Sowing seeds directly into beds outdoors

Radishes straight from the ground

Radishes straight from the ground

After a cold and dreary start to 2013, we are finally seeing a bit of sunshine. Most of us are behind in our gardening as until now the ground has been too cold and wet. Many plants can be started indoors by sowing in pots or module trays. These then can be protected from the cold and planted out when it warms up.

If you missed the boat on starting some plants indoors, luckily there is a wide choice of vegetables available as plug plants in garden centers and local markets. Vegetables such as those from the brassica family, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and kale as best planted this way. Lettuces, chard, spinach also do well planted as plugs. However, there are many vegetables that resent root disturbance, in particular those in the root group, carrots, parsnips, radishes, turnip, swede and beetroot, and these really need to be planted where they are to grow. Vegetables in the legume group, which include peas and beans are also not too fond of root disturbance. To get around this either sow direct into the bed or start them in guttering or module trays which have the least root disturbance when transplanting. 

Ok, here is your guide to sowing directly into you beds outdoors.

1. The bed must be warm and not sticky or wet. Raised beds dry out and warm up quicker. To speed up the process, cover with clear or black plastic. Clear has an advantage which I will tell you about in tip 2... If your soil is heavy clay, then you will need to add a soil improver. Homemade compost or bought peat free loam based compost will also help.

2. The bed needs to be weed free. You may have dug it over and taken out the weeds. However, there are probably lots of weeds seeds just waiting for the right conditions to germinate. This is where your clear plastic comes in. Covering the soil to heat it up and letting light through also will encourage weed seeds to germinate...why do I want that I hear you ask. By doing this you can then hoe off the weed seedlings giving you a clean bed to start off your vegetable seeds. Not every weed seed will have germinated but it will reduce the amount you have to contend with after sowing.

3. Rake to a fine tilt. You want a nice friable crumbly surface. Larger damson sized clumps can be raked aside.

4. Use a straight piece of timber, a bamboo cane or a string line to mark out your drill. Check packets for  row spacing, but usually rows are spaced about 12 inches apart. Use a hoe or hand trowel to draw the soil back to form the drill.

5. Using the spout of the watering can without the nozzel, water the row BEFORE you sow your seeds.

6. Sow seeds thinly and evenly according to the vegetable. Read packet for thining instructions. If seeds will be thinned to 4 inches apart, sow seeds every 2 inches. Being too heavy handed will create more work and waste your seed. I sow as if I am sprinkling salt, I feel I have more control over small seeds.

7. Cover in the drill. When the soil appears dry, water with a fine rose. Do not allow it to dry out as seeds will have sporadic germination.

8. If the weather is still cold, cover with horticultural fleece or a cloche, see pic below.

9. Hoe between rows to keep control of weeds. You will recognise which are your vegetable seedling once the row comes up, get rid of anything that doesn't look like them or grows outside the row.

10. Don't forget to thin to correct spacing, when true leaves appear. (Keep seed packets for instructions). Do not leave thinings lying around. For example, carrot thinings can attract carrot fly!

Enjoy!

Posted on April 23, 2013 by ailish drake.

The Goodness in what we Grow

“Think in terms of vegetable-centric eating, where protein, fat and carbohydrate-based ingredients play second fiddle to vegetables, not the other way round.”
— Joanna Blythman

It is a bit of an minefield when it comes to health and what we should and should not be eating. While doing some research for my new workshop series ‘Gardening for Health’, I was finding it difficult to get really good no-nonsense evidence on the health benefits of certain fruit and vegetables. So I contacted my good friend Anne Marie O’ Connor, Nutritionist at Rosa Wellbeing, who put me in touch with some very interesting reading.

A book that I particularly like is Joanna Blythmam’s ‘What to Eat’. Her book is set into clear chapters on vegetables, meat, dairy, fish, fruit and larder. I of course was most interested in the vegetables and fruit chapters, which again are broken down in food groups for easy reference. She looks at how our foods are grown and transported, cost, and nutritional value as well as a whole host of ways to cook and use them. Finally, a book without glossy pictures, but packed full of useful information, recommended by Darina Allen as ‘a badly needed encyclopaedia of facts and common sense on food and nutrition’ and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

So what does it all mean to me as a gardener and food grower? I like to know about what I am getting from the food that I grow. Take beetroot for example: ‘The purple pigment in beetroot, betacyanin, has been identified as having powerful anti-cancer properties … some research suggests that beetroot is anti-inflammatory and strengthens the immune system’. She also suggests what to do with beetroot, ‘roast beetroot in their skins, then peel, slice and serve in a salads with watercress, creamy goat’s cheese and walnuts’…that does sound gorgeous. So for me, as a gardener, I am now more interested in have this vegetable in my garden.

