Postcrete No-No....

I had this great idea to make some more pots this week. I wasn’t going to bother with the hypertufa pots, they just disintegrate when you pick them up. This time I was going to make them to last. I went to the local DIY place and found something called Postcrete, which is a ready mixed bag of material that you would normally put into a hole around a wooden post. It says on the bag that it sets within minutes. Just the job I thought.

Panic

I got a bucket and mixed the contents of the bag with water. All seemed to go well as I put the mix into the first pot mould. Then disaster struck, the mix was hardening faster than I could pour it so I panicked, added more water and then mixed it with my hands, so vigorously that the gloves I was wearing tore. I was only filling the remaining moulds for a few minutes but this was enough for the mix to take off several layers of skin and fingerprints from my hands. I should imagine the reason for this to go solid so quickly is that it has a really high lime content, so high in fact that it shouldn’t be touched, just poured directly into a hole. I’ve spent the last few days wearing rubber gloves full of cream to try and grow the skin back. I should have read the label. My lad was unsympathetic as I ran into the house screaming in pain. 

 “This is what happens when you mess around with chemicals” he dryly told me. It’s back to hypertufa for me in future, or shop bought cardboard pots.

Barrack Hill Carndonagh Community Gardens

Barrack Hill Community Gardens

I was chatting to Stephen McGirr from Carndonagh this week and he has been telling me of the new Barrack Hill Community Gardens that have been set up in the town. It’s a bit of a well-kept secret at the moment, but that won’t be for long. As spring sets in there should be a lot of interest as the movement to grow your own continues to get more popular.  Stephen already has tunnels in place with raised beds and a growing number of keep gardeners helping to get everything ready for the growing season. 

It’s an impressive collaboration of four councils along with the North West Region Cross Border Group (NWRCBG) that have set up the NW Healthy Living, Community Garden and Allotments Programme. The Programme has been part funded under the European Union's INTERREG IVA Cross-border programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body to the value of £1,552,411.

The Project will develop a targeted response to local health, social and economic needs through the development of allotments/community gardens in Strabane,Magilligan, Maghera town and Barrack Hill in Carndonagh, where Stephen is.

The allotments and gardens will be used:

·         To create a sustainable source of food;

·         As a resource for health through physical activity;

·         As a resource to practically impact on 'food poverty';

·         As a community resource which brings people together;

·         As an educational tool; and

·         As a source of creating open space and encouraging biodiversity.

The need for the project has been proven by the research completed by the Institute of Public Health funded by the Public Health Agency (PHA) on behalf of the North West's INTERREG IVA funding application. The health impact assessment provided a mechanism to inform the planning for the development of the four demonstration community garden/allotment sites and ensured that improvement of health was at the core of the programme. 

Research has identified that local community garden/allotment projects appear to be quite exceptional in their ability to address a range of health and liveability issues for all ages. They provide people with an opportunity to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing.

There will be training courses setting up for budding gardeners and there are also other ideas such as the “Healthy Eating Lifestyle Programme (HELP)” With Ian Corr our local celebrity chef already doing classes.

For information about the whole of the North West initiatives go to the www.nwcommunitygardens.com website.

More information

If you would like to have a look around the Barrack Hill Community gardens or would like to participate in this fantastic idea then Stephen will be very happy to hear from you.  Check out the Facebook page : Barrack-Hill-Park-Community-Gardens-Carndonagh or phone Stephen McGirr on 0862745886.

Herbs Indoors

My cacti are surviving the worst of the weather under protective cover. The mother-in-laws tongue (Is it politically correct to call Sansevieria trifasciata that nowadays? ... probably not) has suffered with the frost and gone as limp as a soggy digestive biscuit dipped for too long in a hot cup of tea. 

The main reason, other than not covering it up well enough is that I just don’t have the room to put plants inside. The ledges are not really wide enough and anything larger than an egg cup gets caught on our clothing as we walk past leaving a soily mess on the floor. They also make cleaning the windows a very timely job  when they need moving out of the way(well once or twice a year when I get around to it) And that’s time I could be spending doing more important things like social networking or sleeping. There is space for putting frost hardy plants on the windowsills outside though so I probably should be looking there to expand.

Windowsills are the hidden spaces for growing all manner of things.  The National Trust estimates that there are 600 acres of growing space going to waste nationwide in the shape of unused window ledges. And with DEFRA statistics showing that one in three of us want to take up DIY food production, window boxes are the perfect way in for frustrated urban gardeners or nervous beginners.

Herbs Indoors and Out

I think herbs will do well on window ledges. Home grown herbs can transform your dinner, they are low maintenance, robust and high yielding, which means you can keep going back. Shop-bought alternatives are often transported long distances and are subjected to artificial light, which kills most of their flavour. The conditions in which supermarket herbs are kept reduce the plant's lifespan and results in wilted leaves. They're expensive too, with most pre-packaged herbs costing around 80 pence a pop. Growing your own saves you money and enhances the flavour of even the blandest of dishes. So how do you keep them growing? According to Jackie Day, herbalist and keen gardener, it's easier than you might think.

