Seed planting and planning

So, once again trying to work out when the last frost might be, and making a plan accordingly. At last nights GIY Mullingar event, a seasoned farmer was saying that the last frost could be as late as June- aaagh! Last year I took a guess based on the full moon, and went for a mid April date - This years relevant full moons are April 28th and May 27th. So I'll be going for a last frost date round April 28th. I have a reasonable sheltered location - for Mullingar- so I'm not going to plan for a May 27th frost date. :-)

I'll be using the excellent guide provided by the ladies at Little house in the suburbs - since I love my crafts, this is a nice way to combing gardening and making things.

While we're on the weather - a great local resource is here. Weather station in Killucan.

Harvest!

Our local butcher was selling off his Christmas hams at half price, so we bought one. And what better to go with ham than cabbage? However, I didn't foresee this when last shopping for veg, so no cabbage in the house - or was there? I remembered a little cabbage growing outside, so I went out, and wonders - it had survived the Big Freeze... Harvested it, washed it, and cooked it in the ham stock - it was delicious! Seems like cabbages can handle a little freezing.

Don't know about the leeks - was relying on them for a winter staple, but the ground has been too hard to harvest for some time. Wonder what they'll be like when the thaw comes?

One a warmer note, I'm organising a felting workshop at the end of January see my crafting blog for details.

And I will be running beginners gardening courses soon - details to follow.

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.

Spring planner

An excellent guide to when to plant stuff - Print it out, fill out the dates for your area, and you will know when to plant what.

You need to know the last frost for your area- Just spoke with Met Eireann, and except for 2001, when it was May 7th, mid April seems to be a good bet - for Mullingar. I think it's related to the full moon - full moons in 2009 are April 9th, and May 9th - I'm going to take a chance on April 9th, and work from there.

Beautiful Frosty Morning

 

 

It's a beautiful fresh frosty morning here - the leaves are well decorated. This is the coldest that it's been since we moved back here in 2006, and my laissez-faire attitute to the root veg may backfire on me. For the past 2 winters I have left the beets, turnips and daikon in the ground through the winter, harvesting them as needed.

But since we didn't have much frost, this was a fairly safe strategy. This year, my fennel has already taken some damage from the frost, we covered it with fleece on Monday, but I have more or less written it off. It's not really supposed to overwinter. I was hoping for a few more Beet and Daikon harvests, though - I'm hoping that only the surface is frozen, and that they will be ok. The leeks are looking a bit limp, and some of them are going to seed, so probably time to use them up too. If things thaw in the afternoon, I'll go out and harvest a few to assess the damage.


Lesson learned - get in some straw in the autumn for tucking in the root veg!

On the positive side, this frost will break down the bed I prepared at the weekend, and will do a good job of killing the pests, it's a necessary part of the cycle, and welcome as such.