Beetroot is very easy to grow and grows so well outdoors in our climate. The trick with beetroot is to thin the seedlings. Beetroot seeds are actually a cluster of seeds and when they germinate you will get a number of plants. Thin these back to one seedling so that you get one good root, instead of a whole load of tiny ones. Good bolt resistant varieties include ‘Bolthardy’ and ‘Pablo F1’ and ‘Moneta’. Beetroot can be eaten at any size but is generally harvested 60-90 days after sowing. It can be used straight from the ground, cooked or raw, added to juices, pickled or stored in boxes, so it is an invaluable addition to your garden.

Posted on February 28, 2013 by ailish drake.

Sooo many seeds … what to sow?

My students are raring to go and get sowing some seeds…but steady on it is way too early to start sowing. Instead, spend some time browsing seed catalogues and websites to find seeds that you really do want to grow.  Ask yourself three questions…

1. How much space do I have?

2. How much time do I have?

3. Am I growing indoors or outdoors?

Space

If you have little space, then you need to choose crops that will give you a good crop in a short space of time. That way you might get two or even three crops from one space in one year.  Joy Larkcom devised an extremely clever system for working out which vegetables would give the best returns in a small garden. She called it the VSR Guide (Value for Space Rating), and you will find it in her book ‘Grow your own Vegetables’ originally published in 1976. I have the 2002 edition, which is available on Amazon for as little as £6.99, well worth it! Anyway to get back to the point, her system gives each vegetable a rating based on how long it takes to grow and how large a yield it provides in relation to the space it requires.

Salad leaves, radishes, spring onions, chard, oriental greens, peas and turnips, are all quick growing and space saving. Early potatoes can be grown in bags and are harvested in 12-13 weeks as opposed to main crop, which take up to 22 weeks. 

Time

If you have only a little time to spend in your garden then you need low maintenance crops, which can be planted at close spacings thus reducing the time required weeding and tending. Don’t go planting traditional drills of potatoes and cabbages, which need regular weeding. Cabbages are notorious for caterpillars and you could while away hours picking them off. Tomatoes need watering daily, removal of side shoots and staking so growing five of six tomato plants needs quite a commitment. Cherry or bush tomatoes in containers next to the patio door might be more suitable. Cut and come again salads and spinach need little tending and produce lots for your plate.

Indoors or Out?

Most of us start our garden outdoors, be it raised beds or containers. You must choose you crops wisely. In our Irish climate, lets face it, our summers have been less than…summery. Crops that like sunshine and a bit of heat will break your heart. So don’t make gardening a chore, sow crops that like our climate. Crops that don’t mind a bit of wind and rain include carrots, parsnips, turnips, swedes, swiss chard, kohl-rabi, beetroot, onions, cabbage, broccoli, peas, Brussels sprouts, courgettes, pak choi. Another great book which I would like to recommend is Klaus Laitenberger’s ‘Vegetables : For an Irish Garden’, which will give you a unique insight into growing vegetables in the famous ‘Irish weather’. For those of you lucky enough to have a polytunnel, then you can grow lots more to include French beans (which can be grown outdoors but do not crop well in chilly weather), sweet corn, tomatoes and cucumbers. If you don’t have a polytunnel, then you might think about investing in a small plastic mini-greenhouse. They are cheap and will do wonders for your tomatoes.

So, sit back, take your time and have a think about what you are going to grow in 2013. Next week, I will be giving you my top five places to buy your seed online.

Posted on January 16, 2013 by ailish drake.

Escaping January Blues

Having a poke around the garden to see what's peeping out from behind the winter debris might give you a little pick me up. Great winter trees include:

Hamamelis mollis

Hamamelis mollis (Chinese Witch Hazel) for it's fragrant frost-resitant winter flowers (the flowers on a young tress in my garden above)

Ilex aquifolium (Holly) for its evergreen foliage and red berries. As a rule you will need both a male and a female holly fr the female to bear fruit, however a variety known as 'J.C. van Tol.' bears flowers of both sexes and therefore will have berries too.

Acer griseum for it's pealing cinnamon coloured bark. 

Also found in my garden on a somewhat mild January day were pots of bulbs planted last September and October, a vivid blue pansey delighting in this mild spell and new shoots of lupin cuttings taken last Spring. All a bit early...Lord knows what's in store for us weather wise this year!

winter panseySpring Bulbslupins

 

Posted on January 8, 2013 by ailish drake.

A New Year and yet another NEW Plan!

