Up the woad!

Today's inspection of progress showed stirrings in the sweet pea department, with 9 varieties showing their heads above the compost. That's only a week since they were sown and laid out in the middle tunnel. There are about 1300 of them sown this year - in Rootrainers as usual.

Sweet peas in our Rootrainer rack.

Erewhon reaches for the light

There has been a fantastic germination from our broad beans.  The second sowing, that was Crimson Flowered, now almost as full a germination as The Sutton and Monica.

Next to the broad beans on the bench are Mullein from Conques and Lunaria "Corfu Blue".  I was somewhat dismayed today to see that the seedlings coming up in both trays look identical and what's more, like thistles!  What do you think?

Lunaria "Corfu Blue" perhaps

Mullein from Conques perhaps

Down at the back of the small tunnel, the Honesty is already blooming.  This flower never fails to gladden the heart.

Oh, Honesty!

 I watered what was necessary while inspecting the sweet peas, including the potted-up Jalapas. Nothing to see there yet, but the obstacle of a split bag of calcified seaweed, just where you'd want to place a foot, finally got to me.  My mum's old flour tin made a suitable storage box for it and I'm happy to see it being used again.

Down at the back of this tunnel, the fig has little fruits, but no leaves and nearby, the Philadelphus cuttings that were potted up before last spring's thatching took place are springing into growth.  They could be taken outdoors.  Amongst their stems, there are some withered stalks of something...maybe agastache, I'm not sure.  Sitting on one of these withered leaves was a glossy ladybird.  I'd put one in there when I found one last autumn while tidying up after the thatcher had finished the back of the roof.  It's probably the same one.

The crummy title of today's episode was suggested by the fact that the first of the woad sown last week have come up.  There were so many seeds in the packet from Irish Seed Savers, I sowed only 30 seeds at the end of the day.  I'd been sowing sweet peas and arranging the previous day's sowings onto our bespoke rack - pic above - but as it had been a flower day, I'd wanted to get some of these sown.  I'll sow more another flower day.

Of the chillies we sowed, 10 varieties have not germinated.  These need whisked out of the propagator. No joy there.

Tomorrow is a flower day, so the Angelica "Ebony" I've had in the fridge for three weeks can come out into the tunnel, even onto the soil-warming cables.  I hope this treatment has worked.

Drizzle drizzle

It has been one of those boring, unproductive days.  It started badly when I tried to set off for a day's teaching in Ennis, but the van refused to start.  The engine turned over, but there was no ignition.  I tried the usual tricks like moving the van while in gear so that the starter motor would move round a touch.  The cold-start did nothing either. I vainly poked about under the bonnet, removed and reinstated fuses and wiggled relays. All to no avail.

For much of the rest of the day, we had our faces in front of our laptops writing to Galway County Council in support of the Farmers' Market application for a road closure, amongst other things, and trying to find somewhere to stay in the Algarve for a few days next month. This did our head in.

There were a few distractions while this went on...Feeding cats and kittens, a bit of lunch, further attempts at van-starting and texts to and from James, our mechanic.

Better not open a bottle, eh?

To get some air and try to stimulate this distracted orb, I went up onto the roof to tweak the satellite dish and went out to the tunnels to see what new germinations had taken place.

This provided the only good news of the day.

Germination has been slow this year.  Admittedly, we had the fiasco of the faulty soil-warming cables to set us back, but even once that was noticed and dealt with, things seem to be moving slowly.  However, I am able to report that at this stage, some nineteen days after sowing began, there as been some germination in 27 out of the 48 varieties of chilli, eleven tomato varieties, the Round Romanov red cabbage after less than 4 days.  I forgot to mention the carrots.  There is movement there too.  I only hope what I see is real carrot and not the false, carrotty weed that prevails in the middle tunnel.

Yesterday I made a start at rejuvenating the bushes inside the fruit cage.  There were four blackcurrant and three redcurrant bushes inside, taking up too much room.  Brambles had insinuated themselves into the cage as well and convolvulus was doing its best to choke whatever it could.  I took out two of the blackcurrants and one of the redcurrant bushes.  I found a few new plants where the parents' branches had made contact with the leaf  and old reed mulch and rooted.  I intended to do more work there today, opening up the bushes to let more light in, but it was not to be.  Next available fruit days fall next weekend.

A warm spring day...for a while.

Today was a lovely spring day for the most part.  It started off cool, not to say cold, with the pair of us out in the tunnel in lots of layers of clothing.  As the morning progressed, however, we had to remove many those layers as it became quite warm indoors.

