Hedging

ESCALLONIA FEELS THE PINCH

The cold spells this winter have taken it out on our Escallonia hedging. I tend to keep the hedges quite tidy around the garden and I cut them late in the season last year so the fresh new leaves had no real protection from the exposure to the elements.

Some of those around the back of the house I didn’t get around to pruning before the frost and snow and I thought these looked a lot better, as the older leaves seemed to offer a bit more resistance. That is until I cut them back this week. Underneath the older leaves, the young shoots have been totally destroyed by the cold and turned crinkly and brown. I’m not too worried though as I am sure the plants are resilient enough to sprout new leaves all over when the warmer weather comes.

I remember one time a neighbour of mine panicked when this happened way back in the early 90’s. The first thing he did was to hack back ten years of growth and reduce the hedge to a foot high. Yes it grew back again, but so did other hedges that were left alone that weren’t touched and they had the benefit of still being of a reasonable size to keep children’s footballs out of the gardens.

Cold weather cordyline crisis

The same issues have affected cordylines and yuccas around the peninsula too. Their tops and younger shoots have been destroyed completely by the frost and some are looking very sad. If they are mature it hopefully won’t kill the plant tops, it should just check them back. There can be three outcomes from this happening. The plant will die right back and new shoots will grow from below the base, the head of the plant will die and new offshoots will appear high up making the shrub lovely and bushy. The third outcome will probably mean a trip down to the garden centre to buy a new specimen. Some people tie up the plants with sacking to protect their tops, which in hindsight was a very good idea.

Dog resistant plants




Our veggie patch is well on the way to being ready for planting. Julie went in and did the initial weeding and I have gone around in her shadow and mounded up the soil in the beds to dry it off and warm it up in the sunshine. As usual I am totally averse to digging so I didn’t strain myself too much. The beds look good, all I have to do now is to find the piece of paper with our planting crop rotation on it to decide where to put things. The plan this year probably needs to incorporate vegetables that don’t get dug up by dogs. We still have the stray dog living with us. It has been very helpful rolling around in the soil where I am trying to work, breaking it into a fine tilth for me then dropping it all over the kitchen floor.

We got a custom made kennel from Mickey Donaghey ‘s Carry Garden Sheds in Drumfries and put it near the front door to keep it out of the house where it is systematically eating all of our shoes. I carefully made a nice bed for the dog out of a wool carpet and a foam pillow. Within an hour of laying it all out, everything is all over the decking in tiny pieces along with a pair of Wellingtons and an old shoe she found in the garage. But when she looks at you with those big brown eyes, what can you do?


COMPETITION TIME





I have a bit of an offer for you this week. It is a free draw to win an acupressure mat. I have been using an acupressure mat, (also known as the ‘Bed of Nails’) for a while now and taking time out every day to relax on the 6000 sharp needles. It all sounds a bit bizarre, and I suppose it is, but it seems to have improved my mood, which the family will agree is always a good thing.

Ease the pain
The mats are supposed to help other symptoms too apart from gardener’s back Reports say they can be effective for stress, depression, insomnia, poor circulation and allergies. It works by releasing endorphins in the body, so just to let you know it’s VERY prickly. Restex Bedding in Letterkenny and Buncrana are also stocking the mats if you wanted to see them before you entered the free draw

To enter the FREE prize draw to win a mat costing €48, go to the shakti.ie website and answer a simple question. Ends March 31st 10. Good Luck!

Funny Fruit

Farmer Gao XianZhang from China displaying his Buddha Pears

It’s the Food Dudes

The stray dog came back this week. It had been away for long enough for me to think that it was never coming back, but it did. On my birthday too just to rub salt in. It’s still as mucky as ever and we can’t leave anything on the kitchen worktops as it can get up to clear any plates onto the floor and give them a good licking. It was eating a hot curry the last time I saw it complete with an array of choice left over vegetables.

