Signs Of Spring On The Veg Plot.

 

The part of my veg plot which I call my terraced house allotment is starting to show signs of growth.  I grew up in a red Accrington  brick two up and two down.  Yeah I own properties now but I don't  forget my  roots.  Rather like my plants.  

This new Brexit deal with Northern Ireland forgets that all people from Ireland can live in Blighty and all people from the home countries can live  in Ireland.  The great Michael Collins from West Cork sorted this agreement in the twenties  so why not the goods?

  

Furthermore if you where an EU member how can you legally have your rights taken away from you?

Sir Starmer will support the Tories.  He's another Tory Blair. The elephant in the room.

Any road. Rant over:

Onions are sprouting and so is the garlic.  I have sowed beetroot, parsnips, lettuce and peas in trays of potting compost in the polytunnel and I will plant up the rest of the containers in a few weeks.

We also have potatoes 🥔 chitting in their net bags on the book case in the front room.  Domino one of our smallholder cats is not very happy that they are there because he likes to have a cat nap on top of the bookcase.

I filled two barrels with fresh fym and added a few inches of soil.  Hopefully these will be hot 🔥 beds and generate heat to force crops in a few weeks time.  

My next job is to go collecting seaweed from a beach which is about 5 minutes from where we live.  The  beach owner allows me to collect seaweed from their beach.

There are supposed to be 50 trace elements in seaweed and it's one natural fertilizer that contains no weeds.  Unlike fym that always adds some weeds to the veg plot.  

Couch grass and nettles are the pernicious weeds that like my plot.  At least I don't have ground elder or Mares Tail.

What pernicious weeds to you have on your allotment or veg patch?  Do you use weedkiller?  I don't and never have used them on my veg plot in the countryside next to the sea.  

"Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run, Run, A Homemade Rabbit Run."

 

Here's two the new rabbits having a bite to eat or nibble even of grass in their Run.

I strimmed the lawns the other day and didn't know the long eared lads and lasses were going to be put out by day. 

The weather is being kind to us at the moment down here on the Irish Riviera and it's look like a very early Spring.

We bought some Homeguard and British Queen seed potatoes from Lidl the other day and I have left them in their net bags to chit on top of the bookcase/unit in the front room.

Have you bought your seed potatoes and started chitting them yet?

Dogwood Plants For Nothing Or Even Nowt!

 You know you must be losing it when you find yourself like a fool in the rain (Led Zep song) with a pair of secateurs in one hand listening to Saxon on WhatsApp on my mobile phone and taking Cornus or Dogwood cuttings.

Dogwood must be related to Salix or willow and root really easily.  In fact if you stick them in the ground they root. 

I cut them into 4 to 6 inch lengths and pushed them into compost filled plant pots.  If they all grow I will have 120 hedging plants/shrubs for the price of a bit of potting compost.

It's not a bad way to pass half an hour or so on a rainy Wednesday in a polytunnel with a torn plastic cover on the Irish Riviera in February.

Anyone else make their own hedge plants?

R Is For Rory Gallagher.

 

Yes I know the next letter on my favourite Rock bands is N but I was in Macroom on Monday and whilst the wife went shopping in our favourite discount supermarket and garden centre and beer providers.  I walked a few streets (blocks) back to take a picture of Rory Gallagher at the Mountain Dew Festival at Macroom Castle in 1977.  

It's  said to be the first real Rock festival in Ireland and even my second favourite band Thin Lizzy played there.

Macroom is a that town like the other West Cork towns that is no longer connected by  train and many people walked the 24 miles or so from Cork to Macroom.  

I once talked to a taxi driver in Cork city about the legendary festival.  It was the equivalent of West Cork's Woodstock or Knebworth or Glastonbury.  Rather like when U2 (I have seen them!) played Cork city and fifty people attended the concert and yet the world and the wife claim they happened to be at that certain concert.  The same can be said about when Nirvana played Cork.

I was never fortunate enough to see the great man play but I have seen his former group Band of Friends play at A New Day Festival in Kent in 2019.  

Here's one of my favourite Rory tracks.  Enjoy.

We Get Coinins.

 We bought some new four legged friends on Sunday.  Coinin which means rabbit in Irish to be precise.

Settling in.  No they are not House Rabbits we just put them in the pen while we sorted their hare (air) bnb accommodation for the night. 

I am on the look out for Dandelion leaves at the moment.  I leave Dandelions flowers because there is not a lot of pollen about for the bees at the moment.

My neighbour leaves us a bag of vegetables peelings on their garden wall every few days and texts us when they are ready for collection.  I have been giving them to the pigs but now the rabbits are the recipients.

They are making 45 Euros a piece in the pet shop/superstores.  When I was young you could buy them for a few quid.  

Hopefully they will make us a few quid/Euros when they produce their big eared offspring.

Some people keep rabbits for meat but we are keeping them for breeding and for pets.

Rabbit anecdote:

I once worked on a building site converting an old hospital into luxury apartments and this lad I worked with told me he lived next to a posh housing estate.  He would sell a young rabbit to some posh kid and say:  " I will swap you your rabbit for a baby one when it gets big".  Mrs posh mum would pay to fatten his rabbits for free!

Any one else keep rabbits or thinking of getting some?  

Clearing A Veg Plot With My Homemade Azada.

 The homemade Azada and myself have been busy the last few days.  

I cleared a overgrown rockery the other day and  I cleared the weeds on a veg plot, emptied compost heaps and spread it all over the veg plot and dug it over.

The owners had taken my advice and covered part of the plot with builders plastic.  Plastic for once is useful for suppressing pernicious weeds and grass and blocking out the light to prevent weed seed germination and it also warms the soil.

They have the nicest and most friable soil I have ever worked with.  They have never used chemicals on their plot and I won't/don't either. They just added poultry manure and garden waste to the compost bins and spread them over the soil surface.  

A cheeky Robin rooted for worms and no doubt the soil loves the anaerobic bacteria and good soil additives.  I am sure Robins were gardeners in another life.

"I was happy to get another booking so soon after Christmas."  That's a Billy Pearce joke.

Here's a photo of my work for your perusal.

Even a veg plot with nothing in it looks attractive when it's dug over and Robin friendly.

Have you made money with one of your homemade tools?  

Any one want a cheap gardener?  Digging and weeding and planting a speciality.  Jokes come for free.

Barley The Gloucester Old Spot And Her New Arrivals.

 These beautiful piglets were born about 2 in the morning on Friday.  

Barley was bought in pig a couple of weeks ago.  

We put her in a room of her own (stable) and she farrowed away on her own no problem.  They are lying on a straw bed and they have an electric heat lamp hung over them to keep warm.  Can I send the electricity bill to Barley the Sow?

It's great to see new life being born on the smallholding. 

Any one else had any recent new livestock arrivals?