An Organic Lifestyle (Organic Growing Pains)

This pic was not even taken when I began this post! I was working on the computer when I happened to glance outside ,to see my plastic greenhouse lurching over to one side.We have the remnants of hurricane Katia sweeping the country today,while it is making landfall up the west and NW coastline we are getting some strong gusts of up to 90 klm and hour. I went out to try to save the greenhouse but instead ran in for the scissors and cut off any tomatoes still on the plants as some of them had been broken and bent over.The uprights of the greenhouse had come apart so trying to set it right in this wind is a no go, time to take it down for the winter I think! The hens are staying in the comfort of the hen house just looking out, they obviously do not like getting their feathers ruffled! I had an idea to try making Piccalilli as we had lots of side shoots from our Broccoli, something which has benefited from the funny summer weather. I remembered Matron had made it last year and found the ...

I am finding it very hard to motivate myself to blog at the moment!We have come to the end of the summer season and looking back we are still waiting for it to happen.We have officially had the coldest summer on record and growing veg has been a real challenge this year. This time last year we were looking for ways to use up our tomatoes which were ripening at an alarming rate. I read a number of articles and readers letters especially in Garden News that banana skins help tomatoes to ripen, at this stage we will try anything! Some of the cooking done over the last few weeks using produce from the plot. Broad bean, chive and smoked salmon bread, lovely but very filling.Would be good for a picnic or a starter with a salad. Our cauliflowers are developing heads at last ,not very big but who's complaining?I planted 6, 2 of them had tiny heads which turned a pinkish colour, hardly from the sun?! Courgette and blue cheese soup with bacon and cheese scones. Jam making has...

Hi,sorry for the long absense from the blog and thank you all for leaving comments. I have been busy and my computer was not turned on for days at a time.The allotment has kept me busy most days and the evenings were spent blanching, freezing,baking and jam making! We have 2 nice pumpkins on the White Ghost plant. I discovered blackberries hiding under branches when I tidied up the fruit bed, just enough to add to the morning cereal. I was loud in my praise of cabbage collars recently and the proof is here to see!Two of the 7 plants which are coming on nicely had dead snails on the collars. They are impregnated with a slug deterrent which seems to be working. The autumn fruiting raspberries, hard to see properly through the netting but there are a good many of them ripening . Blueberries are ripe and juicy, these photos were taken before I cleaned up the bed and cut back the summer raspberry canes. The lower branches of the blackcurrant bush were touching the grou...

I went out to the plot today to plant some winter cabbage and lollo rosso which was growing at home in seed trays. I had also planted seeds of kale and transplanted 6 healthy seedlings into a larger tray as 6 was more than enough for us. They were growing into nice healthy plants until a couple of days ago ,when I checked them one morning the kale had simply disappeared overnight! Our courgettes are very slow growing this year and a glut of them is not likely either.There were 2 nice ones yesterday and today they had been nibbled by something! I planted out 3x Golden acre cabbages and 4x Wheeler's Imperial in one of the onion beds which Kathryn had cleared.After I had taken the photo, they had cabbage collars put in place, against the cabbage root fly, netting against the rabbits and pigeons and slug blocker against the slugs,am I missing anything?! No ,not a mummy ,lollo rosso lettuce plants in the vacated broad bean bed.I put the fleece over them to keep some heat in and the slug...

We seem to be getting every second day dry with some sunshine then a day of continuous rain.I spent most of Tues on the plot tidying up and doing some serious weeding! Photo is of an Iris, I bought a pack of summer flowering bulbs in Lidl some time back but so far they have been all Irises. Kathryn had dug over some of the potato bed which had been vacated and I put in the winter leeks. These were in a tray at home and I have to say they are the smallest leeks I have ever planted out, hopefully they will come on now they are in their permanent bed. The Lazy Housewife bean has recovered from its hen ordeal and there are 2 pods on it so far, I am not going to use them but save them for next year's seed. They were given to me by Matron when she visited Cork last year, I did see on her blog that they should be left to dry on the plant to prevent mould. Peas, sadly neglected by us!I should have put more raffia up the poles as they grew as they had twined around each other for support.T...

I have taken quite a long break from blogging but we have been busy over the last couple of weeks! My gardeners took off to spend time on a boat on the Liverpool Leeds Canal negotiating 5 stair locks etc and had a whale of a time! I took off to Robert's Cove and spent time treating the deck,badly overdue!I took my time and got a nice suntan as a bonus,I read books and generally chilled out. D.Aisling was on hen duty while I was away and when I got back G.son Scott has now decided my name is Nana Chickens! My time on the computer was short and spent setting up an Etsy shop ! I made some Lavender wands and hearts and they are for sale there, more items to be added later.I need to spend some more time dickying it up a bit. We had G.son Scott's 3rd birthday with a BBQ in Robert's Cove We had G.son Jack's 2nd birthday (Scott's brother) Last but not least niece Catherine has written another book which is again self printed by her and available on Amazon .Catherine has als...

We spent today visiting Fota Wildlife park, a fantastic amenity right on our doorsteps. It is visited by tourists and locals in their thousands each year, there is the wildlife park which is charged for but the gardens of Fota House and the Arboretum are free to visit just pay a E3 parking charge on the way out. The entrance has been completely revamped since I visited last and these lifelike Giraffes greet the visitors The interior of the Orangery in the gardens has been restored, when I visited first this was almost derelict. The restored orangery which you spy through the trees The sunken Italian garden In the wildlife park, we spotted this Peahen with her chick The peacock preening himself, no babysitting for him! Not an African skyline but Fota!There are Giraffe, zebra, and oryx here. There are 2 seals ,this one was out sunning itself The beautifully restored Palm Walk. Why am I depressed? 'Cos he got the sweetcorn! There are islands in the lake where all sorts of monkeys li...