The Longest Courgette

The longest courgette was 2.52 m (8 ft. 3 in) long. The longest zucchini was also exactly the same size. The reason for this isn’t a strange coincidence; it’s that they are the same vegetable.

It all depends where you come from. In the United States, Australia and Germany, the plant is commonly called a zucchini. But here, Belgium the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the Netherlands we refer to them as courgettes. 

When is a courgette not a courgette? The answer to this is pretty vague but generally when a courgette gets to a certain size it is classed as a marrow, (which is what I think the longest courgette was but I wouldn’t be bothered to argue about it). I think most countries call them marrows when you can’t pick them up with one hand,  although in South Africa they are harvested pencil size as ‘baby marrows’. 

Prolific Courgettes

Regardless of what they are called, these prolific summer squashes are in full production at this time of year. So much so that there has been a “Sneak some zucchini onto a neighbours porch” campaign in America as people find they run out of ways to eat them.

We have courgettes growing in our garden. As we only have a few plants we haven’t tried to palm them off to relatives and neighbours. We are getting most of the fruit (yes they are a fruit as they have seeds in them) when they are young and juicy, some of them are missed though and soon turn into the size of rugby balls. These are good stuffed but give me the young fresh ones any day. You can eat them even younger as well. The flowers are edible and can also be fried up or used as a case for stuffing things into. 

Pests and disease

The damp weather sometimes rots the courgettes so having a bit of dry ground under them helps, so does keeping the air circulation good by chopping back a few large leaves every now and then. I’ve also found some of the spent flowers can start to rot the tips if they don’t fall off so sometimes I nip them out to avoid this. There are a few pests and diseases that effect courgettes. The fungal disease powdery mildew turns the leaves white, but I’ve always been lucky with this and if any of the plants succumb it’s usually well after all the courgettes have been picked. The main pest is usually slugs, but even these seem to get a bit fed up of them after a while. Maybe it’s the skin getting thicker; wither way the slugs seem to leave them to grow un-chewed.

Recipes

I had a look on Google for recipe suggestions and there are websites that will offer you over 100 different ways to prepare the courgette so it’ll be a long time until I run out of ideas. My mother in law doesn’t follow recipes very often and she made her own soup last week with her own courgettes and broad bean concoction which went down very well with everyone at the Amma relaxation day in Clonmany.  All in all then, courgettes make a great first time crop for a new gardener and gives you the opportunity to make both sweet and savoury dishes out  of them. You can even grate them raw and add them to salads and they make great noodles. Apparently they do have a lot of vitamin C in them.

Whoppers

Talking of huge record breaking vegetables:  My chum is growing his prized onions for this year’s autumn horticultural shows like the one we get in Carndonagh.  He gets the mighty onion seeds from Peter Glazebrook who grows some of the largest onions in the world and gives them a really long growing season by starting them off in a greenhouse under artificial light. Adding loads of well-rotted horse nick the onions grow quickly. 

One of Peter’s tips for growing large examples such as this is to concentrate your efforts of just a few and pay them a lot of attention, in much the same way you would with a courgette crop. Too many and you can’t keep on top of them. After saying that, you should see marks polytunnel full of leeks. There’s a sight to behold.  They aren’t grown for young tender tastes and texture, simply for showing in competitions. 

It’s another world but an entertaining one.

Bats in the Garden

                                            There's probably a spider on you right now.

According to the radio show NightVale there’s a spider on you at all times, especially now. I wouldn’t worry about it too much as research has shown we eat a lot of them at night as we sleep so it’ll be gone in the morning.

If you haven’t stopped reading, you might be pleased to know that none of the spiders in Ireland are poisonous apart from the false widow and giant house spider (the one that’s on your back) which can cause a bit of swelling.  

Bats

Another creature instilling a feeling of unease is the bat. We see a lot of them silently flying around at dusk. It’s actually a really good sign as they can eat up to 3000 insects a day (and pollinate flowers), so if you have them around the house, it’s an indication of a diverse web of life in the garden.

Bat Conservation Ireland and the Centre for Irish Bat Research completed a study of ‘Landscape Conservation for Bats in Ireland’ a few years ago and this information is on their website and the DCC web pages. The study highlights the key types of bat habitats, and nine species of bat that appear regularly in Ireland. All are protected by national and European Union legislation.

The study showed that broadleaf woodland, mixed forest and riparian (waterway) habitats were favourable to bat species in Ireland however bog, marsh and heath were generally not attractive as bat habitats. Throughout the year, bats may use a variety of roosts of different types depending on changing metabolic and social requirements. In Ireland, the majority of bat roosts are in buildings.

The study found that all species except the rarely recorded Nathusius’ Pipistrelle and the Lesser Horseshoe Bat are found across County Donegal. 

Some found in County Donegal were:

Soprano Pipistrelle: may be the most common bat found throughout the county but its areas of greatest occurrence are likely to be found in the north.

Daubenton’s Bat: most likely to be found around the margins of the county and around low-lying rivers.

Natterer’s Bat: is most abundant in the east and south of the county.

