Sallygardens Smallholding

Sallygardens Smallholding ... The Resurrection!

Hello planet Earth. I'm at home, my work has stopped for now and I feel the world needs this, as do I. So, I'm back <3

In the past few years I turned my hand to raising my children and retraining to work empowering people to self heal, and even better to embrace yoga and Shiatsu Massage Therapy as a self care method to prevent illness and sustain health.

I reduced my Smallholding so I could focus on working to raise my children as I felt I couldn't maintain both at the same time. Now my children are teenagers and although I can still share some Yoga and Shiatsu wisdom online with you all, I feel it's time to resurrect Sallygardens to it's former glory. I'm excited about this.

This is a time for all of us to think about being resilient, spiritually and practically. Resilient as individuals but more importantly as communities, and as a planet. Lets start at home, because that's where a lot of us are right now. If you are not at home it's because you are out there on the frontline and we all fully support you in that, massively admire you and will be forever ever grateful.

In developing some resilience I hope we in turn can continue to support those still in work in some creative and practical ways.

I'm not entirely sure what we will cover here but it will develop and grow organically, as I hope my garden again will too. I will share what I know about growing fruit, veg, medicinal and culinary herbs, growing fuel and keeping poultry, whilst all the time acting as a guardian and keeper of the land for future generations. As I'm starting from scratch again, I'll guide you through the process as I go.

Whether you have an urban garden, an apartment with a window or a field in the countryside there are many things you can grow to enhance your nourishment. Growing not only nourishes your body but also your soul. You'll see what I mean.

Now take care, stay safe and watch this space.

It's good to be back and have something to devote my time to, that I feel will make a real difference. 

Seed Box Treasure Trove

Every veg gardener has a treasure trove like this whether it be housed in a box, a drawer, a bag or some other container of choice 

Although I haven't grown veg for a few years, I'm back at it now and I think I finally got the hang of not getting carried away and buying way too much seed. I'm very pleased with my collection this year from rainbow chard, to dwarf purple beans, crimson broad beans, golden mange tout, beetroot mix, radish mooli, Andean salad, purple sprouting brocolli, flowers and herbs. It's a veritable rainbow of flavours and nutrition  It's also a web, a network of potential biodiversity and sustainability.

A good tip is to look through all of your seeds for inspiration once a week. Along with looking at your garden you'll then get to instinctively know what to sow more of each week. It's about staying in touch, in tune. Of course you should also ideally have a diary taking note of what you sow, when and where but to be honest I've never done that. For my little family veg garden I prefer to walk, look, potter, peer and intuitively respond from my seed box that way.

 

 

Plums

This year has been an odd year for fruit. There has been a decent crop of apples but they've been quite small. The pears didn't do a thing. But as always the plums did really well. There seems to be a general consensus amongst my friends who have fruit trees that plums do consistently well ... so I think it's a fairly safe thing to say that in the Irish climate plums are a great fruit tree to start off with to ensure guaranteed feelings of delight when your crop is a success.

Once they are nearing ripeness keep a close eye on them because within a couple of days of being ready to pick the wasps will have moved in to compete with you.

Just enjoy the bounty.

Windfall Apples

The apples are falling from the trees and it's a shame to let them go to waste. There's a few things I like to try and do when there are apples on the ground. Pure apple juice is delicious, whether you use a centrifugal juicer or a mechanical one. It's worth doing a litre at a time and sipping at it through the day. It's almost instant and a real treat for everyone in the house.

 

Another option is to collect a basketful and make a simple apple crumble. Just cut the apples into slices, perhaps pour  a tablespoon of fruit juice, lemon, or water over the apples, you could throw in three cloves and a pinch of mixed spice or cinnamon. In a bowl mix some porridge oats, raisins, a tablespoon of sugar and some seeds such as pumpkin and sunflower, some nuts if you like them too.  Stir in 50g of melted butter to moisten the crumble mix. Pour this over the apples and sprinkle a spoon of dark sugar over the top and pop it in the oven for roughly 40 minutes at 180C.

