First quarter 2009

Got off to a good start with peas and broad beans - they are in the garden and doing well. Any leeks planted earlier are growing, but not terribly fast. All the rest - cabbages, onions, calendula, lettuce have been destroyed by the slugs. Vast amounts of egg shells are not working.

The second phase of planting - tomatoes, borage, ore leeks are doing ok, but I have not exposed them to possible slug predation.

This week I am going crazy planting - mostly in paper pots - and hoping that something will survive my extended absence in April. You spend so much time looking forward to this point in time, and when it comes, it's not what you expected.

Outside, I have planted carrots, beets onions and early potatoes - and some in pots - this weekend I hope to plant the rest.

We are harvesting Kale, parsley, thyme, chard, corn salad. The daikon is going to seed. The leeks are almost all gone, but the autumn sown onions might be worth trying soon.

Garlic doing well

This year I hope to have enough garlic to harvest to be self sufficient. So I planted up some from the garden center last October . They have now outgrown the onions that I planted at the same time - they are 6-8 inches high, and very healthy looking.

Subsequently I planted some from the supermarket, and they are also doing well. I know it's not advisable, but at that point I just wanted to get some more garlic in.

Then, at the end of November, I got a wonderful package from Spade Work, planted them immediately, and they are now peeping up, and looking good with it.

At this time of year it's wonderful to have something in the ground and thriving, when much else is winding down, going to seed (the mooli) or getting ready to be planted.

Harvests

Clearing the beds bit by bit - before we know it, it will be time to start replanting them! So today I harvested most of the remaining leeks - I'll miss having them out there - and some corn salad.

The corn salad was mixed with some Rocha pear, and a little goat cheese, and dressed with a light balsamic vinegar dressing for a sublime salad.

There's more corn salad in one of the planters, and in another bed. It's a great one for this time of the year, and it self seeds like crazy, so with judicious weeding, you can forget to plant and still have some coming along.

I'll probably make a Leek and Feta tart tomorrow. And will hopefully get around to sowing some more leek seeds, so it won't be too long before the next batch is ready.

Growth!

Hard to believe it, but the peas and broad beans planted on New Years eve have survived the move outside. They are currenly residing under a Lidl mini-greenhouse, so the snow is not landing on them. In the bright periods between snow, the little greenhouse is getting very warm, and they are even growing a bit.

The garlic planted back in October is very well established - better then the onions planted at the same time.

And the garlic planted in November - kindly sent by Spade Work right at the end of the month - is starting to peep through. So there is a bit of growth, in spite of the terrible weather.

And there's plenty of warmth when the sun does shine - our solar water heater got the water up to 41 degrees today.

Happy New Year!

It's been a good Christmas for me and the garden - We have had lots of visitors all through December, and we were able to serve up lovely Beet and Lentil Vinaigrette, Fennel and Orange Salad and Leek and Feta tart.

Also, we had our own home grown carrots and Brussles sprouts for Christmas Day. that was one of my objectives for the 2008 garden year, and I'm delighted that it worked out.

And there are still lots of leeks, beetroot and fennel in the garden. Not to mention daikon, chard, kale and cabbage. And thyme, parsley and rosemary. Though the fennel is taking some frost damage.

Yesterday I sorted out all my seeds - organised by the time of the year when they need to be planted. So I have grouped them buy month. I only have a few to buy - onion sets, shallot seeds, potatoes, and purple and rainbow carrots.

I planted about 30 broad beans - to start inside, and then move outside. Probably worth while starting some outside too. From my notes, I didn't get a great harvest from last years crop - and they are a lovely early veg. So will have to try for more this year.

My gardening class starts in less than 2 weeks - I'm having fun preparing, hoping that we will attract some students from outside the school community. The more the merrier!

For the first class, I'm planning to get all the participants to make a garden diary - in looking at this blog and my written notes, it's incredibly helpful to be able to look back and see what was going on, weather and plant wise, and what my ideas were to improve things in the future.

