The First Spuds Of Summer.

The wife was watering the potatoes in the polystyrene  welding packaging box yesterday in the polytunnel.  She decided to give the spud plants a thorough soaking.  Suddenly she shouts to me:

"I've got summat to show you!"

The power of the water from the hose had washed the soil/compost from the surface and we could see our our very first new potatoes!  

That is a first.  Spuds ready on the 16th of May.  

All gardeners have dirty finger nails.

Just in time for tea!

They grew in compost and I fed them with my nettle 'garden' tea.  They are delicious.  Are your potatoes ready yet?

Tight Wad Gardening. New Additions To The Plant Nursery.

We purchased seven perennials at the rare plant show at Glin castle on Sunday.  I bought one individually and six for twenty five Euros.  Instead of paying 6 Euros each.  Which converts this morning to five Pounds and twenty four Pence.   Flipping heck!

I took them into 'Portugal' my poly-tunnel 
 and the operation commenced.  Remember the gardeners mathematical equation? The only way to multiply is to divide!  

I ended up with thirty seven new potted plants for my nursery.  Yes they will take a bit to grow back to the same size before division but Oak trees once were acorns.  

A Grand Day Out At Glin Castle Plant Fair And A Saunter Around The Gardens..

We visited three counties (Cork, Kerry and Limerick) yesterday and went to the Rare Plant Fair at Glin Castle on the Shannon estuary.  It was a beautiful day and reminded me of Cholmondley Castle in Cheshire.  Here's some photos for your perusal and enjoyment.

Me at  the plant fair in my blue hiking jacket and scruffy jeans, cap and walking shoes.  Looking at plants.  I bought seven perennials.  Talk about a bus man's holiday.

A young lady looking at one of the magnificent Gunneras.  What a fine specimen.  I have one in my garden.  But not that big.

Two photos of Glin castle.  Taylor Swift and her boyfriend stayed here recently.  She paid 45000 Euros for the priviledge.  

Inside the walled kitchen garden.  God was in his heaven and I was too.  The walls make a wonderful micro-climate and there where flowers in full bloom and the veg was thriving.  

Neat rows of vegetables.  The white sticks in the ground say things like: Onions, peas...?

 An ode to a Grecian Urn.  What a magnificent specimen.

 The old yard leading to the productive kitchen garden.  Complete with  gardeners' bothy's, stables and dove cotes and even a tractor.  I would love to have seen this hive of industry back in the day when country houses employed lots of staff and horses.  

It was a great day out and bought seven plants and Taylor Swift started playing in my head.  

Here's a video of the gardens at Glin.  It's only short and worth watching!  

Have you visited any gardens or plant fairs recently?

The Amsterdam Visits Bantry.

We noticed the massive cruiser: Amsterdam berthed in Bantry harbour yesterday morning.  The launches brought passengers into town.  Some of the tourists carried umbrellas and wore raincoats and held cameras and took photos and went a for a pint of the "black stuff" or a "nice cup of tea".  Others boarded coaches and went on day trips to Beara and no doubt Killarney.  

My mother use to tell me about back in the fifties when the American and British Atlantic liners use to berth in Bantry Bay.  Back in the time when me mum met my dad ("In Baghdad where my mother met my dad") the tourists would flock to see Cork and Kerry.  Then along came the jet planes and they flew into Shannon. 

However or but.  Since Bantry Harbour Commissioners built the new jetty and the ships have returned.  It's just a shame West Cork or Bantry doesn't have an Eden Project.  

Something for the tourists to visit even when its raining!  Perhaps the Euro Millions could donate 36 million for a worthwhile project.  Well they did in Cornwall.  Changing a China clay quarry into a tourist attraction.

The passengers on the Amsterdam have almost completed an 114 cruise voyage leaving Fort Lauredale in Florida and then onto: Panama, Peru, Chile, Pitcairn Island, French Polynesia, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, India ("flipping heck"), Oman, Jordan, Suez Canal, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Scotland, Belfast, Dublin, Cobh and Bantry by the sea.  Then back to Florida.

Here she goes on her way to Florida.  Here's a song for the passengers to use enjoy their supper and voyage and thanks for passing where we live.









We watch that cruise ship programme on Friday nights starring Jane McDonald.  I love her self deprecating northern humour and it was wonderful seeing them sail along the river Duoro in Portugal recently.

Have you ever been on a cruise?  The ship not a missile!  I like to jump on a plane and get to my destination.  Aren't flights boring?  

I usually start imagining one of the air hostesses turning into Britney Spears and singing "Toxic".  The missus reads a book or watches a filum (eighteen years in Ireland) and I look at my watch every five minutes.

Earthing Up The Spuds And A New Profile Photo.

The missus took the photograph of the old gardener  (me) earthing up the spudatoes rows the other day.  I had read that Jack Frost was coming to town and painting everything with ice.  Of course the  television weather forecasters in Dublin and London got it wrong.  Do they just look out of their windows and decide that's the weather for everywhere?

I like the photo though and have put it on my blog profile.  What are you doing in the veg plot and garden?  I am supposed to be weeding all week.  

I went into town today and weeded and planted up at the bed and breakfast where I work for a few hours in the Summer time.  

A friendly Robin perched on the rim of the wheelbarrow and watched me work.  Then it inspected the soil for any grubs or worms.  I have often wondered if gardeners are reincarnated in to Robins?  They really are a wonderful creature!

Growing Willow Cuttings For Next To Nowt.

I recently placed some willow cuttings in an old plastic tub full of garden soil.  Then I forgot about them for about six weeks.  The other day I noticed all the cuttings had leaves.  So I pulled them out and noticed they also had grown roots.  My own portable hedge!

My very own portable willow hedge!  The stones are free too!

Me in my gardening clothes holding one of the newly rooted willow plants.

I planted the hedge and made some more cuttings.  You don't need to spend money when you can grow stuff for free.

Shall we have a link to a rock song Dave?  Yes my mental jukebox began to play an old Jethro Tull song.  Not the inventor of the seed drill, the band.  I have seen them five times and they are playing Cork in September.  Hmm...?  I am going seeing the Martin Barre band in August at a festival in England.  Can't wait.  Who would think I would be going to rock festivals in my fifties?  I am staying in digs though.  Here's the appropriate Tull track folks:

Things Are Hotting Up In The Poly-tunnel.

Its amazing what different a bit of plastic makes to growth.  Watering helps too.  Especially with my garden teas.  The smell is not very nice but the plants love it.  All praise to the barrel of water, nettles, pillow case full of country pancakes (think about it) and a lawnmower box of grass clippings.  All mixed and stirred together with a trusty fence post.  In the photo above there are lettuces growing in plant pots, toms in grow bags, cucumbers in grow bags and potatoes growing in plant pots.

More potatoes growing where the tomatoes grew last year.  They are also pushing up their haulm or stalks outside the tunnel.  I earthed them the other day and they have their hands pushed through again.

Remember the potatoes I planted in that polystyrene box that the welder came in?  They aren't far off flowering.  I can't wait to pick them!

 Brassicas growing in pots and cuttings growing in trays of sand.  The tunnel gets watered twice a day at the moment.  Sometimes with the hosepipe and other times with the degging can.  That;s an old North of England word for a watering can.  

Capsicums and Chilli Peppers growing in pots.  There are pampas grass and bamboo seeds in the plastic modules.  We're waiting for them to germinate.  We bought them from Geek.  Have you heard of Geek?  The seeds came all the way from China!

Have you got a poly-tunnel?  Thinking of getting one?