An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

We have been enjoying very unseasonal sunshine with temps in the high teens.Gardening on the allotment and at home has been a pleasure due also to the extra hour of daylight in the evenings since we changed to summertime. The rhubarb has gone mad this year, it is almost forming a hedge across the front of the plot. I picked some last week and made some very tasty tarts, I have seen new season rhubarb on sale for E 1.50 fro 4 or 5 stalks! The area netted in the foreground are onions which are coming up well, the netting was to stop the birds from pecking out the tops until they get established These photos did not upload in sequence! This is the asparagus bed which got a very overdue face lift and feeding, more below. I put in 4 drills of Sharpes Express and Red Duke of York, all first earlies. There are more to go in but these are the traditional St Patrick's day sowing The reason the asparagus bed got its long overdue TLC, we have asparagus! Kathryn noticed 3 spears on Sun but th...

Blarney St Patrick's day parade drew a huge crowd to the village, the parade was supported by all the neighbouring parishes and there was a great buzz as the participants took up their stations.We were in position no 36 and there was quite a few behind us. The sun shone throughout apart from one light shower just before the parade took off. There were 2 raised beds on the trailer and a pergola, 2 scarecrows were suspended from the top and various garden implements. All available personnel were out early to prepare the float (trailer)!Julie was busy with the paint brush and Michael was putting the pergola together In the foreground are the various bits the rest of us were gathering to fill the raised beds etc. Scotty driving the jeep with some of the allotmenteers behind. The balloons are actually vegetable shaped but it is hard to see them in the photo. The motley crew behind with garden implements, wheelbarrow etc, Willow the german shepherd is sporting a tricolour ribbon for the...

Cead Mile failte agus la shona duit amarach fe La le Padraig A hundred thousand welcomes and may you have a great day tomorrow for St Patrick's day

These photos were taken with my phone...why? I forgot the camera yet again! The early potatoes chitting in the cold greenhouse, they have a fleece covering to protect from frost which we have had since I took these photos.We have sunny days but very cold evenings and nights. I mentioned chitting in the previous post but on rereading it I realised I should explain 'chitting'. I know when we started on the plot we had heard of chitting but had to look online to find out exactly what to do. Chitting is a way of starting the potatoes to send up little stalks to give your potatoes a head start in the ground. If you look closely at the seed potato there will be a grouping of eyes around one end which is called the 'rose' end.Stand the seed potato with this end up, in an egg box which is ideal for the job or any other suitable container. In a few weeks you will see it sprouting,when sowing around mid March keep the sprouts at this end up as they are the potato stalks not the...