Last Post 1206 days 5 hours ago
28 February 2010 18:21:52
Tomato Seedlings
Have been busy with the tomatoes for the past week, between taking seedlings out of the propagator and keeping notes about germination dates and percentage of seed germinated I've been kept on my toes! 21 varieties of the tomatoes have now germinated along with Mammoth red cabbage and various lettuce and salad mixes!
27 February 2010 03:11:27
Seed Box!
Maggie was up in aldi last week and came across these Hobby boxes as they were described! she picked 2 up, i think that they make ideal seed holding containers! with the individual compartments they are ideal for us and fit neatly on the bottom shelf of the fridge! i think they cost €6.99 each! don't know if they have any left but if they do get your hands on one! ideal and compact for keeping all your seeds in order! and handy for the fridge!!!
25 February 2010 02:19:14
First Tomatoes germinated for 2010
Tuesday and Wednesday seen the first of the tomatoes germinated this year, the first 2 to germinate were Siberian and Large Cherry both of these germinated on Tuesday after 6 days, they were followed on Wednesday by Snow Queen, Azoychka, Black Cherry, Amish Paste, Max, Orange Giant and Black Prince, all after 7 days, i expect the next week to be busy with "new arrivals" have started to fill in the various notes on each variety, this information will be very important when everything is compiled at the end of the season.........
24 February 2010 18:25:42
Aldi Greenhouses/Staging
The greenhouse that i picked up in Aldi on Monday was bought more for the staging than to be used as a greenhouse! when i put it together on Monday i was so impressed with the quality of the staging that i went up again on Tuesday and bought 2 more!! the greenhouse we bought was the 4 tier one and it cost €17.99 so the 3 Greenhouses in total cost €53.97, but for that i now have 3 staging units that when placed together gives me and area that is 6ft 10" long x 1ft 8" in dept and on 4 tiers, so a total combined shelf space of 27ft 4" x 1ft 8" great value for that price! will use it in the greenhouse in the spring and in the summer when its not needed can be taken down and stored away!
24 February 2010 13:04:20
Forth batch sown
Got the fourth batch of tomatoes sown on Monday night, that now brings the total varieties of tomato sown to 41, and this morning we have 2 types germinated! they are, Large cherry and Siberian (thanks Rachel) both varieties were planted in the first batch on the 17th, so those 2 are the first out of the blocks for this year! back to the fourth batch, the varieties sown on Monday night were, Yellow Pear Shape and Black Plumb (thanks Jurga) Rozovy Titan, Dulcia, Pink Giant, Yellow Delicatessen, Aurora, Urbikany and Gardeners delight, now that the germination has started it will be interesting to see the returns from the seed sown! busy time for the notes!!!
24 February 2010 01:50:48
Hi Sean, the previous mix will work for greenfly, meanwhile here is a mix for dealing with Black spot that you can make up yoursel,f it goes as follows.......
Combine 3 tbsp. of apple cider vinegar with 1 gal. water. Spray the plants with the vinegar mixture every morning until the black spots disappear.
Spray down the infested plant with water from a water hose. This will loosen the fungus's hold on the plant. Mix 1 tbsp. baking soda, 2 1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil, 1/2 tsp. of castile soap and 1 gal. water in a garden sprayer. Thoroughly cover the plants with the mixture once weekly until the spots dissipate.
Simmer 8 oz. of elder leaves in 16 oz. of water for 30 minutes. Strain the leaves out and combine the liquid with 1 tbsp. of castile soap and 16 additional ounces of water. Mix well and apply to afflicted plants and spray once weekly until the black spots are cured.
Mix 3 oz. minced garlic with 1 oz. mineral oil and let it soak for one full day. Strain the garlic out and save the garlic oil in a glass container. Combine 1 tsp. fish emulsion with 16 oz. water and store in a glass container. Mix 2 tbsp. garlic oil with 1 oz. fish emulsion and spray on afflicted plants to cure black spots.
Combine one part milk with one part water in a lawn and garden sprayer. Spray the infested plants with the mixture once every three to four days to get rid of black spots. Similar to apple cider vinegar, the milk changes the acidity of the surface of the leaves, making it harder for black spots and fungus to take hold and live on the plant.