 

Once the New Year arrives I can’t help but get a renewed enthusiasm for getting out in my garden. Although, there isn’t so much one can do on these wet days, today I paced out my new plan for a section of the garden. My garden is slowly evolving. Every January I come up with a new plan and as soon as Spring arrives, I’m too busy sowing seeds, taking cuttings and trying to get a head start on the weeding to make it a reality. I know where I have been going wrong… I am always too ambitious, looking at the whole garden. It would take a small army to get the place to where I want it!

So this year, I have decided to take a small piece of the garden, into which the dining room opens. I am going to enclose part of the garden, shorten the vista, and create a formal dining area surrounded by raised beds, planted with colourful flowers and herbs. There will be a seat under a pergola, which will be planted with the heady scents of roses and honeysuckle, and an arch to invite one to explore the rest of the garden. I love colour and scent in the garden, but it is not always possible to manage large flower borders when you work full time and have two rambunctious boys to entertain. So as a compromise my best and most beautiful flowers will be planted outside my kitchen and dining room, where I will get to see them every time I walk past a window and every time I get five minutes to sit and enjoy my garden.

The rest of my garden has become a little unruly due to a combination of busy life and vigorous weeds, which are hard to keep up with. To deal with this, I need to get the structure of the garden under control with paths, edging, ground cover and mulch. Getting the weeds under control early in the year will make a huge difference and then a little every day would make life a lot easier. Mulching is probably the most effective way to keep your garden looking tidy and keep the weeds at bay.

 

Last year, my wonderful other half (the reluctant gardener) built raised beds for my kitchen garden. We used old roofing timbers and made them just 300mm high, in an L-shape format. In between we used a landscape paper (weed-block) and covered it with broken slate. Growing vegetables became so much easier, no weeding, no major digging, just lots of lovely veg!

So now is the time to start planning and here are some things you could be thinking about...

  • How does you garden connect to your living/kitchen spaces.
  • What can you see out your windows... identify areas where you can create focal points.
  • How much time have you to spend working in the garden? If you are busy or less able for heavy gardening work, you should try to make your garden more manageable.
  • What kind of plants do you like and how can these be incorporated into your design.
  • Are there unsightly areas that should be redesigned or screened off?
  • Make the most of the sunny spots in your garden by putting a seat in or
  • Would you like to grow your own herbs, fruit or vegetables?

Over the course of this year, I will be examining these ideas in more detail, so stay tuned for ideas on easy, healthy gardening for people with busy lives. 

 

Posted on January 3, 2013 by ailish drake.

Containers for Christmas

 

With less than six weeks to Christmas, why not bring some life back into your containers and have something nice outside your door for your Christmas guests. We all put so much effort into our summer containers and forget about them for the winter. But, this is the time they are most needed, as the golden leaves are nearly gone, all our summer flowers have given in to the frost and things are just starting to look that little bit drab around the garden.

Small evergreen shrubs such as euonymus, conifers and berried delights such as skimmia japonica, gaulteria and holly are perfect for the centre of a container. Winter flowering heathers are great for colour this time of year. Ivy is a good foliage filler. Violas, pansies, cyclamen and polyanthus will add a splash of colour. YOu could try colour themes in whites or reds for hat Christmassy feel.

Project: planting a winter wildlife container

You will need: Deep pot, multipurpose compost, broken crocs or grit for base, selection of plants which could include skimmia japonica for winter berries, grasses with seed-heads such as pennisetum, flowers such as cyclamen and winter pansies and ivy.  You can also add some spring bulbs now such as dwarf daffodils, crocuses and muscari, which will take your container well into spring.  Add a little pond for the birds with pebbles and some hiding places for the bugs using bamboo canes or hollow stems.

How to do it:

Put a layer of grit or broken crocs at the bottom of container for drainage.

Fill to two thirds with compost.

Plant larger items such as the skimmia or grass to the centre. 

Fill in with ivy and pansies around the outside.

Push the bulbs in between, planting to twice their depth. 

Leave some space for the pond, which you can make by covering a small bowl with tin foil.  Add pebbles.

Tie some short bamboo canes or hollow stems together to make an insect hotel.

If you would like a bird feed too, hollow out half a grapfruit and fill with fat-seed mix. Place on a cane with elastic underneath to prevent it from sliding down.

Leave enough space at the top to allow for watering.

 Water in well, leave outdoors.


Posted on November 14, 2012 by ailish drake.

Time to start thinking about Daffodils...

This autumns series of Sow and Grow with kids workshops, starts with the spring and summer flower garden. As this years blooms begin to fade, it is time to start thinking about what to plant for next year...no, there's just no break for us gardeners, except maybe in December and January. You might have noticed the shops are starting to stock spring and summer bulbs now. Daffodils for one, don't like to hang around, so plant them as soon as you can, to avoid them getting soft and unviable. 

