Smooth Newt

Me and the kids discovered a female Smooth Newt in the garden, under a pile of large stones which were not used for a wall I built. These are the only type to occur in Ireland. We have put the newt into the wildlife (fish-free) pond, where I hope she will start a colony. Haven't seen a newt since I was a kid and we used to get them in our garden & pond in Hornchurch, Essex so I was very excited. Create the environment in a garden and nature will do the rest.

Growing Vegetables from seed

2 fantastic books to get: Joy Larkcom's comprehensive "Grow your own vegetables" and Chris Beardshaw's "How does your garden grow". The latter is almost philosophy and is beautifully produced. Not currently in print so source it from Amazon and immerse yourself in the science and wonder of plant reproduction plus anecdotes from Chris's grandfather and other soil-encrusted mentors.

....

Updates: end April 2010. Spuds doing well under black plastic. Runner beans planted out and growing. Had to put nets around them both to keep chickens off. Coldframe is now bursting with veg, waiting to go in. Bought a heated propagator in LIDL for 20 euro and have a batch of tomatoes growing. The constant heat from below is the key to starting seedlings, according to numerous books I've read. The toms took only a week to sprout. Good for cuttings too, I've read, as heat from below is the key to success. Also tepid water is better than the shock of cold water.

I discovered that some growers pump CO2 into their commercial greenhouses or burn propane to give off ethylene. Both methods vastly increase growth, despite the official eco-worriers preaching the contrary.

Gardening course going well at the Goresbridge Poly(tunnel). Seriously considering getting a polytunnel from a guy in Clonmel called John Manning. As he is an engineer, they seem to be better built than most. He also uses commercial grade plastic, sourced from the factory in Crete so I'm talking myself into it. (Having seen the tunnels, I'm definitely getting one from him): http://www.gardenpolytunnels.ie/

....

As the raised beds are well prepared, I have converted our small shed into a Potting Shed. I have ALDI propagators full of seedlings and white reflectors behind and above them to make use of what light there is through the one window. It faces North, so no direct sun. Temperatures still a bit cold for germination, so have moved my Prince Charles' Estate "Heritage" carrots (sown in toilet roll inners) to a polytunnel which I have the use of as part of a course I'm doing. Will then re-pot most of the seedlings and put them in the DIY coldframe to get used to the cold reality of Irish weather before sowing in the raised beds. The carrots can go straight in when the soil warms up a bit.

Note to self: Will have to fence the veg beds off from the marauding chickens which are drawn to the bare soil of the beds.

Got some "Home Guard" first early spuds going in a black plastic-covered bed and a metal drum I found. My dad was in the Home Guard so couldn't resist it. Drilled drainage holes in the drum and painted it green with ALDI water-based paint. Put a clear plastic cover over the top to help warm them up. No sign of any shoots though. You are meant to heap up soils as they grow in the drum to stop them turning green and poisonous. Not necessary for the beds under plastic. First earlies are meant to survive any blight as you eat them before blight appears in humid warm weather. We'll see...

Update: July 2010.

Spuds came up luverly! The greenery collapsed but the spuds themselves are fine.

NEW: Photo gallery of Goresbridge Community Garden: http://www.flickr.com/photos/goresbridge_gardening/

Traditional Irish hedge

When we moved here and built the house the Council specified that we demolish the original Estate hedge & stone wall and plant an "indiginous, deciduous" Irish hedge. Needless to say we didn't heed them but retained the 150 year old one intact. At the back of the site there was nothing but sheep wire, erected by the farmer. I set about planting a traditional hedge with hawthorn 'slips' which like the clay soil we have here.

Interspersed with those are now several oaks and as many saplings as I could find, including hazel, elder, larch, beech (not strictly native) ash, alder, holly etc. This hedge is now about 10 years old and acts as a safe route for birds between the adjacent hedges. It also acts as a windbreak against the winter gales. I also planted multiple rows of alders (shown on right) to help mop up excess surface water and as a further windbreak. (Naturalist Dick Warner told me that alders have host organisms on their roots which "fix" nitrogen into the soil. He planted lots in his own garden in Kildare). I keep the alders lopped off at head height so they don't spoil the view. They have certainly helped drain the excess water off the site. Our chickens like to root around under the trees and they help keep down the weeds.