23 February 2010 18:21:36
Many pesticides and insecticides are some of the most dangerous items you have in your house. The popular brands of these products would like to make you think that the only way to repel harmful insects from your garden or plants, Not only are they harmful for you, but they also are geared towards killing insects instead of simply repelling them. You can make your own insect repellents....
Why should I use them?
The typical pesticide and insect label always contains a huge CAUTION, HAZARD, or DANGER on the back of the labels. There is a reason that these products contain these labels as they are in fact hazardous to humans as well as animals. Who knows what reactions your body could have to these horrendous chemicals that most of the times you have never heard of or don't even know how to pronounce! It just makes sense to use homemade pesticides that are made from natural ingredients. Besides being safe for your family and the environment, you can save a lot of money. The shop bought products are usually pretty pricey. The ingredients in homeade products are usually far cheaper and only require a few ingredients to make. The key to repelling pests from your garden or plants is make them have an appalling taste without harming the plants. A key ingredient to many homemade pesticides I found was soap and strong tasting products like garlic and peppers. The following recipes will keep most pests off of your plants:
Oil Mixture
- 1 cup cooking oil ( i.e. canola or vegetable )
- 1 tablespoon liquid dishwashing soap
- Use 2 ½ teaspoons of this mixture in 1 cup of water
Spray on the surface and underside of leaves to coat insects in various stages of development.
This mixture is especially good with eggs and immature bugs. Be careful on the type of liquid soap you choose.
Soap Mixture
- A few teaspoons of liquid dishwashing soap
- 1 gallon of water
Spray on the surface and underside of infested foliage. The soap acts to paralyze insects, which prevents them from feeding. The pests eventually die of starvation. For heavy infestations spray every 2 to 3 days for 2 weeks.
This is a very generic mixture that can fight off most any insects. Make sure to use a light liquid soap here as well to ensure not to kill your plants.
Garlic/Pepper Mixture
- 1/2 cup hot peppers of your choice
- 1/2 cup garlic cloves ( onions will also do )
- 2 cups water
Steep this mixture for 24 hours. An easy method for steeping the tea is to combine the ingredients in a clear glass jar, seal, and set in a sunny location. Strain and spray onto foliage.
This is another good general mixture that will fight off most bugs.
Repellent Recipes
Repellents seem to use the sense of smell and vision to detract pests away.
Fleas and Ticks This is more for your pets, but one method is try to rub talc on your pet or supplementing their diets with garlic or Vitamin B to distract them from getting on your pet's skin.
Ants To prevent those pesky ants from entering you house, make a line of either cream of tartar, red chili pepper or paprika to stop them in their tracks.
23 February 2010 12:11:57
Keep your garden green without spending a lot of money. Here is a great homemade fertilizer recipe to try:
Epsom SaltFertilizer, Use in Place of:
Houseplant food
Vegetable fertilizer
Rose plant food
What You Need:
- 1 Tablespoon Epsom Salt
- 1 gallon water
- A watering can
What You Do:
1. Combine the Epsom salt and water.
2. Use the solution to water your plants.
3. Repeat once a month.
How This Works:
Epsom salt is made up of magnesium and sulfate - both vital plant nutrients. Some magnesium-loving plants to try it on: houseplants, roses, peppers, tomatoes and potatoes, its that easy!
22 February 2010 23:21:14
Have been reading a really good self-sufficiency book tonight with lots of really good tips on how to make all your own plant feed, for tomatoes, vegetables and house plants etc, here is one of the recipes listed, use it for house plants or veg! Get some small nettle plants (i.e. stinging nettle) to use in your natural fertilizer concoction. you may have some growing near you depending on where you live. This plant is considered a weed, but not in everybody's book! Plant your nettle in a large pot instead of the ground since it can tend to take over a garden in no time! When the plants are about 1ft high, cut off some of the stems while wearing gloves. Young stems are better to use with organic plant fertilizer, but older ones will be OK to. Chop up the stems with scissors and crush them a bit inside the container using a blunt object to release some of the oils. Fill an airtight container with water. For organic plant food, use about 1 gallon of water for every 2lb of nettles. Grass clippings are also okay to add but only a few handfuls. Add a weight on top of the nettles to keep the leaves submerged. Place the lid on.Now wait! It will be about 2-4 weeks before your organic plant food will be ready to use. Strain out the nettles and dilute your natural fertilizer concoction with 6 parts of fresh water to 1 part nettle water. Add this organic plant food to any vegetables, houseplants, etc.