A number of mothers have emailed me recently about kids gardening classes. Through my workshops I try to spread the word among childcare providers and teachers that it is really easy to garden with children. But many adults, let alone kids, do not know where to start. To my enquiring parents, I have suggested that they should get in on the act and start doing easy projects at home. So here is a very easy one for you to start with.

 

Pots of Spring Bulbs

Try a selection of bulbs including dwarf daffodils (tete a tete or february gold), muscari and crocuses. Plant them in pots or larger containers. Spring bulbs also look great, planted at the foot of a deciduous tree, in your garden. Add winter bedding plants such as violas, cyclamen and ivy on top so that your pots will look great right up until your bulbs bloom next Spring.

What you need:

1. Pots 

2. Compost 

3. Selection of bulbs. 

4. Winter flowering bedding. 

5. Water 

6. Lable & pencil

How to: Fill pot 2/3 with compost. Plant bulbs with pointed end up, roots down. Bulbs should not be touching. Add compost on top, bulbs should be planted twice their dept. Lable your pots with a plastic lable with pencil text which doesn't wash off. Water and leave outside. So that pots do not look empty for the winter, plant some winter flowering bedding on top, such as violas or pansies. Simple as that!

 

Larger daffodils can look great planted en masse in a lawn, which you intend to leave a little wild for a while. The lawn can be mowed once the foliage dies back, around six weeks after flowering. For this you can use a bulb planter, which removes a plug of soil to allow you space to plant one bulb at a time, then replace the soil on top. To keep it looking natural, throw you bulbs in the air and plant where they drop. For finer lawns or under decidous trees, crocuses look great and are quite early, so they do not disrupt mowing. This is a lovely jobs for the family to do together. Tulips can be planted much later on into December. See my blog Tulips for Spring for more information.
Also, see my news section on the sidebar for upcoming workshops and events.

 

 

 

Posted on September 14, 2012 by ailish drake and tagged bulbs crocus daffodils kids muscari spring.

The Flower Garden

I LOVE growing flowers, probably even more than vegetables, but both have a part to play in our gardens. I grow a combination of annual flowers, bulbs, tubers and flowering perennials, with the odd flowering shrub.

 Annuals give a magical splash of colour by August, when the likes of Cosmos really comes into its own. Cosmos is an easy half-hardy annual. It can be sown dirctly into the soil, but I usually sow it in trays in April/May to plant out in June, after last frosts. There are great varieties, including Cosmos 'Purity', the pirest of white 'Sensation Mix' white, pink and dark pink and 'Dark Mix' a gorgeous mix of rich pinks, almost raspberry colours. Other annuals worth sowing are corn flowers and pot marigolds, 'Indian Prince' is a great one.

Perennials come every year and can be lifted and divided to bulk up your stock. At this time of year rudbekia is great, phlox, anemones, heleniums and sedum will begin to flower in the next few weeks.

Dahlias are also a great favourite of mine, I have 'Bishop of Llandaff' and another red one which I have forgotten the name of, plus a few pink ones. All are single flowering varieties, which are best for bees. And most importantly, pick a vase full and enjoy them indoors and out!

 

Posted on August 21, 2012 by ailish drake and tagged annuals flower garden summer.

Herbs - the easy way to start growing food for the kitchen

Basil varieties grown in biodegradable pots

Herbs are among my favourite edible plants in the garden. They smell  gorgeous, have wonderful flowers and attract lots of wonderful bees, butterflies and beneficial insects, increasing biodiversity in our gardens. They are wonderful plants to grow, awaking all the senses, sight, smell, touch, taste and even audio senses with all those bees buzzing around! Herbs have culinary, medicinal and cosmetic uses. 

MY TOP TEN HERBS 

Chives are herbaceous perennials, which means they die back in winter and grow again every spring, throughout summer. They have an onion flavour and have beautiful clover shaped purple flowers, which give a colourful twist to a salad. Sheer back old flowers mid summer for fresh new growth. Divide in autumn or sow seeds in Spring. 

Sage has velvet silvery leaves, which are nice to touch. They also have gorgeous mauve and purple flowers in summer. Sage is a shrub and likes a trim in spring to rejuvenate it. Commonly used in stuffing, it is great with pork & poultry and in soups. 

Lavender is known for its scent and its flowers are wonderful when dried, another summer project. Lavender flowers can also be used in baking, with lavender biscuits a great favourite with kids. 

Marjoram, closely related to oregano, is used in the kitchen in pizzas and pasta sauces. Great for ground cover in a sunny spot, with a lovely flower. It is easy to divide, giving you loads and loads of free plants and also self seeds readily. 

