Bedding Plants

Last years polyanthus might be small but they are still a welcome addition to this years pots.

Spring is in the air

There are so many things happening in our garden at the moment. The catkins on the willow are out in, daffodil leaves have quickly pushed themselves out of the ground and the grass is starting to grow.

Spring is here and that reminded us that the old containers from last years spring displays were still behind the shed looking very sorry for themselves. These containers were unceremoniously thrown in a large heap after they had finished flowering and we had completely forgotten about them.

With a bit of TLC and some fresh soil from Julie they are now pride of place around the house. As well as daffodils and tulips we have old polyanthus and primulas brightening up the pots. These colourful hardy perennial plants tend to shrink in size and naturalise in their second year, but they still give a great show and need not be thrown away as they can be useful for a splash of colour. We even have a few straggly pansies surviving that have over wintered in the relative shelter behind the shed.

Stocking up

Most garden centres as well as a lot of shops are stocking up on the packs of spring bedding now. The prices seem to have come right down; the same can be said of the ready made up containers too. There are some massive growers out there now that can produce so many plants they can pile them up and sell them cheap. Be careful when you get them home though, as they will have been grown undercover and cosseted all of their lives. They will need a bit of shelter and acclimatising to our weather before being let loose. A night or two in the shed or garage and putting them outside in the daytime should do the trick. Keep deadheading the spring bedding plants and you should have colour right up until the summer stock is in.

Spring and summer bedding

Spring bedding is a relaxing introduction to get us ready for the summer bedding plants when they come. If you need loads of summer plants and have the space to grow them on, plugs are always an economical buy. Companies such as Mellifont Abbey near Ardee are one of many companies that sell tray of plugs or even seed trays that are full of thousands of seedlings. You will need loads of space to grow them on so it won’t suit everyone. Most of us are content with the 6 or 12 packs or single pots of larger plants but if you do need large amounts check out mail order companies to see what deals are on. There are bargains to be had even now for plug geraniums and busy lizzies.

The ultimate in cost effectiveness (but the most time consuming) is to grow your own summer bedding. If you have a heated propagator you could start now with petunias and marigolds. Check out the sowing dates on the backs of the packets and if you can’t supply them with a bit of heat then add three or four weeks onto the recommended sowing times. The plants will germinate far more effectively as the days are longer and (hopefully) warmer and there will be less botrytis (a damping off disease) due to the cold and damp conditions. The plants will soon catch up, even if you just have them in a bright windowsill in a pot.

Hold your horses

Don’t be in a rush to get stocked up with summer bedding as a late frost could be a disaster for both the plants and your wallet. Growers need to start selling as soon as possible and I always think that the plants are on the shelves far too early for us here in Inishowen. If the first batch die due to the cold we are usually back the following week to buy some more to replace them. Hang on a few weeks and save your stress levels and pennies.

Make your own polytunnel

You can speed up the growing process by germinating the plants in a polytunnel. You could try making your own small one.

All you need is a large sheet of clear polythene, some plastic water pipe and a door with a frame. The strength of a polythene tunnel is in the way the plastic is put on so it will need to be secured either into the ground or around a wooden plank.

Try simply pushing old broom handles (or equivalent) into the ground. Put these in good and deep into the soil then the water pipe slides straight on. The ends would probably need a bit of old scaffolding pipe for reinforcement for when the winds come. Steel fabricating companies could bend these into a hoop for you for a few euro.

They may not be as smart as the ready made ones but you could probably do the whole thing for under €100.

Next week I’ll let you know how to make a lawnmower out of a shopping basket, two coat hangers, a hazel rod and an empty yoghurt pot.

