Honeysuckle

A TRIP TO THE COUNTRY

“Now you just sit there and we’ll be out later with some drinks and a snack.” I’m ten year old and my brother and I are being softened up with the promise of pop and crisps in exchange for sitting in the back of my fathers Triumph Dolomite for the evening.

It’s our monthly trip into the country on a Saturday night and as usual we have started and ended the trip in a pub car park. My mother always loved the country; she would stand for a moment in a field to admire the view, take her Players Number 6 packet out, light a ciggie and say “Ah fresh air” as she inhaled the first puff and got back into the car.

Occasionally there were a couple of other children to annoy who had also been abandoned in a strange place, but tonight there is no-one around, so my brother and I sit waiting patiently for the bottle of orange and packet of cheese and onion.

FOBBED OFF
“Children are not allowed on pubs,” my dad said as he brought the tray of treats over over, “or we would let you sit in with us.” I believed him of course, completely forgetting that I was brought up in a pub and pulled my first pint when I was three.

HONEYSUCKLE
The car is parked by a hedgerow that has got some honeysuckle in flower. I loved this part of the journey, late evening as the light diminished. The smell of this hardy plant would get more intense and fill the car enveloping us as we sipped the sugary drinks through the straws.

EVOKING MEMORIES
Back to today. I’m outside in the garden and the light is fading. I have been cutting the hedges and working my way past the oil tank which is masked behind a wall of flowering honeysuckle (woodbine). The smell is heavenly and this evening (which is the best time to take in the heady aroma) it sends me right back to the days when my brother and I would sit in the confined space of the family car for long periods and try to get on throttling each other.

I have other memory smells of course, almonds reminding me of Play Doh and rancid fridges reminding me of my visits to my grandmother’s house, but they are not the same.

The honeysuckle was put next to the oil tank for a reason. When the tank was put in twenty years ago, apparently people would use it as a landmark from the main road as it was bright red and shone like the new light on the edge of Buncrana pier. Over the years the colour has faded and the plant has covered it up, so much so that it has to be cut well back at the end of the season or it will be in the house.







Oil tanks can be put underground now so they are less intrusive but if you have one that is in a prominent place and needs to be screened quickly, you could use wooden trellis and grow climbers such as clematis or wisteria. Be a bit wary of the Russian vine or mile a minute plant (persicaria) as it might grow quickly but it doesn’t know when to stop.


OTHER SCENTED PLANTS
We usually grow night scented stocks in containers near the back door every year to get the delightful wafts of warm perfume in the evenings, a memory for today. There are lots of other plants that are known for their scent too. Sweet peas, lily of the valley, lilac, roses (especially the older varieties like Mme Hardy), lupins, phlox and carnations. Jasmine is another fine example for a heady smell and certain varieties would help to screen the oil tank as well.

The most common aromatic plants to fill your senses when you are working outside are the herbs. Lavender, mint, lemon balm, sage basil thyme, oregano, chamomile (makes a great scented lawn) and curry plant are all so beautifully pungent that you only have to brush past them to get a release of perfume.

It’s funny how I can never remember my parents coming out of the pub after closing time. I always tried to stay awake but can only remember being carried out of the car and put into bed when we got home… the smell of fresh sheets…there’s another one…

Ice Cream

BRAIN FREEZE

I’m sat on a bench in town eating an ice cream in the glorious sunshine. I used to go for the ones that were specifically advertised for grown ups with plain chocolate and a sense of forbidden pleasure. I have gone away from that silly notion and now take great pleasure in the the ice cream cones you get out of those noisy machines in the shops that drive the staff mad. I tend to go for the 99’s with sauce too. And that’s just what I have today.

I’m getting to be quite a connoisseur of them too, I can tell if the machine is at the optimum temperature so when I get delivery of the cone the sugar filled swirl on the top won’t drop to the ground when I get my first lick. Anyway, I’m sat on the Main Street in Buncrana and a stranger greets me.

“Nice looking ice cream you have there.”

“Thanks.” I say in mid lick “It’s my only vice.” I add as the elderly woman, sporting two full Super Valu carrier bags, sits next to me. Just a little bit too close for comfort. I’m convinced she’s after my cornet, so I eat the flake in one go. She’s not having that.

“You’re that gardening bloke aren’t you?” Before I can digest the chocolate she continues. “My Dwarf French bean plants appear to be going a bit yellow. Is this some kind of mineral or trace element deficiency?”

She pauses for a moment to look at me still trying to swallow the chocolate and then continues. “They seem to be growing well, just getting a bit of a yellowish tinge to them. I gave them a top dressing of fish blood and bone about 2 weeks ago. It might be a nitrogen or magnesium deficiency…what do you think?” I nod in agreement, my brain has frozen with the ice cream…brain freeze…...