Mint is so aromatic, it’s a must. But be careful, mint is extremely invasive so it should be planted in containers. Likes moist soil, tolerates shade. Use in drinks, salads or with roast lamb. 

Dill, with attractive fine foliage, is used in pickling, with fish and in soups. It is an annual and should be grown from seed, sow in succession for a continuous harvest. 

Rosemary is a woody shrub that loves a sunny spot. Can be tender in a cold winter. Take softwood cuttings in Spring to increase your stock. Gorgeous with lamb, in dressings and in herb bread. A rosemary hair rinse controls greasy hair, adding shine to your locks. 

Thyme can be grown as an aromatic ground cover in a sunny position. With over fifty varieties, there are lots of scents to choose from. Great in egg and cheese dishes, used in marinades and roast vegetables. Beneficial in treatment of stomach ulcers and can be infused in water to relieve muscle pain. 

Basil, a favourite in the kitchen, is used in pasta sauces, salads, pesto and soups. A summer-growing annual, grow from seed indoors on a warm sunny window cill. 

Parsley, also an annual, succession sow from seed in sping and early summer. Use in salads, soups, stuffing and as a garnish.

Posted on July 19, 2012 by ailish drake.

Creating your own kitchen garden… the easy way

(Published in the Limerick Leader, Sat, 7th April, 2012)

Watching celebrity chefs dashing in and out of bountiful urban gardens, selecting herbs, vegetables and edible flowers, and creating wonderfully mouth-watering dishes, is enough to get the least green-fingered of us out in the garden. It was my own desire to have ‘just a few simple things’ growing in my garden, so that I could rustle up a simple salad or bake a loaf of herb bread, that got me started ‘growing my own’. Watching crops grow outside your kitchen window is a magical experience, serving them up to your family and friends is the ultimate reward. I often meet people who tell me about their desire to start growing their own food but, as one lady said the other day, ‘I just don’t know where to start’, and another ‘I kill everything, I’m just not green-fingered’. Here’s the good news, there is a selection of great vegetables and herbs that are easy to grow and now is the time to start planning your own personal kitchen garden, be it a herb filled window box or a colourful vegetable patch.

 

Photograph taken at Mona Lodge, by Owen South, Limerick Leader

 

Have a look at your space

 

If you have a small urban garden, consider planting in containers, in a spot that is bright and airy. If your garden is a little bigger, then you might consider raised beds. There are lots of self-assembly kits available, but it would be cheaper to make your own, if you can. The rule of thumb for size is 3ft-4ft (90cm-1.2m) wide, if accessible from both sides and 10-12ft (3m-3.6m) long. They can be anything from 4” (10cm) to 18” (45cm) high. Fill beds with a mix of topsoil and garden compost. Paths should be wide enough to take a wheelbarrow, at least 2 feet (60cm). As with containers, place them in an open sunny part of the garden, sheltered from wind.

 

Essential tools and equipment to get started

 

Garden centres and catalogues stock a wide range of garden tools, pots and planting kits. But stick to a few essentials to begin with, which should include gloves, hand trowel, watering can, with fine nozzle for seedlings, knife, bucket and for larger jobs a spade, fork, hoe and wheelbarrow. For sowing seeds you will need seed trays, modular trays (for larger seeds), seed and potting compost, labels and a selection of pots, which you can buy as needed.

 

Selecting easy crops to grow

 

There are lots of easy crops to choose from including lettuce, peas & beans, onions & scallions, garlic, potatoes, beetroot, swiss chard, to mention a few. Carrots and parsnips can be difficult for beginners, with much depending on soil and sowing time, and locally grown fresh carrots and parsnips are readily available and inexpensive to buy at your local market. Lettuce and scallions are expensive to buy, but are cheap and easy to grow from seed. If you have a lot of space, you could grow enough potatoes to keep you going all summer and autumn but even a few to start with will give you the pleasure of eating your own home grown ones, which taste one hundred times better than anything you could buy. You could also try swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’, which is rarely if every seen in the shops, tastes great and brings colour to your vegetable patch with its bright red and yellow stems.

 

Vegetables can be grown in anything from window boxes, containers, grow-bags, to raised beds or traditional drills. Containers are great for lettuces, spring onions, strawberries and herbs. You can use ‘potato bags’, available in your local garden centre, to grow a small crop of early potatoes. Don’t use the ones you found already growing under the kitchen sink, buy ‘seed potatoes’, widely available and certified virus free, some are blight resistant too.

