Expanding horizon

While my current garden in Mullingar is way bigger than what I had in Dublin, and there's still lots of room for slides, a willow house, and a wild corner, I struggled with producing enough veg to feed us, and always had too many seedlings to put in the existing space.

This year, that's all changed. I have an allotment on Joe's farm - and I now have the opposite (and excellent) problem - how to fill it! The morning of Paddy's day was our first extended stint out there - luckily Granny was on hand to feed us, and the weather was dry and mild.

We started digging one of the beds - we will sow a green manure there in advance of planting Squash, and the rest we'll cover with a sheet mulch of cardboard, mushroom compost and straw.

The undergardener was on digging duty - he reckons he'll be like the Bull McCabe when we're done - and the boys were picking rocks, spreading Mushroom compost, and breaking up lumps of clay. And adding nitrogen to the beautiful compost bin which resides at the bottom of the allotment. Photos to follow, and no doubt several posts on the compost bin.

In the meantime, it's time to rest up for a weekend of allotmenteering....

Purple podded peas

Big harvest today of Purple podded peas. They are really beautiful - I'll have to upload a photo - and delicious, of course. But the peas are not themselves purple, which is a little disappointing in a purple loving household.

However, I made a vegetable stock from the pods, added some garlic tops a bit of thyme and an onion - all fresh from the garden, and little detour for some before the compost bin. Now I have purple vegetable stock!

If you'd like to grow some yourself the Brown Envelope Seeds.

I will be entering my purple podded peas, and some other interesting looking veg in this weekends Mullingar Agricultural show (July 12th, Cullion)- I don't expect to win or even place, but my mother thinks it's important to participate to keep such institutions alive, and I am starting to see her point of view. The fact that her jams, breads, and cakes clear the board, and are fought over at the end is beside the point :-)