What are we doing in the garden 2024

No gardening here today. Weather atrocious.

I did go and check the chooks were OK - not bothered by wind and rain it seems - and they have very kindly reorganised most of the compost OH spread on the right hand bed in the polytunnel and have sifted and sorted the pile I swept up on the path on Sunday.

We'll shut the wee darlings out once the new chillies and toms are planted.

 

I haven't posted before on this thread... but here goes. My garden, a third of an acre on the edge of a small town in East Clare, which is in the west of Ireland, keeps me out of mischief, most of the time - though a torn shoulder tendon has recently meant I'm behind with a lot of gardening tasks. It rains a lot here, but the drainage is mostly ok; the soil is a fertile heavy loam, mainly alkaline but with a few areas which are neutral. In a couple of places there are enormous lumps of carboniferous limestone (think Burren) poking through, which adds to the interest.

Not a lot of time for gardening at the moment because we have grandchildren visiting (with their parents) from the UK, though the 3 year old is quite interested to see seeds germinating on the windowsill. Start 'em young!!

Today's job was using waterproof tape to do a temporary repair on my "blow-away" plastic growhouse, which has survived four winters here. I'm hoping to keep it going for just one more season before replacing it... with a greenhouse, if I can afford it.

 

It has been a sunshine and showers sort of day in Dordogne. I saw sunshine so I went out to weed the orchard fence bed and it started to rain. I was wearing my gardening mac with a hood so I carried on and finished it.

 

the Timperley Early rhubarb root that I ordered arrived, I'm a little concerned that the area where the stem was felt a little spongy, as I don't know much about rhubarb I'm trusting that it will thrive. It's been planted in a spot that gets the most sun.

I've started sowing carrots, and today I've sown 4 types of carrot seed, Chantenay Red Cored 2, Autumn King, Scarlett Nantes, and Deep Purple. They'll probably be all mixed up due to the windy conditions I was sowing them.

 

More compost arrived today (another 14 50L bags), not quite as wet as the x18 bags we got last week. I went for x5 of these

instead of the Levington's so I could compare. I guess proof is in the pudding, but I did have Supagrow last year and it was very good. To look at the Levinton looks more like manure, but the supaGrow looks very much darker and richer. I managed to use about 10 of the bags before packing in for the evening. Just as well as it's tipping it down now...

 

It does say soil conditioner @DiggersJo Not suitable for use on its own for potting plants, sowing or pricking out.

 

Is your alter ego Billy Whizz?

 

Correct @Obelix-Vendée It was dumped on the raised beds (flower and veg) , although some will be used for those other tasks with additions. Really I could have saved a fortune if I was organised as we have access to mounds of well rotted horse manure.

 

Lovely garden. It's amazing how much visual impact a nicely edged lawn has on a garden.

 

No relation to Clare Island, @Fat Controller - that's in county Mayo, a good bit north of here. We're in the east part of County Clare. It's not a long way to Tipperary from here...

 

Not a lot heavy showers have left the garden very wet with standing water in places. Took some more baby tomato plants up to the greenhouse while there checked everything over and watered where necessary, good news is that some dahlias are coming into life and the freesias are flowering well.

 

Managed to pot on some tomato, aubergine, sweet pepper and okra seedlings before the rain arrived. Now just need to find a way to keep them watered as we're away for the whole of April!

 

As feared, we have horizontal rain and whirling winds of the blow you over kind so no gardening here.

I might resort to spring cleaning the pantry..........