Also, divided some artichokes, and planted calendula, and I would hope to pass on some of these plants to the students. The dry weather over Christmas has been great for getting outside, although it has been very cold.

Seed saving network delivers!

Yesterday the postman delivered two packets - it was better than Christmas! One had a fine selection from Mas Du Diable and the other an embarrasment of garlic from Spade Work.

Both were arranged through this Seed Network. I will or have already reciprocated with seeds that I have saved and made available. See my list.

So here I am, in rural Ireland - getting packages from France and London - I feel very connected to a worldwide gardening community. It's a lovely feeling!

Thanks to both John and Laura - I'm looking forward to planting the seeds in the spring, and the garlic went in immediately - luckily I had a bed all ready for them. The variety of the bulbs was interesting - some had only 3 cloves for a huge bulb, and others had 10 or more cloves for the same bulb size.

Planted the following varieties:
Prim - small cloves, but good keeper according to the notes
Susan Delafield - 7 cloves
Gazebo - 3 huge cloves,
Gypsy red
Inchelium red. - this one had loads of individual cloves.


The (Marco) garlic planted a month ago is shooting up - but I was dismayed by the lack of selection at the garden center. Next year I'll be ale to save my own garlic for replanting, and hopefully can swap garlic in subsequent years. What a great initiative, well done Patrick!

Autumn Harvesting

Weird, but it seems like I am able to harvest more now than I was at the peak of the season. Today I started a pot roast - and I added to the stew are around it - from the garden - borlotti beans, Leeks, parsley, and a kind of winter radish from real seeds. We also have daikon (mooli), carrots in planters, kale, some upside down tomatoes, raspberries, fennel, mispoona, mizuna, corn salad, a little rocket. Some brussels sprouts and cabbages coming on - the broc is a washout with caterpillars, but all in all pretty good.

With the beef coming from my brothers farm down the road, and Ballinagore potatoes still available, we are having some good locavore dinners.

Onions planted, and general allium comments

Planted overwintering onion sets about 4 weeks ago now, and they are sending up some little shoots, which look encouraging. Two kinds- red ones- called Electric, and yellow Senshyu. I'm hoping that the problems of them going to seed will not happen with the overwintering ones. Anyhow, it will be good to have some in the late spring.

Every says that onions are cheap to buy, easily available, and so you should grow something else, but we use loads of them, and it's good to be able to go outside and pick them when you need them.

Yesterday, we had oven roast potatoes (cut into 1cm dice), with leeks (cooked with the potatoes) and some scallions and chives added just before serving. They were delicious - I thought that I had made way too many, but they were all scoffed. The leeks and chives were from the garden - the leeks are doing very well, even though I planted loads more this year, I think that I will have even more next year :-) They are easy to grow, and seem to be pest resistant. (Fingers crossed)

Garlic planted

Planted about 30 garlic cloves at the weekend, but reckon that I need about double that to properly meet my garlic needs for the year. However, there's only one type of Garlic - Marco - available in my local garden center - would like to try planting a variety - anyone know anywhere online that sells garlic?

Alliums

My garlic went in on on Dec 24th, but with all the construction in the garden, I had to move a few, and the others that are left behind are not terribly well tended. So a recent harvest showed fairly small bulbs. However, they are staring flowering, so I think a pizza with scrapes is called for.

I will harvest them end July, sort out the raised bed they are in, and sow some Daikon in there for the winter.

Planted a full raised bed of red onions - they are all going to seed now without getting terribly big, so next year I think I should plant them a bit later, in better quality soil, and not all red ones. Probably need to make a call on harvesting them, and backfill with some autumn/winter veg - probably a better use of the space. But maybe I need to wait thill the stalks die off - anyone have any ideas?

The leeks are doing great. After last years successful crop of 10 :-) (one of the few successes of last year) I planted lots. I now have maybe 50 scattered around the various beds, doing well. And more seedings coming on. I have seen mention of mid-summer leeks, but I don't think any of these will be ready in time. September would do fine, though.

Have some Japanese onions (ishikura) to grow from seed - should put a few of these in too - they seem indestructible...