Monthly Archives

March 2010

Green

Shopping Locally in Garden Centres

March 30, 2010
We all love the bargains offered by the discount stores but you can’t beat the garden centres for expertise, variety and love of their plants and products.
I visited two of my favourite Carlow garden centres today on the way home from the CEB network lunch.  I try not to favour any one business when I tell fellow grow your own’rs about the availability of products however I’m a great believer of shopping locally where possible and supporting local businesses – particularly now when they need all the support they can get.

Therefore I’m raving about Morgans Garden Centre.  When I walked through the doors I was met by a lovely Grow Your Own stand from Burgon and Ball (a UK company so not local) but beautiful products at reasonable prices.   I bought a jam and sugar thermometer to help me with my so far disastrous efforts at making strawberry jam. An early purchase but you can never find one when you want one.  Ian has fallen in love with this tool and tuck box above.

Morgan’s also have a great range of vegetable seeds and composts.  While I was there I had a really informative chat with Bernie, their expert horticulturist about planting hanging baskets before moving onto my second garden centre of the afternoon – Arboretum Lifestyle & Garden Centre.

Where would we be without our local garden centresOn a much larger scale than Morgans, Arboretum are on my own doorstep and are really getting into the grow your own market.  As well as stocking vegetable plants of all descriptions and associated products too (I picked up an instant mini pH tester from them today) they’ve just opened up a vegetable garden, which is being run in conjunction with the Sue Nunn Show on KCLR.

The raised beds are all fully planted and the converted area also houses a chicken enclosure.  Ger and Eamon are on hand to give out expert advice (both have their own vegetable gardens – Ger grows organic vegetables and Eamon has an enormous designer vegetable garden.

I couldn’t talk about my favourite garden supply shops without mentioning Highbank Organic Orchards.  They’re slightly further afield at Cuffesgrange, Co Kilkenny however well worth the trip for organic growers.  The Organic Farm Shop has a great range of very reasonable priced products – from potatoes to green manures, organic slug pellets and insecticidal soap.  They also sell horticultural fleece, wind fabric and weed membrane by the roll or by the metre and are the cheapest I’ve found to date. And it’s impossible to leave without buying a bottle of Julie’s delicious organic apple juice.

Keep up the great work guys… the more great products that are easily available locally, the more people are likely to get growing!

Vegetable Garden

Battening down the hatches in the vegetable garden

March 29, 2010

Ian says I’m a pessimist – I say I’m a realist.  I guess we’re both right but I’m not taking any chances this week.  The weather men are forecasting snow tomorrow and having been caught out in the new year (i.e. snowed in for 5 days) this week we’re getting prepared.

It was a beautiful spring day yesterday so hard to believe the warnings.  However, we took the opportunity to tidy up the vegetable garden, do a bit more weeding and make it more weather proof.

First off we covered the potato bed with a double layer of horticultural fleece.  Potatoes are not frost hardy and although their haulms (stems) are not poking through the soil yet, being frozen into the soil wont do them much good either.

Then we covered the onion bed with a cloche.  Although garlic and shallots are pretty hardy, young onions are not so we’re taking no chances.  Sudden changes in temperature now can either destroy the young seedlings or cause them to bolt (flower at the expense of a large bulb).  We had some spare pipe and clear plastic laying around from the house renovation so are making use of it.  I also noticed last week that the birds have lifted a few bulbs so covering them for a while will prevent this.

Finally we’ve surrounded the plot with a light gauge wind fabric to give it more protection.  Unfortunately next door’s horses took a huge liking to the native hedge we’d planted and it’s now very sparse at the north end.  Initially Ian didn’t like the idea of the ‘artificial’ fabric. However, it’s made the garden feel much cosier and strangely more manageable and we’re now delighted we took the time to do it.

The optimistic side of me is now hoping the experts have got it all wrong.

Ian’s gone shopping ‘just in case’.

Vegetable Garden

Grow Your Own on a Budget – Seed Saving

March 25, 2010

I’m just sharing a link to an honest and inspiring interview by Madeline Mckeever of Brown Envelope Seeds in Cork. It’s a great example of how you can turn your life around by opening up your mind.

We started our veggie garden on a shoestring – there were weeks when even a bag of compost was too expensive, and weed membrane and wind break fabric were a distant dream.

We’ve always tried to re-use/recycle as much as we can – our beds are edged with old roof joists from the house renovation.

You don’t need a big budget to grow your own vegetables, just be prepared to let people know you’ll take their rubbish!

Lifestyle

Out in the vegetable garden on Mother’s Day

March 15, 2010

I almost had a bit of an argument with my son yesterday morning.

