Vegetable Scenes From My Repurposed Raised Beds.

 I was weeding my repurposed raised beds the other day.  All the fantastic sunshine 🌞 and now the rain is helping the veg and weeds grow rapidly.

I have at least twenty seven repurposed beds and I am always looking for more to  repurpose to grow veg in.  Here's some photos for your perusal dear blog readers:

Globe Artichokes growing in half a repurposed heating oil tanks.  They are looking at the sea in the distance. 

Summer onions.

Red cabbage. 

Brassicas in the baths.  We are growing kale, cabbage and swedes.

Japanese Onions growing in the baths.  They get planted in September and grow through the winter and spring and we usually harvest them in June.  They have been absolutely crackers this year.

Swedes growing a wooden raised beds.  I made it out of old decking planks for nothing as per usual. 

Raised bed.  The fork marks where the next colander of potatoes 🥔 will be dug.

A weedy brassica raised bed.

Beetroots and perennials like Ladies Mantle or Alchemilla Mollis and Bergenias or Elephants  Ears.

Red cabbage, beetroots and leeks.

Chives, redina lettuce and a few weeds.  

Tomatoes 🍅 🍅 and nasturtiums.

Leeks and weeds growing in a cut in half IBC tank.

Leeks.

Onions 🌰 🌰  growing in a mussel crate that I found on a beach near by where we live.

Once again my repurposed raised beds and containers remind me that you do not need to have a veg plot or allotment to grow yourown own vegetables.  You just need something to grow them in.  

Inside The Plant Cuttings Factory.

 A couple of hours taking cuttings in the rain.  Led Zeppelin 'Fool In The Rain' began to play in my mental jukebox.

My bottle cloches made from plastic bottles last year.  If I had took them intact to the 'Return' deposit machines in our supermarkets I would have claimed back  25 Cents a piece for them.  Have you got the ' Return' machines in Blighty and other overseas countries yet?

My repurposed bottle cloches are brilliant for 'striking' cuttings.  They keep the cutting moist and store the water when the rain or myself waters them.

Anyone else make cuttings this way?

Repurposing Weeds In My Repurposed Raised Beds.

 

Weeds being used to fill up one of the raised repurposed beds.

One of the problems of filling raised beds is the shortage of topsoil and compost to fill them.

Regular readers of this blog know I repurposed my raised beds by cutting old plastic heating oil tanks and drilled drainage holes in them.

Then I use the German Hugelkultur method of filling the bottom with logs, shrub twigs and branches and then I forked in home made compost and our fym and I have been weeding the veg plot and filling up two beds with them.

I  then topped them up with tubs of fym and will plant them up next spring/summer.

Uncovering the tarp on this year's fym.  It's still quite smelly but there is evidence of worms 🪱 worms 🪱  so it must be cool enough for them to live in it.

Repurposed oil tank raised bed topped up with 4 big tubs of fym.  It will be well rotted and ready to plant up for new potatoes 🥔 😋  next Spring.  I may even cover it with a tarp or old cardboard and use it for a plant stand for my potted perennials.  It will also hopefully work like an hot bed and make them grow.

Anyone else use weeds and fym to fill up their raised beds?

You don't need to buy topsoil if you use organic natural materials.

It's Hydrangea Cuttings Time Of The Year

Remember the pink Geranium I bought a couple of weeks ago?  I made seven new cuttings from it today.  I paid 7 Euros for it at a garden centre.  So if mine all "strike" roots I will have 49 Euros of 🪴 plants for free.  

I mixed some grit sand with top soil and used the dibber to plant my cuttings in.  They will root from a leaf node and I cut back the leaves to reduce the need for water to them.

I reused my plastic bottle cloches from last year.  You can see my wooden dibber, scissors ✂️ and trowel.  That's all you need for your plant propagation cuttings kit.

 Seven new plants hopefully.  Now we are getting the heavy showers and rain and I will water them regularly.  They should be OK and not burn up.   It's good to feel a bit cooler and make use of the Saint Swithin's rainy weather.

Anyone else taking softwood cuttings at the moment?  I have made thirty new Hydrangea  cuttings up to now.  Perhaps Saint  Swithens is the patron saint of Hydrangea cuttings?

Flowers In Killarney.

 I always like seeing flowers in town centres.  Particularly shops that pay for floral decorations and patiently water and feed the flowers all summer.

Here are some of the floral delights we saw in Killarney town centre on Saturday:

Flowers over in the windows over the shops.

A nice floral display for a local bar.

Geraniums floral displays.

Hydrangeas next to the Pelican crossing.

Well done Killarney for your floral efforts.  Does your town or village or city put on a floral effort?

Costa Del County Kerry!

 We went to The Kingdom or County Kerry on Saturday morning.

The car temperature was reading 27 degrees 😳.  Unbelievable!

Instead of going for a stroll on a repurposed railway line we went to the beach instead.

I have featured Fenit on here before.  It reminds me of a English beach in the 1950s.  Something like Ma and Pop Larkin might visit.

It was absolutely such a perfect day.  The sun was shining down on us.  Bronte and ourselves had ice cream and God was in his heaven.

Here's some photos for your perusal dear readers:

Fenit beach in Tralee bay.

Bronte gazes at the sea view.

Do you think the bull can read the sign?

Bronte having a paddle.

"Time for an ice cream 🍦😋. "

Who needs to go somewhere out foreign like Portugal 🇵🇹 or Spain 🇪🇸?

The world and his wife enjoying the rays.

Almost Azure sea.

A lovely day in July 2025.

Make Hay While The Sun Shines.

 People often talk of the summer of 1976.  I can remember it even though I was only 12.

To me this year's got to be the best Spring and Summer I have ever known.  

Yesterday my friend and former work colleague text me and asked if I would go for a spin and collect 50 bales of hay with him.

I hadn't anything planned so I arranged for him to collect me and we drove to a farm near Baltimore and drove into a field full of small square bales of hay:

Small square bales that look like Weetabix in a field basking in sunshine.

We drove around the field and loaded the trailer with the winter feed.  Making hay is a sure sign that it won't be long to Christmas.

The rain returns tomorrow and the grass will grow again.  Such is the circle of life and our seasons.  

A Succesful Wild Irish Rose .

 Living in the  countryside next to the sea.  There are always wild roses or "briars" in bloom at this time of year.

Last late August early September when it's  still pleasant and warm but not short of dews and rain.  

I busied myself regular placing shrub and 🌹 cuttings in plant pots filled with compost and I covered them after watering with home made plastic bottle cloches.

Here's  a wild rose new plant 🌹 I noticed flowering this very week:

A beautiful pink wild rambling Irish rose.

Even the wild roses/briars gladden my heart.

Tying in with a suitable rock tune by U2.

I was 18 when I saw them in 1981 at a Christian music festival called Greenbelt on a gorgeous country estate in Odell in Bedfordshire in Ingerland.   I wasn't impressed with them apart from "Gloria" at the time.  It just shows what I know.

Enjoy the track:

Six Weeks Wait For A Rose Cutting To Root.

 

A successful  rooted rose cutting.

About six weeks ago I took a rose cutting.  I have had successes before trying to get them to 'strike' roots in a pint pot filled with our very own well water.

The leaves fell off some of the cutting and the water went green and murky.  So today I checked the cutting today and joy of joy my cutting had struck roots.

Anyone else have success with rose cuttings in a pint glass 🍺 of water?

Cheers Mother Nature.

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.