Last Post 841 days 20 hours ago
28 February 2011 19:00:00
Waiting to be moved!!!
Having completed the new raised veg beds about 6 weeks ago, today we made a start on filling the new flower and fruit beds! this morning we had 4 ton of soil, a 1/2 ton of manure and 1 cubic meter of mulch delivered, we filled up 2 and a 1/2 of the beds using 2 ton of soil and the half ton of manure leaving 2 ton of soil and the mulch for the remaining 1 and 1/2 beds! that will wait till tomorrow need a soak and a beer now!!! will put up a few photos of the start of work today!
28 February 2011 02:28:30
Lemon Tree
While up in Aldi last week we noticed that they were selling Lemon trees! we had discussed before about trying to grow one and if we could do it justice, and we have now decided to give it a go! and to give it the best possible chance of developing i have sought a lot of info on the net regarding this as well as sourcing info from a couple of good fruit books we have! we have 2 large bay windows in our kitchen which we will use to over-winter the tree and it can spend the summer months in the greenhouse or garden depending on the weather! the tree we bought has 1 large, nearly ripe fruit and 3 smaller developing fruit, it also has about 5 flower buds ready to open and in fact one did today and to be honest even if this small tree never produces fruit the fragrance from the open flowers would make it worth growing alone! beautiful citrus smell in the kitchen!!! and the price €19.99 good value for something different!
26 February 2011 03:11:14
Maris Piper seed potatoes
After our Dahlia raid on Lidl on Thursday we dropped into Aldi to see if there were any bargains! we picked up a couple of packs of bulbs, a Lemon tree! (will need another journal for that) and these Maris Piper tubers! the tubers were €2.99 for a pack and we purchased 2! in total we got 48 tubers for €5.98! great value, and while they may be slightly smaller than other branded tubers you could buy elsewhere! they are still certified seed potatoes and will produce a great crop! we have grown seed potatoes bought in Aldi last year and done really well with them, the other variety they had was Pentland Javelin......
24 February 2011 20:04:47
One from last year!
Went up to Lidl today to check out thier bulb, tubers and corm offers! great value to be had!! picked up quiet a few bits and peices! we had picked up 4 Dahlias last year and were so delighted with thier showing we decided to increase our collection, we bought 5 different varieties of Dahlia today with 3 tubers in each pack! so that was 15 plants for less than €15, great value!!!!
24 February 2011 14:35:12
How to make Organic Plant Food
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.
24 February 2011 02:38:09
Epsom Salts save you Money!!!!!!
This is a post i put up last year about the use of Epsom salts, i know a few of you tried it and were delighted with the results! for those who did miss it try it out you will pleasantly surprised!!!!!!
Keep your garden green without spending a lot of money. Here is a great homemade fertilizer recipe to try:
Epsom Salt Fertilizer, 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!
23 February 2011 13:36:33
Seeds starting to germinate!
Hello all, the tomato seeds i sowed last week have germinated and started to break through the compost, the first to germinate this year was Pink Giant quickly followed by Brandywine and Garden Pearl, in the Greenhouse the Golden podded peas and the Chinese cabbage are coming on well in their modules, in the garden the Rhubarb stalks are about 7" long and the Welsh onions are flying after being separated! we have planted 22 Duke of York tubers for the early crop and 24 shallots have gone in, hope to get the onion sets in the ground on Monday, and will order the soil today for the fruit beds, really need to get the fruit bushes in place! full speed ahead!!!!!!!
23 February 2011 02:13:41
Heirloom Tomato Photos
Heirloom Tomato Photos
www.landrethseeds.com/photos/Tomato this link will give you a great collection of photos of heirloom tomatoes, maybe it will persuade you to grow some this year!
21 February 2011 19:11:48
This Years Tomato List
This is this years tomato list, it contains 16 varieties 12 from last years trials and 4 new types! 2 of which still have to be decided! the 12 from last year are, Cherokee Purple, lldi, Brandywine, Black Cherry, Pink Giant, Orange Giant, Roma VF, Mountain Gold, Max, Black Krim, Nabraska Wedding and Green Zebra, the two new varieties are Dzintare Lasite and San Pedro, and two still to be decided!!
21 February 2011 12:45:02
Duke of York
These are our first earlies that i hope to get in today! and if i can find the time would like to get the onion sets in also! love this time of year!!!!
20 February 2011 13:09:58
Echiums
Last October i had 16 Echium seedlings, (3 different varieties) but with the winter we had they have been decimated!!! i now have 2 left (Purple steeple) both looking good so have high (excuse the pun!) expectations for them this year!!
17 February 2011 18:30:49
Cambria Orchid
Last year i read in amazement post after post about Orchids! we only had one Orchid! which by the way had, and is doing very well for us! so we decided to increase our stock! this is a photo of a Cambria Orchid ( i stand corrected) which has started to flower for us, we bought the original plant for €2 around this time last year and with sound advice from Rachel divided it into 4 plants! all plants doing well but this one is the first to flower! our collection now totals 9 plants 4 of which are in flower, will post an album over the next few days.......
17 February 2011 13:21:13
Restless!!!!!!
Hello all, well i finally succumbed to temptation and made a start on this years seed! wont be going as crazy with the tomatoes as we did last year and have restricted ourselves to 16 varieties this year, we are trying 4 new varieties of toms this year, the other 12 are the best of the 40 varieties we trialed last year! we are trying 3 new types of chillies and 6 varieties in total! we are trying Aubergine for the first time this year also! the rest of the seeds planted were kale, cauliflower, cabbage, peas and beans, the first early spuds are well chitted and hope to get them in the ground in the next week along with the onions and carrot seeds! hope to order another 4 ton of soil next week to fill up the flower and fruit beds and get them planted up! will put up a list of tomato and chili seed varieties sown in another post....
09 February 2011 17:46:22
Seeds
Was in town yesterday and decided to check out the good old €2 shops! the one in Moore st has great value in seeds, i picked up a chilli & pepper collection 2 types of sweet pepper and 2 types of chilli peppers and a Oriental collection that includes Chinese cabbage, Aubergine, Lettuce, Lemon basil, Pot basil and Dill, each pack was marked €2.99 but if you buy 2 packs you get them for €3!!!!! they had great value in pea and bean seed, with each pack containing 2 different varieties of either bean or pea and about 16 seeds of each type, again priced at €3 for 2 packs, they also had flower collections but to be honest i didn't pay them much attention, great value though!!
07 February 2011 18:58:09
Jerusalem Artichokes (Thanks Rachel)
Hello all, we picked the first of our Jerusalem Artichokes today we kindly received the tubers from Rachel around this time last year, we have 16 plants in total and we lifted 2 plants today and got around 4lb in tubers! delighted with that!! as we have never grown these before we were wondering if anybody had a favorite recipe for them? if you read this Rachel i remember at the time you telling me that you you had been growing and using them for years! so if you have any advice on how best to use these tubers would love to here from you! and if i remember correctly Rachel you referred to them as Fartichokes!!! all replies welcome............................