An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

Jack came to the allotment with me on  Wed, it was sunny but cool. I told Jack there was pirates treasure buried in one of the raised beds and it kept him occupied for ages digging! One side of the overgrown plot had been dug over by a mini digger and sods were piled up roughly around the edges. I spent the time digging a trench around the edges and sinking some tiles I had found languishing in my shed at home, hopefully it will deter some of the skutch grass roots from finding their way onto the plot, fingers crossed anyway! We bought some plants to fill up a pot which we found buried under the grass, they are to attract and feed the bees who live..... here at the end of the line of plots! The Beekeeper paid for the plot just to keep one hive on it, I hope it will be a case of live and let live for the summer months. The bees seem to be dormant at the moment with just the odd one buzzing around. The weather has changed drastically today with strong winds and lashing...

I cannot believe I have not blogged since 31st July?! Where do the days and weeks go? Being very busy on all fronts takes up a bit of time but I have been on the plot and I have to say after such a late start we are very happy with our veg from the 'new' allotment. There is no point in back tracking so this is Mondays harvest, courgette,sweetcorn,globe artichokes and tomatoes and a few raspberries also. The 3 courgette plants had romped away producing to such an extent we were giving them away and had done all we could with them.The plants had grown to ginormous size at this point and then stopped producing. I cut back all of the huge old leaves, leaving only the newer ones at the top of the plant, fed them with the Comfrey tea and lo and behold they are now producing again at a much slower pace I might add, each plant now has two fruits and some new flowers. The courgette bed after being stripped, you can see how much they grow in length from the base! The leeks a...

 My beautiful lily which grows in a pot just outside the patio door was sending out the wrong signals, I kept staring , not quite sure what I was seeing. The leaves were either half gone or semi transparent and there were black lumps as I thought on the undersides of quite a few of them, then I spied this lone red beetle on a leaf.  I have never seen a Lily beetle before but immediately knew that is what it was. Because I had become aware of the damage almost immediately on looking at the Lily I can only suppose it was not there this morning and had either landed or hatched out and immediately set to work!  I took a photo of the Lily just in case it does not survive another day! I searched the shed and came across this bottle and on reading the different bugs it dispatches there is the lily beetle, not a red one but a beetle just the same. I drenched each leaf on top and the underside and then got tissue, cleaned each leaf and then sprayed again to be sure...

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 ...

 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...

This year was the 100th year of the prestigious Chelsea Flower show, I had not been before but my sister Kathleen had been there twice over the years. It was sunny for most of it but of course 'sods law' on the one day we were there it rained almost incessantly. it spoiled it not alone for us although we got to see nearly everything but for the shop/stall holders and all of the outside exhibitors. There are not a lot of vegetables at Chelsea it is predominantly a flower show! This stand was gardening through the century, this part was the Big House before the world wars. Cactus of all shapes and sizes! Don't throw anything away, it can be reused in the garden!There were some very clever reuses of items for plants. Irises and tulips Gnomes have never been a welcome in Chelsea but this year they have made an entrance Sis Kathleen getting up close and personal with a Chelsea pensioner, the show is held in the grounds of the Hospital where the Chelsea ...

 Sat morning looked promising so we set off to do a bit of plotting. GS Callum came to lend his expertise and I think thoroughly enjoyed working in 'his' garden! This is our second raised bed which is earmarked for the cucumbers which are languishing on my bedroom windowsill while waiting for the right conditions. It will be filled with horse manure from our previous allotments on  the Hydro Farm  which Zwena has very generously said we can use.It will create a 'hot bed'  for the cucumbers, then the problem will be getting Callum to dig elsewhere! Having a look around to see where else he can lend a hand?! Tea break is a very important part of gardening! The sand table was on our previous plot and it has been relocated also as we have a few mini gardeners to be amused. We could have the best watered plot on the site!The site is fairly sheltered on most sides but the incessant wind we have been having dries out the ground faster than we ...

  Firstly let me congratulate Matron for winning 4th prize for her Giant Pumpkin! First time entering a competition and winning a very decent prize indeed.Pop over and visit matron's blog to read all about it. . Secondly, in relation to my recent problems with word verification and removing same from my blog....every day I have to delete comments from Spammers.They seem to just read the legend Word verification free blog and think they can leave weird comments advertising some really weird websites?! Wasting your time Spammers, all comments remain unpublished until I approve them! That is plain English and easily understood not like some of the archaic pidgin English I have come across in these comments.            Anyway....some short time spent on the allotment as it has gotten cold and wet again and the evenings have really drawn in early, the herbaceous bed is going to be just that, I redug it yet ag...