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.