An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

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...

Lots of pics to put up as they are sitting on my computer. Today was a beautiful day and I took the opportunity to get the remainder of the seed potatoes in the ground, mainly because I now need the space in the plastic greenhouse for the seedlings which are starting to take up more and more space.The seedlings will be left in the greenhouse only until the newest seeds planted need to come down from the bedroom windowsill by which time I hope the weather permits planting out on the plot. Yellow Perfection tomatoes were left on the windowsill as they were looking a little wan after the last repotting they have now overtaken the Incas which came down to the greenhouse.They are now repotted into 5" pots Spinach which will go out to the cold greenhouse on the allotment making use of it before the tomatoes are ready to go. The Inca tomatoes still in their 3" pots. Sweet peas in their toilet roll tubes. Bolthardy beetroot in peat pots, some did not germinate but may do so yet, if n...

I wonder where those 2 weeks went to?! I know the birthday celebrations went on a bit, I have been away for a few days (will do a post on my trip to Limerick ). I had a chest infection and have been off the cigarettes now for 7 days (who is counting?), not being able to breathe is as good a reason as any to give 'em up! Sitting at the computer has been curtailed as I would automatically reach for a cigarette. I did not go to the allotment last week as I did not feel up to it so this morning I did remember to take the camera and also do some winter tidying up. The harvest is winter warming veg, carrots, parsnips and cabbage, most of which have now been added to a big pot of soup which is cooling before blitzing with the blender. Would Pirates of the Caribbean like some real life veg from Davy Jones locker? These are what grew of our Celeriac plants, the photo makes them look quite large but they are less than golf ball size in reality!I added one of them to my pot of soup just to m...

I went out to the allotment yesterday for my first visit in over a week, Kathryn had been up a few times to keep things in order and continue harvesting.I noticed a clump of large leaves and decided to pull a parsnip. Pulling made no impact so I loosened some of the surrounding earth with my fingers, thought this is more like a turnip size than a parsnip and got a small hand trowel. This proved as useless but I did see that this was no ordinary parsnip! The large digging fork was brought into loosen more earth and finally the spade, by this time I had a fairly large hole excavated but there was no move from the parsnip!Short of bringing in a mechanical digger and disturbing the remainder of the plants,I pulled and tugged and eventually it broke off leaving I would think a fairly sizable chunk in the hole. The parsnip won the tussle as I ended up on my bum on the ground. I did take some photos of the parsnip in the hole but I must have inadvertently moved the settings on my camera and t...

First I must explain the blog change!I returned to my blog after a lapse of a few days to find my background had disappeared and a floating box saying this video had been removed by Photobucket.I am not a member of Photobucket so thought it was a computer glitch which would rectify itself, not so!I visited Lynda's blog to find the same floaty box and Lynda has gone to the trouble of investigating.I had got my background from Cutest Blog on the Block who it seems have now removed this background and anyone who had this or other removed backgrounds had the same problem.I got a background from Blogger but the background picture refused to stay and reverted to black after a couple of seconds so now I have this one ,also from Blogger but so far so good! I was able to spend most of today on the plot as I have no children this week, I weeded and watered and planted 3 short rows of swede turnips for the winter. Lots of delicious things to harvest but I had to bring them home to photograph ...

The onion bed is finally finished,only 8 parsnips germinated and the ends of the carrot rows are blank for some reason.I reseeded with parsnips and carrots and with the warm sunny weather they may germinate a little faster to fill in the gaps.This was precision weeding to find the veg in amongst the foot high weeds.The tall weeds were easier to pull, the low growing creepers were harder as they seem to have sunk their roots deeper.The fingernails are in terrible condition but what is new?!New bark mulch was put down on the paths. A reminder of what the bed looked like last week. We have had two days of rain , not heavy but fine and continous which was better as it soaked into the dry ground instead of running off. Potatoes : The warm muggy weather has brought a new problem...potato blight!We had a blight warning on Sunday evening and we sprayed on Monday morning. Tomatoes :Matron over on Down on the allotment blog has done an excellent tutorial on slipping the side shoots of the tomat...

I have not posted for a whole week so had to try to sit at the computer this afternoon.On Tues we got the news that my daughter's best friends husband had died, he had been battling leukaemia for some time.He had a bone marrow transplant back in January and we thought it was only a matter of time before he would be in remission but problem after problem arose which they dealt with bravely but it was not to be.The week took on a sombre note as we came to terms with the terrible news and thought of how sad a blow it was for his brave young wife and two small children, he should have celebrated his 37th birthday next week. It puts the small things we worry about in perspective. I did spend some time on the plot and was very glad that each day I was the only one there and it was ideal to reflect and spend some quiet time alone The weather continued dry and warm up to yesterday which was overcast and cloudy and at last today we got some much needed rain, not heavy just a gentle light ra...

Some photos of the plot, I remembered to take the camera today!The rhubarb bed was extended last week and I bought 3 new plants.They are Timberly Early, 6 plants might seem like a lot but we all use rhubarb and love rhubarb crumbles with cream! The one I moved a couple of feet suffered no ill effects and is growing nicely The work in the greenhouse, instead of pots which dry out quickly we are putting the tomato plants directly into the soil.I pulled back the membrane and gravel and the soil underneath was in very good condition. I cut down a scaffolding board and piled up a load of manure to top up, all it needs now is some compost and it is ready to grow. I will put in some spinach and lettuce while waiting for the tomatoes to go out. I bought a new gooseberry bush to replace the one the sawfly decimated 2 years ago. We missed having gooseberries last year. hard to see but this blueberry bush is covered in buds, the other two have some but are not as healthy looking as this one.The w...