22 February 2010 19:00:43
Today's Bargains
Went out today to Aldi, Liddle and Woodies on the lookout for bargains!! the only thing a had in mind was maybe picking up a small greenhouse in Aldi more for the staging, very handy to use in the kitchen for propagators and young plants etc! first stop was Aldi, picked up a 4 tier greenhouse for €17.99 and another propagator pack for €4.99 (Maggie picked up one last week, but always handy to have, they have great value in Aldi with the Garlic bulbs, 5 bulbs for €2.99, only i already have plenty of garlic planted i would have bought a pack! Next it was on to Liddle, they had the Witch Hazel now reduced to €6.99 but i didn't take the plunge, all i picked up was a Rosemary plant for €3.99 last port of call was Woodies were i picked up the 2 green troughs for a €1 each, another Sweet Potato tuber for €2.29 and 5 Strawberry crowns also for €2.29 and a packet of 50 plant labels for €1.99 all in all a happy days hunting!!!
22 February 2010 02:21:59
Third batch sown
Managed tonight to get the third batch of tomato seed sown, 12 more varieties were sown tonight and that now brings the total variety of tomatoes sown so far to 32 different types, the tomatoes sown tonight were, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Marglobe, Green Zebra, Homestead, Golden Jubilee, Pink Stuffer, Roma VF, Boxcar Willie, Big Rainbow, Garden Pearl and Red Cherry, hope to get the remainder of the tomato collection sown over the next few days and we can then move on to the Chillies and Sweet Peppers!
21 February 2010 13:09:08
Goji berry plants 21/2/10
Have put up a photo album of these plants also, Madeline McKeever was saying that her Goji plants were looking very sorry for themselves so i have put up a photo album to show what stage ours are at at the moment! these plants were grown from seed last year, May i think, so that would make them about 9 months old! the largest is 10" tall, there are 2 at 8" tall, 3 at 6" tall and the "baby" at 4" tall, we were a bit worried about them in the winter months as we didn't really know what to expect and apparently it is all about getting them through their first winter! after that they are hardy to -20!! must admit in January they didn't look to good and we thought we had lost them as the were in the greenhouse without any protection! towards the end of January i took the plants into the kitchen and gave them a top dressing of fresh compost and took whatever dead and decaying leaves were left on the plants, after about 10 days of being in the heat of the kitchen they started to produce buds and as you can see eventually leaves, i have taken off the growing tips in order to stimulate bushy growth and will leave them in the kitchen until April when they will go outside, last September they were planted from 3"pots into their current pots which are 1.5ltr pots in some of the plants you can see thread roots through the drainage holes so i plant to pot them on in the next 2 weeks or so! so if your Goji is outdoors and looking sorry for its self don't despair! these are hardy little buggers!!
21 February 2010 03:37:52
Tomato Story
A Jobless man applied for the position of ‘office boy' at Microsoft. The HR manager interviewed him then watched him cleaning the floor as a test. ‘You are employed' he said. Give me your e-mail address and I'll send you the application to fill in, as well as date when you may start. The man replied ‘But I don't have a computer, neither an email'. ‘I'm sorry', said the HR manager. If you don't have an email, that means you do not exist. And who doesn't exist, cannot have the job.' The man left with no hope at all. He didn't know what to do, with only $10 in his pocket. He then decided to go to the supermarket and buy a 10Kg tomato crate.
He then sold the tomatoes in a door to door round. In less than two hours,
he succeeded to double his capital. He repeated the operation three times,
and returned home with $60. The man realized that he can survive by this way, and started to go everyday earlier, and return late. Thus, his money doubled or tripled everyday. Shortly, he bought a cart, then a truck, and then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles. 5 years later, the man is one of the biggest food retailers in the US ...
He started to plan his family's future, and decided to have a life insurance. He called an insurance broker, and chose a protection plan.
When the conversation was concluded the broker asked him his email.
The man replied,'I don't have an email.'
The broker answered curiously, ‘You don't have an email, and yet have succeeded to build an empire. Can you imagine what you could have been if you had an e mail?!!' The man thought for a while and replied, ‘Yes, I'd be an office boy at Microsoft!'
Moral of the story
Moral 1
Internet is not the solution to your life.
Moral 2
If you don't have Internet, and work hard, you can be a millionaire.
Moral 3
If you received this message by email,
you are closer to being a office boy/girl,than a millionaire!!!!!!