Leisler’s Bat: prime areas are mostly in the east and northeast from Dunfanaghy to Portsalon and south to Castlefinn and in the extreme south of the county around Donegal Town and Bundoran.

Common Pipistrelle: areas most suitable for the common for this bat include the east of the county, the northern coast and the south of the county.

Brown Long-eared Bat: is found in coastal areas around the county as well as the area between Ramelton, Kilmacrennan and Letterkenny.

Whiskered Bat: has limited areas of suitability and these are in the Kilmacrennan-Letterkenny area.

On the whole, County Donegal, is not particularly suitable for Nathusius’ Pipistrelle bats but some areas of suitability exist along the east of the Inishowen peninsula. Along the River Foyle and in the extreme south of the county near the Donegal-Sligo border.

Threats to bats

Remedial timber treatment is probably the greatest threat to bats. Many buildings are treated annually with chemicals that are lethal to bats and poisonous to mammals generally.  Even if bats are not present during treatment, they can pick up poison by inhalation of vapour, or contact with treated surfaces, for many years afterwards.

Where ongoing repair to bridges is required, unsympathetic maintenance can threaten the bats utilising a bridge.

Many underground roosting sites such as caves, mines and tunnels have become inaccessible to bats because entrances have been blocked, either for safety, or by rubbish tipping.

Disturbance of hedgerows and treelines can interfere with vital commuting routes for bats and lead to island bat populations.

Removal of damaged trees may cause loss of bat roosts.

Many bat species use trees as roosts for maternity, hibernation or mating.  Damaged trees are particularly suitable. The bats will roost in cracks and crevices, under ivy, or in dead trees.

Roost sites in buildings are reduced when access holes, such as ventilators, are blocked, and cavity  walls are filled for insulation. Retiling and underfelting of old buildings often result in the exclusion of colonies

Common concerns and the facts about living with bats

• Bats are not rodents and will not nibble or gnaw at wood, wires or insulation.
• Bats do not build nests and do not bring bedding material into the roost; nor do they bring their food into the roost.
•  All bats in Ireland only eat insects and some eat thousands of these each night. So they are a great form of natural pest control!
• Bat droppings are dry and crumble away to dust. As a result, there are no known health risks associated with them in Ireland.
• Female bats have only one baby a year, so bat roosts do not become ‘infested’.
• Most bats are seasonal visitors to buildings – they are unlikely to live (roost) in the same building all year round. Many bats are loyal to their roosts and so usually return to the same buildings year after year.
• Bats are clean and sociable animals and spend many hours grooming themselves.
• You are not at risk of rabies if you do not handle a bat.
• Bats are not interested in sharing your living space. They may roost in an attic void or roof but the only time they come into the lived-in part of houses is by mistake.
• Bats are protected.

They have been known to get caught in your hair though, and there might be one in there right now. You’d better check.

For more information, check out ‘Bat Conservation Ireland’,Virginia,Co. Cavan. On the web (not spiders) batconservationireland.org

Veggie Plants to Sow and Pick in August

 Pick your crop when it's young and tender. not like these peas!

Did you know that Dutch scientists have grown radishes, peas, rye and tomatoes in soil similar that found on Mars? The scientists concluded the edibles were safe to eat and didn’t contain any dangerous levels of heavy metals.

 

I didn’t know that and I am not really sure why I find the fact so interesting. It must be something to do with the realization that we can grow edibles in even the harshest and uninhabitable of places in soil that you would think was dust. It reminds me of the islands were farmers grew their spuds in rock cracks filled with seaweed. 

It also highlights that healthy nutritious soil is the most important factor when starting a garden. It could be said that the best fertiliser for the soil is the gardener's shadow; I’s also add that plenty of mulching helps too. 

It might seem like the edible gardening year is about over. I do hope not as my luffa’s haven’t even formed yet. There are loads of crops to either sow or plant at this time of year though so we can be kept busy and distracted from grass cutting.

Plants to Sow

Herbs such as basil, coriander and rosemary can be started off in a greenhouse or on the windowsill.

Lettuce. Our lettuce is actually growing better in the cool damp (wet) weather than it was in the harsh sunlight. Winter varieties can be started under cover.

Pak choi. This is another plant that likes the cooler weather and loves the early autumn conditions.

Radishes. No one in our house eats radishes apart from the dog but they can be a fun crop and you can have them mature in less than eight weeks.

Spring cabbage. Sow now and these will give you early crops next year.

Spring onions. You can  pinch the leaves from these from now until spring.

Peas. If you just want the fresh pea tops then you can plant some under cover and pinch away.

Garlic and onions can be planted now too.

Picking Early

There are some instances where I leave the vegetables far too long before harvesting. The first plant that springs to mind is the sweet corn. Year after year I wait just that bit too long and the corn has gone woody. I sometimes leave my spinach and lettuce too long and these go to seed turning the leaves bitter.

