SPREAD IT AROUND
I’m outside and it’s wonderful. The sun is shining and the ground is dry. I was spurred on by the good weather last week to go out and collect a couple of trailer loads of very well rotted horse muck to put into the vegetable beds. I read an article recently that says bags of this stuff fetch up the €6. If that’s the case, I came home with €600 euro worth of poo in my trailer and I couldn’t have been happier.
DETOUR
I did take a slight detour over the border with the trailer. I used a lot of Highway Code hand signals when I was driving along (it’s usually other people who give me that hand signals, or gestures as I think they are more commonly called), as I wasn’t sure just how well the indicator and brake lights were working. I pulled into the B and Q car park, as I did, the few bags of old straw in the trailer left a bit of a trail. I got these to throw on top of the spud tops as they grow up, and I thought it was about time to get the seed potatoes.
“You’re too late mate.” Said the chap in the gardening section of the vast DIY centre. “We had earlies, and lates but they’ve all gone. There’s been a mad rush on them this year,” he tells me as I notice most of the salad vegetable seeds racks are empty too. “Apparently there was some chef bloke on the Late Late Show a week or two ago talking about growing your own, it’s made a big difference to the sales.” he says with a shrug turning back to his shelf stacking.
SPUDS
I spend half an hour choosing some seeds that are left. All my old favourites, including cut and come again salads, courgettes, mange tout and sweet peas and sunflowers for Julie. After I drop off the muck and straw, I take the trailer back to my friend. “I’ve left it too late for the spuds.” I tell him wryly. “Here” says Colm. “I have some left over.” He gives me four different types of seed spuds. I have Home Guard, from the Co-op, British Queens, Orla and some very special ones, that are almost a secret called Sarpo. These are a massive “as big as your foot” spud that has been grown in Inishowen by John Reilly in Malin. They are blight resistant and are excellent for our local climate. I leave full of glee planning to return the favour and give Colm some Kale seedlings in exchange, when they are grown.
SEEDS
I am getting our shed ready for the seed planting. It has plenty of light, as the back is made up solely of two very large, double glazed patio doors, which were taken out of the house some years ago.
I clean the tables and put a porous material down to retain the moisture. I am going to put my seed trays on top and I have treated myself to John Innes N°1 compost, which is very fine for seedlings.
CATTLE FODDER OR SAVIOUR?
I have tried to buy most of the vegetable seeds locally as the Co-op are stocking a good range this year, but I have had to go further a field for the likes of my Curly Kale. Still regarded as cattle fodder, we love it as a spring green. It can be grown in any garden and is ornamental enough to be put next to the roses and delphiniums in the herbaceous border.
ALL SET
So I am all set. I have got the spuds in. The raised beds outside are warming up with the sun and will soon be ready for planting out the herbs, carrots, peas, beans, spinach, onions, beetroot, spinach and a wealth of salad plants. Inside the makeshift greenhouse the trays are ready for the plants I like to start off indoors such as courgette, broccoli, and squashes. We lost most of our large seeds one year when we had them outside because of mice. I like to give these a bit more protection. This year too, Julie has decided to grow some alpine strawberries from seed, which might prove to be fruitful (groan).
LABELS
We won’t be short of labels this year either. I have made sure we have enough so there will be no doubt between the peas and the mange tout. I made loads of them by cutting apart old white plastic ice cream containers…. We all have our weaknesses.
ORGANIC GARDENING COURSE
I’m outside and it’s wonderful. The sun is shining and the ground is dry. I was spurred on by the good weather last week to go out and collect a couple of trailer loads of very well rotted horse muck to put into the vegetable beds. I read an article recently that says bags of this stuff fetch up the €6. If that’s the case, I came home with €600 euro worth of poo in my trailer and I couldn’t have been happier.
DETOUR
I did take a slight detour over the border with the trailer. I used a lot of Highway Code hand signals when I was driving along (it’s usually other people who give me that hand signals, or gestures as I think they are more commonly called), as I wasn’t sure just how well the indicator and brake lights were working. I pulled into the B and Q car park, as I did, the few bags of old straw in the trailer left a bit of a trail. I got these to throw on top of the spud tops as they grow up, and I thought it was about time to get the seed potatoes.
“You’re too late mate.” Said the chap in the gardening section of the vast DIY centre. “We had earlies, and lates but they’ve all gone. There’s been a mad rush on them this year,” he tells me as I notice most of the salad vegetable seeds racks are empty too. “Apparently there was some chef bloke on the Late Late Show a week or two ago talking about growing your own, it’s made a big difference to the sales.” he says with a shrug turning back to his shelf stacking.
SPUDS
I spend half an hour choosing some seeds that are left. All my old favourites, including cut and come again salads, courgettes, mange tout and sweet peas and sunflowers for Julie. After I drop off the muck and straw, I take the trailer back to my friend. “I’ve left it too late for the spuds.” I tell him wryly. “Here” says Colm. “I have some left over.” He gives me four different types of seed spuds. I have Home Guard, from the Co-op, British Queens, Orla and some very special ones, that are almost a secret called Sarpo. These are a massive “as big as your foot” spud that has been grown in Inishowen by John Reilly in Malin. They are blight resistant and are excellent for our local climate. I leave full of glee planning to return the favour and give Colm some Kale seedlings in exchange, when they are grown.
SEEDS
I am getting our shed ready for the seed planting. It has plenty of light, as the back is made up solely of two very large, double glazed patio doors, which were taken out of the house some years ago.
I clean the tables and put a porous material down to retain the moisture. I am going to put my seed trays on top and I have treated myself to John Innes N°1 compost, which is very fine for seedlings.
CATTLE FODDER OR SAVIOUR?
I have tried to buy most of the vegetable seeds locally as the Co-op are stocking a good range this year, but I have had to go further a field for the likes of my Curly Kale. Still regarded as cattle fodder, we love it as a spring green. It can be grown in any garden and is ornamental enough to be put next to the roses and delphiniums in the herbaceous border.
ALL SET
So I am all set. I have got the spuds in. The raised beds outside are warming up with the sun and will soon be ready for planting out the herbs, carrots, peas, beans, spinach, onions, beetroot, spinach and a wealth of salad plants. Inside the makeshift greenhouse the trays are ready for the plants I like to start off indoors such as courgette, broccoli, and squashes. We lost most of our large seeds one year when we had them outside because of mice. I like to give these a bit more protection. This year too, Julie has decided to grow some alpine strawberries from seed, which might prove to be fruitful (groan).
LABELS
We won’t be short of labels this year either. I have made sure we have enough so there will be no doubt between the peas and the mange tout. I made loads of them by cutting apart old white plastic ice cream containers…. We all have our weaknesses.
ORGANIC GARDENING COURSE
Are you interested in setting up your own vegetable plot but don’t know where to start? Mary Reilly is going to start an organic vegetable growing course at her farm in Fawn, Malin (Greenhill Farm) and has recruited Klaus Laitenberger, who was the former head gardener at the Organic Centre in Rossinver and Lissadell house to come along and start us on the road to self sufficiency. The course dates have yet to be confirmed, but it won’t be long as everything is starting to grow quickly now and we need to have the beds sorted. Contact Mary now to get booked in. 074 93 70029greenhillfarm@eircom.net .
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