Scruffy The Laundry Cat!

A cat's work is never finished.

 Scruffy is a Maine Coon.  Which is an American breed of cat.  You would not believe much one of these cats or kittens cost.  Please have a guess and leave a comment.   Thank you!

Scruffy shares my music taste.  Kansas are our favourite prog rock band and "Cat Scratch Fever" by Ted Nugent is her favourite track.

I have mentioned on here that I saw Kansas in 2014.  In 1988 I saw Ted Nugent and Krokus  at Manchester Apollo.

Ted is very outspoken especially about guns but he puts on an excellent guitar show and is brilliant live. 

This is a request for Scruffy:

Have you seen Ted Nugent live?

 

Repurposing An Old Front Door On The Veg Plot.

 I noticed I had an old broken upvc front door lying around. I wondered if I should take it to the recycling centre or should I repurpose it for 🪴🌿?

Here lyeth an old front door.

This will suppress the pernicious weeds and be another plant platform my ever increasing perennials and shrubs that I have propagated.

I started to fill up.  Not emotionally I mean the door.

Are you an optimistic or less gardener?  Would you say the door is half full or half empty?  

Why buy landscape fabric when you have got an old door?

One man's trash is another man's treasure!

I noticed I have some old corrugated iron roofing sheets.  I was going to use them for scrap but I think I will repurpose them for plant standing areas.

"One Potato, Two Potatoes 🥔 😋. "

 Remember a few weeks weeks when I cut off the depressed and dying potatoes haulms and stalks?

We weren't sure if it was the dreaded blight or if they had just finished growing.  We only grow early varieties and don't bother growing maincrop.

I went out this morning to dig up more new potatoes for tonight's tea:

Unearthing buried Solanum Tuberosum treasure.

Careful with the long handled fork.

A bucket full of Homeguard new potatoes.

We always say our new potatoes are always ready at the wrong time of the year.  When you find yourself saying:

" Is it hot or is it me?"

The sun definitely feeds you and our appetite diminishes and you eat less when you are getting older.

Are you harvesting your new potatoes?

A Posh Thistle Perennial Growing In The Veg Plot.

 I sowed Globe Artichoke seeds last year and I got florets in the first year.

They are perennials and now more artichokes have appeared:

A posh Thistle?

Have you ever ate them?

Some gardeners plant them in their borders for the blue flowers.

I also planted Jerusalem Artichokes tubers last year and I never harvested them last year.  They grew back again this spring.

Jerusalem Artichokes.  

They have no connection to Jerusalem they are a member of the sunflower family.

The tubers can be roasted like potatoes 🥔  in late Autumn.

Do you grow them and have you ever ate them?

Onion Breakfast For The 🐖 🐖 Pigs.

 I was weeding my raised beds the other morning and I decided to make room for the veg plants we bought the other day from a garden centre:

I also bought a day lily and a big pink Hydrangea which only cost me 7 Euros.  The veg trays were swedes, kale, cabbage and more Brussel sprouts   The bill was 35 Euros but we will have plenty of food from our winter veg. I haven't  built my greenhouse/shed yet and the veg trays were around 3 Euros.

I decided to empty one of the raised beds full of onions:

Beauties!

The nettles showed no mercy to my poor arms.  It was far too hot to wear long sleeves when weeding.

Instead of us eating the onions 🌰 I fed them to the pigs:

Pink pig.  You can see the bay in the distance. 

I think that's  Black Eye who won a rosette at Cork Show last year.

Adults and babies.

Mrs Saddleback crunching a full onion.

Bronte Shows Diesel The Kerry And Limerick Greenway.

 

Greenway sign going to Listowel in County Kerry. 

Another wild Irish rose.

Old water tower cover in Ivy where once the steam locomotives would fill up with water.

Wild Irish 🌹 🥀 roses. 

Diesel and Bronte going for "walkies".

"Isn't this great?"  "Do you think they will buy us an ice cream or some chicken nuggets at that Scottish sounding place: Maccy Donald's?"  " I'm loving it!"

We went for a saunter again on the wonderful Greenway or repurposed railway line.

This time we took Bronte our faithful Golden Retriever and Diesel the Bernese dog that lives with us.  Her temperament is amazing and she loves Yorkshire 🍮  and potatoes 🥔.   I jest not.

We went for a gentle 3 miles saunter and met several cyclists 🚴‍♂️,  runners 🏃‍♂️ and walkers and they asked about the 🐕 🐕 and said they were very well behaved and the usual: "Good morning ." greetings.

I get tired of living on the Sheep's Head Way where I can climb and walk the hills over the two bays and rarely or never see a soul.  

Yes it's  spectacularly beautiful on a nice day, but its  nice to see somewhere new.  I have been walking the same route for twenty four years after all!

We humans talk and hopefully communicate with other walkers.  That's why I like the greenways so much.  Plus you are walking on a flat and even tarmac surface.

Repurposing Old Polytunnel Plastic To Make A Sheet Mulch to Suppress Weeds An A Place For My Planting Nursery.

 I said on yesterday's post that the veg plot is very weedy and I have decided to put old  polytunnel plastic down to smother the weeds and grass and I will place my plants nursery on them in between the raised beds.

Part of the cover of my last polytunnel that was ripped and destroyed by the many Atlantic gales we get on our peninsula living in the countryside next to the sea.

Me being a tight wad organic vegetable gardener and smallholder.  Didn't rush to buy horticultural plastic.  I reused and repurposed my old polytunnel cover.

A newly plastic mulched area for my carboot perennials nursery.

Anyone else repurpose plastic in the veg plot?  I have bought Mypex landscape fabric in the past.  It's  porous but the weeds grow through it after a while.