An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

I have taken quite a long break from blogging but we have been busy over the last couple of weeks! My gardeners took off to spend time on a boat on the Liverpool Leeds Canal negotiating 5 stair locks etc and had a whale of a time! I took off to Robert's Cove and spent time treating the deck,badly overdue!I took my time and got a nice suntan as a bonus,I read books and generally chilled out. D.Aisling was on hen duty while I was away and when I got back G.son Scott has now decided my name is Nana Chickens! My time on the computer was short and spent setting up an Etsy shop ! I made some Lavender wands and hearts and they are for sale there, more items to be added later.I need to spend some more time dickying it up a bit. We had G.son Scott's 3rd birthday with a BBQ in Robert's Cove We had G.son Jack's 2nd birthday (Scott's brother) Last but not least niece Catherine has written another book which is again self printed by her and available on Amazon .Catherine has als...

A beautiful sunny Sunday, much too warm to work. Kevin trying his hand at digging up some spuds for his Mom.Last night was very heavy & humid and I think our spuds look less green than they did, a few of us are convinced there is a definite yellow tint to the leaves. Beautiful flower arrangement which Zwena put on the tea room tables which are now outdoor tables in the courtyard while the sunshine lasts. Everyone who turned up today had brought something to share and we ended up sitting around the courtyard chatting and doing very little else, just taking time to drink the coffee and smell the flowers. I did remember to bring the camera and caught up on some pics of the plot. Tomatoes in the greenhouse are way behind what they were this time last year when we ended up with a glut, since moving them to the greenhouse they are beginning to climb but slowly. Liam's roses tumbling over the fence Inside the fruit cage the raspberries are ripening daily I left 3 strawberry plants on ...

Every time I open one of my wardrobes I was getting the distinct smell of lavender. Investigating today I found the source, a 400grm bag of dried lavender which I must have put in there myself and forgotten about! We have 6 lavender plants growing on the plot and having wrestled some of it from the bees which spent the entire summer buzzing around collecting pollen, I dried it and packed it into a zip lock bag. These crafty hearts are appearing in most of the garden centres/craft shops etc, so I got the idea to make some packed with lavender.I had this rose patterned fabric, maybe not the most suitable for lavender but shabby chic and vintage roses are 'in'!The lavender is inside a muslin heart shape inside the rose fabric.They can be hung on the bedroom doors or inside a wardrobe. They also look OK hanging on drawer handles etc. I have to visit a craft shop over the weekend to buy some more fabric etc.,it is forecast more rain so there will be no gardening for a few days and I...

The sun shone here in the south for most of the day and it was back to warmth and some work on the plot. The peas are coming along and setting lots of pods but to my surprise some of the lower ones had been chomped despite wire netting around the bed.When we walked on to the plot a rabbit ran from between the lavender and pea bed but I thought they could not get at the peas?!I had to put more netting over the lower one to prevent anymore incursions. Some of the snowball onions drying, these were about 10 that Michael had given me earlier in the year to try out. The second row of netting around the peas, I had to adjust the colour of some photos as the sun was so bright at this time of the day! Our lavender is nearly ready to cut, the bees are colonising it at the moment and anyone who passes takes a blossom to smell! The main onion bed. I bent over the stalks as it seems to be the done thing but I am not too sure of the benefits of it?!The onions on this bed are all good sized bulbs no...

Bilbo has reached nipitinthebud in Gloucester ,if you are interested in seing what he got up to. Continuing warmth and sunshine, its too hot to do too much strenuous gardening so I have been tidying around the plot.Christy was putting in some onions and garlic yesterday but still undecided if we will put them in over winter yet. Harvest yesterday, more British Queens, (no Blight)!runner beans,white turnips and the side shoots from the broccoli plants. Action Woman! Zwena catching up on the grass cutting as the ground has been so wet it has been impossible to get much of it done. We have about 40 new strawberry plants from runners. Whether they will all survive to next year remains to be seen.I potted the remaining ones today. The 4 Lavender plants have been tidied up for next year, I cut back all the flowering shoots and just clipped them into a neat shape. I just took the tips off of the shoots as to cut into the woody stems could impair growth for next year. The first lot of Leeks a...

Well it is back to work after all the excitement of Bilbo visiting, he is now on his way to matron of Down on the allotment blog, if you want to follow his adventures in London.I took my package to our local post office early on Saturday morning only to be told we in the Republic no longer have postal collections on Saturday! What a retrograde step in the middle of a recession when we should be encouraging business to our country.This and our sad record of rolling out broadband country wide puts us in the league of banana republics! Our allotment harvest is getting colourful at this time of year, some of our chiogga beetroot,more courgettes, cauliflower,potatoes, the girls pulled all of their onions to take home, and bunches of lavender. Potato Blight we thought we had escaped it but no,it struck within 2 days!The British Queens looked Ok....so far, but our late main crop of Golden Wonders were blackened. I did not have the camera with me that day to photograph them. I sprayed all of...

Kevin and I spent about 4 hours out on the allotment today, we were the only ones out there until late afternoon when Mike and Christy came along.The veg harvest for today was potatoes in the bag, I think these are the Homeguard.5 courgettes,2 cauliflower,2 globe artichokes,Kevin's crop of onions and thinnings of carrots and white turnips, not a bad days bounty!His Mom cooked one of the cauliflower for dinner and was singing the praise of organic veg.I know by now that what we grow tastes so much different from what we buy but the cauliflower is a real eye opener as to what fresh veg should taste like! I did not put in too many plants ,not wanting all of them to produce together but so far they are developing two each week which is fine. Kevin with his crop of onions which he is very proud of, he has better onions than I have! I showed them how to put in one onion set and the kids did the rest themselves. Aoife's pumpkin the biggest of them on the pumpkin patch so far.All of th...