Last Post 814 days 10 hours ago
28 March 2011 22:10:56
One of our better investments!!
This powerful little machine could really be a great investment! we put the clippings of the 35ft x3ft stretch of hedge we cut today through it and it shredded it down to a small mulch which went straight onto the compost bin! will produce lovely compost............
28 March 2011 19:53:28
Maggie on a mission!
We got a good deal of work done today in the garden, on the right hand side of the garden we have a large hedge that goes down about 35ft, it badly needed to be cut back as it was almost 9ft tall, so today we took about 34" of the top and the extra light is most welcome! we also got to use our shredder for the first time! we bought this last year and today was our first opportunity to use it, delighted with it!! shredded down all the hedge clippings and got them on the compost heap, also put up support for the peas which are flying! took some photos of the fruit and veg garden, will post an album!
24 March 2011 02:12:20
Busy days
Hello all, on Monday we got the final delivery of soil into the new beds in the orchard, we now have 3 16ft x 4ft beds ready to be planted up, and on Tuesday planted 2 of the beds up with our main crop spuds (Maris Piper) 38 tubers in total, the other bed will be used for calabrese, cauliflower and kale etc, also got extra shelving in the shed on Monday for more storage, on Tuesday apart from planting the main crop spuds i got all the toms transplanted into their 3" pots and Maggie got the rest of the mulch into the garden and got the pots all organised, we also got the water-buts up and running and today to top it all off i noticed that a dozen of the first earlies have broken through the soil! will be keeping an eye on them as regards any frost! so all in all a very productive few days!!!!!
22 March 2011 01:44:46
P'##ed Off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Had a really good day in both the gardens, got loads done! didn't finish up until 10.30!!! came in had a nice long soak in the bath, nice steak and a few beers! posted a long informative journal, which i LOST!!! too tired to repeat the process so its off to bed! really annoying! ah well there is always tomorrow!
21 March 2011 02:21:46
Plans for later on today!!
Hello all, not long in from work, tired! have the soil arriving tomorrow to fill the remaining 1 and a 1/2 beds in the orchard (3 tonne) so hopefully that will arrive around noon and that job will be finished! hope to plant 2 of the beds with spuds on Tuesday, also have a lot of potting on to do with the seedlings, hope to get that done tomorrow afternoon, also have 1 cubic meter of mulch arriving tomorrow to fill the beds in the front garden and finish off 2 beds in the back garden, if i get a chance I'll try to sort out the new poly tunnel for the orchard (12ft x 6ft) but there is no rush with that, may try finish off washing the pots and trays that will be needed for the final planting of greenhouse crops! best get to bed will be a busy 2 days!!
16 March 2011 01:46:20
Useful info on tomatoes
Dealing with "leggy" tomato plants
Hello all, this is a post i put up in January and also April of 2010, but i think it might be of interest to some people that may find themselves with leggy tomatoes!
I have noticed in several journals that a lot of people have started their tomato seedlings off already and in some cases from last December, and more luck to them! i have always waited till the middle of February each year which i feel is time enough, while planting tomato seed that early works well for lots of people, if your not to sure what your doing you can be caught out with plants coming on to soon! if you find that this happens to you, here is what to do! Tomato seedlings have the remarkable habit that they grow roots from their stems wherever they contact soil. You can bury the stems right up to the leaves, and they will happily just grow more roots. To help keep tomato seedlings compact, I re-pot them once or twice while they're indoors. At the two-leaf stage, I dig them out and carefully replant them at the very bottom of a small container. By filling the container, burying the stem so that only the leaves stick up above the soil, the seedling is shortened and it becomes stouter and stronger. If you have room for larger containers, you can keep re-burying seedlings to shorten them until planting time arrives. When you plant in the greenhouse, you have one more chance to shorten the seedlings. Even if your tomatoes are very long and stringy, plant them so that only the top four or five leaves are above the compost. This helps prevent the stems from breaking, and it adds to the root size. The seedlings will grow very quickly once they take hold, and the lost height will be made up before you know it.
15 March 2011 19:36:07
Ladybird house! Information needed!!!
Hello all, as part of our order from Mr Middleton today we purchased a ladybird house! we would love to hear from anybody who has one and their experience with it!! info on where to site it? attracting ladybirds? do they stay/overwinter? any info at all welcome! please!!!!!
15 March 2011 11:30:32
Mr Middleton order
Our Mr Middleton order arrived this morning, it consists of 2 Blueberry bushes, 1 Blackberry bush, 1 Tree Peony, 6 Giant Lillium bulbs, 3 Astilbe and a ladybird house! have to go into work this afternoon so will try and get the 2 Blueberry bushes planted into their pots before i go to work, also have some Kale and Calabrese seedlings in the greenhouse that need potting on! best get stuck in so!! anyone off today enjoy the garden its turning into a nice day out there!!
14 March 2011 17:33:32
Work on the Orchard
This is the blank canvas we started the day with! we got 3, 16ft x 4ft beds built and in place by noon! the soil in the back of the orchard was in much better condition than i thought, so as a result when i took the sods up i took almost 1 foot of soil with it which then made the beds 2ft deep in total! as a result the 3 tonne of soil and the 1/2 tonne of manure was just enough to fill 1 and a 1/2 of the beds!!!! so it looks like we will need another 3 tonne of soil to fill the remaining 1 and a 1/2 beds! that will be next week! happy with the start we made today, will stick up an album of whats been done so far.........
