Altamont Gardens

New YouTube video I made at Altamont Gardens in Carlow.

Spuds in a drum

My First Early spuds are thriving in an old metal drum I fished out of the river. Drilled a few holes in bottom and added 2 inches of compost then the chatted spuds. Top it up as they develop. Sharpes Express variety.

Beefsteak tomatoes

At last the warm weather has prompted the beefsteak tomatoes into rapid growth. I started these early in an electric propagator as you only get 8 seeds and they cost around €6 in Ireland. Luckily they were a present so I didn't buy them. They have been re-potted and are languishing in the polytunnel (hoop house) until they go into the beds inside. It's hard to buy these kind as their thin skins don't lend themselves to transport around the world. 

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We also made up the hanging baskets today and two window boxes so they will stay inside until the end of May. Got some water-retaining crystals and this will help keep the plants moist in the tropical climate in the tunnel. Pics to follow.

Blackthorn blossom

It's great to see some blackthorn blossom in the hedgerows at last. Whiter (and earlier) flowers than the hawthorn, these bushes will produce sloes later on in the year.

Vegetables for the Polytunnel and Greenhouse

For Irish gardeners, most gardening books are 'optimistic' in their sowing dates, based as they usually are on the warmer and drier UK climate. At last a tried and tested polytunnel vegetable book has arrived from expert Leitrim gardener Klaus Laitenberger.

Klaus's new book, "Vegetables for the Polytunnel and Greenhouse" compliments his excellent earlier book "Vegetables for the Irish Garden" This fresh release is specifically aimed at growing vegetables under cover (and in the idiosyncratic Irish climate)

Click the link below to buy both books direct from Klaus's website:

http://www.milkwoodfarm.com/buy-the-books.html

     

Herbs & Salad in the polytunnel

I've overwintered some herbs in pots and re potted them as they have outgrown their containers. Also shown is newly sown salad (with sand to deter any rogue slugs that might have got in). The advantage of growing in containers is that they can be moved out the damn way when the tomatoes, peppers and chillis go in later.

 

I have a nice old book by Percy Thrower where he wages chemical warfare on a variety of pests. Never without a shirt & tie, Percy gave a certain gentlemanly air to gardening. I remember him on Gardener's World when I was a kid, my parents being big fans.

Tea Up!

My daughter & helper Roisin had a great idea the other day in the poly. Why not bring the camping stove & kettle into the poly for a nice cup of tea? We duly did so and the tea tasted great! Although we didn't get to go camping last year we can at least enjoy the best part of it - tea under cover! Does it get any better than this? I don't think so..

Scenes from the garden in Autum

Pictures from the garden and surrounding fields in late summer and autumn

Polytunnel

At long last I've got my polytunnel up and running.
It was supplied by a new company in Carlow:
www.JM Polytunnels.com


At 16ft by 10ft it is huge inside and the vertical wall design makes the most of the floor and vertical space. See their website for a YouTube movie of it being built (by yours truly).


Update: April 2011. Full production going on at the polytunnel. Seeds are sown in modules, toilet roll inners etc and, once big enough, make their way to the coldframe. Once they have acclimatised to outdoor life, they go into the raised beds. Thanks to my mate Mim Scala, these beds have plentiful, well-rotted horse manure dug in (except where plants don't need it). The polytunnel is great for almost certain success in sowing seeds. Even hard-to-germinate Dwarf Green Beans have uncoiled from their toilet rolls. Some plants will be staying indoors - strawberries, peppers, chillis, courgette (just one of them). I also bought some beefsteak tomato seeds and germinated them early in my Lidl heated propagator as they were expensive. (We had them in Turkey and they are fabulous but too thin-skinned to export and probably contravene some Fourth Reich EU regulation). There is a lovely sweet smell in the tunnel from strawberry blossom. Might have to pollinate them by hand as the few bees to enter the tunnel spend all their time batting themselves senseless against the plastic. Am now supplying friends with small veg plants as I sowed too many of everything and realised I wouldn't have enough beds to put them in. Am now looking forward to Nature's bounty.

click for youtube video - building a polytunnel in Ireland