Month: November 2009

The sun shone and I got stuck into washing down & disinfecting the glass house on Friday morning. Couldn’t believe how dirty the windows were… then rolled out the bubble-wrap and pinned it in place… amazing how snug it felt. Still a little more to do…. bu that will be next weekends task.

Pulled out the last of the Spinach plants and swept the floor. Dug over the border soil and tidied around.

Came across a "heater" for the glasshouse, hmmm, 60w, not sure how much heat it will give off, but it looks compact and can be wall-mounted, oh and its IP rated 😉 will have to talk to the hubby about running the cable and plug into "his garage" for power….

Looks like I insulated just in time, the frost was severe here in the Midlands last night…….burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

J

 

Beautiful crispy sunny day here in Monaghan, due to one thing and another no bulbs planted today could get no help, hope this weather stays. This is the sun setting at 4:30pm temperature down to 3C already in fact just saw frost still lying where the sun didn’t shine.

I was in Dun Laoghaire this morning and was near a €2 Shop. I have been looking for large trays to put under my plants on the benches in the shed. I saw some in Woodies but they were not big enough and quite expensive. So I suddenly thought I might get something suitable in this shop, I was absolutely "delita and excita" when I got exactly what I wanted! and for €2 each! They are about 3feet by 2 feet and about an inch deep, sorry all you younger ones I cant think in metric! So have been out in the shed putting up all my "babies" on them!. I know I’m easily pleased!

One of my Cosmos plants in the front garden has the most unusual looking buds or seed heads on it. I cannot remember seeing any flowers on it so I think they may be buds. However, whereas the normal Cosmos plant has a single bud at the tip of each stem this plant has clumps of tiny buds at the tip of each of its stems. Could this be a ‘Sport’? or is it just a malfunctioning Cosmos plant? Jacinta or Rachel might know. I will put it into My Garden album where you will get a better close-up of it.

Ps. I have also opened a new Photo album for Cosmos. Jack 17

Freezing out there all day. Good job I had my handwarmers in my gloves and 2 pairs of really fluffy socks. All the bedding was frozen solid with the heavy frost that we had overnight. It didnt actually thaw out until about 3 o’clock.

Ok now comes the hard part:

My Name is Jacinta. And I am an ………..   ooooh I just can’t say it. Ok maybe I couldnt consider myself an ………… just yet as I only own 4.  But I am finding them more appealing by the day. Lets see if I can keep these 4 alive. Bought some saucers and re-did the orchids just now.

I succumbed to another one today.

Frost has already payed a visit and will again tonight so greenhouse work will be on hold until another evening.The bottom section of the garden shed tidy up will be finished tomorrow evening be it hail,rain,or snow.I changed plans around a little and from 3 pm i washed 200 mini flower pots and filled them along and an 84 module tray with very damp compost so i could move them inside to heat and have all ready for an early start to tomato plants around mid December.After a hot cup of tea some life came back to my fingers.Jack Frost may have wanted to help me wash them.It looked like that with the cold of the weather.Now that all washed pots and trays are inside in the heat of the seed room,problems with cold temp are not a worrie.Another of the trays of saved seed were prepared,stored,and put  away until very early Spring time.Tomorrow evening plans will be for the garden shed work.

Busy busy again. Teaching two nights a week vegetable growing and then also fruit growing. Keeping on top of the garden – Not!! And the rain. Thank God I wasn’t flooded but it has restricted all of our movements here in Kinvara, west of Gort. M sympathy to those who are flooded. I’ve had a few gardens to do, and it’s been hard to find any non wet time!

I’ve started a new project a school garden at my children’s school. There’s a good group of parents involved and we met with the children of fourth class and assessed what the school has and doesn’t. So we have a plan, but the ground is far too wet to actually plant or dig, so it’ll be after christmas.

Another project I’ve had on the go, is the ‘Irish Kitchen Garden Calendar’. Every January I sit down and write in when to sowing times for Ireland, for all the various veg along the sides of the weeks on the calendar so as to remind me. So this year I’ve gone a step further and had it printed up altogether! I got some great photos of Irish Kitchen Gardens, like the Botanical gardens, the Organic Centre, The Irish Seed Savers, Glebe Gardens, local Kinvara Garden, and one of my own community garden. So I hope to collect said calendar on Friday from Ennis (Venice as we’re calling it now) roads permitting, and sell it at local christmas fairs etc. It was great fun to put together, and I hope people find it useful.

Otherwise nothing new in my garden, it’s just been a case of battening down the hatches. I mustget out and start pruning. Plenty to do. Might find time after Christmas!

 

Photo taken by Anna Jeffrey Gibson

For Rachel.

My mam is delighted with her christmas cactus, definitely got brownie points there :O) and I know once they grow a bit she will pot up some for me. I am slowly succumbing to houseplants, who knows I might even be tempted into the bad ways of orchids in the future ha ha. 

A beautiful crispy day. I promise this will be the last post on my Gortahork cabbages. But how could we eat this beauty without taking a picture first. So here it is.

We have been focussing on getting the catalogue to the printer but I managed an hour tidying up today and found a small haul of goodies.

There’s a hard frost outside now. It’s covering the whole garden – the first this year.

I went out to the greenhouse but had difficulty getting in as the rock I put in front of the door was frozen to the step. It registered -2 inside the greenhouse. It’s a bit early in the winter for that kind of temperature, surely! What more is in store for us?

I had one large roll of plastic with me. It was very hard to know what should get additional cover. In the end I wrapped it over my box of cuttings. It went around the sides and over the top 4 times. Hope it doesn’t drop further.