13 March 2011 23:48:39
Coco
We got a fair bit of work done today in the garden, we got the rest of the soil in to top up the beds, planted the remaining plants and got all the mulch in place, Maggie got the onion sets in and i planted out the peas which are now almost 6" tall, got all the pots and trays organised for the Tomatoes, Chillies, Peppers and the Aubergines, these are there final pots (wont be needing them for a while!) but i just want to make a start washing and sterilizing them, started to pot on some of the toms tonight into 3" pots and got a few more seeds sown, so things are moving along nicely! early start in the morning in the Orchard, hope to have the beds made up and in place and the sods removed by noon as the 3 tonne of soil and the manure are due then and will need to get that in place!
11 March 2011 01:38:12
Bob Flowerdews complete Fruit book
Have spent a really enjoyable evening in front of the fire reading this book! really informative on all aspects of a huge range of fruit! a lot of fruits id never even heard of! if anybody out there is looking for a good book on fruit i would really recommend this one, hardback, 256 pages, picked it up on Amazon for €14 inc p&p would have put up a photo but to lazy to take one! this one will have to do! has a bit of a "DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS" look about it!!!
10 March 2011 12:46:52
The Old Orchard
Hope to start work on Monday on the old Orchard, this is at the back of my Uncles house, which in turn was my Grandfathers house, my Grandfather planted the Orchard sometime in the 1930s and all the trees are still fruiting (very well) today! the orchard was neglected over the years and in need of attention so last year i decided to make a start! after seeking advice and reading a few books! i set about the task, as the trees were neglected they had grown huge and were gone very"thick" as regards secondary branches and spurs! so they were pruned and thinned, a process that let a lot more light and air circulate through the trees, that process took part early last year and true to form a good harvest was dually received in Sept/Oct, this year i plan to expand the orchard with some raised beds for veg, a fruit bed, and a small poly tunnel! so Monday morning weather permitting we hope to put in 3 new 15ft x 4ft veg beds, a 15ft x 4ft fruit bed and a small 12ft x 6ft poly tunnel, that combined with the new veg and fruit beds and the greenhouse at the back of our own house will leave us with plenty of room for a hopefully very self sufficient year in the garden!
10 March 2011 02:49:50
Max Tomato
Hi Moya, you will be hard pressed to find info on the net regarding Max, its an old East European variety that i came across on an Estonian seed site! i ordered about 12 packs of different tomato seed from them last year, one of which was Max, i trialed it and as always i kept notes! so this is my opinion on this tom! it is a red tomato with fleshy fruits averaging 4oz to 5oz in weight, large slightly flattened fruit, found these great to eat raw, but also could be used to cook down to a sauce, they crop early and heavy!! they are determinate in growth and should not reach more than 36" to 48" out of the 42 varieties we trialed last year this tom ranked in the top 6, and was one of our top 2 determinate varieties! so best of luck with it and as it crops heavy make sure it has plenty of support
09 March 2011 02:24:09
Sweet Pea Seeds
This is the packet of Sweet pea seeds that i picked up the other day! it contains 74 seeds of 6 different varieties, Royal Family Blue, Spencer Mixed, Royal Family Pink, Bijou, Royal Family Red and Giant Wave Mixed, not really a sweet pea person! but will look forward to trying these! if anybody is interested you can pick them up in the €2 shop in Moore St
08 March 2011 03:04:13
Sweet Pea Enthusiasts
I had to drop in to town today to pick up 2 Fruit bushes in Mr Middleton (a blackberry and a tayberry) also picked up a packet of Butternut Squash seeds, while in town i went in to one of my favorite haunts the €2 shop on Moore St! they have a large packet of Sweet Pea seed contain 6 different varieties and a large Lettuce mix containing 4 different varieties, both packs cost €3 in total! great value! that's the lettuce seeds for the year sorted and also the Sweet Pea's which i don't normally grow! but at that price!!!!
07 March 2011 20:40:34
Log House Finished!
This is a better photo of the finished article! got the "balls!" on the corners of the veg beds and another coat of paint on the beds and compost bins, have started to plant the flower and the fruit beds up! will post an album of work so far!
06 March 2011 03:35:24
Log House
Just in from work! and took a photo of the log house! Maggie painted it today, will get a better photo tomorrow! read the journals and looked at the albums of the Johnstown get together, great day had by all, some amount of plant swapping! lucky sods!!!
03 March 2011 18:02:05
New Log House
Got a little bit more of the garden structure completed today! beside the new compost bins we have put in a log house! while not fully complete its 80% there! we also put in a 2 tier bed for the herbs, so we are slowly getting the structure of the garden complete, wont put up list of photos till all the work is done!
03 March 2011 02:23:32
Fruit bushes for 2011
Hello all, its a cold night out there! have just finalised plans for the fruit bushes! in the garden i am going to go with, Red Current, Black Current, Blackberry, Blue berry, Goji Berry, Fig, Pomegranate also Pear tree, Plum tree and a Cherry tree! in the Orchid apart from the Apple and Pear trees we will put Logan Berry, Blackberry, Raspberry and Gooseberry really looking forward to getting the fruit end of things up and running!!!!
01 March 2011 23:44:46
Tomato seed update!
All 16 varieties of the tomato seed sown have germinated apart from 2, and are doing really well, the 2 that have not yet germinated Dzintare Lasite (old seed) and Black Krim (Mystified by this one, maybe old seed) I would not hold out much hope for! had planned to only sow 16 varieties this year but me being me i have done another 4 varieties also to bring the total up to 20! will source more seed for the Black Krim as it was one of our favorites last year and as Murphy's law goes one of the ones we didn't save seed from!!
01 March 2011 21:51:07
Compost bins finished!
Managed to finish off the compost bins and get them painted today, also got 3 of the 4 raised veg beds painted, got another ton of soil into the fruit and flower beds, which are now finished (thank God!) planted more of the bulbs and perennials we had been storing in pots and planted 2 of the fruit trees! and also finished filling the skip! Maggie beat me to the bath so am enjoying a nice cold beer awaiting my turn! Knackered!!!!!