Today was a leaf day and the plan was to reinstate the repaired soil-warming cable and continue our sowings.  On top of this, I wanted to check to see if there was any life in the moribund Moringa.  This had continued to sport green shoots throughout the winter, despite not being looked after.

The repaired soil-warming cables were duly switched on.  This makes them more pliable and allows them to be manipulated into the desired pattern.  In places, they had to be pinned down to keep them from springing up out of the sand.  Once the were re-interred, I watered the sand and rolled back the plastic cover.  I set the thermostat for 40 degrees C for starters, just to get the table warmed.  At the end of the day, I turned the dial back round to 23, or so.

First job done, we checked for new germinations in the chilli propagator.  Cajamarca, Numex Vacquero and Orange Habanero are all on their way.

Naga Jolokia germinated from our own seeds.

We spent a while sowing the free Mazur lettuce that DT Brown sent us, broccoli, calabrese, Hispi cabbage and two red varieties. Clary Sage seeds gleaned from healthy-looking plants in a medieval garden in Saint Antonin Noble-Val during our holiday in September were sown, three to a module, in a strip of ten modules.

Once enough sowing had been done, we started on rosemaries.  T had taken cuttings in June which had all produced healthy new plants.  They've now been potted on.

New rosemary plants from eight month old cuttings

Tricia also took fresh cuttings from rosemary and two varieties of lavender.

The Moringa incidentally looks moribund indeed.  I'm not sure I'd right it off altogether, all the same, as it's a remarkable plant.

When the sun went in after lunch, it became quite cold.  The range has been stacked up and the wee stove lit for the evening.  Keeping toasty warm.

Before I clock off, here are a couple more progress pics.

This year's first broad beans

Inside the tomato propagator.

Cable repairs, germination and sowings.

Using the kit shown in the last post, I managed to repair the soil-warming cable.  It might not be the tidiest of repairs and it is certainly not a small thing, I am basking in the satisfaction that fixing something brings.  Here's a picture of our new submarine.

FILO form Jointing Kit

The two parts of the casing are joined together round the new joint and the whole thing is filled with a polyurethane resin compound that has to be mixed in a canny bag arrangement. The filling hole is then capped and an hour later, we have a completely watertight cable joint.

Another Filius Blue has germinated and I'm delighted to see a Bhut Jolokia up as well.  When I say, "up", that's a slight exaggeration. Germinated would be more accurate. No leaves yet.

Sowed some Tagetes "Starfire", Salpiglossis "Blue Peacock", "Black Trumpets" and "Royale Chocolate" and Rudbeckia "Cherry Brandy".

It being a flower day, I also had another attempt at the Angelica "Ebony", by sowing the seeds into a strip of 10 modules and placing in the fridge inside a bag.  I'l take them out again on a flower day. 20th March is suitable as it gives them the best part of three weeks to chill.  Fingers crossed.

Propagation News

What you're looking at is the cut away, sealed connection between the mains lead and the soil-warming cable from our chilli propagating table.  We couldn't understand why there was no heat and no condensation on the plastic cover even a week after sowing.

After taking the thermostat controller apart, twice, and even taking the thermostat itself apart, I decided the fault might well be inside this sealed, plastic junction.  It did seem a bit bent.  Cutting it open, I discovered the live wire had come away from its connection to the soil-warming cable.  A pretty unlikely event.

On Thursday, I bought a unit from Dave English in Ennis for connecting cables for use in damp conditions.  It was cheaper and, I am assured, faster than sending to England for a new cable or thermostat from e-bay.  Tomorrow, I'll make the connection and seal the unit.  More pics to follow.

Today, I can report the first germinations.  There is one Filius Blue chilli sprouting.  Some of the Broad Beans have also started and the Gaillardia has germinated too.

This is the gizmo I bought from Dave English.

He the man.

Spring in increments

On Friday we did a certain amount of flower work.  T was potting on verbascums and agastaches while I sowed mullein seeds we brought back from Conques, an important stage on the pilgrimage route to Compostela, in the Aveyron in France.  We were very careful this time as our Breton mulleins turned out to be foxgloves.  I also sowed mullein seeds from a plant found growing on our own road.  I suppose we should have sown these earlier, but we just didn't get round to it.

Abbey-Church of Saint-Foy and its Mulleins, from which we extracted seeds.

I also sowed other flower seeds that need time to germinate.