The original 'big house' estate fields had hedgerows with 'standards' or large trees. Remnants of these remain, mostly beech. Modern-day farmers prefer to use the less than picturesque old pallet or electric fence method to bridge any gaps. Whilst our garden is full of insects (and therefore the birds which feed on them), the surrounding fields are monoculture crops which have to be sprayed with pesticides and seeded with fertilizer. Our own soil was part of the field next to it and has just about recovered from the dubious care of these methods. The farmers blame the EC or supermakets for making them produce stuff cheaply. The old system of crop rotation which had worked well for around 5,000 years has been abandoned. The old hedgerows supported insects & birds which preyed on pests, but chemicals do that now.

A UK-based company has an excellent guide on their website: http://www.hedgesdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Store.html

1st April 2010

Today and yesterday I planted 10 hazel, 5 Holm Oak (evergreen) and 5 Birch into my native hedge. They come as slips about 18" high in peat plugs which are kept in a refrigerated container at Coilte Nurseries, Ballintemple. €20 the lot. Great place to source native trees for hedging:

Coilte Nurseries supplies bare root plants in the dormant season. They mail them out to you if you can't collect. Here is their link: http://www.coilltenurseries.ie/



May 2010: The hedge is doing well and is now home to loads of insects. Apart from being an attractive windbreak, the hedge attracts insects & birds. (A few feet behind the hedge is a 30 acre monoculture field where you won't find an insect, bird or anything else living apart from the crop).

Keeping Chickens

We now have chickens. We got them from the monthly Poultry Mart in Ballykeenan, Co Carlow, as "point of lay pullets". The first batch were murdered by a neighbour's hungry gundog, which tore the chicken wire of their pen to get at them.

We persevered and now have 2 Rhode Island Reds and a white one (Leghorn). After the trauma of having the first batch killed, we have come to regard them as livestock rather than pets. That said, we are fond of them and watching their antics.

To learn how to keep them I got a wartime book off Amazon which is excellent and funny: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Keeping-Poultry-Rabbits-Scraps-Handbooks/dp/0141038624/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259319254&sr=1-1

Two hens explore the jungle beneath the "Alder Carr", which is really about 60 alders, planted as part windbreak, part soil drainers. They also "fix" nitrogen in the soil. I keep them lopped to head height so as not to spoil the view (the alders, not the hens).

Raised Vegetable Beds

Main pic: the vegetable beds at end May 2010. Foreground shows spuds under plastic. Far bed is for veg seeds now that temp has risen above 5 degrees. Note chicken-proof screen erected around whole area. The hens are a bit put out that their dust bath has been denied them. They gathered outside, eyeing up the jump over so I added a tripwire to put them off. I made them a small dust bath as compensation.

We have had varying success with raised beds for growing vegetables. By making them 8ft by 4ft with a timber surround, you can easily reach all part without treading the soil down. As you can see from the picture, they are sheltered by a hedge. I also made a coldframe from timber and an old double-glazed window. I removed the window frame as the unit was very heavy. The coldframe allows you to put out seedlings early in the season while protecting them from frost. The nice green area beyond is reclaimed for futher expansion of the veg beds. I planted a "traditional Irish hedge" at the end of the garden. More to follow on this. I also planted around 50 Alders to help dry the site and to create a shelter-belt (wind break). They need lopping each Autumn to keep the height down but have proved very effective in mopping up the wet area of the site.

Update: Jan 2010:

I have now spread all the compost over 2 of the beds prior to torrential rain, hard frost and snow. I will dig it in a bit more when it gets drier & before we plant anything out but the compost should help water retention and texture.