Spring Garden

NEW BEGINNINGS IN THE GARDEN

We haven’t much left in the vegetable patch now, it’s either all been eaten by us or the slugs or the frost has got to them. There are a few broccoli and kale plants that are nearly getting ready for their final growth burst. Their small delicate floret heads are one of the most popular vegetables in the family. Even the dog enjoys them, which is a miracle as she is the fussiest of eaters, choosing only prime meat, which you have to hand feed. Spoil our dog? I think so, but we have to make it up to her after last weeks visit from the stray Springer Spaniel made her feel very unsettled. The stray took off after a pheasant in a field and we haven’t seen her since. Disney will probably make a film about her exploits across Inishowen.

Other veggies still hanging on in there and surviving the frosts are leeks and brussel sprouts (my own personal favourite veg, you can never have too many on your plate) I transplanted the leeks a little late last autumn so they are still like straws waving about in the wind, they might pick up though so we’re working around them today and making the most of the few good gardening days that we have had recently. Spring is nearly here so any last minute tidying needs to be done now or we will be sinking in a field of weeds, which, not surprisingly are usually the first plants to wake up and stretch their stems.

WEEDING METHODS
Julie and I have very different weeding methods. I am still in awe of my Chillington Dutch hoe with the novelty of being able to weed and keeping a straight back. I am watching Julie on her honkers, attacking the creeping buttercup and dockers with a hand tool, meticulously picking out all the root. I can’t resist interfering and step in with the hoe, ploughing up the ground next to where she is working. Nettles, docks, moss and any other unwanted plants fly everywhere as I move along the ground deftly, until remembering what I wrote about last week about getting back into the swing of things slowly to avoid injury…The hoe gets a squirt of WD40 before going back into the shed and I go back into the house, leaving Julie with a mountain of soil, old roots and weeds to sift through. I think to myself that I might just have ruined her methodical approach to clearing the ground, but she assures me she is just happy to be out with the sun on her back grubbing about in the earth.

SPUDS YOU LIKE (TO SQUEEZE)
In the shed I notice the spuds I had placed in egg cartons for chitting. The frost has got in and turned them to mush. I won’t be getting any crops form them but they do feel nice and squishy when you squeeze them in your hand…Simple pleasures.

It’s too early for spuds to be planted yet, especially if we are getting any more really cold weather. Like most plants they don’t much like the cold and wet, maybe that is why I never have much luck with parsnips. Delay the planting until the ground is warm and dry (traditionally I plant spuds around St Patrick’s day), and they will get a far better start.

Chitting is simply placing the potatoes in a frost free place with indirect light. This will help to produce short strong shoots, which will be a good start when they go into the earth. If they are left in the dark the shoots get too leggy and snap when they are planted. I use egg cartons to keep them in, but seed trays are just as good. As long as there is air circulating, it should keep the fungal diseases away, and if they don’t touch one another, any pests and disease shouldn’t spread. If you are growing them this year try to keep the new shoots to three to get bigger spuds, especially maincrop varieties.

ORGANIC SOLUTIONS
Julie has the right idea with her methodical weeding technique, as she not only gets the roots up, but also notices the small soil borne pests laying dormant until the ground warms up, waiting until they can do real damage. They are generally thrown onto the path for the robin, which is never very far away. The birds two favourite nibbles are the vine weevil and the leatherjackets (crane fly larvae). Nipping the problem in the bud is good advice and if we can keep on top of the garden now, life will be so much easier in the summer months when we can start to enjoy the fruits of our labours.

TOP TIP
Here’s a top tip for us this week for the summer months when we are relaxing. It’s to keep mosquitoes at bay. …..Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It keeps them at a safe distance…. You don’t even have to remove the sheet before putting the clothes in the washing machine….

Careful Now

“How about Lily” my lad says, having fun trying thinking of a name for the stray dog that has landed on our doorstep. “I like Amaratsu,” the other one chirps. It’s been three days since the scruffy Springer Spaniel wiped its muddy coat all over the glass on the front door, and she’s not got any cleaner since. I tried to shoo it off, like most caring people do, but it just cowered and slid itself across the lawn on all fours. It’s been doing the same over the rug in the front room ever since, leaving a trail of mud behind it. I don’t know how, but it just manages to be wet and dirty all of the time, and so does the house since it arrived.