20 February 2010 18:06:52
Fruit bushes
I potted up the fruit bushes that i got in Aldi last week, they were great value at only €2.29 and all 5 seem to be doing well, in the pack was 1 Redcurrant, Jonkheer van Tets, 1 Gooseberry, Red Dessert, and 3 Raspberry, Glen Ample, potted all 5 up and will go through the process of hardening them off as i don't know how long they were in the warmth of storage! putting them out in this weather would be a disaster! we plan to erect a fruit cage this year and the above mentioned will be added to our existing fruit collection which consists of 1 Redcurrant, 2 Blackcurrant, 1 Damson, 2 Goji berry, 1 Gooseberry and a good collection of Alpine strawberries! hope to have the cage in place by the end of March, will keep you posted on the progress!
20 February 2010 03:59:34
Second batch sown
Although i got home from work late tonight i managed to sow a few more of our tomato seed collection, I sowed another 5 varieties tonight which brings the total sown so far to 20 varieties that's almost half way there! the varieties sown tonight were, Black from Tula, Black Krim, Black Russian, Costoluto Fiorentino and Demidov, hope to complete the sowing of the tomato seed on Monday all going well! time for bed, back in work at 9.30am!!!!!!!!
19 February 2010 13:31:15
Salad mix seedlings
The 3 troughs that i planted up with the salad mix are flying! only takes about 7 days for them to germinate on a kitchen window sill! these are cut again mixes and will provide plenty of filling for baps, pitta bread and indeed salads over the summer months, the ones in the picture are two different types, two of Spicy salad mix and one of salad mix! will wait about a month and plant up another 2 troughs to give us a good succession over the summer months! we have plans this year to buy up the individual packs of seed and make up a mix to our own liking! "a chillipepper salad expression so to speak" has anybody made up there own mixes before? the fact that you could make it as hot or as peppery would really add a new zing to salads etc............
18 February 2010 21:46:15
20 Years Gone But Not Forgotten; Rutgers University's Prized "Ramapo" Is Coming Back
- The quest for the perfect tomato began in New Brunswick nearly 50 years ago and ended, for now, in a field south of Tel Aviv, Israel.
After eight years of taste tests from chefs and tomato lovers, agricultural scientists at Rutgers University say they have resurrected one of the most delicious Jersey tomatoes ever.
The elusive "Ramapo" tomato seed has been reproduced in Israel and 572,000 certified organic seeds were shipped this month to New Brunswick.
The Ramapo tomato, named after a New Jersey Indian tribe and developed at Rutgers in 1968, will be back for this summer's growing season after an absence of more 20 years.
In the Garden State, considered to produce some of the nation's best tomatoes, that's big news.
"People all across the land are frustrated with hard, cardboardy-tasting tomatoes," said Jack Rabin, associate director of the New Jersey agricultural experiment station at Rutgers. "Ramapo gives them something that's an alternative ... that captures that famous Jersey tomato taste."
Seed companies stopped producing the Ramapo decades ago because commercial farmers sought varieties that grew well in other regions, and the Ramapo did well mostly along the East Coast, Rabin said.
The first major release of more than 8,000 seed packets will be sold by Rutgers in a few weeks, initially to home gardeners like Edmund Ryan of Irasburg, Vt., who remembers first tasting the variety as a teenager from a neighbor in Red Bank.
"It was just the perfect Jersey tomato," said Ryan, 54, who recalled eating the tomatoes in a sandwich after football practice. "It's nice and tart and sweet but also just had a little extra that I can't explain."
Rutgers scientists have been busy pursuing that "holy grail" of productivity, good yield and taste in greenhouses and fields, experimenting with 154 varieties, with flavor as the most important characteristic.
Tomatoes have been an important crop in New Jersey for more than 100 years. Until the 1950s, many were grown for use in tomato products, including soup at the Campbell Soup Co., based in Camden, Rabin said.
After World War II, most of the large-scale commercial farms moved to warmer climates like Florida and California. What remains in New Jersey today are tomatoes for fresh use, at supermarkets, restaurants and farm stands.
In the 1960s, as transportation improved, breeders introduced new varieties to withstand the rigors of shipping from farm to supermarkets, often at the expense of flavor, Rabin said.
