An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

We have finally dug out the last corner of the plot, its been sitting under plastic sheeting for months to break down the high grass.The plastic was removed and the dead grass could be easily pulled away making it possible for a fellow plotter to come in with a rotavator to break up the ground.  We then dug it over thoroughly and removed the scutch grass roots and the stones.  I went on a road trip near Kinsale on Mon and brought back 4 bags of seaweed in the boot of the car! Wellie boots are compulsory for this task. I did'nt want to get seaweed from the harbour area as it is possibly polluted with diesel from boats and various other unmentionables. The seaweed was not loose at the waters edge so it meant  collecting it at low tide, and taking conservation into account. I took a large scissors and  cut approx half of each plant leaving the roots still attached to the rocks.The 4 bags only covered about 1/3 of the proposed potato patch for next year so at le...

 We have learned over the years its a mistake to sow everything together as you end up with a glut of different veg and if it is a hot summer as this one has been (so far) then you don't want to be cooking every day to use up the veg. I had some of these seeds which are Sutton's Speedy veg they are ready to harvest in 10 weeks from sowing which would take us to the end of Sept and into Oct therefore  utilising  the ground as much as possible and for those of us paying for allotments that is the bottom line. The first early spuds, a lovely variety called Premier has just vacated its space so I have followed up with planting out my leeks and also sowed these veg varieties in any spare space. Baby beets,turnips and carrots.They are picked and used small so are tender and tasty as we can vouch for the carrots which we have been using in another bed already!  Thinnings of an earlier sowing of the Speedy baby veg and sugar snap peas with the Premier e...

 Lettuce of varying colours and stages of growth under the plastic cloche. Spinach at the very far end is coming on slowly.  Blossoms are coming out on the broad beans, these have really taken everything the very unseasonable weather has thrown at them.They are not quite as tall as I would expect but hopefully they will continue growing while producing blossoms and pods. Semi permanent brassica cage in place today, not a very pretty sight but hopefully (a word we seem to be using a lot of this year) a useful one!  More rain with some sunshine today, other parts of the country  have thunder & lightening so we shouldn't complain down here! I have worked out an easy method of uploading photos and text, just do one photo at a time, Simples! Networked Blogs have been sharing my blog onto FB almost as soon as I hit the publish button. I found with the last post it took nearly 24 hours to do it?! I think it is now one of the services on FB payment plan!

 Posts in position for the wire fencing because we have been told that rabbits are also a big problem up here!Billy dug a trench along the fence line to bury the end of the wire to stop said rabbits from tunneling underneath. Windbreaker was then added for extra protection for plants as it is a wide open field! It is hard to see in this pic but the first permanent bed is in place across the back fence. I slipped 4 raspberry canes, 3 stools of rhubarb and 1 Globe Artichoke from the plot in The Hydro Farm. The shed has to be put into place this weekend before digging out the other beds ASAP! Potatoes are still chitting in the shed. Onions are waiting to go in. Seedlings are backing up at home waiting to be hardened off  Seeds planted today were Sugar Snap.These handy little seed trays had grapes in them, nice and high with air and drainage holes already in place and a  lid to act as an incubator Two of them just fit nicely into another reusable...

Cauliflower & cabbage plants, these were bought and potted on into larger pots and will be repotted probably twice more before going out into their permanent plot.They have been netted against the birds which would love a taste of some nice green veg to vary their winter diet.  Our seed potatoes chitting in the shed, not a whole lot but we don't have a lot of space and it will be late by the time we get them in  The rhubarb which I broke off  the big plants we had on the Hydro, I have one in the garden here which is growing fine these got 'a touch of frost' the other night and are looking a bit sorry for themselves I set to on the seed box last night and discarded out of date seeds and opened packets.I had been tidying out one of the spare rooms and came across a gardening journal which I had started last year. I start one every year but then forget about it! I was amazed at the amount of seeds I had already sowed by this time of the year so we will have ...

We have lost a lot of time to clear the plots and get ready for winter due the the weather recently.I spent a few hours there on wed when the sun shone unexpectedly. I dug out the roots bed and brought home some unusual specimens! It took me the best part of an hour to dig out 8 parsnips!Last year we had a 4 kg monster and that was just the part I was able to unearth. This year I specifically picked seed which was recommended for small gardens and containers?!They were long and big, most of them coming in at a kilo weight.The seeds were planted back in late Feb as parsnip seeds are supposed to be the first to go in, because of slow germination I planted more in late May and they were of a much more acceptable size even though only 4 of them grew! I spent the whole evening scraping ,peeling, blanching and freezing parsnips.I know they can be saved in sand but I don't have the space to keep them over winter like that so freezing is the best option for me.For all of their size I ended...

I went out to the plot today to plant some winter cabbage and lollo rosso which was growing at home in seed trays. I had also planted seeds of kale and transplanted 6 healthy seedlings into a larger tray as 6 was more than enough for us. They were growing into nice healthy plants until a couple of days ago ,when I checked them one morning the kale had simply disappeared overnight! Our courgettes are very slow growing this year and a glut of them is not likely either.There were 2 nice ones yesterday and today they had been nibbled by something! I planted out 3x Golden acre cabbages and 4x Wheeler's Imperial in one of the onion beds which Kathryn had cleared.After I had taken the photo, they had cabbage collars put in place, against the cabbage root fly, netting against the rabbits and pigeons and slug blocker against the slugs,am I missing anything?! No ,not a mummy ,lollo rosso lettuce plants in the vacated broad bean bed.I put the fleece over them to keep some heat in and the slug...

Beautiful Spring day today, I was able to spend most of the day on the allotment, I even persuaded youngest S.Barry to come out and paint the shed. He is just starting here but got it all done in double quick time. The two plastic bags are protecting the 2 Goji berry bushes which are covered in leaves and I did not want any mishaps with them! I sowed carrots in the barrel in the greenhouse, again Amsterdam 3 Sprint. I am hoping to have an early crop of carrots before the outdoor ones are ready?!I filled the lower half of the barrel with spent compost from last year and just put new compost on the top layer with a handful of Fish,blood & bone. Kathryn spent Sunday turning over and picking stones off last years squash & pumpkin bed as this year it is going to house roots ie: carrots & parsnips. I spent today making a new bed (on left of scarecrow).This was a potato bed last year but had not been boxed in. I did that today and dug it over thoroughly because the idea of raised ...