Tomato time 🍅 again 🧐 We have finished planting the bush tomatoes in the large greenhouse 👍 Ola Polka, Red Alert, Sumnerlast, Amateur, Hienz 1350 and Gold Nugget. #Allotment#Gardening#GrowYourOwn#Today
Potato update 🥔 The last net has come of the Picasso tubs this morning so they can now grow away 👍 They are covered to stop the cats and foxes from digging in the pots before tre shoots appear ❗️The nets are then put away in the bag they came from and stored away in back of beyond. 🤨 If I don’t label things nowadays I have no chance of remembering what is what🧐 #Allotment#Gardening#GrowYourOwn#Today
Padron pepper 🫑 bed preparation part 2/2 ….. Added 450 litres of compost to the front of the bed for body and levelled the bed 👍 Covered the weed membrane and stapled it on to the bed. 🤔 Positioned the pots where the peppers are going and burnt the holes for planting. The front holes are for the pots to be sunk in to water 💦#Allotment#Gardening#GrowYourOwn#Today
Padron pepper 🫑 bed preparation part 1/2 ….. Clear the bed, create a trench and back fill with cheap compost. So much life in the bed with lots of worms 🪱 #Allotment#Gardening#GrowYourOwn#Today
Happy #Caturday! I grow things for the cats, too. Catnip, catmint, and grass.
As the catmint is a new purchase, and Major Tom was caught roughing it up when it first arrived, I've stuck it in one of my portable seedling nurseries to protect it, at least until it's a bit bigger. The catmint can grow up through the wire mesh where the cats can get to it.
There hasn’t been any grocers in this town of 28,000 people for 15 years. Now a group of locals wants to change that by opening a community-owned greengrocers.
Working with local growers and food producers, it will create a permanent outlet where people can buy local food. Veg will be loose and they’ll stock local and heritage varieties.
Chris Dobbs is one of the suppliers they've lined up: “Over the years we’ve lost the connection between our local farms and our local households, but Carrick Greengrocers is going to tie those back together and get fresh food from farms into people’s homes. Being so close, I can get vegetables off the farm and into the grocers in 10 minutes.”
The project is giving people a chance to become co-owners and raising funds to open the business by June with community shares. If successful, it would be the first community-owned business in Carrickfergus, and the first community-owned greengrocers in Northern Ireland.
Vespa broad beans 🫘 (fava beans) A little overdue in planting so they’re a little bit leggy ❗️Ended up using one of the brassica beds as we have run out of space. Hey ho… #Allotment#Gardening#GrowYourOwn#Today
Before we left yesterday we picked a handful of the flower heads from the wild garlic 🧄 bed and made some amazing garlic butter for use another day 😊. The nine cubes pictured have been produced from one block of butter 🧈 #Allotment#Gardening#GrowYourOwn#Today
Mixed bag 💼 of tasks this morning 😊 Netting removed from the row of Charlotte potato tubs 🥔 Planted one of the two Lemon coriander clumps 👍 Then set out the six tubs for the cucumber plants 🥒 String for these is hanging from the frame of the polytunnel. #Allotment#Gardening#GrowYourOwn#Today
So there are two baby bunnies that call my yard home. First is a fearless fur fren who doesn’t hop away when I walk by. Second little dude thinks he’s pretty sneaky. Third pic is the first sugar snaps of the season. 🥰
Globo onions 🧅 The last of the main onions are planted ❗️ 108 in the bed with about 12 spare. These are great for homemade onion rings as they are mild compared to the Centurion onions (sets) in the other bed. #Allotment#Gardening#GrowYourOwn#Today
That’s a first 👍 Of the 98 parsnip stations planted 97 have germinated 😊 We usually have to move a few to fill the gaps so we’re quite pleased 😀 They will have to be a little bigger before we thin to one plant per station 🌱 #Allotment#Gardening#GrowYourOwn#Today
Asparagus update 🙃 The second asparagus bed has all five stations up and growing. There is a four week difference in the appearance times for the two beds. Clearly the one with more sun shows earlier 😃 #Allotment#Gardening#GrowYourOwn#Today
Potato update 🥔 The kestrel potatoes have recovered from the touch of frost that burnt the tips last week. Net removed today to let them grow 👍 #Allotment#Gardening#GrowYourOwn#Today
One of those days so far ❗️ Weeding ❗️ Sometimes I thinks it’s therapeutic but other times such a chore 🤔 Garlic bed long overdue and harder as it’s netted with staples. Brassica beds also weeded as there are plants that need to go out. #Allotment#Gardening#GrowYourOwn#Today
Tomatoes and strawberry spinach repotted, basil and spring onions sown. Bit of general maintenance. I was tired before I started, owing to the lack of sleep, and now I'm especially tired.
The IMO#3 all mixed with soil and compost and laid over a bed of the allotment. After being covered in a layer of dried hay it was also covered by cloches to protect it a little more from the rain and attention from curious animals.
Hopefully 🤞 by next weekend it will covered in white fuzz & I’ll have made my first IMO#4. It will also have inoculated the bed it’s on prior to that being planted up or sown.
IMO#4 is a living soil amendment containing a broad spectrum of minerals and diverse local biology. I’ll store this in containers and it has a variety of uses.
I’ll add it in small quantities before I add any compost or mulch to the soil. It can be added to beds prior to seeding or planting or added to inoculate a compost pile. It can also be applied as foliar feed or soil drench.