No Dig Gardening, books and Winter Colour

The light at this time of year is really beautiful, the colours have a real vibrancy.

As well as the autumnal colours and foliage, I'm cheered to see a few flowers adding their brightness too.

With the days shortening and nights getting longer I've been catching up on some reading and finally got myself a copy of Charles Dowding's 'Organic Gardening: The Natural No Dig Way'.

I highly recommend it - I haven't quite finished it yet, but I love the idea of leaving the soil structure as intact as possible and minimizing disturbance.

I had already come across the idea of 'no dig' gardening in permaculture literature and I'm enjoying looking into it further and using it, hopefully exclusively, on my plot.

I already learnt this year how silly it is to weed and leave bare soil (and what a waste of resources / nutrients that can be) as nature is very quick to recover it. From now on I'm a complete mulch convert.

I tend to grow my plants in modules anyway and that suits a mulch system, as the plants have germinated and strengthened before being transplanted through the mulch.

I love what Charles says about how healthy plants generally suffer less from pests and diseases.

I also love his ideas for successional sowing - similar to Joy Larkcom - she has great ideas for creative vegetable gardening too.

There are a few things in Charle's book that I've had different experiences with e.g. rocket - luckily nobody told me not to sow it until after midsummer, so last year I had a great crop all summer - with no problems from flea beetle. Maybe the leaves did bolt slightly early - the the flowers are so pretty that I don't mind much.

Another great book that I got to read recently was Masanobu Fukuoka's 'The One-Straw Revolution' which looks at one mans journey of discovering natural farming techniques in Japan. It has a great feel to it - feels very wholesome to me.

So, thats my inspiration sorted for a while. Now all I need is my garden. It is challenging being over two hours away from 'my' garden, although I am lucky to have my aunts garden here, which is very natural and lush, and a few pots of things to keep my green fingers happy.

I must admit to getting itchy fingers and also longing to have my garden properly up and running. I want to see the seasons go by on my own plot, watching the successions of planting and harvests etc Patience must be a virtue I'm still cultivating!

Anyway, there is distraction here, for example a few experimental winter salads in pots in my aunts barn. They won't feed an army, but I like to see things grow .. and to see how much they WILL grow over winter.

Here are some late sown lettuces (sown end Sept / early Oct) which are coming along just fine.

My calendula was still blooming earlier this week (although now sulking after a couple of nights of hard frost).

I love these violas, which have self seeded in cracks at the edge of the bed near the front door.

Surprisingly, the tall shrubby Escallonia is still happily flowering away and has been for months now.

Of course, there are still a few roses too. They don't have much scent when picked, but when I dry the petals on the radiator the room is filled with a delicious lingering scent.

My aunt's ornamental pyracantha also gives great colour this time of year.

I love how it has crept over the wall, so we can see it from the house now.

The girls are doing fine also - and add bucket loads to winter cheer.

Here's Benny, patrolling the drive.

Here Anna and Esmie are having a great time rummaging through the leaves and undergrowth.

Here they are again, setting off from the doorstep out into a hard frosty morning.

Wonder if the frost will turn to snow soon?

It's trying to snow as I type.

Until next time ...

Free ranging chickens

I just love to see my girls out 'free range' wandering around and having fun. In fact, there's hardly anything more amusing than watching their antics or having them following you about.

BUT I've always known that there were risks and downsides. The fox is the most obvious risk and there are other downsides, such as droppings in unexpected places.

Actually, when I first got the ducks and then the chickens I was all for keeping them permanently penned up - but as they got a bit stir crazy and ever more desperate for larger areas to roam I relented. After all, why keep them cooped up when there was land for them.

So, I took on the risk and enjoyed their freedom.

This week, I've had to come to terms with that decision. Winkles (pictured below) has been missing since Tuesday and is now presumed to be a foxes dinner (although I can't help hoping that she's just gone broody and will wander back soon - I'm ever the optimist).

We miss her. She was the feistiest of all four chickens. If she is gone for good, at least her last year spent with us was, presumably, more fun than her earlier life as a battery hen.