 

My favourite salads include little gem lettuce, which have small compact heads or one of the many varieties of ‘cut and come again’ salads, which can be sown in succession (every two weeks), for a summer long crop. Peas, runner beans and mangetout are all easy climbers. Peas need short supports, ‘pea sticks’, little twiggy sticks that the peas can cling on to. Runner beans and mangetout need tall supports, which could be made from 6ft bamboo canes, tied to form a pyramid. Onions are easily grown from onion sets, small little onions, available now. Spring onions or scallions as they are commonly known, should be grown from seed and sown in succession for a continuous crop.

 

Awakening the senses

 

Herbs are a must for every garden, they are versatile, loved by butterflies and bees, and bring beneficial wildlife into your garden. We all buy the herbs growing in pots in the supermarket and watch them sadly wilt and die after a few weeks. Many of these plants are grown in cosy warm polytunnels, with a constant temperature and regular watering. When they move to your window cill, they can’t handle the shock of their new home, hot during the day and cold at night. Perhaps you forget to water it for a day or two and then drown it with love the following day. Please don’t feel bad if you have killed one or more of these supermarket herbs. Instead try buying some hardy herbs in the garden centre and planting them in a sunny spot outdoors. Lavender, rosemary, thyme and sage are small shrubs. They happily flower all summer, are semi-evergreen and need a little clipping in spring to encourage a new flush of growth each year. Perennial herbs, such as chives, marjoram, mint and lemon balm, die back in winter and put on new growth in spring. Both of these types of herbs should be bought as young plants from the garden centre, they are difficult to grow from seed. Annual herbs, such as basil, parsley and coriander have a one-year life cycle and can be grown from seed, sown now on the window cill. Move parsley and coriander outdoors for the summer. Our climate is too cool for basil, which should be grown on indoors or in a glasshouse.

 

Start small and you can’t go wrong. Once you taste the first of your own home grown produce, you will be in great danger of developing very green fingers! Ailish Drake is an architect, garden designer and horticultural tutor with Limerick City and County VECs. She founded Sow and Grow in Spring 2011, providing tailored gardening workshops to teachers, childcare providers, families, children and community groups. 

Posted on April 17, 2012 by ailish drake.

Success with Sunflowers

 

seeds from the giant sunflower

The garden in August just wouldn't be the same without tall cheerful sunflowers, turning their heads towards the sun. Last summer was a bad one for sunflowers, as it rained so much and we didn't have much sun either... So many people told me of their disappointment to see their flowers developing in late September, only to be hit by the cold as soon as they were looking ok.

This year, get a head start and plant your sunflowers in pots now. Yesterday my friend called over with her little girl, so we decorated some coffee cups and planted giant sunflower seeds in them. The cup is nice and deep, giving the seed lots of room to grow and develop into a healthy plant before planting out in a sunny spot in the garden.

Claret F1 Hybrid

I'm all for biodegradable combined with making life easy, so another great alternative are paper pots made from waste paper or newspaper. Use a large bean tin as a template and roll up the paper pot, using a little tape on the bottom. Plant one seed per pot and plant them out, pot and all, when the plant is about 20-30cm high. Most will require staking, a tall bamboo cane will do nicely. I planted mine along a fence and tied them back to a wire, which was fixed along the fence.

Watch out for slugs, they do like them! But by planting out sturdier plants, they have a better chance of survival. If you do suffer from slug attacks, I heard a nifty trick from organic gardener Jean Perry recently. Try an upturned grapefruit shell, left over night, it will be full of slugs in the morning...then dispose of them how you want...eeek. Also a cabbage leaf is another one, or alternatively you could try organic slug pellets, which are safe for use around children and pets. I bought some at the Irish Seed Savers recently.

Mona Lodge, July 30th, 201o, sunflowers blooming in the cottage garden border

Back to those wonderful sunflowers, there are lots of varieties to choose from, including red ones 'Claret' hybrids, which are unusual and a little bit different. You can also sow directly into the soil, but personally I get better results from those started in pots. Either way, get them planted soon and you could have them blooming from July onwards!

 

Posted on April 11, 2012 by ailish drake and filed under annual flowers and tagged paper pots sunflowers.

Potatoes…how to grow in containers and lazy beds!

If you have ever tasted home-grown potatoes, you’ll know there is a huge difference in taste between those and what you buy in the shops. Flowery, delicious new potatoes with a knob of butter and a pinch of salt…YUM! They are full of Vitamin C too. Many people think you need oceans of space for potatoes, but they are actually really flexible and will grow just about anywhere. A friend of mine emailed me today to get instructions for planting potatoes in a container, so I thought I would share it with you too. This is a great project for children as they are so easy to grow, require a bit of topping up and watering and what kid would turn down a bowl of creamy mashed potato?