Picking the veggies early is a luxury us growers have as we don’t need them to wait until “optimum selling size” like the shops do.  Because of this I would say that you could harvest tiny Brussels sprouts now for a few delicious stir fries. There are others that will bebefit from not leaving too long in the ground too.

Beetroot. You can thin out the rows to allow others to mature.

Broccoli. I usually leave the whole plant until spring and eat the florets but this year I am enjoying some of the young leaves. The same goes for kale.

Cabbage. Get them now before the slugs do.

Carrots. These can be thinned out too and put in the stir fry.

Caluiflower. These discolour quickly after maturing.

Celery. Pick before the stems turn yellow so pick them when they are tight and white.

Courgette. Pick when young as they seem to grow 3” a day and before you know it you have a marrow worthy of a prize in a giant vegetable competition.

Runner and French beans. These can get a bit stringy when too old.

Onions. Get them when the stems start to wild for a crisper bulb.

Peas. Get them young too. When the peas have filled the pods I think they get a bit dry and flavourless as the sugars turn to starch.

Radishes. My dog doesn’t mind the old ones but I wouldn’t entertain them.

Tomatoes. These get a bit mushy when left too long so pick as they turn red for the optimum sweetness.

Turnips. These get really woody if left in the ground too long, especially the small golf ball types. Get these too before the grubs do.

Rosebay Willow Herb

 Rosebay Willow Herb

At the beginning of the growing season I planted up containers for myself and my sister in law. This has turned out to be a bit of an experiment in plant car over the last two months.  As hers flourished and gave colour to her patio, ours have more or less withered and died back. I’d like to say that this is because I gave her all of my best annual bedding plants but there’s probably more to it than that. Her pots are watered regularly. She deadheads them often and gives them a bit of a feed now and again. I do none of the aforementioned as mine are more than three feet from the back door.

I have noticed a bit of an imbalance with how my vegetables are growing this year and it’s all down to feeding the soil and mulching. In areas close to the compost bins where the broccoli and beans are planted, things are doing really well. Further away from the compost bins it’s not the same story though as the luffas and kale struggle for nutrition. I think I have the reason. It is because when I emptied the compost bins in spring I just tipped them over and spread out the contents over the areas very close to the bins. 

It was very lazy on my part I admit, but my excuse is that the air came out of my wheelbarrow tyre so I couldn’t move the compost around the garden as easily. I could give a list of other excuses too but they are all as implausible, I was just lazy and like in most things in life, you get back what you put in. I’ll be mulching everywhere next year with manure, seaweed and compost to get things back on track.

Rosebay Willow Herb

 

When I was a lad I spent a lot of time in the back of cars with a bottle of pop and bag of crisps in car parks. I know teenagers do this voluntarily but I did it because my parents were in the pub. Because of this there are three plants that I look back on with a bit of nostalgia, honeysuckle, and bindweed are two of them as I used to pick them for something to do before it got dark in the car park. The third plant was the rosebay willowherb. One of the car parks was next to waste ground where the plants love to grow.

Rosebay willowherb, Chamerion angustifolium (also known as Epilobium angustifolium) is a widespread perennial plant and loves embankments, rocky places, mountain scree and open woodland.

The tall plant with small pink flowers is also known as Fireweed, particularly in North America, this name reflects the plant’s appearance following forest fires and other events which leave the earth scorched.It’s also called Bombweed because the plant quickly populated derelict bomb sites in the World Wars.

Rosebay willowherb flowers from June to September. Long seed pods form containing masses of hairy/fluffy seeds which are carried on the wind. There can be around 80,000 seeds per plant and some of these have been known to travel 100km.

The plant likes cleared woodland and early stages of coppicing but growth and flowering become restricted as the tree canopy develops again. In reclaimed bogs in Ireland it is an important early colonizer but disappears as the vegetation matures.

Rosebay willowherb tolerates shade and a broad range of climatic conditions and seems to thrive in both acid and alkaline soils.

Rosebay Willowherb Uses

The plant has been used for a lot of things over the year, from entertaining me as a child to natural cordage to fire-lighting to clothing to edible roots, shoots, leaves and flowers as well as numerous medicinal applications, some of which are still being investigated.

One use which was familiar to North American First Nations as well as to Kamchatkan reindeer herders, was consuming the pith from inside the stems – raw, cooked or fermented.

The most popular part of the plant is the inner section of the mature stem, called the pith. The pith falls somewhere between cucumber and unripe cantaloupe both in terms of texture and taste. 

It has some sweetness to it but sometimes also a slightly hot, peppery aftertaste. When collected up, the pith becomes more gelatinous and slimy and browns quite quickly, so it’s best eaten fresh.

The collected pith can be added to soups and broths both to thicken them and add extra carbohydrate content. It can also add a little flavour to otherwise bland concoctions.

Taking the pith from Fireweed is something which is easy to do, just peel back the stem. 

Other parts can be used too. The young shoots in spring are absolutely delicious blanched the growing tips dried as green tea. 

The raw baby plants can be used raw in sandwiches too.

Rosebay willowherb is one of the more useful wilderness plants but as always test a small bit first before cooking it up for the family.