I have 'joined' Grow it Yourself, Ireland in Kilkenny so hope to exchange victories & defeats with other enthusiasts. Here's their website: http://www.giyireland.com/home.php

Future plans: I hope to build my own polytunnel in the green area I cleared in the late summer. It is sheltered by hedges on 2 sides. Here is a good online guide: http://doorgarden.com/10/50-dollar-hoop-house-green-house

Good online guides:

Just copy & paste these links into your browser address bar to watch

Excellent YouTube videos from Claire Burgess. Lots of down to earth films to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRMMtOCMAV0&feature=PlayList&p=B07CCD2F921A8F08&index=0&playnext=1

http://www.growyourown.info/index.html
(Although this site isn't great to look at, it has a depth of info when you dig down)

UK Gardener's Almanac - when to plant etc: http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Indexes/index.htm


March 2010 update:
Having barrowed heaps of home-made compost over to the veggie beds, I dug this in back in January. I have covered the beds with heavy-duty polythene. For the new bed I have composted and covered with black plastic to keep in moisture, warm up the bed and suppress weeds disturbed by the digging. Indoors, I'm chitting first early potatoes (Home Guard) which I will be planting through slits in the black polythene. This should help make the soil better for future crops. The spuds won't need earthing up as the polythene keeps the light off them.

Indoor Sowing:
This year I'm trying the toilet roll inner method of indoor sowing. According to my mother, who has been gardening since WW2, You sow into potting compost-filled toilet roll inners then plant out intact when the soil warms up. Stand them in a tray and water from below if they need it. The roots are not disturbed so it suits peas, beans and carrots. The cardboard rots away in the soil. Carol Klein's book on vegetable growing is very good (co-written with the RHS).

Horse Manure:
My old pal, Mim Scala has kindly given me a big bag of well rotted horse manure so I will dig this in before the spuds go in, along with ALDI pelleted fertiliser. With all this preparation, hopefully this year the spuds will come out bigger than they go in!



DIY coldframe made from old double-glazed window unit. Painted white inside with weed membrane at bottom. Works well as intermediate stage between propagator and untamed Irish weather.

Wildlife Pond

I made the pond in early Spring and, by late Summer it was looking very natural. It attracted lots of frogs and frogspawn in the second Spring. Friends gave me pond mud and some plants to kick-start it with pond life. The frogs arrived themselves as it was always a wet site. We have 'wildlife corridors' of unkempt grass leading to the pond but keep a path around it mowed. It is lined with old carpets then butyl to stop leaks. At the deep end it goes down to around four feet. The shallow end allows creatures to clamber out, including the frogs. It naturalised after a couple of weeks and I then added a bag of organic compost which helped the plants to grow and gave it a nice, mysterious darkness. The addition of gnomes made it a great feature for the wildlife-friendly garden. The kids like it and are old enough to clamber out should they fall in. All in all a fantastic project which I love.

I read that the frogs will eat lots of slugs at night so I hope that is happening. The pond is sited near the raised veg beds.

Updates: I have now made a bench beside the pond out of old pallets and it is great to watch the insect life and frogs staring back at me. It is truly wonderful to watch the clouds passing over, reflected in the water with pond skaters waltzing over the surface. Giant water snails have appeared (from the pond plants and mud which I added). Last Spring we counted over 20 adult frogs peering out and we had frog spawn and tadpoles. We could hear them croaking at night - very eerie. Not many of the tadpoles seem to survive though. Not sure what eats them. There is plenty of cover from the weeds so hopefully some make it. We don't have any fish as they eat too many of the residents..

If you decide to build one, even an old sink will quickly become a living pond if you add a couple of pond weeds and some pond water to kick-start it. I had to wait for the kids to get old enough before I dug our one but it's the best feature of the garden...

Here's the RHS Guide: http://www.wildaboutgardens.org.uk/thingstodo/inaweekend/put-in-a-pond.aspx

Frogs Arrive!

3 March 2010. Loads of frogs and spawn appear in pond. Same day as in 1969 back in Hornchurch, Essex.

Trial and Error