 

Last but not least is the long term option to juice the apples and instead of drinking it instantly pour it into a sterilised demijohn with a spoon of cider yeast. I tried making my cider without adding yeast, relying on wild yeasts to flourish but alas it all went wrong and blue mould took hold. Next time I'll definitely use a commercial yeast to ensure it takes hold before anything else gets a chance. I have an e-booklet about brewing country wines if you'd like to give it a try, it's really quite simple and not expensive to get started (see store top right hand corner).

If you keep pigs they will devour any windfall apples with great glee. Or you could keep your apples for eating over winter by storing them in a cool room. They need checking every week because as they so rightly say, 'one bad apple spoils the bunch'! If you can pilfer some of those paper trays from your local vegetable shop they are ideal for stacking and storing apples.

Strawberries are Winners

This year I've put some effort into getting the polytunnel back on track. The strawberries are one of the crops that's given plenty of fruit without any real input from last year and minimal weeding this year. The bed is mulched with black woven plastic so the weeds have been mainly kept at bay and the moisture has been kept in the soil. The result has been masses of very ripe strawberries, more than we can eat. You can't imagine how satisfying it is to eat home grown strawberries to a point where you simply can't eat anymore! It's also quite fulfilling to know that if you were to buy the same amount in the supermarket you'd be down at least E30!

Strawberries are easy to grow. You can start off by buying a tray of six plants, these will sprout 'babies' on little runners that you can root in a pot and plant out, thus extending and replenishing your bed each year substantially without any further cost.

Stawberries, I just can't fault them.

Brussel Sprouts Rock

This is our first year growing brussel sprouts and I have to say they get my vote. For some reason brassicas always make me feel sceptical with regards to success. They have such a long growing season in comparison to most crops which leaves them open to attack on many front. The brassicas ar sown in spring but unlike most crops aren't harvested till autumn or even the following spring. A lot of challenging conditions can present themselves to a slow maturing brassica during that time ; a lone slug can wipe one out in the early weeks, a couple of weeks weeding neglect can see them smothered, then there's caterpillar attacks later in the season, when summers over torrential rain or hailstones can leave the plant in tatters and winds can blow the mature plants flat to the ground.

But the majority of our brussels have come through all of that and we will easily have a good six weeks supply of lovely luscious sprouts. They will certainly feature in our Christmas dinner, as will one of our home reared organic ducks. Some homegrown vegetables outshine shop bought alternatives in terms of flavour and brussels score very highly, alongside sweet corn and tomatoes.

Onion Ropes

After a few sunny days the onion skins were nice and dry (see previous post) so I began making onion ropes. First rub the loose dry soil from the onions with a soft dry cloth or teatowel, but don't peel them, the dry skins help to keep the onion bulbs fresh. Keep any damaged or bruised onions in a basket for immediate use in the kitchen, don't incorporate these in your ropes because as they begin to rot the mould will spread to the good onions too.  Put on some good music and get roping, enjoy the task, even better get a friend to come along and 'learn the ropes', passing on these skills to others is important (and fun). Here's a great link on how to rope onions to get you started. It's really very easy and you'll soon get a rhythm going.

When you've finished there's nothing more beautiful than a few ropes hanging in your scullery and kitchen, it's such a welcoming sight and every time you reach for an onion over the winter you'll feel very happy with your achievement.

Harvesting Onions

When are the onions ready to harvest? That's something I asked the first year we grew onions a few years ago. All the books are full of information on how to plant and care for the onions, but nowhere could I find details on when to pick them. Lots of expert gardeners forget how little we know as total beginners and so I promised myself I'd write a post on the topic.

The harvesting will depend on the variety you are growing, the soil in your plot, the amount of sun and shading on the plants and of course the weather. What I'm saying is that you can't say they'll be ready to harvest after a specific number of weeks after planting. It's more a case of watching and observing your vegetable garden, which is all part of the fun. There are some years onions will do well, and then others when they'll seem to have hardly grown since putting the sets in the ground.

Once the little bulbs are set in the soil they will throw up tall green hollow stalk like leaves. Weeds need to be kept at bay. The onion plants will become quite lush and there's nothing quite so fulfilling as a bed full of healthy onions reaching up towards the sky. Keep visiting your onions and cast an eye over them every few days. If you see any flowering stalks shoot up from the odd onion harvest and use those ones immediately, they won't grow anymore and they don't store either.  It's always nice to leave one or two, as the flowers are beautiful and the kids are interested in what happens if they're left to grow on.