Potatoes in bags and containers

There are many container options, a potato bag which can be bought at your local garden centre for around €3.50, pots of various sizes can be used, a compost bag which was opened at the top, a barrel or even old tyres, which can be stacked as the potatoes grow. What size? Imagine a 75 litre compost bag, well around that size will take 3 potatoes. Select a ‘first early’ or ‘second early’ variety to get a quicker crop.

1. Make sure there are drainage holes

2. Put 4 inch multi-purpose compost/topsoil in the container. 

3. Place three potatoes, eyes up, equally spaced apart, on the compost/soil

4. Cover potatoes with 3inch soil/compost

5. Water well and leave outdoors. 

You must water well as I have heard many complaints about the bag/container drying out at the bottom, which will result in poor yields. On the other hand, you must have good drainage so that the potatoes do not rot. After a few weeks you will see the shoots appear. Once they are 2-3inches high (these will look like leafy plants), cover them with compost again. Repeat the process until the bin is almost full with soil. The plant will grow on, flower and eventually die back. At this stage, empty the container and hopefully you will have a crop of about 30 spuds!

YOu can chit potatoes on the window cill, so that they have dark green shoots Place potatoes on 4 inches of compost, shoots upCover over with 3 inch compost

Water well and do not let them dry out

Lazy Beds

Potatoes are traditionally grown in drills, but if you don’t have your ground already cultivated, then this can be an arduous task. An altogether tidier way of planting your potatoes, when starting on lawn or grass, is to make a lazy bed. Unlike the name suggests, it does require a bit of elbow grease, but two people could plant a dozen potatoes in a row in a half hour. Here’s how…(see photos below also)

  1. On either side, using a timber board, mark a line 9in out from the outer side of the compost/manure
  2. Make sure the potatoes are covered
  3. If making more than one row, repeat the process, forming ridge after ridge
  4. The pathways, which result between each drill, can be used to earth up the potatoes.
  5. Water in and label

mark out 30inch bed and add a layer of compost or well-rotted manure

place potatoes 15inches apart

turn in sod on wither side, keeping 'hinge' in tack

repeat to add a second row...and more

Paths between can be dug out to earth up potatoes

Posted on March 25, 2012 by ailish drake.

Sow and Grow… for beginners

I have met so many people who tell me that they would love to grow their own food, a few herbs, lettuce perhaps, something with the kids, but they just ‘don’t have green fingers’... ‘I kill every plant than I buy’, one lady told me, ‘I either drown them or let them die from drought’, said another and someone else told me how ‘the herbs I grew last year are all dead now’.

Give yourselves a break, the plants that die are usually herbs bought in the supermarket, that have been growing in unnaturally warm conditions, and resent the move to your window cill. Drowning plants or letting them die from drought is easy to correct, just keep the soil moist and only water when it starts to look dry on top. Many crops are grown as annuals, meaning they only have one season of growth, you didn’t kill it, it just lived out its full life cycle.

It’s been a very busy start to the year for me, working with lots of groups around the county.  Most of the lovely people I am working with are fledgling gardeners. I have been thinking about doing a weekly blog post on ‘what to do this week’ etc. But that information is easy to find, try Gerry Daly on garden.ie or RHS Jobs to Do Now or Gardeners World - What to do now. No, I think I will focus on my beginners, those who are just catching the bug and need to know the basics. I did a workshop earlier this week with a group of teachers, who would like to get gardening with their class at school. If their kids are half as inquisitive, they have their work cut out for them! So to help you along ladies, here’s what your sweet pea will look like in about two weeks.

 sweet pea seedling

After a further two weeks, when a second pair of true leaves appear, pinch out the leading shoot. This will give you a bushy plant. You can start your sweet peas inside on the windowcill, but move them to a cold-frame or cold glasshouse to harden them off, when they have two pairs of leaves. If you don't have these, put them outside during the day and bring them in at night for a couple of weeks. 

sweet pea with two pairs of leaves, pinch out the leading shoot (growing tip)

By the time they reach about 4 inches high, and have been hardened off, they are ready to plant out. They work really well against a fence with wire on it for support, or growing up a tripod, you cold use bamboo canes with string tided around for extra places to wrap their little tendrils around.

sweet pea ready to plant out, weather permitting

Sweet peas are beautifully scented and will keep on flowering until the end of October, if you keep picking the flowers. The more you pick, the more that you will have. If you stop picking the flowers, they go to seed and they think their job is done, so they will stop flowering earlier.

You and the kids can enjoy the pickings come June!

Posted on February 29, 2012 by ailish drake.

Winter Wanderings

We always complain about Irish weather, but we all have to agree that it is unpredictable at best. We have had such a mild winter, which has meant lots of opportunities to get out and about with the kids. Funny enough, we seem to have more time for winter wanderings, as there is always so much to do in the garden at other times of the year. We are just back from the nicest walk at Dromore Woods, Ruan, Ennis.

