Does my butt look big in this?

Bloody hell – I’ve just noticed we’ve not updated anything since November! I know we’ve been kind of lazy, but I thought we’d have got a bit more done than this. Anyway, rather than go over everything we’ve done (which, to be honest, I probably couldn’t remember very well anyway), we may as well get up to date as quickly as possible.

Garlic and Onion sets (happy in the cold)

Beans and Peas (less happy in the cold)

We’ve stayed our hand with much sowing due to the seriously cold weather here – we even had a covering of snow (THIS IS IRELAND!!!). We have sown a few early Onions (“Ailsa Craig”, “Bedfordshire Champion”, “Globo” and “Sturon”), Shallot “Zebrunne” and Leeks “Musselburgh” and “Autumn Mammoth”, and planted out the “Radar” Onion sets, along with most of the Peas and Broad Beans that we sowed in the autumn. Some of these have been doing rather better than others – bizarrely, Broad Bean “Aquedulce Claudia” has done the worst, whilst “Jubilee Hysor” and“Red Epicure” have done very well. Mangetout “Winterkefe” and Pea “Meteor” has also performed superbly unlike Pea “Douce Provence” which has been an almost total disaster. We’ve also done a few other bits and pieces that needed doing around the place.



Big-ass Water Butt
(and bigger-ass shed!)

When we arrived here we were already blessed with a small pond, fed (we think) by rainwater off the shed roof. We were particularly blessed to discover that the local frogs also knew it was here and use it. However (and this is the bit that you might feel, us being in Ireland and all, where we are straying into fiction) every year it dries out in the spring or early summer. This worries us because there is always frogspawn or tadpoles in the pond at this time (I suspect it worries the frogs and/or tadpoles even more, but I digress). As a result, every year, we end up running a hose into the pond from the outside tap to top it up, which is a bit of a pain (mostly for us; I think our amphibious friends find it is the opposite). Even more of a pain for us, we cunningly located the veg. plot some distance form the house and, as a result, even further from the nearest tap: so far in fact that the hose doesn’t reach the veg. plot, so we have to carry watering cans down in these dry spells to keep things going. When we could be bothered. Which probably wasn’t often enough. 

To ameliorate things a bit, a couple of years ago we installed a water butt at the end of one of the sheds (the bit closest to the veg, plot) to reduce the distance to carry water, and also provide an emergency supply of water for the pond. However, a regulation water butt (at 210 litres) barely fills the pond, and leaves nothing for watering the garden. We were going to try and link up three such water butts until we rather fortunately acquired a lovely big tank in the Autumn (it is actually the rain water tank from our old house which was no longer being used). At 300 gallons (that’s 1,360 litres), we think we might have literally killed two birds with one stone (well, not “literally” killed, more metaphorically speaking really). It will certainly fill the pond many times over and, given the size, it’s probably now worth running a hose all the way down to the veg. plot – hopefully there should be enough head in the butt to generate a decent enough jet and keep everyone happy, lazy or both.

All work and not much play

It is a curse of good weather that you just never seem to have enough time for everything, which often leads to not having enough time for anything. This is perhaps exacerbated more so than normal in April when the garden, and the veg plot in particular, needs a lot of attention, yet the evenings just aren’t quite long enough yet. That is not to say, of course, that we aren’t enjoying our time. We had a wonderful visit to the self-sufficiency show in Belvedere – a bit smaller than expected perhaps, but a wonderful array of experts, speakers and workshops against the stunning backdrop of the grounds to enjoy.

With the weekend lost to such and similar extravagances, it fell to the evenings to get some bits and pieces done in the garden. First up we took some steps to address our compost problem with the purchase of a Lidl compost bin. The old compost heap still hasn’t been fully dismantled and moved yet – a job we’re planning for the coming weekend. However, we located this small bin next the house, so it should be handy for the kitchen scraps. The other bins will probably be located a bit further away out of sight (and smell). The old compost heap did donate a couple of bags of worm-laden material to get this new one going.

The old compost heap also donated a further two bags of lovely, well-rotted compost for the bean bed. After settling in on the bed for a couple of days, this was forked into the top few inches of the soil there, and the first planting of the year (and (small fanfare please), indeed, the garden) were made in the shape of the Broad Beans, which had pretty much outgrown the greenhouse, let alone the toilet paper tubes they’ve been living in for the past couple of months. They're being kept under cover to harden off for the next few days (we had a bit of a frost here the last couple of nights), but are probably strong enough to survive without protection after the weekend (when they'll have to be staked). The peas will be following soon, possibly this weekend (or possibly not, depending upon how we get on with the old compost heap). Let’s just hope that that accursed good weather lasts a little bit longer.

Ready, Steady, SOW!

We know, we should have started sowing in the Autumn or, at the very least, over the Christmas holidays, but we didn't. We started this weekend. We also started with our favourite (possibly becasue its also usually our most successful) crop. Broad Beans. We put in two varieties this year - twenty Superaquadulce and thirty Supersimonia (because that's what we had left over from last year).

We have always sown our Broad Beans indoors - we had to this year since we haven't dug any of the garden yet - but in previous years its usually been too wet to think of sowing outside at this time of year. Last year (or, to be exact, November 2008), we did an autumn sowing. This is very handy to get an early crop, but should still be followed up with at least one spring sowing to extend the season.

Broad Bean seedlings develop fairly long roots, so if sowing indoors, a deep pot is required. Being mean (or thrifty? Financially cautious perhaps?) we don't bother with proper long pots but use old cardboard tubes instead (can't remember where we got this idea, but its a cracker). Toilet-roll tubes are favourite (everyone has these don't they?), but cutting a kitchen-roll tube in half works just as well (still don't see why you can't just use bog-roll though). Pack the bottom half of the tube firmly with compost, on a hard, flat surface; fill the rest of tube up; poke the broad bean in about an inch; top with some more soil and place in a tray. Keep the trays well watered (the water will soak up the tube and compost from below). Its probably not too good an idea to fiddle with the pots too much, lest the cardboard decides to fall to bits. When it comes to planting out (which we'll probably blog at the time), the whole thing (plant, compost and pot) goes into the bed, meaning the roots don't get disturbed while the pot decomposes to nothing in the soil.

Sorry to say that the compost used for the Broad Beans this year came from a bag via a garden centre, organic and peat free of course but not our own, home-made compost. Also we can never remember which way up the beans go when being sown. As a result, we tend to just push them in to the pots however they come to hand, so many may be upside-down or sideways. Can someone out there can advise on the orientation of sowing these seeds (please?). In our ignorance, and because we generally get good germination rates, we are of the opinion that it doesn't matter that much! Better news is that the beans themselves came from the The Organic Centre in Co. Leitrim, from whom we still need to order the rest of the vegetable seeds for the year...