An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

 I headed up to the plot early this morning as it was promising to be a really warm day, I put my 2 surviving hens into a box and took them with me. Two have died during the past few months from what I can only presume is old age, they have stopped laying now and are like 2 elderly dowagers. I had a rather romantic notion that they would like  to spread their wings, feel the breeze in their feathers and romp in slow motion through the long grass of one of the unused plots?!  I left them out, they investigated the long grass for all of 20 minutes grumbling loudly and proceeded to stand by the gate with their heads buried in the long grass with their tales sticking up for the remainder of the morning ! I had worried in case I would not be able to catch them again but they almost hopped into the box for me! Back in their run they marched up and down squawking loudly, my hens do not do foraging they like their food and water provided! I painted the gate a ...

The garden at home is really beginning to burst into flower, above the 'Manhatten Lights' lupin bought at Mallow Homes & garden festival 2 years ago. The Mallow show is on at the moment and I hope to visit tomorrow ,weather permitting. We have been to Chelsea and Bloom so cannot but attend our very own garden show held at the Cork racecourse in Mallow! This photo was taken last week before the lupins flowered.In the front the primrose 'Vialli' bought at Bloom by sis Kathleen, between the lupin and primrose is Geum, seen at Bloom and bought here at home recently. This is a candelabra primrose bought at Mallow garden festival last year, I had forgotten about it until it bloomed quite spectacularly! Close up of the 'Vialli' primrose. The Acquelegia or Granny's Bonnet, this one is a lovely shade, it has reseeded all over the garden even in the gravel. This you have seen before, March pansies still blooming in their bowl ! The aliums were ...

The Broad beans have begun producing, this photo was taken a few days ago so they have gotten a little bigger since then, the quandary  now being when and how to pick and cook them?! Today, 3 onion beds weeded,fed and watered with the paths in between clipped with a hand clippers. We were going to dig out the paths and cover with 'something' but regular clipping will keep them tidy.There are 2 white onion beds and one red, they seem to be in varying stages of growth even in the same bed as can be seen in the top bed in the photo! The courgettes are really taking off, even though none have reached an edible stage yet there are lots of blossom. The sweetcorn is about a foot high and developing nicely, it is hard to see them properly here seen through the netting to deter the very determined Cock Pheasant from getting in. The small green plants around the edge are dwarf French beans, they are planted around 2 sides of the bed. The lean to tunnel is fulfilling its ...

 Was it the late Spring, but I don't think I have ever seen such an array of wild flowers adorning our ditches.Ditches to the uninitiated are banks of earth of varying heights which divide our fields. They are usually topped with bushes and trees and grass and weeds grow up the sides which are cut by the council or at least supposed to be cut by them. They cannot cut them at certain times of the year because of birds nesting, maybe because of the recession and staff cutbacks they just have not cut back the undergrowth as they should and all of these wonderful wild flowers are springing up to brighten our journeys.  Someone said that a weed is a flower in the wrong place and that is certainly true this year. The Bluebells were spectacular this year and the one flower I did not get a pic of were the banks of wild garlic, it would have meant stopping at the side of the road and may not have been the wisest thing to do.  Bluebells and creeping buttercup, nature has co...

 I have been up to the allotment for some time each day, watering & weeding.I had noticed some of the peas being chomped not from the bottom as in slug attack but the tops and edges of the leaves. One of the other plotters informed me its being done by a cock pheasant who lives in the next field! I have seen him in the allotment field but not near the plots, he obviously bides his time! I covered the entire pea and broad bean beds with netting, hopefully he will be stopped before he does too much damage and they will have time to recover. The other plot has the peas in a row and he has decimated the whole row of them maybe past recovering. The raised bed with 4 courgette plants, 3x green and 1x yellow, this got a dressing of horse manure from the Hydro Allotments to create a hot bed  for them and they are putting on a growth spurt with the brilliant sunshine warming them up. I sprayed the potatoes against blight yesterday, maybe I'm paranoid but this spell of re...

The kiddies playground early on in the day! The Wizard of Oz, Sanctuary garden.Lots of bigger kids queueing up to go through! Didn't it make you smile?! Lots of interest  for the kids everywhere. vegetables were in flower and mini gardens as well as the more formal veg gardens, just proving you don't need an acre of ground to grow a few veg for yourself and the family. Lots of activities and workshops for children to keep them occupied. I would have loved to do this myself! just some more of the various activities in Bloom especially for the kids who were admitted FREE with a paying adult so it was a very friendly family orientated day out where they learned that our veg  does not just appear on supermarket shelves!  There were FREE refill water stations around the grounds  getting up close and personal with hens...  sleepy sheep.... and even more comatose pigs!  I will finish with that as I could be doing ...