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.