benefits of Suttons grafting process promise
Up to 70% more fruit
Earlier fruiting
Longer fruiting
Greater yield
Greater resistance to pests and disease
Better for outdoor growing.

Jobs done today,
A general tidy up of the plot, harvested the last of the sprouts, fixed the fences and began digging the onion bed.
We have a fantastic crop of rhubarb coming up, it was great to see something starting the new season
I cut the autumn fruiting raspberries down to the ground and cut back dead or frosted foliage on the globe artichokes.
I put some seed potatoes in egg boxes in the greenhouse, just a few to test the foolhardiness or otherwise of doing so as the hens are still laying waste to the back garden at home ( there may be pests on the plot also)
They will be getting their comeuppance in a few weeks when they are wired into the end of the garden with a new hen house and extended run and I will reclaim my part of the garden.
Weather permitting on Sunday we are having a family dig in on the plot as some of our more enthusiastic plotters are all dug out and ready to plant already!
I have not been on the computer lately and did not think I would continue with the allotment or the blog as my life had taken such a tangent.I will just confine the blog to gardening in the future as sharing my personal life over the past few weeks would take books to impart or make sense of.I say this here knowing only my regular readers and online friends would read this far!Thank you all for leaving comments while I have been awol
I will have to get back into the habit of taking my camera with me to the plot

New Year Clean Up

Happy New Year to everyone, I hope it has begun on a positive note for all of you.I thought I had better check in and let you all know I am still online when this computer allows me!
It has been going slower and slower over the past few months but has almost come to a standstill over the holidays...too much over indulging in festive spirit?
I have just spent hours deleting over 700 photos, many of them duplicates and also various files etc that I cannot even remember why I needed them in first place!I have cleaned up disc space and defragmented even though it is scheduled automatically
I have been trying to log on to some blogs over the holidays but sat waiting and waiting for them to load and got fed up and logged off yet again.
The computer has speeded up a bit with all of the cleaning but I think a trip to the computer Doc is overdue!

The Knitivity

I came across this photo which I had featured on my blog back in 2008, the figures were knitted by D.Linda and sil Rob made the crib which I hope has been finished completely by now!
I may not be on here for a few days ,I would like to wish all my readers, followers, commenters and those who 'pass through' a Very Happy and Peaceful Christmas and Good health and peace for 2012.
Peggy

Winter Solstice at Newgrange

The 18th was the winter solstice and it dawned bright and (mostly) sunny in Newgrange Co Meath where the spring and winter solstice is witnessed entering a tunnel and illuminating the interior in a tomb whose origins have been lost in the mist of time (thought to predate the pyramids)
The full range of photos can be seen on the website here
You can also buy a DVD now on Amazon (link on the site)
For anyone visiting the Meath/Dublin area there are personally supervised tours of the historic Boyne valley website here
I have never visited it myself and it is on my list of places to see!

Christmas Sprouts

I went out to the allotment on Sat evening to gather the sprouts for our Christmas dinner and to send in a photo to matrons Christmas veggie blog
The plot looks cold and dismal now and my fingers nearly froze dislodging the sprouts! The pigeons have decimated the top growth on the stalks, definitely the culprits from the amount of droppings on the leaves and around the ground.The netting had blown off again and left the plants unprotected.
I left them as is so the birds can enjoy the remains!
I also brought home the herbs for cooking, rosemary for the garlic and rosemary roasted spuds
Sage and thyme for the stuffing
Parsley for everything else
I have one jar of the 3 I had made of piccalilli for those cold turkey days!I had made it from a mixture of all the allotment veg using a recipe of matrons
Do visit matrons blog to see the array of Christmas veggies,lots of ideas there for next winters plot!

Country House Christmas Party

We usually have an allotment Christmas get together, when we all dress up like normal people and try to chat about all sorts of things other than crops etc but the conversation invariably turns to the coming season!
Zwena always organizes it in her house but this year her sister Olwen kindly hosted it for us in her beautiful country house which is a guest house during the summer months.It is near the allotments also and about a ten minute walk from picturesque Blarney.
The Victorian figures in front of the amazing Christmas tree.

It was dark when we got there so I took this from a postcard, Maranatha House from the outside in the middle of a beautiful garden, if you would like to see more or even think about Country house living the web site is here
Mostly pictures for the rest of the post!

The conservatory is the breakfast room and these flamingoesque style napkins took my eye!Different coloured napkins to blend with the decor in the room.

The huge Christmas tree

Fire with cosy couches gathered around

The conservatory/breakfast room

The hallway is bigger than rooms in most modern homes!

3 of our plotters and not a welly in sight

Victorian dolls in the red room

The sunken bathroom is off the red room

The red room complete with four poster bed

Cosy twin bedded room with matching four posters

The same room

Honeymoon suite with draped bed

Elegant all cream and ivory room

The Top hat room!
Olwen could not decide on a theme for this room and one night while watching Top Hat with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers she decided to replicate the bedroom on screen.
Fred is not sitting on the bed that is our Ger complete with top hat which hangs on an old fashioned hat stand inside the door. There is a big black & white print on the wall of Fred and Ginger dancing.
Olwen has made ALL drapes, curtains, canopies etc herself, and decorated the whole house to look as if it has not been changed for decades!

The huge welcoming fireplace where we gathered to chat and have mulled wine and Christmas nibbles
Truly a house meant for Christmas!