Grand stretch in the evenings!

The weather yesterday was glorious - rushed home from work and straight out to the garden after dinner. So much to catch up on after the cold weather we have had over the past couple of months. Big difference yesterday in the weather compared with the gale force winds the night before and of course today has changed back into heavy showers, so doubt I will get out again this evening.

Finally we got around to putting up some posts and wires for my fruit bushes. I am growing redcurrant, blackcurrant and raspberries and I have a gooseberry bush and a blueberry bush as well. Some of them were trailing along the ground which made them easy prey for slugs etc ( and also our lawnmower!). Also we had no defined edge for the border against the lawn, so this was needed to be put in. Above is the view along the side of the back garden.

This is the section behind the garage. I moved a few raspberry plant suckers (daughters) during the winter to this spot along with a blackcurrant bush cutting and so far they have all taken - can see new growth on them all. At the top left is my gooseberry bush which I hope to pick from this year as it was planted approx 18 months ago. 

Good link if you are thinking of transplanting your own raspberry suckers - 

How to Dig and Plant Raspberry Runners

This is the other side of the back of the site - the raspberry bushes have gotten very tall in places ( some same height as me 5ft 6"!!). There are still a few suckers I will have to dig out - more presents for friends! 

First posts and wire up - I am using the same wire they use here for electric fences - so it should be both very strong and durable. Also we got the edging in the whole way around.

I tied up some of the branches to wire to prevent them trailing along the ground. Also, should make picking from those branches a lot easier at harvest time.

We still need to put down some compost to help feed the bushes and clear the last weeds from around the plants and then we are going to put bark down to help control the weeds and moisture.

My garlic plants are coming along nicely. Onions planted to the front haven't started yet - but only down two weeks. I had a lot of trouble with birds and cats pulling up my garlic bulbs - had to cover the bed in a net until recently. Thankfully it doesn't seem to have bothered the garlic too much - great tough plant!

My broccoli is growing well in its mini cloche. I have some Pak Choi seeds planted or which a few have started to germinate under the cloche. 

I just love the colour the purple sprouting broccoli is giving to the garden at the moment - as well as the delicious veg for my dinner! 

In this photo, you can see the stump of the floret I cut two weeks ago and the new florets that grew around it once the space was released by the cutting. 

The rewards - a full bowl of broccoli! Great to have and to share!

I love self-seeding plants (and I don't mean the thistle in the above photo!) - above I have some violas that have self seeded in the bed just inside the gate. I usually buy some winter hardy viola annual plants in mid-autumn and I find that they usually survive the winter to produce a brilliant showing in spring/early-summer far exceeding the showing you get from ones brought in spring time. Also, they love to self-seed - which makes my job all the easier :-)

Now all I need is the weather to improve so I can get back in the garden!! 

April update 1

What a great start to April. Lovely sunshine last weekend finally which enabled me to get out in the garden. The weather is promised to change to wet, but warmer so now I am going to risk getting the garden started. Ten day weather forecast for Shannon here (time for umbrellas!) :

http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/Shannon+Airport+Ireland+SNN:9

As I went around the garden, one thing I did notice was there was a marked difference in the temperature in the soil of the raised beds compared with the ground.

Of course - I did pull in a favour off my hubbie to get the potato drills started. Planted my Sarpo Mira potatoes on Sat - these are a main crop variety. I spaced them about 12-14inches apart in the ground and covered them with a few inches of soil. I will build up the drills as the shoots appear. Sarpo Mira are supposed to be a good blight resistant potato - time and summer will tell. Fingers crossed! Only doing half the potatoes I did last year as I had such issues with blight due to the wet summer despite spraying them weekly.

Planted out my broccoli (calebrese) plants too - these I covered with a mini cloche tunnel to keep them from getting too damaged in the wind/rain that is forecast. This will also increase the temp for the seedlings so they should grow quickly. I also planted a small number of radish and pak choi (my first time growing from seed) seeds under the cloche - these will be well gone out of the way by the time the broccoli needs the space. 

My last remaining parsnips were evicted from their bed to make room for the onions which are following them in my bed rotation policy. Great to still be picking fresh veg even at this late stage. I don't think I will grow parsnips in my raised beds again though - they grew too well (poor complaint I know!) - as my raised beds are 2 ft - the parsnips were almost impossible to dig out ( help was needed again) and we had to break some of them to get them out.

I have now my first raised bed full of garlic, onions and shallots. I will be planting more shallots and onions directly into the soil in a couple of weeks - weather dependant. I am also waiting for my purple sprouting broccoli to finish before I can dig it up and use the space for the onions.