If only children would have the same passion for eating greens. One of my lads has been taking part in the Food Dudes programme run through the schools. This entails eating pre packed fruit and vegetables such as raisins, carrots, peppers, bananas, cucumbers and oranges. They even have turnips thrown in there.

Super Heroes
The kids have the super hero Food Dudes as role models on the DVD that comes with the project as opposed to the baddies, the Junk Punks, who get rid of the healthy food and hide them under tables for the Dudes to find. The whole thing is washed down with a song and dance routine and rewards for those who eat the samples from the bags. The 2nd phase is where we are at now; this is where the children can take in their own fresh food of choice, usually strawberries and grapes.

Any idea to get youngsters eating fresh food is welcome. The Food Dudes comes originally from the Food & Activity Research Unit Bangor University in Wales. The Programme was first piloted Ireland in 2002/2003 and was supported by Fyffes and now has over 200 schools taking part. The statistics look good. 46% of parents reported that children were eating one more portion of fruit, 37% reported that children were eating two more portions of fruit while 8% said that children were now eating three or more portions of fruit after Phase 1 of the programme. The majority of parents (94%) reported that children ate more portions of fruit and vegetables at home. Surprisingly, turnip sales haven’t increased though.

A bit of encouragement

There are more things we can do to encourage the consumption of healthy food. Here are a few ideas:

Get children to participate

If children take part in planning meals, going to the shops, and preparing food, they will become more interested in the food.

Make healthy snacks available

If you stock the kitchen exclusively with healthy treats, children will eat them. As your children grow, stock good snacks in cabinets and shelves that they can reach without your help, but the dogs can’t, this saves you having to watch them climb precariously over the worktops to get to the biscuits. Good choices include sliced apples, carrot sticks, whole grain crackers, light popcorn, raisins and water for drinking.

Go to other places to see food

Teach kids where their food comes from. As well as the supermarket, take your family to a local farmer's market (or to the farm itself) and meet the people who grow the food. John and Mary O’Reilly’s farm in Malin is a great place for them to go whilst you are stocking up on the fresh produce. Picking fruit and vegetables can help nurture a lifelong love of good eating and environmental care.

Freedom of (limited) choice

Children like to get their own way like most of us. Try giving them a choice, but make it a limited one….Offer a suitable base meal, like rice, potatoes and pasta with broccoli and tofu or quorn, (lean meat if you are a meat eater), then let the children dress it up with chopped tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, cheese, parsley, peppers and other toppings.

Don’t forget the drinks

The five a day portions don’t need to be solid. Try liquidising fruit to make smoothies and mixed fruit drinks.

Be a role model

A recent study found that young children's food tastes are significantly related to foods that their mothers liked and disliked. Letting children see you eat a fresh salad may encourage them to do the same.

Keep at it

Children need to taste their food at least 32 times before they get to like the taste. So stick at it.

Make ‘em laugh

There are humorous ways to get the kids involved too. Try cutting out letters or interesting shapes to stick onto unripe apples. As the fruit ripens the letters will be clearly visible, peel off for a personalised apple.

Go one stage further with fruit and vegetable moulds. There are clear plastic food grade moulds with a strong seal to put over different types of fruit and veg such as tomatoes, apples, pears, sweetcorn, courgettes, and cucumbers to make funny faces and shapes. Imagine a face on your pear; a square watermelon or a star shaped cucumber. Farmer Gao XianZhang from China is making a lot of money changing a pear into the image of Buddha. These are selling for over 5 euro each as the ‘good luck fruit’.

There could be other benefits from growing in this way. The makers of the moulds claim that the produce is denser, which means they're sweeter and more flavourful too. The plants require less pesticide use, because they are protected from many garden pests by the plastic mould. In our mild summers they might be just the thing to grow better crops. If you can sell one heart shaped courgette for €3 to a restaurant (it has been done) then every-one feels the love.

Check out some great moulds on the VegiForms website

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….