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17/06/2026

Sweetcorn beginning to really grow now. Very healthy looking so far. We transplanted them in the bottom corner where it is warmer in summer. The walls trap the heat and raise the temperature by several degrees.
Hopefully they grow to their full potential.

Garden peas are a real treat. Kids love them. A great intro for small kids into vegetables because these peas are picked...
13/06/2026

Garden peas are a real treat. Kids love them. A great intro for small kids into vegetables because these peas are picked before they turn starchy.
They are just bigger than mangetout size now and should be ready in a week or so.
British Queen's potatoes are nearly ready and carrots have been very poor this year. Slugs have been an issue (literally overnight) with emerging successions
We lost 5 successions so far. With everything going on, we took our eye off the ball in thst regard.
But, the newest carrots are coming along nicely and should be ready in two weeks or so.
The British Queen's are looking fab. They'll be ready by month's end. Broccoli, courgettes, tomatoes, cucumbers are also doing well. Aubergines have been in flowers for a couple of weeks now. So they should be ready in 4 or 5 weeks.
All this of course is weather dependent but having coverage with the open tunnels helps even things out somewhat.

A new crop for us. Sweetcorn. It was a cold start to the season but that warm weather stint really helped bed them in. W...
30/05/2026

A new crop for us. Sweetcorn. It was a cold start to the season but that warm weather stint really helped bed them in. We covered the tunnel on Friday (with great difficulty due to wind). But it should help create a warmer climate.
This tunnel is in the bottom corner of the walled garden which is both warmer and colder depending on the time of the year. But in summer it should be ideal to grow this crop.

Haven't posted in a while because we're just too busy. Incredible amount of work done. 19 tunnels fully planted. Huge a...
27/05/2026

Haven't posted in a while because we're just too busy.
Incredible amount of work done. 19 tunnels fully planted. Huge amount of work done to get it to this stage. Great help this year so far.
I purposely left the aubergines, cucumbers etc a little later because they are more sensitive to temperature fluctuations. They'll thrive in warmer conditions and woth the caterpillar tunnel we can vent in the mornings to remove moisture and cose to build up heat again. The soil temperature is now at a good depth. The roots will be happy.
Box scheme starts next week.
Not on top of the weeding yet but we're still good.

Seashells but not by the seashore, rather in the walled garden. The gardeners before us, crushed and spread these around...
17/04/2026

Seashells but not by the seashore, rather in the walled garden. The gardeners before us, crushed and spread these around the garden. We have lost a lot of knowledge regarding growing food and how to take of the soil. These shells will biodegradable over decades if not a hundred years. This type of thinking and planning goes against our current way of thinking which is the 'immediacy of now'.
They thought of the generations ahead. It really resonates with us here, and how privileged we are to have such a space available to us to work on.
Every day here seems to unlock a glimpse to the past.
The reason for the seashells is mainly for calcium. A significantly longer release fertiliser.

A worthwhile experience.
08/03/2026

A worthwhile experience.

Another experiment. Here are two buckets of IMO3. With maintenance solution (fpy, brv, ohn and a little struvite in liq...
01/03/2026

Another experiment. Here are two buckets of IMO3. With maintenance solution (fpy, brv, ohn and a little struvite in liquid form, extracted over 10 days using brv) The white granules are Struvite. This is a project I'm doing with , a Univeristy of Limerick-led project examining the use of Struvite.
Struvite is an organic fertiliser made from human waste. Very high in phosphorus. It's a slow release fertiliser that prevents run-off as well as being made from waste. Approved for organic use. This is an EU project to explore the possibilities of moving away from mined phosphorus imported from Morocco.
The tree is an apple tree. Its very old and still producing. Cooking apples.
We mulched the base with old woodchips and cardboard underneath.
We then applied about 20L of IMO3. With 1.5kg of Struvite mixed in. Then heavily watered and covered with a dressing of woodchips.
I used IMO3 rather than IMO4 because the former has a more decomposition effect and I am hoping that the fertiliser will break down more evenly using soil biology applied. For fruit trees applying up to a month beforehand is recommended (for IMO, I mean).
It will be monitored over the next three years.

The old plum tree. In full bloom. We added IMO4 with charred bones (cow) last year. This is the fullest bloom we have se...
01/03/2026

The old plum tree. In full bloom. We added IMO4 with charred bones (cow) last year. This is the fullest bloom we have seen since being here. I'm not sure if it's coincidence or a culmination of factors, like a warmer winter, it was wetter than last year also not many prolonged frosts either. So it could be a culmination of all these factors. However, this bloom is quite magnificent. We will add more IMO4 and biocharred bones later in the year. To top up.
It will be quantifiable if this happens next year and the year after.

Setting up our next zone of tunnels. We have 8 to erect in total. These are the first three in the zone. These are tempo...
20/02/2026

Setting up our next zone of tunnels. We have 8 to erect in total. These are the first three in the zone.
These are temporary tunnels. Or in correct terms, soft-fruit tunnels. The cover is fixed by rope only. We erected the posts and hoops last year.
Today we attached the ridge bars. Next week we will make the guttering system, which is our own design.
Cost effective and modular.
Now is the perfect time to get these jobs done. It was windy today with showers. But we got what we intended to do, done.
Covers will go on these three tunnels around mid-march. We have two more tunnels to do by then for potatoes.
The current price of potatoes makes them worthwhile to grow.
We have a lot of work ahead of us this season. 💪

Quite a few years ago, I bought Roscoff onion sets that came from France. I kept saving the seeds but last year's seed s...
12/02/2026

Quite a few years ago, I bought Roscoff onion sets that came from France. I kept saving the seeds but last year's seed saving didn't work. My own fault really, completee neglect on my part.
So this year we're at last chance saloon with these onions. There are just over 40 here in pots of our own compost (2 years old). We hope that there is enough cross-pollination to breed true onion seed.
I really like these onions. They're sweet and mild. And are endangered too. So if we can have viable seed going forward, we're doing our little bit to protect them.

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Ballinagarde
Ballyneety
V94Y793

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+353868786047

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