An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

We have been on a pumpkin trail all day today!The two girls spent the morning at the Lifetime Lab on the Lee Road just outside the city, it is a fabulous facility for natives and tourists alike.Water has been supplied from the site since the 1760's! The old buildings and machinery have been restored and there is now a visitor centre and tours of the buildings. There are various educational workshops for schools throughout the year and occasional specials for something like Halloween.The girls did some science projects, colouring and cut out pumpkins and each child got to bring home their handiwork.Well worth a visit if you are ever in the vicinity. Zwena had arranged for a press photographer to come to the plots in the afternoon to take some photos of the children with the pumpkins.While waiting I strolled around, Mike has a potato experiment going on here,he planted potatoes in deep pots , earthed them up and is trying hay piled around these ones with plastic covers to protect fr...

I cannot believe it is over a week since I posted!Time spent on the allotment was working to get prepared for next year, not a lot to actually photograph!The weather has changed to wet and some very heavy winds, today has been foggy and rained some this morning, it feels like autumn now.The camera has been playing up and the one day I wanted to take photos yesterday for picking the pumpkins the batteries were flat! Zwena had hers so has kindly emailed me some for the blog.The kids had a great time tumbling the pumpkins down the bank as the big ones were much too heavy to carry!The top pic is of all the pumpkin harvest lined up ready to weigh and measure. The kids filled 3 wheelbarrow loads to take from the bank to the tea room for weighing.There were lots of small gourds also, this year we have a lot of pumpkins whereas last year we had fewer but heavier ones.Aoife won the biggest pumpkin in the children's patch. Kevin insisted on bringing his one home, it may have not been a winne...

The birthday shed was supposed to arrive on Wed but one of the delivery men had flu so it only came yesterday.They had it up and put together in minutes. I did not have time to put anything into it as by the time it was finished I had to leave for the school so today I am going out to move 'stuff' into it.It is only 6'x4' which is enough as I did not want it taking up too much ground space. Youngest son Barry came out with me for his first visit to the allotment, he spent the time drawing wheelbarrow loads of manure to cover the new raised bed, which will now be covered with black membrane and left until Spring.He was very pleased with the whole set up and will come out again he said, he has volunteered to give the shed a coat of wood preservative before winter sets in. The garlic is up, well I should say some of it is up. I had put in organic Irish grown and some french and it is only the french which is up so far but it is looking good. This morning's surprise was...

Not a lot of gardening has been done this week as the big 60 loomed and was duly celebrated. I don't feel a day older than I did this time last week so I think age is really a state of mind.It was an evening of surprises as I thought we were just going for a quiet meal with the family members who could attend as it was mid week and they all had work commitments, but they all turned up apart from Linda who was sick and another daughter who is living abroad. Me blowing out the candles, thank God they had the sense not to put 60 candles on it or the fire brigade would have been gate crashing the party! Immediate family who were there, 6 out of 8 was good Extended family some in laws and soon to be inlaws The big surprise was a stretch limo to take us to the restaurant! My first time being in one, and we had the champagne on hand to celebrate the occasion. The limo group outside, someone said we were holding up traffic but I think a stretch limo is entitled to hold up traffic for a few...

We have had some lovely weather for the past week and lots of work was done on the plot but each day I had forgotten to take my camera with me so while it was all unrecorded it was done which is more important. We are putting all raised beds with pathways on the 'old' plot which entailed moving piles of earth which was backbreaking but very satisfying! My birthday is on Tuesday I am going from the nifty fifties to the scintillating sixties!When asked what I wanted I did not even have to think...so I am getting a nice small shed for the allotment, it will be delivered on Wed morning. Some thought went into where it should go as I don't want it taking up too much space or being in the way.The old sweetcorn bed which was very unproductive this year was deemed the best position. It was cleared and a level space marked out ,Stephen is on camera moving up spare patio slabs which they had at home, these with weed suppressant fabric underneath will be the base of the shed to keep i...

Corrigans City farm is back on our Tv screens for another run. This time he is revisiting the two city allotments to check on their progress and he also visited our plots in late July a snippet of which was seen on last nights show.Our scarecrow made his Tv debut!They may or may not show more of the visit as parts of it become relevant to the programme content.Our allotments looked good and various plotters can be seen working away in the background on a lovely sunny day. Parisian macaroons!I pirated this photo from my sister Kathleen's blog on Talesfromagarden , her son was spending a few days in Paris and was dispatched with instructions on where to go for these macaroons which she had read about on another blog.The macaroons are world famous it seems! To read about them visit Kathleen's blog and maybe if a trip to Paris is on the cards you can find out where to get them. We spent some time on the plot today again between school and music lessons.The girls had great fun pull...