The Veg Raised Beds Worked In The Deluge!

 We had very heavy rain in West Cork on Saturday. 48 Millimetres in 16 hours to be precise!

I reluctantly late morning ventured outside to get some vegetable leaves to feed the rabbits.

A lot of the veg plot was under water but my raised beds and vegetables were non plussed with the biblical deluge.

Here's photos of them taken on a much drier day:

Ex central heating oil tanks repurposed into plastic raised beds.  They will last us out.

"Me and my shadow".

You can see some of my repurposed plastic baths and oil tanks.  We cut the tanks in half and I drilled holes and filled them with fym and my homemade compost.  

We also have wood raised beds made out of some old decking planks.

My raised beds made from planks and from old oil tanks cost me nothing.  I bought the damaged baths very cheaply from a local builders merchants over ten years ago.  I think they virtually gave them me to take them away in fact.

More raised beds.  The white ones are IBC tanks cut in two and drilled for drainage holes.

I honestly believe raised beds are the way to go with our recent very wet Autumn, Spring and Winters.

There is not so much to weed and you are cultivating a couple of feet off the ground.

Are you thinking of getting or making some raised vegetable beds?

Are you a Womble vegetable gardener like me?😃

Recycled Wood Logs On A Washout Weekend!

J bought some recycled wood logs for 4.99 yesterday.

Apparently the pieces of wood are mechanically pressed together with no additives or glue and you end up with your very own recycled wood logs.  I have read there are some of these wood products that are made abroad and contain glue to hold them together?

I think it is good way of recycling wood and they give off good heat.

The instructions on the plastic packaging tells you to break the log into 3 and place a firelighter under them and light them.

Anyone tried them?  Any good?  Much heat?  I think they are ok.  I used my last bag of logs that I bought at a carboot sale recently.  A manure (fertilizer) bag for for 5 Euros.  

It's another wash out weekend here so we won't be going car booting this weekend.  At least we have our German supermarket, garden centre and beer providers to supply us with wood to keep us warm.

We don't have street lights or pavements or public transport in the country side next to the sea.  But we do not have to live in a smokeless zone and we can have a lit stove or open fire.

Have you used these recycled wood logs.  How do you keep warm?  Are there any good cheap electric heaters you recommend?  Oil is very expensive to fill a tank.  

I love alot fire in a stove.  I can day dream and watch the dancing flames.  The door is shut and it's  safe to go to bed with it still lit unlike an open fire.  Although we usually let it die down before retiring for the evening.

Remember this?

 

A Can Of Rust Bucket.

 Regular readers will know that I often say/write on here that I like real ales and bitters.  The highlight of my recent trips to Blighty have been sampling the beer. 

I don't think Hops are native to Hibernia or Ireland and bitter making never took off like it did in Blighty.

J was in Lidl yesterday talking to a man stocking the beer shelves.  She said that I like Newcastle Brown Ale and other English beers.  

We find it very difficult to source such beers especially after Brexit.  Yet the shelves are full of beers from all over Europe.  You can even buy Super Bock which we have drank on our holidays in the Algarve.  

The man recommended the beer in the above photo.  It's called Rust Bucket and originates from a brewery that started on a farm in County Donegal.

The can of Rust Bucket cost 3 Euros or 2 Pounds eighty four:

A pint of Kinnegar Rust Bucket in a John Smith pint glass.  Kinnegar is the name of a beach on the Wild Atlantic Way.

What did you think Dave?

Good question Dave!  It tasted very hoppy like the Kent beers I have drank on my 3 visits to A New Day Rock Music  Festival near Faversham.  It's 5.1 strength.

It makes a change from Carlsberg.  I wouldn't mind half a dozen of them this weekend when we get another down pour like last weekend.

Are there any craft breweries you recommend?  

Does anyone make their own Homebrew?  I knew a bloke who used to make it  and sold it for ten bob a bottle.  What an entrepeneur and service to the community.🍺

What We Had For Our Tea Last Night.

 

The veg plot keeps on giving.  A swede and a leek.   The leek became leek and potato soup today.

All grown from seed and planted in my plastic containers and wooden planks raised beds.  I piked lots of buckets of well rotted fym into the beds and weeded and watered and they rewarded us with our fresh, organic and homegrown vegetables.  What more could you want from your veg plot?

J went to town and to Lidl and came back with 2KG of Orla Organic potatoes for 2.99 and a "big" chicken for 6.99.  Total 10 Euros for four of us.  Or 8 Pounds thirty three if you live across the Irish sea in Blighty.

For those of you who weren't very good at Metalwork.  That works out at 2 Pounds each per person.  Not bad for a nearly organic and homegrown tea.

The Diary Of A Plant Making Anorak.

 You know you are a bit of an obsessive when you are out in the garden and polytunnel at seven in the morning. 

You are moving about plants and topping them up with soil and well rotted fym and even counting them:

I counted 180 potted Griselina (New Zealand Privet) hedging plants the other day.

I have already planted over twenty other ones around the gardens this year.

I will probably sell (hope to!) them at a carboot sale this Autumn.  They are already potted up and can therefore be planted at any time of year

Regular readers know I have  hundreds of free plant pots and I have a constant supply of homemade fym/compost. 

A part from some organic hormone rooting powder and my time.  Which I have lots of!  It costs me nothing to make new plants.

I can see myself making plants for the rest of my days.  Living in the countryside next to the sea.  

You have got to have an hobby or you would be very bored. I suppose I could always grow vegetables? Oh I do that already.😊

Cheap Japanese Sausages.

 J came home with a pack of Wagyu sausages the other day.  She paid 1.49 for them!  You always find cheap stuff in the reduced items area.

I ate them with some of my hot spicy sauce.

According to Professor Google "Wa" means "Japanese" and  "Gyu means "Cow".

Apparently there are four breeds of Japanese cows.  

It was a shame I didn't have my Japanese winter onions to eat with the sausages.

They tasted like beef sausages do.  No different to what we normally eat.  But there was nothing wrong with them.

Have you tried  "Wagyu" sausages or beef?

Home Sown And Home Grown And Homemade Fresh Tomato And Onion Soup.

 Yes another soup post.

I helped make some tomato and onion soup for our dinner this morning.

We grew the onions from sets and the tomatoes from seed.

The tomatoes have been reddening on a table in the polytunnel for a couple of weeks.

Regular readers will know we froze a load of ready chopped onions a few weeks ago.  All we do is open a freezer bag and drop the onions in a pan with the tomatoes.

Twenty minutes later we liquified the soup and sat down and ateour fresh soup.  It was lovely.

I lit the front room stove again last night.  We are only burning logs in it at the moment.  Could do with the Irish goverment reducing the carbon fuel taxes in this weeks budget. It's 36 Euros for 40Kg of solid fuel or 18 Euros for a small bag.

Anyone else making soup and are you lighting your stove to keep warm at night?