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 ...

 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...

 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 ...

The plot is taking shape but the weather is not helping, which is everybody's complaint on this windswept isle.In view on the left side are onion beds, 1 red baron and 2 white then potato beds.Across the back fence are raspberry canes ,rhubarb and globe artichoke ,all moved from the previous plot at the Hydro Farm. White fleece, back left side is covering one of Billy's raised beds. I sowed carrots, Pak Choi and beetroot in the bed today and covered with enviromesh, even the carrot fly may be deterred with the cold weather, but covered the bed 'just in case' ! The second raised bed is empty awaiting top soil and manure to sow courgettes which are on the bedroom windowsill as I speak hoping the weather will improve before June to put them outdoors. There is a space left beside that bed to take the Sweetcorn which are struggling in the back garden at the moment. I had moved them outdoors at home to harden off but had to cover them today with fleece to protect th...

  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...

If Before I start on stress, a rainbow appeared over the allotment today as we were leaving so I will take a deep breath and think beautiful thoughts!I had noticed when I tried to leave comments on some blogs over the past week or so word verification kept telling me I was putting in the wrong letters! Yesterday I spent hours visiting all of the blogs on my sidebar which had been  updated in the past month and tried to leave a comment.Any of them with word verification would not allow me, I tried each 3 times, a slow process after writing a comment.If anyone reading this and whose blog is on my sidebar has not had a comment from me then your blog will not allow me to do so.I have now removed word verification from my own blog to make things easier, I will see how much spam I get! ! This hatbox was delivered to me on Friday, I was mystified when I saw it arriving wondering had I been on Ebay in my sleep ordering frivolities! It was my beautifully w...

Time flies, I feel guilty for not posting more often but it just seems like a few days since I last posted, am I turning into Rip Van Winkle??!! Blogger has changed since my last posting so I had to find my way around my own blog! The weather is very changable here, sunny days, freezing nights ,wind, rain in fact typically Irish. We put in a green manure over the winter months it was our first time using it and results were inconclusive to say the least.This one was in early and grew fine, here it is just coming into flower which if my memory serves me right shoud be cut down now. Green manures are supposed to help stop leaching of nutrients over the winter months through wind and rain, using a legume sets nitrogen in the soil for later crops.It is now recommended to put in a green manure between crops, not leaving the ground bare at any season for any length of time as it also keeps down the weeds and saves some work in the weeding dept. The same patch after I cut the tops down ...

"The relics of Auld Decency" Our scarecrow got a makeover for the open day! It was the most successful Open day so far with friends,family and growers from other allotments and some GYO people also came along.The sun shone but there was a gale force wind blowing all day, we were windswept by the time we left to come home! Young Jack did not like the scarecrow and growled at him each time he passed. Then Jack discovered strawberries on tap! Our strawberry bed came in for a lot of interest all day, people were interested in the difference growing them in a raised bed made. Some of the crowd down the plots, the gentleman in the foreground grows veg down on Hare island off the coast of Baltimore in West Cork and said it would be considered a relatively calm day down there when I said it was very windy today! Each year we raise money for a charity and this year it was for Bernardo's Children's Charity.The marquee was set up with a mouthwatering array of home made cakes,tea...