These onions are drying out under a shelter, they will need turning every day to prevent the green shoots rotting,
or even better, space them out further than this.

After roughly three or four months you'll begin to notice a change in the lush miniature green forest. Some of the leafy stalks will begin to lie down, just a couple at first, but after a day or two most of the crop will be lying down and are ready to harvest. If you are lucky enough to have sunny dry weather leave the crop out in the sunshine a day or two for the leafy tops to shrivel and dry. Otherwise spread them out to indoors or under shelter. If you wish to try your hand at onion ropes leave roughly 10cm of stalk length on each onion for weaving it into a rope. Snip off the short roots. Store in net bags or hang the ropes.

If you'd like lots of information like this in one easy ebooklet take a look at the Grow Your Own Veg which is perfect for beginners. Or if you have time to spare, read through the blog for more free information, try clicking on 'Gardening, Fruit & Veg' under the Categories list.

Anyone for Afternoon Tea?

Russian Comfrey tea is a wonderful free fertiliser for your vegetable or flower garden but not for human consumption! A harvest of leaves can be cut from your comfrey plants at least twice during summer, I get three or four harvests from our plants in the polytunnel. Simply bruise the foliage in a bucket and fill with water, preferably rainwater. Leave the broth to fester for a few weeks, this happens quicker if you keep it inside a polytunnel but you may find the smell repulsive! It soon turns to a black liquer which needs to be diluted 15:1 for use on flowering or fruiting plants. 

The comfrey plant has a very deep tap root which brings up many trace elements and minerals from deep below the soil where these nutrients often lie out of reach for mainstream plants. The leaves can also be thrown on the compost heap to boost its value or chopped and dug into vegetable beds.

I like Russian Comfrey as it does not set seed and so is less invasive, spreading via root cuttings instead.

Appreciating Resilience

One of the words that keeps popping up all through any permaculture book or website you'll dip into is 'resilience'. At first I didn't really appreciate the value of this word, and what it might mean for our own family, but as the economic downturn packs some serious punches the term is making a lot more sense. 'Resilience' isn't just a fashionable permaculture buzzword.

 

In a nutshell, whenever you look at your living space (indoors and out) you should always ask yourself the questions 'how can I utilise this space/item/object for more than one use?','if this breaks how will I continue ... is there an alternative source of water/fuel/food/shelter/cooking/travel etc?'. Whenever we add something to our life, our home or our garden I always ask how I'd cope without it, or what alternatives we could use instead. I walk around our house and garden and I look at how we've set things up. I ask all the same questions ... how would I water this polytunnel if the pump and automatic watering system failed, where would I source water if our water supply was to be cut off. Water is one of the first things to ask ourselves about. We are lucky to have a stream at the side of our property and a lake at the back, plus plenty of roof area to collect rainwater if needed. Another main area is fuel ... how would we heat our home if we couldn't afford oil, or travel to buy coal. Again, luckily we have a woodland plantation which provides us with heating fuel and so we rarely buy fuel these days. Cooking of food? What if electricity is cut off or we can no longer afford gas cylinders? One plan for this summer is to build an earth oven in the garden for such occasions. And as for food, what if the supermarket supply chain fails and there's no food on the shelves ... sourcing local markets or growers, and growing your own suddenly becomes much more than just a fulfilling pleasure.

Apart from being fun it also makes sense to build our resilience. With the global economic downturn I've suddenly felt the welcoming cushioning effect of all these little steps of resilience built into our lives, which up until now, I'd have barely acknowledged their presence. But they are there and we planned it that way, thanks to reading up on permaculture. At the very worst case scenario it boils down to survival, at it's current level it helps keep life on a steady and even keel. There is still food on the table and we know we have many of the resources we need on the doorstep in order to continue living the life we've been enjoying.

Of course we are far from self sufficient, but we've never aimed to be that. It's more about living sustainably, and building resilience into life is one little part of that.