An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

I am doing this post early as I may not have time again until Monday. The sunshine refers to last weekend as this one is not shaping up too well so far, it is windy and showers are forecast. This is a mini cloche for our strawberry plants, it is just a clear drinks bottle cut in half and slipped over the fruit. It concentrates the heat and keeps the fruit off the ground as well as deterring the birds if out in the open. We used them last year also and they worked well.The top half of the bottle can be used as a funnel to feed and water the tomato plants, just take off the cap and sink the neck into the pot near the plant and feed can be poured straight onto the roots. The kids enjoying the sunshine in Robert's Cove last weekend, Kevin,Aoife and Scott on his first visit to the beach and he loved it! Hmmm...I wonder what this tastes like? Believe me he did try mouthfulls of it, I had to keep a close eye on his two hands! Another show garden from Bloom. This one is Keelings fruit ...

Some of the beautiful Lilies which were on display,these were my favourites on the stand and the photo does not do them justice as they were so eyecatching. There were not too many roses on stands but this stand was all roses, the heavenly waft of perfume made us stop in our tracks. Most of the roses did not have a smell which I think is one of the prerequisites of roses if you are going to the trouble of growing them. I sniffed all of them and I think this one was the best it is a lovely pale pink old fashioned looking rose with the most gorgeous smell.It is named after Geoff Hamilton who presented Gardener's World and other gardening programmes for years but died some years ago.It is a fitting tribute to him. We nearly missed the replica of Michelle Obama's White House vegetable garden but more or less stumbled across it.The American flag can be just seen in the top centre of the photo. It was not all walking ,we took time out to sit and enjoy the sun and spectacle while enjo...

I went to Bloom 2009 with my sister Kathleen on Friday compliments of Irish Gardeners Forum , you can follow the link to view other prize winners photos and comments about the show. The sun was shining and it was a fantastic day out, everything looked great with the sun beaming down even though it was a mite hot for some plants which looked as if they would not last the day never mind the whole weekend!The sunny chaps above were on sale and we saw lots of them being carried around. It was my first outing to Bloom and I must say it was very well organized, there was lots of seating around to relax on, there were excellent catering facilities but why anyone would buy food when you could eat your way for free around around the terrific food market is beyond me!The food market consisted of stalls of chutneys,jams,preserves of all kinds, homemade sweets, cakes and bread etc.from all of the small artisan producers around the country.There was even a free water point so you did not have to pa...