I brought out my spring onions that I had growing inside on the window sill to my temp greenhouse. Planted a few other seeds in there too to see how they do. As it is only a plastic greenhouse with a couple of holes, it wouldn't be as warm as a glass greenhouse. Also brought out a few other garden plants (morning glory, nasturtiums, tomato) to start to acclimatise them,

We got a gift of new gloves and I cannot rate them highly enough - I normally end up flinging my gloves aside to get fine work done or handle small plants, but these gloves above were absolutely excellent. The only thing I wasn't able to do with them was handle fine seeds, but really managed to wear them for everything else. Some of the gardening gloves I have tried in the past are either too bulky or else you still have dirty nails afterwards which often negates the reason for wearing them.

Found a website below that sells them in the UK (note, I have no connection with the company - just one I found through google and I haven't used them).

http://workwearcornwall.co.uk/nitrile-gripper-glove~266

Getting Organised

I have finally had time to sit down and order my seed potatoes, onions and garlic and figure out what order I am going to rotate my raised beds. And its something that isn't stopped by the weather, so I have no excuses for taking so long!!

Had another good Saturday in the garden clearing weeds and clearing out the last of the unused veg from the beds. I now only have 2 half of beds to finish off ( but only about 1/4 of the non-raised section ready!) Also, spent a couple of hours on my strawberry bed - it had gone wild with runners. I planted up a whole new bed with the runners as well as filling out the current bed (yes I know it should have been done at the end of the summer, but at least its done now!). A lot of the runners will be donated to friends as there is more that I need once I am sure which will take and which will fail. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the bed beforehand - will try to get some of the finished bed in the next couple of weeks.

Last year I just picked up my onion sets and seed potatoes from a local hardware store, but this year I decided to order online. I ordered the below from Mr Middleton shop online:
Potato:
After all the blight last year ( even with weekly spraying), I decided to give Sarpo Mira a go for my potatoes. Not going to grow as many as last year, just went with 2.5kg bag. Note - I have searched many of the big name DIY stores around my area and couldn't find this variety which is supposed to be one of the most blight resistant varieties.
Onions/Shallots:
Red Baron for my red onions - had these last year and they did wonderfully
Stuttgarter Giant for my white onions
French Shallots - Vigarmor
There is a good selection online - it depends on your personal taste.
Garlic:
Going to try 3 varieties this year - all different. And going to resist my normal temptation to shove a few of my own or last years growth into the ground as this gives a higher chance of rust growing on the garlics.
Garlic 'Elephant', Garlic 'Cristo', Garlic 'Solent Wright'

I had never seen the Elephant Garlic before and got a bit of a shock at the size of the 2 cloves that were sent!

Some serious cloves - you would want to love Garlic to eat these!!!

Anyhow - onto my bed order for the next two years. I have 5 beds in total.

2012	2013	2014
Strawberries /lettuce	Strawberries	Strawberries
Potatoes	Spring Onions & Lettuce/  Shallots – ½ bed each	Shallots /Spring Onions & Lettuce – ½ bed each rotated
Onions/ Leeks / Garlic	Calebrese / Brussels Sprouts/ Radishes	Carrots / Parsnips / Beetroot
Carrots / Parsnips / Beetroot	Onions/ Leeks / Garlic	Calebrese / Brussels Sprouts / Radishes
Calebrese / Brussels Sprouts/ Radishes	Carrots / Parsnips / Beetroot	Onions/ Leeks / Garlic

I have retired the potatoes out of the raised beds as my beds are nearly 2 foot high and I found them hard to dig out. Increased Strawberries to a full bed for this year on their own - I also have a bed in the back garden near the garage of Strawberries, but you can never have enough! :-)
So instead of a rotation of 5 beds, I am reducing down to a rotation of 3 beds and just rotating in the one bed for the other. This is also not an ideal order, but is what works space wise for me based on the veg we like to eat most. Please feel free to leave comments or improvement suggestions!! All feedback welcome.

Update 1 - short - but more to follow

Sorry I have been away the past few weeks - I finished up work and thought I would have more time on my hands home with the kids, but turns out I have a lot less :-) Trips to the beach, Bunratty Castle and catching up with friends has been dominating my time. I will get some more proper updates up later this week. These are some photos from a few weeks ago - will have more up to date ones uploaded then.

The weather also hasn't helped - think it has been a record July for rainfall so far in Ireland - and thats saying something!!

Onions are starting to swell

First carrot and beetroot picked at start of July

Potatoes and peas growing nicely start of July

Strawberry plant producing runners since start of July

Update around the site

This is an update of photos from around the site this morning. I have been away from it the past few days so was good to get back to it - back achingly good! :-)

Tomatoes in the greenhouse are growing well - plenty of flowers - waiting on the fruit to start forming next.