“It’s Mothers Day Mum. That means a day off – no computer, no work and no gardening”.  Number one and number two I could almost go along with, but number three…. No Gardening….I’d planned an entire day.  It was to be the nicest day of the year and I’m starting to feel like I’ve been cooped up for weeks.  I could see I would need to do a bit of negotiating here…

“Aaah, Truffles – thank’s guys, my favourites, and lovely flowers AND a cup of tea (our nine year old has just learned how to make a brew and offers all the time so we’re making the most of it) and you’ve all made such lovely cards too.”  The three of them had gone to a lot of trouble and were so excited about giving their presents as they bounced all over the bed in anticipation. “Oops, mind the tea….now about that day not gardening…..” It’s amazing what children will do for chocolate before breakfast – wonder where they get it from?

And so with middle daughter as my helper for the day, after breakfast we set to work, leaving Dad to sleep in.

All of the tomato seedlings were ready to prickout from the seed trays into larger pots and the remaining nasturtiums went into the bin.  I’d moved lots into the tunnel and they all keeled over – shock of the night time temperature I think.  I’d started another tray off and did exactly what I told everyone at GIY Kilkenny not to do last week – put them in a room I barely go in.  Needless to say they hadn’t been watered and those that had germinated were as crisp as, well a crisp I guess!

My helper really enjoyed the pricking out and her fingers were small enough to do it well.  We then went on to sow lots more: Basil, aubergines, marigolds, chilli’s, sweet peppers, squashes and courgettes – I’ll be growing all of these in the polytunnel later this year.

I’m still getting the hang of my tunnel.  Last year I grew summer crops that wouldn’t be hardy enough to grow well outside here – aubergine, peppers, chillis, tomatoes, melon and cucumber.  Following the one day workshop I went on at Irish Seedsavers last November I now realise tunnels have SO much more potential.  This year I’ll try and keep crops growing all year round – it makes sense that it should pay it’s way in the vegetable garden. However, it’s keeping me on my toes when it comes to planning the crop rotation in there.  After a few days of sunny weather the shallots, garlic (both taken from crops harvested last year),  mangetout and broad beans have all had a growth spurt and I’ve tucked in a row of shallots behind the legumes.  The central bed has been raked, fertilised and prepared in readiness for its new crops, and another patch of early carrots have been sown.

Then on to the outside.  Ian’s done a fantastic job widening and digging over the beds over the past week and after lunch we got to work on the onion patch.  I finally managed to plant some organic shallots (Red Sun I think – must check with Highbank), garlic (Arno) and onions (Setton), with some corriander (Santos) at the end of the row to encourage the hoverflies into the garden.

The big surprise of the day was how dry everything is.  We had to water the onion patch prior to sowing and we’re struggling to remember when it last rained.  I think the forecast is for rain all day on Thursday…typical – the day my mum and dad arrive for their first visit in three years. We think they’ll notice a few changes.

Vegetable Garden

Fresh Farmyard Manure & E.Coli

March 13, 2010

Farmyard Manure and E.ColiI managed to tear myself away from workshop planning the other night and switched on the TV for an episode of CSI Miami. I was immediately reminded about an article I’d read in the February edition of Gardeners World a few weeks ago about E.coli. (Just can’t get away from work sometimes – just as well I love my subject!)

Farmyard Manure and E.ColiIt particularly rang alarm bells in my head as I’d mistakenly thought that because we don’t spray our vegetables with insecticides, they were safe to eat straight from the garden (the children have always picked or pulled veg straight from the plants, brushed off the dirt and eaten them).

Escherichia coli (E. coli) is the name given to a large family of bacteria commonly found in the gut of humans and animals. Whilst the majority of E.coli are harmless, some types can cause illness. The E. coli O157:H7 strain causes serious illness in humans ranging from diarrhoea to kidney failure, and even death.

Cattle are the principal source of this strain. It’s also present in the intestines of other animals including sheep, goats, deer, horses, dogs and cats. Seagulls, pigeons and geese are also known to carry the organism.

Whilst most people get E. coli from contaminated food (such as under-cooked minced beef), it also can be passed in the manure of cattle. Animals do not have to be ill transmit E. coli O157 to humans.

For those of us who use cattle manure as a means of incorporating organic matter into our vegetable gardens, Bunny Guinness, commenting in the Gardeners World magazine, recommended the following:

Fresh farmyard manure should never be used directly on vegetable gardens. It should always be left to compost for at least a year, turned regularly to encourage high temperatures and left to ‘cure’ for two to four months. This should allow the beneficial bacteria to kill the disease-causing ones. You must then leave at least 120 days between applying the composted manure and harvesting the crop – 90 days if the crop is protected by a husk, shell or pod.

Always wash hands well after handling manure, and maybe even your tools, boots and clothes. Wash the vegetables thoroughly before eating.

With hard-to-clean- crops like lettuces, especially if they’ll be eaten by vulnerable people (pregnant women, the young or elderly), consider using one to three teaspoons of chlorine bleach per gallon of water, then rinse well.

We’ve been warned!

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