An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

I went out to the allotment yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, all alone, meaning to potter for an hour or so. That was at 1.30pm and I left at 6.30 pm! Other allotmenteers arrived and went until I was the only one left. I dug out the remainder of the main crop potatoes..Kerr's pinks, they were blight free but very small. When we cut down the foliage to prevent the blight from going down to the tubers, they obviously were not developed enough.I think that would only be beneficial if they are fully grown, and can be left in the ground until needed.Next year we are only going to put in first and second earlies, as main crop take up too much space for too long, which we do not have. Scarecrow may have thought he was taking it easy for the winter months but now he has garlic at the far end and onions to the foreground to keep the birds off of for the coming months. I was just going to dig up the pops, then I carried on and dug up the whole bed. After the tea break I thought I may as well p...

Slim pickings from the allotment yesterday, the broccoli is still producing some small side shoots. The strange looking white floret is a cauliflower! Of the six plants , two have produced these strange shapes but they taste OK. 3 tomatoes and there are still lots more but they are slow to redden. I picked some of the peas too, not very big but I used them whole as mange tout. Everything was used in a lovely vegetable risotto! The cucumber plants have taken on a new lease of life in the greenhouse,While the leaves on the end of the plants have turned yellow, the tops have put on a new spurt and there are about 3 or 4 on each of the three plants.The peppers are in the background but the sun has burned some of them, I turned them so that their leaves will hopefully protect them. A closer up of the cucumbers Our pumpkin has finally started turning yellow! We were beginning to wonder if it actually was a pumpkin. It is only now that it is getting some sunshine to ripen I suppose. An updat...

We had a disastrous summer in Ireland this year but guess what ,we are having a beautifull Autumn! On Sunday while the All Ireland football final was being played, Ed watched on TV and my chief gardener Kevin and I went out picking blackberries. We were down in Robert's Cove and walked about 2 miles while picking. It was a beautifull sunny afternoon and it was a lovely way to spend it. Kevin did a great job of picking until he found some long branches left on the ground, one then became his staff and he was on a survival mission! Eating blackberries was his main survival food!! There were a lot of berries out but it was a shame to see all the lovely big ones rotting on the bushes after all the rain we have had.I picked about 3 lbs and with 4 cooking apples and 3 lbs of sugar made about 7 lbs of jam. That works out roughly 40 cent a pot of jam, and you cannot buy the taste of fresh blackberries!! Sam my cavalier king charles dozing on the warm gravel out the back of the house He co...

I have not had time to blog for a few days, I paid a quick visit to the allotment yesterday and brought home 7 nice red tomatoes from the greenhouse. Things are slowing down now as we go into Autumn.I did not have my camera with me but may get out later today.Yesterday we woke to heavy fog which cleared to a beautifull sunny day. This morning was the same but when I went outside I found cobwebs everywhere!They were like crazy bunting from tree to tree,even from the clothes line to the hedge,a distance of about 8 feet! This is one on my contorted hazel in the front garden. They were not small either, but layer on layer of fine detail This one is joining two fuschia bushes A classic cobweb The leylandii in the back garden were covered with cobwebs! I did not think my camera was good enough to capture such fine detail ,so I was pleasantly surprised to get reasonably good photos of them.

I watched on TV , the devastation caused by Ike in the southern states and said a prayer that none of my blogging friends or their families were affected by it.

The produce is slowing a little as we head in to Autumn.The end of the carrots from the barrels, these are from the first barrel which stayed small as they dried out first from lack of water and then this particular barrel got waterlogged! They have a growth of fine white 'strings' on them but when this is scrubbed off they taste fine. 4 Tomatoes, about 260 grms of broccoli (calabrese), these are the side shoots after giving the plants a liquid feed after the main head was cut. Lots of beetroot as I pulled some to give the brussels sprouts room to grow.Anyone with ideas on how to pickle beetroot please tell us! The one cauliflower grew in to this strange shape? There are 2 more tiny golfball heads coming on, I just cut the top off of this one and added it to the compost heap. The brussels sprouts are forming well, this is the biggest of 5 plants. Again we planted them too close together, I have never actually seen brussels sprouts growing on the plant until now! These are the ...