“We’re not keeping it,” I say defiantly, knowing that the force of two lads and their mother will eventually overpower me. We have a 15 year old dog as it is and when she’s gone I imagined a time when I didn’t have to go out in all weathers so she could have a sniff around and mark her territory. “It might live another 15 years and I’ll be the one still taking it for a walk,” I say to an audience who are too engrossed in the naming ceremony to take any notice of me.

I am taking action though in my own way and typing up a FOUND poster to put up on the noticeboard in Super Valu. “It’s what I would hope anyone else would do if we lost our dog,” I say as I copy the dog’s image onto the page. “Don’t get too attached to her,” I warn as the printer starts to whirr and get a lump of Blu Tac off the wall to stick the poster up with. “How about Dug?” I overhear Julie say.


Careful now

The dog has also been busy in the garden helping me do a bit of digging. I could start by advising which method are the best at keeping animals off of the prized veggies, (human hair is one of the most effective methods by the way…ugh), but I have been quite thankful of the help even though she does tend to dig in one central area to a depth of two feet.

There is a far more pressing matter, and that’s safety…getting back into the swing of things after the winter break.

Traditionally springtime has budding gardeners across Ireland itching to get back into their flowerbeds and rockeries after a long winter break. However, doctors have warned that many gardeners overdo it and end up needing treatment for a host of injuries including gardeners' back, weeder's wrist and pruner's neck, (yes, there is such a thing). They say that throwing yourself into the hobby – without a warm up – is as dangerous as a footballer returning to competition without training and this time of year the number of people attending injury clinics with gardening related ailments is often higher than those for sports such as football or rugby.

Dr Ian Drysdale, College Principal of the British College of Osteopathic Medicine (BCOM) said, "Every year clinics prepare themselves for these gardening related injuries, but the majority of them are totally preventable”

"What happens is that people forget themselves and go in all gung-ho after the relative hibernation of the winter months, forgetting that their bodies need, like the gardens, to be coaxed in gently and limbered up over a period of time. People don't associate gardening with danger which is the most dangerous thing of all." Dr Drysdale continues.

Clinics see incidents surge by a quarter in the spring months as well as at the end of the growing season in October. Injuries range from blisters to slipped discs and can effect any-one over 30, although the elderly are particularly susceptible.

Take it easy

"At this time of year people may not done a lot of gardening or activity for a long time," Dr Drysdale explains. “Then there is a sunny day and they throw themselves into it. They don't do it for 20 minutes, they dig the whole allotment in three hours or they mow the whole lawn.There is no warm up and they come down with an injury. They strain their back or in extreme cases a slip a disc."

Another factor to take into consideration when going back out into the garden is to make sure all of the tools are working well and as they should. I went to use a fork the other day and the only thing that was left of the handle was the plastic protective cover, the steel on the inside had rusted away to powder. This resulted in the whole thing collapsing onto the ground as I pressed it into the soil. As usual, I wasn’t putting too much energy into the process, so no harm done.

So remember to take it easy in the garden and work your way up slowly. I’m off to put the poster up in the shop for now. She is kind of cute though…...

Money Garden

VALUING THE VEGETABLES

We have made a decision to only grow a limited amount of vegetable types this year. For years now we have perused the gardening seed catalogues with the feeling that we need to get a vegetable from every letter of the alphabet. Asparagus, artichoke, banana (yes, we’ve tried growing them,) carrots, dill….well you know how it goes after years of watching Sesame Street. The outcome was that when the plants grew, there wasn’t enough room for them to grow healthily. Never mind keeping up with crop rotation -it became a matter for the code breakers.