'My culinary herbs well and truly take their chances amongst the weeds and literally get hacked down with secateurs to keep them under control,' says Jackie. 'But, they seem to come back year after year. Herbs don’t generally need much in the way of fertilising and some do better in poor conditions but in window boxes I’d give them a bit of new soil or potting compost (but easy on the potting compost as it’s usually pretty rich in nutrients) each year. Aim for about 30 per cent new soil or compost.' Some herbs, including mint and lemon balm, can grow extremely prolifically so plant them in individual pots in order to prevent overcrowding.

Five Fabulous Herbs to Grow

Mint

Mint is almost as bad as ivy in the rampant growth stakes but if you plant it in moist, rich soil and hack it back regularly, you should be able avoid catastrophe. Wonderful first thing in tea form, it helps to improve digestion, and can be used to make a restorative essential oil.

Parsley

Parsley thrives with only a moderate amount of light. It calms the digestive system while also promoting good digestion. High in iron and vitamin C, it can help to reduce bloating thanks to its diuretic properties.

How to cook it: Try parsley pesto for a pleasant change from basil or use as a simple garnish.

Sage

With anti-catarrhal properties, it helps to remove mucus from the airways and boosts the digestive system. 'Sage is great for the brain,' says Jackie. 'Hence the use of the term 'sage' for knowledgeable people.'

How to cook it: Sage butter is perfect with pasta or used in risotto.

Rosemary

Plant it next to sage to help it flourish. A natural form of pest control, rosemary's insect-repelling properties benefit every plant in its vicinity. In humans, it helps to relieve headaches, muscular pain, neuralgia, and dyspepsia.

How to cook it: Rosemary tastes great on potatoes, pizza or in vinaigrettes.

Thyme

Thyme is best sown in shallow soil because of its tiny seeds. Extremely bee-friendly, it also helps to treat coughs and asthma by loosening phlegm from the bronchial tract. It's also a good remedy for indigestion and is a great liver cleanser.

How to cook it: Do it like the Greeks and season your lamb with fresh thyme for a fragrant feast.

There are plenty more herbs to choose from, buy good specimens or grow them from seed. 

Highlights 2014

I’ve been having a think about what have been my gardening highlights last year. I suppose the most entertaining thing was getting the new shed put up, dismantling it on my own and then bringing it back from Co Dublin in a van. It’s one of those things that I look back on fondly but didn’t really enjoy at the time. I’ve forgotten about three nights sleeping in a transit van on top of a roll of cardboard. It’s good to get out of your comfort zone occasionally I think. 

Highlights

The growing highlights were Klaus’s vegetable seeds. They all seemed so disease and pest resistant and put up with the weather conditions and all managed to give bumper, quality crops. I’ve been saving seed from the beans to replant this year and I am also shelling sweet pea pods to replant this week in the tunnel. I have planted garlic in there a while ago and it’s coming on strong. The only other thing I’m doing in there at the moment is playing with paper pulp. You have to do something with all of the present wrapping paper so I have pulped it all up, along with cardboard, and am attempting to make recycled paper sheets. 

Pulp

The polytunnel is a great place to do this as it’s extremely messy. In the tunnel I don’t need to tidy up after myself.  I have also made some sheets incorporating shredded leaves which look really interesting but I don’t think you could write on them. I have a ‘Mould and Deckle’ which is a paper making sieve made from what looks like a picture frame. It’s the proper job for making paper. I learnt to use it, like with most things, by watching Youtube videos.

My initial plan was to make lampshades for my ever growing collection of table lamps. These are proving to be a bit tricky as the pulped paper doesn’t seem to want to stick to my oiled balloon, which I am using as a template.  So my next plan of action with this gloopy bucket load is to make small plant pots for my seeds. They only need to be the size of an egg cup so I can form those in my hands and let them dry. “Why don’t you just use egg carton boxes Ian?” I hear you cry. Good question, I would, but I pulped them all along with the Christmas wrapping paper. 

Hang on

Because my sweetcorn didn’t germinate last year I am holding back planting seeds out until late spring. I’m not even going to order the seeds early. I’ll put them out late which will hopefully give them a sense of urgency when they are planted and bypass all of the pests and disease they could succumb to in colder weather. 

The lawn will need some serious TLC this spring too as the drainage seems to be getting worse.  It’s a double edged sword I suppose. On the one hand the ground is totally submerged and this will give rise to a lot of fungal growth and dead grass. On the other hand I can now pick up the dog mess with a fishing net as it floats past me in the mornings. You have to look at the positives. It might even catch on. ‘Poo Fishing.’ It has a ring to it I reckon.

Timber

There was a lot of chainsaw noise coming from a neighbours garden a few weeks ago. I managed to sleep for most of it until I heard a huge crash. They neighbours got the heavy mob in to remove a massive sycamore tree from their garden. It was so big that it managed to block out at least the last three hours of sunlight from our garden. It’ll make a huge difference to the light in the evening for us and I won’t be digging up self-set sycamore seedlings every year. I’m never really keen to see any tree chopped down, in fact I’d probably live up one to save them from developers. In this case though I think they have done me a great service. I just hope that the tree surgeons have removed the stump and roots too as we could see the tree rise from the ashes in the form of a multi stemmed bush.