An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

 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...

 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...

Shopping has commenced in the garden centre for the new season.Seed potatoes, onion sets and shallots, enough to be getting on with at present! Seed potatoes are all first earlies, we decided this is what we would grow last year and will continue for this year. Early potatoes are priceless especially when you can dig your own! They will probably escape blight or at least the worst of it. They are at their most expensive early in the season, at the moment we can buy 10kgs of Roosters for 2.99! Home Guard, Sharpe's Express & Duke of York are going in, I still have to source Colleen which we have grown each year. There will be a lot more space given over to potatoes this year,it is a staple we use a lot of and with the recession continuing unabated we are going to grow produce we buy on a regular basis. First earlies can be used within 12 weeks from sowing. Second earlies 14 to 16 weeks and main crop at least 20 weeks and are suitable for storing over winter. First earlies mean we...

While on Irish gardeners Forum on Tuesday night I followed a link for buying seeds and discovered I could buy seeds on Ebay!I browsed and found this Seedaholic ebay store with a huge amount of flower and vegetable seeds at very reasonable prices and they are based in Co Mayo in Ireland. What really took my attention was the amount of detail they gave about sowing, looking after the plants, harvesting and uses of the various plants. I ordered 4 varieties at 1.00am on Wed morning and they arrived in the post this morning!! Beautifully packed with all their information typed out plus a separate sheet on how to look after and store seeds. They have their own website www.seedaholic.com which I will be visiting for seeds and information!This is the info that came with the Coriander seeds, all the seeds came with similiar detailed info! Coriandrum sativum "Leisure" Coriander, Cilantro, Chinese Parsley Packet containing 2 grams, Average contents 200 Seeds. Hardy Annual, Herb Flowe...

I went down to the shed today to open the door as it was sunny and bright. This is the sight that met me. I stared in disbelief trying to think what had happened to the trays of seed potatoes.Some trays had been pushed aside and others had chunks nibbled out of them. I can only think mice or worse , rats?! I have never had any type of foodstuff in the shed so how did they suddenly realise the seed potatoes were there for the taking? A close up of some of the damage done. On closer inspection I would have to think a rat ( I am hoping singular)! I will have to replace the seeds so I went back to the Ravens Court garden centre and told them my tale of woe. It seems rats have been known to cause this type of damage to any type of stored crop. I was told the seed potatoes can be rescued by cutting off the damaged parts as long as there is an 'eye' in the remaining part.The thought of even handling them is not pretty. I bought more seeds but before I put them out I was advised to set...

I pulled up the row of parsnips, they had lots of frost and I may not be out to the plot on a regular basis to pick them. The leaves had withered back from the frosts so I had to dig them out. There was a huge variation in size, due probably to sowing as seeds a little too late. I went back in the blog to the first post mentioning parsnips and the seeds went in on 23rd may.That is the great benefit of keeping the blog I can keep track of when and how we put things in. A close up of the size variation! They were all a good length as the ground was well dug, the longest one measured 15ins from top to tail end.The photo shows a normal sized one and 2 smallees one even looks a little like a tadpole!Seeds will be in fine and early next year. The garlic has come up and I think is now just marking time until the ground heats up a little in Spring ,when hopefully they take off growing. The winter onions came up OK and were making good growth but something seems to be eating or pulling the tops...

I finally made it out to the plot on Wed morning!It was sunny and mild(ish).The leeks are growing fine and I pulled these 3, there is a nice length of white flesh on them.The parsnips will get a post of their own and also the celery, this is the saga of the Sprouts. This is how I left them after clearing all the damaged leaves and spotted sprouts, and re netting them as some rabbits had found a way under the net! The sprouts on the end of the plants were nibbled and had opened as they should have been picked some time ago!I pulled off all the end ones and added them to the compost in the no dig patch.I pulled any sprouts suitable to pick to give the upper ones a chance to develop in time for the Christmas dinner,which is the whole point of growing our own sprouts. This is the black spot close up. It did not look pretty,a lot of leaves were yellowed which I think is normal, but a lot of them were covered with black spots. Some of the sprouts had black spots on them. Once the outer leave...

Today's harvest, white turnips, carrots, 3 tomatoes and the tiny potatoes are from our main crop of Kerr's Pinks pops . I know they should not be lifted until September but these are the ones that were sprayed for blight and as a last resort the stalks were cut down to prevent the blight from travelling down to the tubers. I could not wait until Sept, my curiosity got the better of me so I dug out one just to see if they were OK and they are! Thank you Bluestone and of course Zwena for the advice! Teasel heads, beautiful but prickly! I wondered what these enormous plants were, they are in an overgrown patch at the side of the communal greenhouse. I found out they are Teasels. The heads were dried and used to lift the pile on fabric and were used in the textile industry long ago,or dried and used by florists and are often seen in dried flower arrangements at Christmas sprayed silver! This gives some idea of the damage done to the gooseberry bushes. The leaves have been stripped...

Kevin wanted to make a scarecrow last year to keep the birds from our fruit. We did not get around to it but this year we are organising a family day to do it.My son in law Rob is in charge of planning,the kids are in charge of getting the stuffing and 'bits' together. We still were not sure of how to actually put one together so Kevin's Mom, Aisling volunteered to go online and 'Google' scarecrow! I might add Aisling is 8 months pregnant so this her contribution. Lo and behold she found Scarecrow instructions on a New Zealand website! http://www.bestgardening.com/ I have been on the site and even though it is mainly for the climate in New Zealand there is a wealth of general information which can be used by any gardener ie; A Caffeine Fix for Slugs and Snails In one of the best pieces of gardening news in recent years scientists have discovered that slugs and snails detest caffeine. Pouring the dregs of your morning coffee on the ground will drive them away. Even ...