A new process also helped shipping: picking the tomatoes green and exposing them to ethylene gas to ripen and turn red to allow for longer transportation and shelf life, said Martha A. Mutschler, a professor of plant breeding and genetics at Cornell.
She said the problem in taste comes when the tomatoes are picked immature green, and they can't fully ripen.
"One reason tomatoes don't taste good is because they are picked too soon," she said. "Another reason is that people refrigerate them."
Of course, it's a matter of palate as well. Tomato lovers are passionate and often go without them during the winter, when in not season.
"The flavor is the most important thing, you know," said chef Andre Soltner, who sold his legendary New York restaurant, Lutece, and teaches at the French Culinary Institute in New York. "When I cannot get good tomatoes with flavor, I don't use them."
For Lucky Lee, co-owner of Lucky's Real Tomatoes in Brooklyn, N.Y., which trucks ripe tomatoes during the winter from Florida back to New York in a day's turnaround, good tomatoes are also a source of nostalgia.
"It reminds you of a different time, a more natural way of living before additives and chemicals were put in everything we eat to make it last longer," she said. "It's a simpler life, a nicer life."
18 February 2010 01:53:05
First batch sown
Started the first sowing of this years tomato seeds, these are all heirlooms, mostly East European and mostly determinate, all these types are early croppers and hopefully provide us with plenty of information on which to judge their merits, have sown an average of 6 to 8 seeds of each variety, the plan is to grow 2 plants of each type and any surplus plants will be passed on to friends on the promise that they keep a few basic notes so as to help in the overall gathering and compiling of information for each variety, the 15 varieties sown this evening where, Orange Giant, Polar, Snow Queen, lldi, Max, Mountain Gold, Siberian, Black Cherry, Black Prince, Rutgers, Large Cherry, Amish Paste, Azoychka, Nebraska Wedding and New Yorker..................
17 February 2010 19:48:56
Randy Radish!!
Was cleaning out one of the veg beds today and taking the last of the swedes up when i found this! its a radish!! i had a couple of drills if radishes in this bed in spring before i planted the swedes in the summer, it must have escaped my eye! well not today!! brought a smile to my face when i pulled it up!! reminded me of Mecky's carrot! if you know what i mean!! will say no more!
17 February 2010 14:56:43
Turning Red!!!
Just noticed today that with the bit of sunshine we have had over the last few days it has helped all the chillies on the Cayenne plant we over-wintered to start turning red! looks like we are going to have a Chili harvest in Febuary!!
17 February 2010 02:47:45
Greenhouse filling up!!
Have the small greenhouse full up at the moment! 500 onion sets in peat pots! (400 Stuttgart Giant and 100 Red Baron) also have 56 Garlic plants planted in pots and window boxes (42 Cristo and 14 Solent white) the Solent which were planted last November are about 6" tall and the Cristo which was only planted 4 weeks ago is just breaking through the compost, i have another 16 Garlic plants in the garden about 8" tall that we got from the garlic bulb we bought in the supermarket in Lanzarote! apart from those onion sets hope to put in about 50 shallot bulbs, have 20 bulbs of Red Sun already and will pick up another type and plant these straight into the ground, apart from that the only other seed sowing was 3 small troughs of salad mix, and about a half dozen seeds of Scotch bonnet chili, sown in a 3" inch pot! only want to grow 2 of these chillies as the harvest from 2 of these compact little plants will be more than enough of these chilies for the next 12 months! the spare plants if any will be given to friends, will start the seed sowing in earnest over the next 2 weeks with the likes of the Brussels sprouts and the peas and beans going into pots over the next few days and the likes of the tomatoes and the other chilies going in at the end of the month.............
15 February 2010 21:30:26
Onion sets
Have started planting up the Red Baron onion sets tonight in peat pots, have planted up 100 sets and will leave it at that for the moment will use the remaining sets up if i have any spare pots left at the end!! Maggie planted 140 of the Stuttgart Giant sets last week and we hope to get the remainder of the sets, about 300, in tonight! we already had 100 of the pots from last year, got another 60 from a friend of ours and bought the remaining 330 pots in the €2 shop for €20 so the cost of giving them an early start is not to excessive! best be off plenty of potting to do!!!!!!!!!
15 February 2010 17:15:29
Jacinta, Your not alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was up in Woodies earlier looking for nothing in particular, ended up with a net of red onion sets, which i had intended to buy anyway! and a Sweet potato tuber! that i hadn't!! when i seen it i just thought of you Jacinta! couldn't let you enjoy the fun of growing it all on your own!! we can compare notes!! PS hope your feeling better...........