I shut the birds in all day yesterday (not that it stopped Bennie, who went 'over the top' and had me convinced that she also had become a snack for Mr Fox - before sauntering back, unharmed, an hour later).

By this afternoon myself and Sam decided that it was worse to deny them their freedom to free range (after them having it for so long ... and after them having NO freedom as battery hens) than to risk the fox, so we've let them out again to do what they do best - poke about and have fun.

We know it's risky, but, thats life. I just hope that we - and they - don't end up paying a high price for their freedom now. We'll keep a close eye on them, of course, and will try to improve on security, but I can't help being a bit nervous.

Here's all the girls ( a while ago) helping out with the gardening.

Here's Frenchie being garden supervisor.

Here's a picture of their pen (pictured last winter) up here at my aunts. It is a reasonable size and can be moved about. It does need the electric tape bringing up from Leitrim if security is to be improved.

I don't think there are any easy answers for this situation. Sam reckons that in a way they are safer free ranging because if a fox comes he may just take one and the others can take cover, whereas if they were penned up and the fox got in they would have nowhere to hide.

Of course, the set up is better down in Leitrim, but, as there is no movement on the planning yet, I have no idea when we'll actually get them - and us - back down. It's a real shame to be missing the lengthening days.

Fingers crossed that we'll good news on the planning front soon and that Mr Fox won't be coming to visit in a hurry.

Mice, slugs and Spring blooms

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I had a mammoth seed sowing fest - and have these shelves up now in the barn to accommodate all those new seed trays. I had the seed and even if i don't know where I'll put all the plants I couldn't face not growing them this year.

The weather has been quite warm during the days for a while, so I've also been hardening some seedlings off outside.

I thought, with the weather warming, that I wouldn't have a problem with mice anymore. If you remember, they ate some broad bean seeds - from the pots - back in February.

Alas, I underestimated the dedication of mice to finding a good snack. Stupidly, I'd put some seeds on the bottom level of the shelves and that proved too much of a temptation to Mr / Mrs / Miss Mouse.

I noticed on Thursday that I'd lost some cauliflower, calendula, sweet peas, sunflowers and nasturtiums. I've had to re-buy the nasturtiums and sweet peas. I have reserves of the rest.

If you look closely at this pic you can see that Mr Mouse likes a nibble of nasturtiums, but won't finish the lot!

On Thursday I also noticed that the broad beans I'd put out this week have started to get slug damage.

You can see it here on these leaves. I did a night time patrol yesterday and caught three big slugs!

Yesterday, Frenchie the chicken had a relapse (she was a bit poorly over Easter - but improved again). The vet thinks it's a gut infection. So, we've had to separate her, so we can give her medicine in her water. She isn't impressed. We put Madelene(the friendliest and daftest chicken) in with her at night to keep her warm and cosy.

Here's Frenchie this morning in her makeshift little pen.

Hopefully, thats all our 'bad luck' for now (I'm trying to not even think of the ongoing planning hold ups - we're now waiting on the reedbed report, which we need before we can make our next submission. We were meant to get it three weeks ago - but it's hard to hurry anything up in Leitrim - even if it drives you daft waiting!)

Anyway, it's a new day today and I have some replacement seeds ready to sow.

Our potatoes are starting to make an appearance now in the bags.

My red lettuce if finally turning red (after being green with nasty dark blotches).

Outside, work goes on clearing the drive at my aunts.

I even got her a couple of herbs for the sunny south facing bed, which should be done soon.

For myself, I couldn't resist a wee anemone that will probably come to Leitrim with us. It's always out so early in the year, I find it really cheery.

Outside we have some willow cuttings that I'll try to plant up.

They are this years prunings from the teepee we made a few years back.

Out in the lane, the spring flowers are well underway. Here's the aconite (?).

and here's some wood anenome.

I'm not sure what this is, but it's growing up the wall of my aunts house. Small, but beautifully formed.

Here's her Camellias, just coming into flower now.

Even her redcurrants and showing signs of life.

I've even taking some cutting some rose prunings. It's a big, old fashioned, shrub rose. I'll pot it up soon and see if it 'takes'.

Sheds, chickens, water and propagators

(A picture from the good old days, when Sam and Sally could catch a quick snooze - before life got really busy on site!)


