Continuation

Planted out a few first earlies as hoped.  Red Duke of York and Charlotte.

All the while accompanied by the sound of something heinous going on next door.  We'd seen a monstrous machine arrive as we prepared to go into town.  Now we know what it's up to.  Disruptive, grating and unnerving.  Farmers should have to get planning permission for such things.

On my way out to the "potato field", I took a few shots of activity elsewhere in the garden. The propagating tunnel in full swing and the first of the chillies.

We like these strips for germinating chillies.  We'd sow around 15 to 20 in each, so we don't overdo it.  Five of these fit into a standard seed tray, but for now, they're on the heated sand without that extra barrier.  As they germinate, we move them to cooler parts of the propagator.  The whole propagating table is covered with plastic to keep the moisture in and the temperature up.

Cheerful poppies potted up and settling in.

Let there be chives!

Lavender, Rau Ram & Pineapple Sage

Signs of spring are everywhere.  The old German Burgundy vine in the big tunnel is budding and outside, the newer of the two quinces is showing leaf.

We have a resilient Aquilegia in one of the beds in the big tunnel.  I dug it up and re-potted it, but the tunnel faeries have re-planted it.

Outside in one of the borders, a Marigold is showing off early.

Thinking about jobs for this time of the year, I was considering the Jerusalem artichokes.  Not everyone's cup of tea, I appreciate, but worth growing as a wind break (tee hee) or screen or if you keep pigs.  Perhaps that's for Friday morning, while it's still a root day.

Leaving off blogging for now, as there's a chicken to roast.

Yesterday was a fruit day and as we have loads of rhubarb coming up, I decided to pick as much as possible and then freeze it for later use. Now we have almost 12lbs of prepared fruit in the freezer, which I'll use to make rhubarb and ginger jam for our stall at Kinvara Farmers' Market. I hope there'll be lots more to pick in about a month's time.

In late January, while doing some much needed clearing in our big tunnel, we rooted out several cherry trees that had grown from suckers that had insinuated their way under the plastic skin.  The tunnel wasn't used much last year, so some of the trees had grown to the height of a man.

They're potted up with some blood, fish & bone, ready to be planted out somewhere.

Elsewhere in the tunnel, loads of convolvulus and couch grass has been dug out of the fallow beds and the errant poppies lifted and potted up.

The vine was pruned, even though it was a bit late.  A few days earlier, a test cut dripped copiously. It was later pruned on a fruit day and each wound plastered with a biodynamic tree paste.  No cut ends dripped immediately.  Even so, days later, the cuts were dripping.

Our asparagus bed needed work.  Of the original six plants, only two remain and the four replacements were not universally successful.  However, we get lots of spears every year.  They grow so fast in the tunnel, it's easy to forget until they get too long and woody to eat.

Vast amount of old asparagus taken out.

The bed was thoroughly weeded and lots of young plants removed.  These were heeled-in in an empty bed and will be potted up later.  The oldest plants were dug up.  Their roots were astonishingly developed, but at their core, far too woody to produce good spears.

This tunnel used to be our favourite, but since the vine became established, it has been too shady for tomatoes or chillies and it is doubtful the vine will appreciate the same humidity as the cucumber we intend to grow this year.

We think the carrots should be fine under the vine, as well as the garlic we put in.  It was bought in the market in Santiago de Compostela.  We'll see how it does.  Possibly planted a bit late.

One job we have to tackle is the removal of the straw that covers almost all the lowest bed.  it was put there years ago as storage for the geese and hens bedding.  The cats staked their claim to it and will have to be persuaded to sleep elsewhere.

Tomorrow is a root day and if all goes well, the few spuds we grow might be sown.  We got Charlotte and a handful of Red Duke of York.  We don't eat a lot of potatoes because they go for our joints, but sometimes the flavour is worth the discomfort.  We're going to put them in the big tunnel as well.  One reason is that there's a freshly dug-over and manured bed ready for them and partly because there's nowhere else ready.  Folk we know grow spuds very successfully in tunnels.

Well, it wasn't a very nice day to be out in the tunnel.  Still, better there than in the garden.

In the propagators, things are stirring.  In the chilli department, there are Jalapeno, Bhut jolokia, Dorset naga, Riot, Monkey face, Long Green Buddha and Aurora. Elsewhere, there are Cosmos - Double cranberry, Marigold - Bojangles, Coreopsis - Roulette, 10 week stocks and the first lupin  all showing their heads above the compost.

Sadly, down in the big tunnel, there is still no sign of the carrots.

I'd hoped to do a bit of fruit tree pruning on account of it being a fruit day, but didn't get round to it.

The third propagating table has been covered with new plastic and switched on.  We need more space.

We're looking forward to the plant fair next weekend at Angela Jupe's place.  See www.angelajupe.ie for details.

Now, here's a thing.  I got the date wrong yesterday, but Blogger wasn't fooled.

What's this blogging thing about, then?  We thought it might be a good thing to write a blog with garden news, what'll be coming to the stall at Kinvara Farmers' Market each Friday and other things on our minds.

I like the idea of posting the odd photo too.  I have to do one to see how to go about it.  I'll attempt to do one now.  We were doing things in the potting-tunnel the other day.  In particular, there were some flowers that needed potting-on after the winter.  Some of them are already in bloom.  One of these is the scabious.  

 Scabious fama

I managed to get a bit of compost onto the blossom, but you get the idea.  Pretty, isn't it?

We might have some of these for sale in Kinvara, but we're also going to the Rare & Special Plants Fair, so they could be snapped up there.  The farmers' market is due to start on Good Friday this year.  There's still lots of time to get plants ready.

Today is inauspicious, according to the biodynamic calendar.  We're not exactly biodynamic growers, not even registered as organic, but we have found doing garden work in accordance with this calendar to be effective.  Regarding organics, we don't use chemical pesticides and we do use certified organic composts.  We're careful, thoughtful gardeners, but we'll use something like blood, fish & bone that doesn't carry an organic cert or even approval.  We don't necessarily buy certified organic seed either, but we tend not to use coated seeds or many F1 varieties.

As I said yesterday, there's a gig at Woodville Walled Garden not far away today.  We'll go for a butchers.  Our friends Gert & Elizabeth Stam of Caherhurley Nursery, near Bodyke will be there.  their stall is always worth looking at.

10.06 on a Sunday morning...Time to let the day kick-in.

Saturday 26th February 2012

As it was a leaf day until 1.00pm, we potted-on rosemary plants, took more cuttings of same, potted up some more chives.  Once 1 o'clock was past, we tidied the new tunnel.

I'd like to add some pictures to this blog.  This'll come in time.

Tomorrow, there's a snowdrop event happening at Woodfield Walled Garden near Castledaly from 11-00 to 5.00.

It's late and time to call it a day.  Making my cider vinegar & honey drink to keep the old knees supple.

Goodnight, Blogosphere.