While browsing through 'The Allotment Keeper's Handbook' I found that our blueberries were really acid loving plants. We had been blaming the birds for our lack of fruit! While on the http://www.irishgardeners.com/ website I found a thread about Blueberries and posted a query. I got a wealth of information and sites to link to about blueberries. Too long to post here, so if anyone has problems or wants to grow them I would advise logging on to the site.I also poached the photo as our blueberries never looked like this! In Ireland 'Hurts' were picked on mountains in the past.These were small blue berries, but Pine trees have been planted for the last number of years and a lot of our native trees and undergrowth have disappeared under this dark green blanket.I suppose it was a way to make unproductive mountain land to pay but I think people are only now realising the damage this forestation has caused to our native plants and wildlife. Blueberries are a relative of o...

A strange tree, indigenous to the Hydro allotments? No, this tree is in Christy's plot, I think it is dead as the foliage is actually ivy growing up the tree. Christy has been using it to hang up his different varieties of onions to dry on. It looks a bit like something from a child's fairytale! 112/9/2008 Tree update. When I was out in the allotment this morning I stood back and looked up at the tree. It is about 15ft high and is not dead as I had thought, it is a pear tree, with some sparse foliage towards the very top. There are 2 daredevil pears hanging on for dear life to the very top branch of the tree!! It is probably there since the allotment area was a walled orchard many years ago We have twins growing on the manure heap!The one on the left is just visible peeking out from the leaves.They are the biggest of the pumpkins, but there are lots of smaller ones too.I should have taken a photo of the whole lot ,they are heading for the gate, I have never seen anything to g...

This morning I thought I would pay a quick visit to the allotment, just to check on the greenhouse and see what could be brought home.That was at 10.30 am and I left at 2.00pm! The allotment is like a time warp, I just potter away for what seems like an hour and 3 have passed.The harvest for today, I dug up a drill of pops, Kerr's Pinks which had been sprayed against blight, the foliage cut down and left in tubers in the ground.The potatoes were small with no sign of blight but the return on about 6 stalks is not good. the last of the white turnips, I cleared one of the barrels of carrots, about 8 baby ones.A courgette from the plant that did nothing in the greenhouse but recovered when I put it outside,and there is another courgette coming on the plant as well. The tomatoes in the greenhouse, they are a good size but not too many of them.I took 8 nice red ones today and the same last week. The cucumber was also taken home today, the plants are going very yellow but there are so...

I browsed through Amazon last week and ordered these, my winter reading material. They have been dropping through my letter box all week.I did not buy the new copies just all second hand but they arrived as new anyway. Left to right: The Allotment Handbook ; Caroline Bradley, All of the allotment information applies to the UK but there is a month by month section of what to plant and jobs to do, there is also a comprehensive plant directory. The Biodynamic sowing and planting Calender ; Maria Thun , On first glance through it, it seems a bit technical but does have a calender for the year on which days to plant/harvest, Roots,leaf, fruit and flower. ie ;onions,beetroot, carrots and potatoes are best harvested on root days and they will keep throughout the winter. The Allotment Keeper's Handbook : Jane Perrone , Easy to read ,practical, again a monthly to do list, crop rotation, watering,and composting. Jane has an allotment for years and admits her own mistakes over the years s...

My newest grandson, Scott, in one of the cardigans I knitted for him. Being serious,wondering what I am doing, flashing lights in his face! He was 3 weeks old in these photos, he is 5 weeks old now. He does this ooh with his mouth! A right hook! suggesting I get that camera out of his face!

This is where I spent some time last week, a small cove on the coast about 35 minutes drive from where I live.There is usually a fishing boat or two but that day there was a speed boat and a catamaran!Notice the sun shining. All life comes to the cove at some time. There is a riding stables nearby and the horses come down for a paddle in the evenings.The tide is in so there is none of the beach visible. At the end of the month this is where I will get the seaweed to mulch the asparagus, it comes in on every tide but it is cleaned most days during the summer. See more photos in photo gallery on side links.