An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

I had made an Aran jacket for Callum some time ago and his Mom had kept it for Easter.They called over on Mon so I could see him all dressed up! Callum loves the camera and modelled for me. Is he adorable or not?!He is now crawling and into everything so posing on the couch only lasted for a few minutes then he wanted to be down and doing things! We had very severe gales over the weekend and particularly last night, I went to bed very worried about the greenhouse but have to say it is still standing and if it survived that it will survive through the rest of the year.All the pots and trays did not move thanks I would think to having cable tied the shelves to the frame so there was no movement inside.I surrounded the edges of it with anything that I thought would anchor it down, there are bags of compost around the inside also. The lettuce I planted out last week, I had noticed one leaf which could have been eaten or broken, the second morning another one had the same damage. I had read...

Bats! The soulmates of Count Dracula and spawn of the devil! Shadowy, secretive creatures of the night, that flit and dive with sudden zest, swooping over frightened heads, the fluttering of their wings marking their swift passing. "They’ll get caught in your hair!" someone shouts, as squeals of fear split the night and all break into a panic- stricken run. The irony is that most of these petrified individuals are men! Another wet and very windy day, no gardening possible so I went looking online for the above site and found a very good read! One of our new allotmenteers Ger, had told me about it a couple of weeks ago. I am not a bat lover but then I only saw my first bat about a year ago! They seem to have got very bad press and publicity and as a natural species seem to be in danger.The site features some great photos of ruined castles and houses, these are the bats preferred dwelling which had probably added to their mystique. An excellent site, they seem to be based here ...

Happy Easter to everyone I hope the weather is good wherever you are. It will be cold and windy here but we are promised a big improvement by wed next.I took a stroll around the garden during one of our sunny spells today and was pleasantly surprised to see what had popped up in the last couple of weeks.The watering can was behind the plastic greenhouse doubling as ballast in case of gales, these purple pansies since last year have come up and flowered! I have put it back out where I can see them now. My sweet peas were one of the casualties of the big freeze, I had some growing from seed I had saved last year and had moved them to the shed when the weather got bad. I completely forgot about them and I was wondering what the dried out pots of compost were doing on the bench when I remembered my poor sweet peas. I bought 2 pots of them in Atlantic Homecare for 1.99e each on Thursday. They were crowded into the small pots,it is still too cold to plant them out so yesterday I transplanted...

Yesterday was warm and dry for a few hours so I worked in the greenhouse pricking out plants and planting up into bigger pots.I planted out some of the winter cos lettuce into a tub but covered them with plastic in case of frost. Looking into greenhouse, snapdragons on the stand and broad beans on the top I pricked out over 220 antirrhinums (snap dragons)I had the seeds left over from last year and they are tiny so I sowed the lot of them never thinking they would all germinate!They came down from the bedroom windowsill yesterday and after pricking them out into trays I thought they would need some extra protection as the forecast for last night was more cold and frost. I wrapped the stand in bubble wrap inside the greenhouse and after checking them today they are all looking perky none has toppled over due to the cold so far.I am sure there will be lots of takers for any extras! The shelves on the left side have cauliflower,leeks calabrese,marigolds and on the bottom shelf Spinach and...

I got a beautifully scented package in the post yesterday, Anna who had asked to me to do the guest post sent me some of her handmade soap. Anna is a very talented lady who does evening classes in gardening and crafts in Mullingar in Co Westmeath.Anna has another blog and the soap making is included in that.Last year when I had so much dried lavender I would have loved to make soap or bath bombs but could not find any similar classes down here, I may have to book a weekend in Mulligar for next season! The soap on the left is seaweed soap, seaweed has amazing properties and for an island nation like ours surrounded by sea and coastline we do not utilise it enough. The soap on the right is Gardeners soap, a handmade castille soap with Olive oil,coconut oil,rain water,calendula and orange peel. The children are off school for the Easter break and today we went to visit one of my daughters in Castlemartyr in East Cork. We passed Loughderra lake and I had to stop to take some photos of th...

I uploaded my pics in reverse order! Calendulla seedlings ,these are seeds I saved myself from last year, so I was delighted to see them coming up I sowed a few of each tomato, these are 100's and 1000's a tiny cherry tomato they were the first up, I have taken off the lid now to stop them from getting spindly Gardener's delight coming through. The Moneymaker and red peppers are the only ones not to show anything so far, I will give them another few days before resowing I will have anthirriniums coming out my ears! These will have to be pricked out hopefully before the weekend.They will have to stay indoors even then as the weather is gone back to cold with snow showers around the country I baked an apple sponge today, I bake every few days but forget to take a pic!This is a pastry base, with apples sliced and softened slightly in a saucepan,with a sponge top.The top is a basic queen cake mix of 4ozs marge,4ozs sugar, 2 eggs and 6 ozs flour.It has to be cooked at a slow ove...

I cannot upload a photo not even one! Blogger uploads and says click done and then the photo disappears into cyber space! Update I have just uploaded one so I am now publishing in case it disappears again! The Irish blog awards were announced on Sat night, the category I was short listed in was won by bicycletic an excellent blog and worthy winner. I also feel a winner as my blog was considered good enough to be nominated by Catherine and was short listed from hundreds!I have also visited the shortlisted blogs which were all excellent and Marie's Beyond Breast Cancer is uplifting and reaches out to so many people.I was also honoured to be asked to write my very first guest post by Anna My niece Catherine has just self published her first book and it is available to buy as of today. Congratulations and well done Catherine! Catherine has set up a blog detailing the trials and tribulations and gives very sound advice to anyone considering going the same route,she has also set up...