14 February 2010 03:38:00
Try this site
www.bondall.comBondall Pot & Ornament Sealer is an easy to use masonry sealer.
This versatile sealer is the ideal choice for sealing pots and ornaments, after they have been suitably prepared
Features & Benefits:
- Seals, binds, protects and waterproofs.
- Perfect for most vertical masonry surfaces
- Provides a clear natural finish
- Increases surfaces hardness
- Prevents staining and soiling
- Resists algal and fungal growth
- Very durable
13 February 2010 13:12:38
Jacinta, got this info from a friend of mine, she is a lady living in New Jersey and has been using this method to get the shoots for her Sweet potatoes for years! her email reads as follows............................ Choose a potato that already has some "eyes" on it if possible, which are buds of the slips that you will grow. Push four toothpicks into the sides of the potato, one north, south, east and west. These toothpicks will hold the potato in place in the jar. Fill a jar about 3/4 full of water. Place the toothpick-filled potato into the jar, with the pointed end down. Make sure that at least the top 1/3 of the potato is sticking up above the water. Place the jar in a sunny location. Check the jar every day, and replace the water when needed to keep it at the same level. Your sweet potato will sprout in about two weeks, with white or pinkish growths growing out of the potato surface. Turn the jar daily after the potato has begun to sprout, to make sure that each side gets the same amount of sun. when the sprouts, or slips, are about 6 inches tall, use scissors or a sharp knife to cut them from the potato. These slips are what will be planted in your garden. Fill peat pots with potting soil. Place one slip into each pot, making sure that the end that was closest to the potato is in the soil. Water thoroughly and keep in a sunny windowsill. In about two weeks, roots will begin to grow on your slips and more leave will appear. You may now plant them in the garden.
13 February 2010 03:19:03
How To Grow Sweet Potatoes
They're truly lovely plants, And incredibly easy to grow. The slips are basically mini plants. Plant them after the last frost, in rich soil with some well-aged compost, 12-18″ apart Water regularly, but otherwise they need almost zero weeding, and they dont have any bugs or disease. You can stop watering them during the last 3 weeks before harvest, so the roots are dry when you pull them out, and so that they don't develop any molds. They are related to morning glories,
Pull Them Up! They're basically on the same schedule as Irish potatoes: when they start to yellow in the Autumnl, it's about time to pull them. You can also feel them beneath the soil and get a sense of how big they are.
Seriously, that's it Jacinta well worth a go! if you grow them into slips i will try 1 or 2! so no excuses!! now grow them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11 February 2010 22:24:07
First of this years chillies starting to turn red!
Am delighted to report that the first of this years chillies has started to turn red!! its on the cayenne plant that we over-wintered, there are about 7 chillies on the plant at the moment and we are looking forward to plenty of really early chillies this year! apparently this type of chili plant is difficult to over-winter and i was worried at one stage about the lack of light during December and January even though it was placed in the bay window in the kitchen, well its made it and is showing plenty of new growth! chillies ripening in February! that's a memorable first for us to put in the diary
11 February 2010 21:02:13
The tuberous roots of vining sweet potato plants are what produces the "fruit" of the sweet potato. The vines take root wherever they touch the ground and, as they spread, can produce a bumper crop of sweet potatoes.
If you have a garden that is too small to allow accommodate spreading vines, you can plant sweet potato bush varieties. As soon as the ground is warm... and danger of frost has passed, you can plant your sweet potato slips...the small rooted pieces of a tuber. Here are a few more tips about how to grow sweet potatoes:
- You can plant sweet potatoes in raised rows. This allows the soil to warm faster and gives the plants good drainage.
- In cool climates, spread black plastic on the soil to help it warm faster.
- Space sweet potato plants 12 - 18" apart and with 3 - 4' between rows. This allows the vines room to spread. If you are planting the bush variety of sweet potato, they can be somewhat closer together.
- Over-fertilizing sweet potato plants causes them to produce lots of foliage but few sweet potatoes. If the sweet potato vines are started in good, organic soil they do not need further "feeding."
- To prevent the maturing sweet potatoes from splitting, don't water them for 3-4 weeks prior to harvest. Sweet potatoes can also be white, yellow or even purple.