Dromore Woods

If you are going, go through Ennis and head for the old Galway road. There are 5 different trails you can take. With our four year old and our obstinate 1-and-a-half-year old, we took the shortest one, which should take you about 45mins, but took us an hour. Watch the video and you’ll see why!

 

Other wintery walks took us to Woodstock Gardens in Kilkenny, where you’ll see the Monkey Puzzle walk and the Arboretum, which both have wonderful winter interest.

Monkey Puzzle Walk, Woodstock

Closer to home, we took ourselves to Garrykennedy, on Lough Derg, last Sunday, where we explored the forest walk, which runs along side the lake. Forest walks are especially nice at this time of year, where low winter sunshine finds its way through the bare tree branches. Forests and woodlands have a wonderful micro-climate, which shades you from wind and rain, so they are great for getting us out of biting winds this time of year. If you are looking for a nice walk in the heart of Ballyhoura, try the Keale River Walk between Darragh and Ballyorgan. You will need wellingtons or hiking boots as part of the walk, at the Darragh end, does not have paths and is quiet wet, but it is worth the effort.

Keale River Walk

I would say that it rivals the Clare Glens, near Murroe, which has wonderful trails. My sister, her hubby and their three kids, ages 6, 4 and 2, did the 4km trail last weekend and had a brilliant time. The little guy managed to walk the whole way, again wear your wellies! For more trails in the Shannon Region, check out http://www.shannonregiontrails.ie/. Get out there and enjoy our wonderful countryside, before the weather changes for the worse!

 

Posted on January 16, 2012 by ailish drake.

Great Gardening Books for you and the kids

 

We all love books for Christmas, so I have some tips on great gardening books for the kids and something for you too! I have met so many Moms and Dads who have said that their kids really want to grow stuff but they don’t know where to start. Start small I say, and there is no better way to learn but by actually doing it. So if you are one of those parents who would like some ideas about what to grow with your kids and how to do it, here are a few great books that the kids will love too. RHS Ready, Steady, Grow!

This is a wonderful book for both you and the kids. It gives you all the basics, with tips for green gardening, recycling, garden crafts, cool and unusual plants, quick to grow flowers, vegetables, herbs and fruit with recipes too! This is a very visual book, a book that would engage and excite children from five to twelve years. Highly recommended. As a companion to that, there is the RHS Wildlife Garden.

This book would be suited to kids a little older, say seven to twelve years. It has lots of great ideas for bringing wildlife into the garden including plants to attract birds, bees and butterflies, it explains the garden as a habitat and projects include butterfly house, bug hotels, frog and toad homes bird feeders and lots more. This book is great for getting kids out into the garden to explore and learn more about the nature all around us. Visually beautiful too. A third book by the RHS and one I haven’t actually got my hands on yet is the RHS Grow Your Own for Kids: How to be a Great Gardener.

This book has a publishing date of the 2nd January 2012, but seems to be available from Amazon already. I don’t know what is in it, but I have great faith in the RHS and expect that it will be great. If you have other things on your Christmas list and just can’t find space for any of the books above, can I direct you to the RHS website, which has a section dedicated to children, with links to other useful websites. There are lots of other kids gardening books around, but many of them have wonderful photography but lack useful information, so I suggest you have a browse at your local library before buying too many. Another lovely little book on designing a family garden is Family Gardens: How to Create Magical Spaces for All Ages by Bunny Guinness.

This book will give you loads of ideas on creating a great space for you and your kids, as well as lots of useful information on wildlife gardens, establishing a woodland, water gardening, garden games, playhouses and tree houses. It also includes simple plants t grow with children and what not to grow, poisonous plants. For yourself, if you are interested in growing your own or indeed designing and planting an ornamental garden, I came across a lovely book recently Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening by Pauline Pears.

As you can imagine I have a huge amount of books lying around and I get truckloads from the library too, so I was delighted when I found this at the local library. Generally we associate ‘organic’ growing with food, but we should also try to grow organic in all the other parts of our garden, encourage friendly creatures and welcome biodiversity. This book covers everything from the basics, compost, weeds and plant health, to looking good, ornamentals, containers and lawns, to growing your own. I found it especially good for crop planning and rotation. Finally, for anyone interested in growing vegetables in the Irish climate, you must read Vegetables: For the Irish Garden by Klaus Laitenberger.

A brilliant, simple, interesting and essential guide to vegetable gardening. Definitely one for the avid grower. Klaus Laitenberger also put together the GIY 2012 seed catalog which is online now, orders to be in before the 30th January 2012.

 

Posted on December 14, 2011 by ailish drake.