Today, Sunday 23rd, we're going out for lunch, but it'll be a fruit day tomorrow, so we're sowing tomato seeds.  We'll switch on the next propagator today to start the process.

15th February: Chilli D-Day

After all the dreadful weather we’ve been having, this was a lovely day from start to finish.

We use the “Maria Thun BIODYNAMIC CALENDAR” wherever possible when scheduling our garden work.  This is particularly true for sowing and transplanting.  As most of Friday, all of Saturday and after 3.00 on Sunday are suitable for fruit-orientated work, we were in the wee tunnel sowing chillies.

On Friday, we prepared 32 modules by filling them with compost.  We generally use Klaasman, certified organic compost.  We also switched on the first of the soil-warming cables, set for just under 30°C, and placed the filled modules on the sand to have them warm up to receive the seeds next day.

As is the way of things, there were matters to attend to before we could start sowing on Saturday.  Kedi, our old cat, had to be taken to the vet and there was obligatory shopping to be done.  However, by 1:30 or so, we were ready to start.

32 modules weren’t enough because this year, we have sown some 47 varieties.  These range from mild ones to off-the-scale hotties.  We have attractive plants with smaller growing habits which can be placed on a window sill and others that really need height and a tunnel or greenhouse for best results.

Modules sown with chilli seeds on the soil-warming cables under plastic.

There are staples, such as jalapeños and habaneros; some of our own favourites, such as Cajamarca and Bangalore torpedo.  Every year we try some new varieties and this year is no exception.  The Carolina reaper is one we are trying with some trepidation.  We source seed from a variety of suppliers as well as sowing our own home-saved seed, which usually gives us excellent results.  We don’t generally go in for F1 varieties, but for the most part, these haven’t encroached into chilli growing to any great extent.

In an earlier entry, I said I would write something about our suppliers.  With regard to our chillies, we have selected seeds from 9 sources.  34% of our chilli seed is from Nicky’s Nursery, about 28% are our own home-saved seed, just over 10% are from Simpsons Seeds in Wiltshire and the remaining are from hitherto untried companies and a few regular sources. We came across one at the Hampton Court Flower Show last July called Pennard Plants from Somerset.  They had the Bangalore Torpedo we’d been looking for as well as an attractive-looking variety called Filius Blue, which loses heat as the fruits ripen to orange and red.  The Chilli Pepper Company in Cumbria are new to us.  We’re trying some of the hotter varieties they offer, such as Carolina Reaper and  Naga Viper as well as their version of the Trinidad Scorpion that was last year’s tongue-numbing newcomer.

This season, we’ve sown four of the hottest chillies in the world.  These are:-

1               Carolina Reaper

2               Trinidad Scorpion

3               Naga Viper

4               Bhut Jolokia

It’s not that we’re into the macho, heat thing particularly, but it is interesting and there is a demand for these powerful peppers.  We’re not really bothered about the Scoville Scale and couldn’t tell you anything about an individual chilli’s units, but it’s curious how capsaicin has become so popular everywhere and there’s no denying that chilli heat is somewhat addictive.

For us, the prime use of our chillies is in cooking, particularly as ingredients for our chilli sauces.  That being the case, flavour is as important as heat.

As I’m writing this on Sunday 16^th, I can also tell you we’ll sow the first batch of Broad Beans today.  We do this in Rootrainers.  We’ve been using these for years and find them unrivalled for bringing on all kinds of peas and beans, including sweet peas. 

We’re starting with The Sutton and Monica with a few seeds of the Crimson Flowered, at least we think that’s what they are.  It’s a helpfully unlabeled envelope.

BROAD BEANS SOWN INTO ROOTRAINERS

While we’re beginning this year’s sowing, it has to be said that we hope there will be a venue to sell plants this year.  Our regular Kinvara Farmers’ Market is under threat from Galway County Council.

If you’re reading this and would like to register your wish to see the market continue at its present location in Kinvara’s Market Square, which we feel is the natural place for it and where it has been trading with the County Council’s full approval for the last two years, please write to the following:

Fergal Fahy (local engineer) ffahy@galwaycoco.ie

Evan Molloy (Senior Engineer) emolloy@galwaycoco.ie

For the last two seasons, Kinvara Farmers’ Market has successfully applied to the council for a road closure to enable trade to take place in the square from 8:00 am to 2:00pm each Friday from around Good Friday to Hallowe’en.  We have done everything the council has asked of us and are at a loss as to why there seems to have been a change of mind on their part.

20th Feb. I wrote to these Engineers today.  I wonder what response, if any, will be forthcoming.