The carrier bag woman continues. “I’ll just leave them for a bit, maybe a drop of rain will bring them on a bit.” She gets up off of the bench and picks up the bags and as she walks away thanks me for the advice. I get the tissue from around the cornet and wipe around my mouth. “Mo pwoblem.”


GROWING ORGANICS….IE

Last week I was a plonker…plonking plants in any available space in the veggie patch. This week I am a plugger….plugging a new website venture….Organics.ie.

I am celebrating a hugely successful year with the gardening.ie website. It now gets a constant stream of people interested in all things horticultural and I am getting some very good feedback from the site. To date I am getting up to 1000 hits a week. To celebrate I thought I would set up a sister site called Organics.ie.

NEW WEB DIRECTORY
Organics.ie is a new web directory site for anyone wanting to access the ever growing number of people and companies who are producing organic products….or nearly organic produce (I like to call these companies Organics in Waiting) and services. The site will include ethical fair trade products and include micro businesses.

Organic products can range from home baking, gardening, cooking, clothing, jewellery, beauty care products and natural cleaning for the home.

Organic services can range from green building to Irish holiday and ethical investments.

I will also be adding articles, fun stuff and news stories of the day to make the site more accessible.


GROWING ORGANICALLY
I like the idea of the site growing organically like the products and thought that I could start local and add anyone from Inishowen onto the site that is in the trade…all free of course. There are a lot of small businesses in the North West and the present economic climate is ideal for small companies to get together and gain support from one another, the hugely successful Simple Living Fair that was held in Carndonagh at the weekend is confirmation of this growing band of traders who are riding the economic downturn. Companies like Chic-Hens, Glendowen Crafts, Inishowen Bogwood and Inishowen Home Baking to mention a few, are all doing their bit.

Contact me through the website or e-mail me on info@organics.ie if you would like to add yourself to the growing list of companies that are taking advantage of the introductory offer, and if you would like to add an article, you can do that too….

Am I a plonker?

I’m definitely a plonker…. it’s official.

In the vegetable patch there is something called crop rotation, this is where you rotate your heavy and light feeding plants to avoid getting any nasty pests and diseases in the beds. I do try to adhere to the rules and try to be organised with the planting but invariably I end up plonking plants in any available space I can to get them out of their seed trays instead of being methodical and planning where they should go.

Julie tends to put labels on the seed rows and organises herself and then I come along with my petrol powered strimmer and shred them into tiny pieces. This means that the courgettes are mixed with pumpkins and cabbages mixed in with the broccoli. It doesn’t matter though as we won’t get them mixed up when they deliver their crops.

PEAS IN A POD
There is one exception here though, peas and mange tout. They look so similar that you can’t really tell them apart. Every year we try to chew our way through pea pods instead of the soft flesh of the mange tout, whose pods are grown to be eaten. So we did take the precautions of planting both of them at each end of the garden, surely even I can’t get them mixed up now….

The peas and beans are starting to come on now and I should think so after all of the sunshine we have had over the last three weeks. We did plant out more seeds straight into the beds to come on with a second flush but none of them have appeared. We think that the mice got them.

ALPINE STRAWBERRIES
Julie wanted some alpine strawberries in the garden this year and sowed some of their tiny seeds. Most of them have all come up and have been transplanted into containers. They are very tasty and you get loads of them over the growing season. I also like the crunchiness of the seeds. I’m not sure if we will get any fruit this year but it matters not as we cut back an old hebe on the driveway and found a small family of about ten alpine strawberry plants hiding underneath. They have flowers already.
SUCCESSIVE SOWINGS
Another aspect of gardening that needs a bit of planning is successive sowings. I mentioned the peas and there are loads of others you can plant to extend the growing season, especially salad crops. Salad crops are ideal for sowing every three weeks or so to get fresh tasty produce all summer. It’s not too late to plant pick and come again lettuce, rocket, radishes and chives. Plant bedding plants and annuals in succession too. Julie has just planted out some more last minute night scented stock seeds for later on in the summer.
WEEDING
Weeding has been very easy this month because the ground is so dry. If you do a bit every week this will stop the plants from seeding and reduce the amount you will get next year. Julie has her favourite tool for weeding the vegetable beds, a small hand held hoe, and enjoys the close contact with the ground. I on the other hand, prefer to be standing upright with one hand on the hoe and the other holding a cup of tea….. I’m waiting for the long handled hoe from John and Mary Fruit hill farm delivery.

