Monday, 29 January 2024

A New Life In The Rain.

 I have thought of an idea for a new Channel 4 programme about ex pat's moving to Hibernia not hot places like Italy, Spain, France or Portugal.

Well it makes a change from A New Life In The Sun doesn't it?

The veg garden is very wet and sticky today and I transplanted some leeks that don't seem to be growing and looking very sorry for themselves.

So I planted them in a raised bed in the polytunnel and they all sang in unison: "I'm doing fine now".

It's too wet for weeding so I checked some Griselina cuttings I planted last September if you remember dear readers?

Here's a bucket of the rooted cuttings:


See the roots?  I didn't ever bother with rooting powder.  I just pushed them into the soil and let Mother Nature help them strike roots.

I then potted over forty of them up:

 


They will get fed and watered and free bed and breakfast in the polytunnel.  Then I will probably sell them on a carboot sale and get some beer tokens.

Anyone make plants and hedging for nuffink or nowt?



24 comments:

  1. P has taken quite a lot of cuttings from the museum gardens where he volunteers (with the museum gardener's permission). They are doing well outside, despite the storms, and he hopes to plant them up in the next month or so.

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    1. Excellent. Fair play to P for volunteering to garden at the museum JayCee. Have you read The Garden In The Clouds by Anthony Woodward? He mentions little old ladies that looked like butter wouldn't melt in their mouths. Walking around stately house gardens harmed with little plastic bags and scissors to make cuttings. It's a wonderful read.

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  2. I do love to split and take cuttings, not all take, but I do like to try, I have a small lime tree grown from a pip and a pomegranate plant, grown the same way. I have done others, but for various reasons, I don't have them now.

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  3. Hi Poppypatchwork. Yes dividing plants and making cuttings is very therapeutic and rewarding and you don't need to have much money to have a garden full of plants. I'm a bit of plantaholic and I'm always making new plants for free.

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  4. "A New Life In The Rain"
    Q. So why did you move to The Emerald Isle?
    A. I am afraid of getting skin cancer through over-exposure to the sun so I thought Ireland would be the best place to be.
    Q. Do you like soda bread?
    A. No. But one has to make compromises.
    Q. What is your name?
    A. Jacob Rees-Mogg and I am a right pillock.

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  5. Other reasons for living in Hibernia are: red lemonade, Guinness, peat briquettes, a nuclear free zone, small population, Cidona and Barry's Tea.

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    1. Also - Donovan Leitch lives at The Old Rectory, Castlemagner

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    2. He lives near Mallow in County Cork YP. "They called him Mallow Yellow". I saw him once at Glastonbury and he walked past me once in town. He never let on though. Mustn't have known I am internationally known blog writer like you?

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    3. I had the same issue with Ringo Starr at Heathrow but I guess it was because I was wearing sunglasses.

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  6. I have a book called 'Gardens for Free' with all the different ways to propagate plants. They even tell which plants you can grow from a single leaf by cutting the leaf veins and laying it flat on potting mix - little plants grow from each of the cuts.

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    Replies
    1. Wow. That sounds a brilliant book Tigger's Mum. I once knew an allotment holder who grew his potatoes from the eyes in potato peelings. They were a great crop.

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  7. I need to sort out all the currant cuttings ..and build a new fruit bed and fruit cage!! I stick all sorts of cuttings in.I may have a couple of apple cuttings coming along.I have been a bit remiss about the next step..but the greenhouse is being tidied so I will have a dry space to do the job, potting them up at least.

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    Replies
    1. I never grow fruit other than strawberries GZ. Perhaps I should? Someone gave a bottle of home brewed wine recently. It was the nicest wine I have drank in ages. Beautiful stuff.

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  8. Another reason to move to Hibernia? Apart from still in the EU, a more enlightened view of artists and craftspeople, the chance to meet a few distant rellies!!

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  9. All good reasons to live in Hibernia GZ and anyone who is Irish or British can live here or in the UK. I like the small population and the countryside is incredibly beautiful like Scotland and the West country in England. Dorset is a wonderful county.

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  10. Begoniass are sold in hanging pots and called an annual. But I have an angel wing begonia that roots like it is trying to take over the world. Inspired by this Irish fellow (you may have heard tell of him), I brought that outdoor begonia indoors. What was left of it, anyhow. It has bloomed all winter and I have rooted two new plants from it.

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  11. Well done on your Begonia propagating success Anoonymous.

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  12. Those cuttings are lucky to be in your greenhouse. I'm sure they'll thrive and make you some money

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  13. They are Linda. It's supposed to freeze tonight. I will either plant them or sell them at a carboot sale in the Spring or Summer. Mine are potted up with my own fym compost mix. It gives them a good start.

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  14. I don't do anything like that and have even decided to not buy any more plants for my garden, except for some hellebores for winter flowering. There just isn't room for anything else, so all I do now is water and trim.

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  15. I buy few plants River. We try to propagate new ones. I do spend money on potting compost though.

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