11 February 2010 15:59:52
Down to Business
Had the pleasure of bumping into Jacinta this morning and had a good natter about everything from seeds to ducks to pigs! and a few more bits and pieces in between! picked up a good amount of seed & cuttings compost and a few bags of general purpose compost! plan for the rest of the day is to take cuttings from the pelargoniums and bizzie Lizzie's, plant the onion sets in peat pots and start sowing some seed as in leeks, Brussels sprouts, broad beans, chili peppers and calabrese! also plant up 3 fruit bushes we picked up this morning, well loads to do so better get cracking! will post a journal later...........
10 February 2010 02:43:41
Rare Seed Site
While browsing the net looking for rare tomato seed, i came across this American site, needless to say not only have they a great range of rare tomato seed, but also a great collection of all veg and flower seeds! thought you might be interested in browsing the site i found it really interesting...........
www.amishlandseeds.com
04 February 2010 18:24:53
Studying to do
Picked up a good book today called Choosing and keeping Chickens, hardback, 209 pages, lots of colour photos and reduced from €12.99 to €7.99 so was delighted with that! My manure man also called last night and i picked up a few bags for the tomatoes for this year! hope this weather improves and i can get the onion sets in! already have them a week and don't really like holding on to them would rather get them in the ground.................
03 February 2010 19:32:43
Goji berries
My Goji berry plants that i grew from seed last summer have made it through their first Winter and i am delighted to see them budding and producing leaves, did not know much about these plants when i sowed the seed last year only that their first winter is very important, once they make it through that they are full hardy to temperatures of -20!! i feared for the worst when they started to lose their leaves last October, i tidied up their compost and left them in the greenhouse to fend for themselves, i germinated about 20 plants last summer and passed on about 10 plants to friends of the remaining 10 that i over-wintered 8 are now in leaf and i have hope for the other 2! at the moment they are planted in 1.5ltr pots which they have filled with their root system, hopefully next month will place them into larger pots to grow on, at the moment they are about 8" to 10" tall..........
03 February 2010 16:51:07
Li-ion Battery Cell
Jacinta, you are looking for a camera with a battery cell like this different makes and models have different size batteries that range in size from a mobile phone size battery up to the size of the one in the photo, about the size of a match box!
03 February 2010 15:54:43
No Energy
Hello all, day off today and i was looking forward to getting out to Howth and getting some work done on the Allotment, set the alarm for 10am but i just could not get out of the bed! eventually got up about 1pm! just feel so drained lately, i know that being on the antibiotics for 4 weeks didn't help and i need to build myself back up but i get really p####d off when i cant get out and about, took nearly 4 weeks off work, which i only spent sitting around the house and went back to work last Saturday and I'm still knackered! throat feels sore head feels all congested! if i was a pot plant id be heading for the compost heap!!
02 February 2010 02:57:18
Tomato and veg charts for 2010
Have just finished writing and drawing up charts for keeping notes on this years crops, i keep as much detailed information as possible about each type of tomato or type of veg that we grow, it starts with the date and the amount of seed sown, how long it takes to germinate, the amount of seed germinated, dates potted on, date of final planting, size, colour, weight of fruit from each plant, date of first flower, date of first fruit set, date of first fruit picked, average weight of fruit, size, texture, shape, flavor, and best use for each variety! can be time consuming at the start of the season but come this October and November the collective notes are invaluable reading for the Winter months.........
01 February 2010 15:11:47
Jacinta and Fran got the seeds for the Mammoth red rock in the post last week, will send them on soon! maybe a bit premature! but here's something to try with it when it grows!
Serve this cabbage and apple dish with roast duck or pork loin.
Ingredients
1 large red cabbage, shredded
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tart cooking apples, cored, diced
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¾ cup red wine
¾ cup water
Directions
In a 3-quart saucepan, bring salted water to a boil. Add cabbage to boiling water and cook over medium heat until tender-crisp (about 10 minutes). Drain well. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion. Cook and stir until glazed, 2 to 3 minutes. Add cooked cabbage, apples, vinegar, sugar, pepper, nutmeg, wine and water. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer 30 minutes or until tender. Serve. Makes 6 to 8 servings.
01 February 2010 02:25:43
Heirloom Tomato Photos
this link will give you a great collection of photos of heirloom tomatoes, maybe it will persuade you to grow some this year! take a look and see if anything catches your eye..........