PRIORITY
This year then we are prioritising what to put in by what we all like as a family and also the cost factor of the shop bought equivalent. Gone are all of the root vegetables like spuds and carrots. OK there’s nothing like the taste of home grown ones but when you can get a 25kg of them down at Lidl for next to nothing, we don’t really see that the efforts and the space of the home grown can be justified. What we are growing are more above ground veggies like salad crops and runner beans. These fetch a really high premium all year around in the shops so the return on our seed investment will be impressive. There has been an extensive survey into monetising the garden and it makes interesting reading

STUDY
In 1998 through 2008, the seed company Burpee conducted a cost analysis study of the home vegetable garden. Burpee President, George Ball, Jr. likened the renewed interest in vegetable gardening to a kind of “new age victory garden”. Originally, the dig for victory gardens were intended to reduce demand on the public food supply in war time. Today we are growing veggies to reduce our dependence on the market, as well as to save energy and for the quality. The new survey is seen as a victory over high fuel prices, going to the shops, a victory over non sustainable lifesyles and a small victory over global warming. In the 40’s the USA and the UK grew up to 40% of everything that was eaten. Ireland’s new council houses were given large gardens to accommodate citizens used to living off the land.

Ball says that the new trend started with the spike in oil prices, then the mortgage and credit crisis, plus the food scares (e-coli and salmonella). Most people garden for taste. But there’s a strong argument to be made that growing your own vegetables is also a cost saving proposition. A family of four can save a lot of money growing their own vegetables.

The statistics back up this claim. Factoring in the cost of seeds, fertilizer and water, the study compared the cost of growing vegetables against the cost of purchasing those same vegetables in a shop. Burpee, the seed company claims that we can save about 250% on average growing different vegetables. The figure goes up to 500 % on beefsteak tomatoes. The secret is to choose vegetables that are easy to grow and produce well. A family could spend €100 on seeds and fertilizer and grow €2,500 in herbs, lettuces and vegetables. ...Over a five month period, if they refrained from purchasing shop-bought produce and ate only the produce that they grew, they could save €2,400 on just on tenth of an acre in five months.

BEST VALUE
If you’re looking to start a vegetable garden to save money, take a tip from experienced gardeners. Ball says the same vegetable seeds are top sellers year after year. The varieties may change as seeds are improved, but standby vegetables like tomatoes, beans and carrots will always trump the trend.

If you’ve never vegetable gardened before or if you’re looking to make your vegetable garden more efficient, Burpee selected six classic vegetables you can grow from seed and harvest throughout the summer:

· Bush Snap Bean
· Lettuce
· Bell Peppers
· Carrot ‘Big Top’
· Garden Peas
· Large Round Tomatoes

Bottom of the list are onions as they are in the ground for so long and are a low price in the shops all year. Burpee’s list was for the American market so I’ve made my own list of our top savers in Inishowen (mind you sometimes it is hard to find some of these locally) :

· Runner beans
· Mange tout
· Purple Sprouting Broccoli
· Kale
· Salad crops (e.g. rocket)
· Courgettes

EXAMPLE
Imagine Butterhead lettuce is on sale for a 90 cent a head. You can get a packet of 350 butterhead seeds for €1.50, each seed producing one head of lettuce. Making allowances for germination failure, we’re talking one cent per head. So, conservatively, the garden yield will have a supermarket value of about €250 for a €1.50 investment.

There are additional cost factors of course. Let’s estimate at a maximum €5 for a bit of compost. Labour costs if you hire a gardener, 2 hours each week for a month at €20 per hour for a total of €160. You’re still saving €85. No wonder the French, call money “lettuce.” When you include the labour costs across all of the crops, labour gets proportionately cheaper. The bottom line is a return that guarantees €150 earned for every €1 invested.

BALANCE
Of course how much you save by growing your own vegetables depends on the fluctuating cost of food but the report claims that you will never see less than a 25% return on your veg patch year after year. This ratio fails to factor in the abundant and tangible nonfinancial returns: flavour, freshness and a nutritional bonanza for your family. The garden suddenly appears as something new and delightful: a multidimensional, interactive realm of flavour, nourishment, fragrance, pleasure, beauty, recreation, sanctuary and self-realization. There’s a balance somewhere and hopefully we are getting there slowly.