Chilli plant in the greenhouse - flowering nicely too - probably needs potting up soon

Spuds are growing well - some damage from the rain last week, but coming back nicely

Leeks closest and onions growing well

Spuds in raised bed - growing well - had a look at some of the earlies, but only pebbles yet but they were planted late

Lettuce on the left, bush tomato and basil under the cloche and strawberry plants with plenty of fruit that just needs to ripen

 

4 rows of carrots - all planted at different times. The ones in the toilet rolls are looking a lot healthier now

Beetroot - 2 rows

Onions in bed with leeks on the right

Parsnips - looking very healthy

Broccoli nearly ready to pick, Brussels sprouts and cabbage/cauliflower on the left

Rock garden - flowering nicely

Strawberry pot - again waiting to ripen!

Bed beside the rock garden - various shrubs and bedding plants in there, Also a family sunflower competition!

Potatoes in pot - very small

View back looking towards the house from the beds

Fruit trees and wildflower garden which has been a bit of a disappointment this year compared to last year - grass has taken over

Peas - mangetout to the front of the row and then petit pois - seem to be a bit behind most peoples

Our gift to the kids arrived today - bought a wooden playhouse - will update with photos once we get it together, hopefully over the weekend if its dry! Its a thanks to them for losing their parents most evenings to the garden.

Picked my first head of Broccoli this evening - couldn't wait - on the menu for dinner tomorrow!

Spuds

 

Earthed up the spuds that were sown out about a month ago. Also gave them their first spray for prevention of Blight - next year I am going to give the potatoes that are know to be most resistant to Blight a try as I would prefer not to have to spray.

 There were a lot of stones and rocks still in the soil so decided to use them as paths for around the raised beds. Hadn't been sure what I was going to use for around the raised beds whether to go with membrane or bark or fancy stones. This will do as a temporary measure and also gives me somewhere to keep the stones I keep finding! So far I have just put them down loosely - will sort them properly later on in the season - to do it right, I should clear off the stones, level it, put down membrane, clean the stones and then place them back - just so much done (and still to do) so far this year, I can't face it right now.  So far I have 3 of the beds surrounded and at least the same again of stones/rocks to pick. When weeds grow in the gaps between the stones, I am going to control them with vinegar (really only effective on young weeds or else you have to re-apply frequently).

 

As you can see from the above photo we are still waiting on delivery of our stone circle - would you believe Indian Sandstone has to come from India :-) On a ship somewhere in the ocean with no docking date - we have tried other types of stone, but no other style does a 5m circle. If we had known we would be waiting so long ( over 2 months now), we could have designed it for a 4m circle of which there are a lot of different stone types available(and in stock!).

The onions that were planted out later on are doing well - as they are directly in the soil there are a lot of weeds that keep popping their heads up so constant vigilance is needed to keep them under control.  I grew onions in slits cut in membrane before which was great as only a minimum of weeds managed to poke their heads out (at the slits). Might be something to try for next year. My hoe has taken over a life of its own at times and sent one or two of the poor onions flying!

Red bed

Going to do a section on each of the raised beds in my garden. As the red bed was the first one put in place, filled and planted, it was the obvious place to start.

This bed has the veg from the onion family which for me include garlic, red and white onions (funnily enough), scallions (spring onion) and leeks.

As the bed was only created and filled in Feb of this year - the garlics were a bit late being planted. I had them stored in the fridge to give them the frost kick-start.

The leeks were the last veg put into this bed - just last weekend. I had grown leeks from seed, but hadn't read up properly on the best practice for growing them, so ended up using store bought plants from B&Q.

The onions were planted early March - both the red and the white - the white took off very quickly, but the reds are now nearly catching up.

In the bed I have my scallions all sown in a line - they are in the bed about a month. Since they I watched a great video on the GIY Ireland website which gave a great suggestion on how to grown the scallions(spring onions). There are also many more excellent videos on their site on growing your own vegetables.

http://www.giyireland.com/videos/detail/spring_onions

Basically you grow ( as I have prepared here indoors for my next batch out) about 8 seeds per module in the seed tray. You do not thin them or separate them, you just plant out the whole grouping. Then when its time to pick - you pick the whole group similar as to how you would buy them in the shops. Inspired idea!

So far I haven't had any issues or work to do with this bed bar hoeing and rock picking ( was too much in a rush at the start to sieve the bed, but its definitely a job for next year!). My garlics are looking a little yellow, but I think this has been due to the bed drying out rather than rust - will wait and see.

I also grew some garlics on a flower bed between some roses and these were planted out in Nov/Early Dec. These had the dual purpose of growing garlic and also helping prevent some diseases and pests on the roses.

I have some onions and a handful of leeks growing in the soil. The onions were planted about two months after the onions in the raised bed. They are only planted about 3 weeks when this photo was taken. The leeks are at the far end in the shadow- only planted a week.