Muckin’ around.

The weather is getting colder. There have been many snow and hail showers when I've been working outside. However the pots are all nearly gathered and neatly stacked, the tulips are in and watered, and the beds are cleared and turned.

The next task to do was to put more soil in the beds, as I could see it was quite sandy and also my friend and an organic gardener, said it needed lots more nutrients. Luckily my mom owns two poop machines in the form of horses, named George and Breeze. Thanks to these two we have a glorious pile of manure which has turned into some very rich, very wormy compost. However, the glorious pile is behind the big barn through a very wet area thanks to the rain storms we’ve been having. So first I had to build a little bridge for the wheelbarrow and me to cross by just laying a few planks down. Then I could shovel the glorious wormy dark compost into the barrow and wheel it past the shed up and around to the polytunnel. Hard work! My poor wee soft scholar hands aren’t used to this and were red and raw after day one.

The other bed plus surprise cameo:
my dog, Zippy. 

Cleared bed with added manure.
I think it will need more but I am
pleased with my progress

Daffodils have started to peak through.
I have no idea who planted these!

I decided I wasn’t going to kill myself doing this so I’ve done 10 wheelbarrow loads in 2 days into the two main beds, which has pretty much covered them, though they may need more. I also realised I was putting nice, wet, wormy soil on very dry, degraded soil and thought all my worms might die if they wanted to venture further. So I fixed the watering system: this is composed of eight sprinklers that hang down from the roof that connects to a hose and tap outside. It was working pretty well although many of the sprinklers were clogged, throwing water all over the place and not really in the beds. But all fixed now. In hindsight it probably would have been better if I watered the soil before putting in the compost, but I’m hoping it won’t make much difference.

Compost creators:
George and Breeze with
their winter woolly coats on

I have also started to think about seeds, and started a wish list of veggies, fruits and flowers that I want to grow. I am also thinking
about where I want to get my seeds. My mother is an advocate of
cheap and easy, and has bought her seeds online in the years before from big seed companies. However I know that about half an hour drive away there is a great resource in the form of Irish Seedsavers. They grow and maintain crop plants that are adapted to Irish climates, which contribute to our agricultural heritage. I also know from my botany degree how important genetic adaption can be for growing crops, and feel it would be nice to be able to help this conservation cause. My mother counter-argues that her online seed guys specialise in sweet peas. But admittedly,Seedsavers will be much more expensive, so I will have to decide what I want from my future plants, and how much money
I have to spend on this project.

Hannah