It's certainly been a busy week for us on site, with lots going on and plenty to do.



The fun started last weekend when we had to get a shed to house the pressure vessel for the water pump. I was unsure that we'd fit the shed in our small van - but Sam was ever confident that we could...but I have this photo evidence to the contrary.Enough said! (Luckily we'll be bring a bigger van down this weekend. It WILL fit in that!) We did manage to strap it on top of the van for the short trip back to my aunt's - where it awaits the bigger van.

Sam's friend Neil has come over to give us a hand for a couple of weeks (don't you just love friends that enjoy a working holiday?). They've been working very hard already putting in more roof joists and doing the high up work that I'm no use at.

They've even started working on the chicken coop, which is very lucky as we've arranged to take on some ex battery chickens in about 10 days.

We've never had chickens before and we thought that rescues were a good way to start. There aren't many rescue operations in Ireland so we were lucky to find Crann Dair Chicken Rescue. Most people seem to think we're mad for not getting point of lay hens - that have all their laying ahead of them - but we like the idea of letting these girls live out the rest of their lives free ranging with us. They will still lay, but not as much as young hens - maybe 1/2 as much. I guess it's not just about the economics of it for us - they're more like productive pets rather than 'livestock' as myself and Sam are a bit daft about animals anyway.

This week we got our well fitted with a pump and so now have running water (and it feels like a luxury after relying on bringing bottles of water to site). I took quite a few pictures of the process - but left my camera behind today (I'll add them later). It's running pretty clear already. We'll have to get it tested to make sure it is drinkable, but it's already handy for washing up purposes.

We also have our septic tank in the ground and our reedbed dug out - waiting to be planted up.
You can just see the yellow of the top of the tank in the picture and then the gravel in the distance is the reedbed.

Now I'm on site, with all my seeds, I've been getting ready to get planting. My basil and broad beans survived the trip admirably.

I have a little area by a large window ready for my seed sowing acticities (and still with those spuds chitting - definately time to get them in the ground).

So, I look at my seeds and realise that those tomatoes and chillies really need to get started. Great. Now, I knew I'd have an issue with getting enough heat to start of such tender plants - they like 24 degrees C.
It isn't really very warm in the caravan, as we only have the gas heater which we would use first thing in the morning and then again in the evening, if needed. The house still needs more insulating before it is really warm, so I needed a plan. A regular heated propagator requires constant electricity - not economical from our gennie. I haven't seen any battery operated ones, so I tried the .. hot water bottle propagator. My theory is that placing a hot water bottle under a seed tray (filled with hot water) would raise the soil temperature enough for my needs. I was worried it would raise the temperature too much, but it got it up to 25 degrees fine. Great I thought as I monitored the temperature all day.


In this picture you see the brown seed tray and the green hot water bottle below. I have it on a clear plastic stand. The bottom tier has rootrainers ready to be used.

This picture shows the thermometer in the seed tray. The tray is covered with clear plastic.
Well - all went well until night time. Once the air temperature had dropped the hot water bottle couldn't raise it enough and it was below 10 degrees by morning.

So, not being easily defeated, I'll try again - but this time with insulation around the hot water bottle and with the seed trays better covered. Watch this space. If that fails - I'll fall on the mercy of nearby friends with airing cupboards.

We're now at the end of the groundworks phase and by next week I should have pictures of the site 'landscaped' rather than covered in piles of earth. In a stroke of luck I managed to convince our wonderful diggerman to dig me out a pond (to compensate for his innocent act of filling in the old 'test pit' .. which had turned into a natural pond, full of frogs and spawn). So, I'm hoping to have pics of that next week too.

I've finally been upstairs - now that there is sturdy boarding up there - and got to look out the upstairs gable windows. Here's what it looks like up there now.

Next week we'll be busy putting up studwork that will be the walls of the rooms. We need to do this before we can put the roof on - and the palce is meant to be roofed within a month of being erected. So, the clock is ticking.

I'll remember to upload the pictures from the camera next week! I'm still working on getting internet access on site and I still miss the connection of being online. Fingers crossed I'll sort it soon.