SOIL QUALITY
There is a big difference between the soil in our veggie patches. Some was heavily fed with well rotted horse muck and other beds had only garden compost. It’s our first year in the garden so it’s interesting to see the difference. Other factors might be light and water. One of the beds is in more shade and near to some trees so that might take away nutrients needed for healthy growing.
NO PRESSURE
We have low water pressure here, I can’t fathom out if it’s the water pipes leading to the house or if there is a blockage in the pipe. Either way by the time it comes out of the hose it hasn’t enough power to initiate a spray, it just sort of flops out and has a wetting range of about a foot so it’s more of an irritation than an irrigation system. We have utilised the big blue recycling bin, moved it next to the raised beds and filled that with water.
Now it’s just a question of pushing in the watering can and filling it up then walking the short distance to where we need to water. Although we have had a dry spell, there isn’t really much need to water a lot unless you have just transplanted some young plants and they are in the sun. Rain water would be the best system so if you can fit a butt to the down pipe of the house and collect it then all the better. This is a good point to note if you are on a meter. The council in Buncrana have a great system in place on their polythene tunnels. All of the water is collected from the roof and goes into a massive storage tank underground so it can be used when needed to water their bedding plants. The only drawback is the fact that they have to wait 2 months until the ESB fits a pump to get the water above ground and under pressure to work…. Hopefully the plants will be brightening up the Buncrana streets by then… In the mean time let’s hope they have more water pressure than I do………

Composting made easy

MAKE IT EASY ON YOURSELF

I’m outside fighting with an electric hedge cutter. It’s battery has spent the weekend being charged up, but for some reason can’t summon up enough power to get the blades to cut through anything thicker than a leaf before it moans and grinds to a stuttering halt. I thought I was buying a good one when I passed my money over the counter in the shop a couple of years ago, but I was wrong.



Tools sometimes don’t live up to their expectations, or maybe I expect too much. I am therefore resorting to the trusty pair of hand shears; until the co-op opens tomorrow when I can invest in a petrol-powered hedge.


Tools that last a lifetime

As I am on the subject of good tools, John and Mary from Greenhill farm in Malin are taking tool orders from Chillinton and Fruit Hill Farm. You can choose between a wide range of hand held devices from hoes to spades and cutting tools, that will last a lifetime and don’t rely on electricity to power them. You can contact Mary on 086 327 3315 for more information




Easily distracted

One job that can be done without any tools other than a fork is composting. I have just cut a few metres of hedge using the shears and have lost both the interest and the ability to hold the blades up, so, it’s time to check the compost bin to see how the hot weather is helping to speed up the rotting process.


COMPOSTING

The sunny weather recently will speed things up very nicely and if a compost is healthy and well managed, it will only be a matter of weeks before you have a lovely, sweet smelling addition to the veggie beds. Klaus from the organic course gave us a 1 minute guide to making good compost:


1-MINUTE GUIDE TO COMPOSTING


Three sections

If you have the space to create a compost bin with three compartments then all the better. Old pallets will do, John used concrete blocks that were lying around to make his. If you can have sections to remove in between the compartments then this will save you time when the compost needs to be turned.

Turn it.

Every time the heap is turned, micro organisms get a new blast of energy to break the products down. If you have the three sections then turn the first one into the second compartment, the second one can be put into the third and the first compartment can be for starting again. Compost should be ready as it goes into the third compartment.

Balanced ingredients.

Getting the correct mix of ingredients in the bin is vital for everything to rot down and not end up as a gunky mess. (If there is a yukkie residue coming from the base of the compost, this is nitrate pollution, so if we can avoid that, then all the better). Use any organic material but avoid meats if the bin is open (cooked foods and meat attract rats).
Layering.

Layer the compost heap with both green and brown materials. This will dry out the wet bits and wet the dry bits as well as allowing a good air circulation to speed the process up.
Shred the pieces

Smaller material will rot down faster so break things up as well as you can. Tear and scrunch up paper instead of putting the whole lot in together and shred woody materials
Keep moist

It needs to be moist, but not too wet. There will probably be no need to water your bin here in Ireland.


Getting the balance right

If the compost bin has a load of fruit flies or omits an unpleasant smell then the balance is not quite right. Play around with the ingredients to get the balance right. Fruit flies means that things are too wet and the small means that there isn’t enough anaerobic digestion going on. If you have worms in the bin, these will do most of the work for you so try and encourage them by ensuring the compost is touching the ground or introduce some to breed. Pop over to someone with en established heap and get a cup full to start you off. It’s the horticultural equivalent of the friendship cake mix…..


WHAT ARE GREEN AND BROWN LAYERS?

You might have heard mention of green and brown layers in the compost bin (if you read the bit earlier anyway). You split the materials up and if you know what is classed as green and brown you are nearly all the way there to creating the perfect compost. The more variety the better as these are just a few examples….



Green Materials

Grass clippings

Vegetable and fruit waste

Comfrey or nettles

Manure (without bedding)


Brown Materials

Cardboard and paper

Eggshells

Fibrous herbaceous plants

Straw

Shredded hedge clippings

Leaves in autumn

Manure (with bedding)



Remember… Alternate the layers to let the air in…. It’s trial and error so …Good Luck…